What to do...

[Bigwan]

About a year ago I bought a Helix floor, primarily as the centrepiece of my imagined future home recording setup for bass and guitar, but also as the front end for an frfr setup I’d thought about before realising I can’t play guitar for toffee! At the same time I sprung for the helix plugin. As I’m not playing live at the minute (may change sometime soon with the project I’ve just become involved with, but it’s early days) I’ve mostly been using a sonuus i2m as an audio interface into my MacBook and using the Helix plugin, the actual hardware helix hasn’t been turned on much, mostly as the recording setup has yet to find a permanent location in the house (I blame the kids and their ever growing Lego collection!)

I know how flexible the hardware can be from playing around with the plugin, but do I really need something this flexible for live use when I’m pretty much a set and forget kind of guy when it comes to bass? Is it an extreme indulgence?

[r16ktx]

If the Helix gives you the sound you want, even if it's just one sound, then I would stay with it. There is a lot more you might end up wanting to do in the future; different sound for monitoring, or your vocals, controlling other bits of kit, recording, re-amping, etc and dozens more I'm sure, and the unit will almost certainly cope. Plus it's a sunk cost.

[dannybuoy]

Have you tried any other preamp pedals with the FRFR setup? You could easily swap it out for a simpler unit, might sound better, might sound worse depending on the gear and your ears!

Personally I've not sprung for the Helix because I don't use a lot of effects, and the few I do use sound better than what the Helix provides.

[Al Krow]

It's not a piece of gear like a Wal bass, that is going to increase in value the longer you hold on to it, so if you don't think you're going to be getting much use out of it, my vote would be for you to cut your losses and move on. 

 

[dannybuoy]

Cut your losses, then incur more losses as you try out numerous units as replacements, only to buy another Helix.

😁

[Bigwan]

7 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

Cut your losses, then incur more losses as you try out numerous units as replacements, only to buy another Helix.

😁

It is a bit of a GAS killer and has already saved me from spending more money... like on the Alpha Omega Ultra and the X7!

[Dood]

Well, just to go the other way in the conversation, I actually planned to sell mine too. I even bought an HX Effects with the intention of downsizing. Which actually worked rather well for the gigs I was playing. But then, one day I actually spent some proper time getting my LT set up in a way that better suited my needs, Once I figured that out..well, I sold the HX!! I'm hanging on to the LT now I think. Yeah, it is actually over kill for my current gig as I have it set up for only 8 effects really. LT does those effects gloriously though...

[Skybone]

If the full blown Helix is over kill, then maybe look at the HX Stomp. A full blown Helix, but in a small box, a lot less connection possibilities, but the same sounds.

However, I'd agree with @Dood, and spend some time setting it up for your needs.

I have a HD500x, and to be fair, I only use 3 or 4 patches. Each with the same amp & cab setup, but with different effects, so I can switch between the patches to give me the sounds I need for different songs. I have other patches set up, but I don't tend to use them much.

[Al Krow]

11 hours ago, Dood said:

Well, just to go the other way in the conversation, I actually planned to sell mine too. I even bought an HX Effects with the intention of downsizing. Which actually worked rather well for the gigs I was playing. But then, one day I actually spent some proper time getting my LT set up in a way that better suited my needs, Once I figured that out..well, I sold the HX!! I'm hanging on to the LT now I think. Yeah, it is actually over kill for my current gig as I have it set up for only 8 effects really. LT does those effects gloriously though...

Does beg the question, which 8? 

[Dood]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Does beg the question, which 8? 

Ok, currently I have (not in order)

Lush Chorus, Slightly OTT Flanger, Oct down, solo boost, tremolo (pedal controls speed), Delay&Rev on one button, deluxe comp, wah, env filter.

The wah is on the toe button and in some cases multiple effects or paths are engaged on a single button. It’s not really a serial set up like a standard pedal board. Actually thinking about it, my entire signal path A just sets up my core tone (I use cascaded drives to get a band-pass “warmth” and pairs of EQ’s for pre and post shaping. The EQ shaping I’ve been doing for years with silly amounts of rack gear, so it’s super nice to be able to do it in one unit now!) Deluxe Comp is blended and my solo boost is just a few decibels of lift to push me to the front of the mix more.