Helix Firmware 3.60

[Sascha Franck]

The Elmsley is a bit of a question mark so far.

I recommend to dial Drive (and possibly Sag) down so it's just a little hairy and then fool around with all sorts of stomp drives.
Most likely not the tightest amp there ever was but incredibly pedal compatible (working great with external pedals, too). Might be a great choice for sort of classic rock sounds and stoner-ish stuff.
Using the default Blackback 30, I replaced the 906 with a pretty centered 57, too.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Some rather arbitrary noodling with the Elmsley and a ToneCity Golden Plexi 2 (pretty cheap MIAB pedal, wish something like that existed in the HX-verse) in front.

 

[Bob Zaod]

Overall happy with the new cabs and the rotary thing-a-ma-bob. The guitar amps do nothing for me but neither of them are my type of amp, so that was to be expected. No complaints here as far as what we got. I have however noticed my LT doing some weird stuff like inverting on/off state when I know I saved correctly. For instance I typically assign a OD, a 3db volume boost, and a delay to fsw8. I have done it a thousand times and I know to save with all 3 in an off state. hitting fsw8 only turned on the OD even though checking the bypass assignment the others were assigned also. It did not work correctly until I reset the LT.

 

[Mooselake]

Some rather arbitrary noodling with the Elmsley and a ToneCity Golden Plexi 2 (pretty cheap MIAB pedal, wish something like that existed in the HX-verse) in front.

Like the playing and the sound/tone. Inspires me to get back to the E and see what I can get it to do for me.

 

[the-trooper]

Cue people still asking for a Dumble because it says Grammatico on it and not Dumble.

Called it!

 

[Sleezy E]

but wouldn't a model of a "real dumble" still be a clone?

 

[Sascha Franck]

but wouldn't a model of a "real dumble" still be a clone?

Dude...

Clone:

Model:

Ok, not *that* much of a difference.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Gotta say that the 3.6 thread at the other place alone would've been good enough for me to likely get a lifetime ban. For any hypothetical replies I'm thinking I'd come up with. Too bad it won't happen.

 

[Sleezy E]

Dude...

Clone:
View attachment 6827

Model:
View attachment 6828

Ok, not *that* much of a difference.

I see your point

...I have to go to the bathroom now

 

[Orvillain]

Bet she has stinky armpits.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Bet she has stinky armpits.

To be fair I'd sweat in that armour too.

 

[Mooselake]

So I finally got a second chance to play around with the new update, specifically the two new guitar amps. My conclusion still holds that both are really good models for what I like.

For the Grammatico I spent some time with the John Cordy presets focused on the cleaner end of the spectrum. Just small tweaks to the presets gave me some really nice clean tones. I'll probably set up a clean patched based on this model with all the reverb ambience and modulation stuff I like.

There's something I really like about the Elmsley too, but I can't quite decide how to describe it. I'm guessing it might have something to do with what the release notes described as the parallel distortion topology that seems to me to add some breadth to the character. It's going to be hard not to adopt this model in my everyday general patch, despite at first thinking the new Grammatico model would be the one that might unseat the Ventoux for a time. I didn't explore it much, but it seems to clean up pretty good too. I'd mentioned that I preferred the NFB dialed down to zero, which still holds.

Next up I'll probably take some time to fool around with the rotary effect. Not something I would use very often but I'm curious about it.

Despite it being a small update in some respects, it's looking like it'll be impactful to me.

 

[dk_ace]

Had a few minutes to play through 3.6 last night, most of which got eaten up by the preset rebuilding process lol.

I spent the time with the gsg. I didn’t expect to like this as I’ve never seen myself as a dumble guy, mostly because the sounds I hear people go for with them just aren’t my kind of thing but there are some exceptions that I’ve really liked. Anyway… the thing that struck me is the core stuff about the model that’s just so good. The articulation of the notes, the clarity, the sustain, the way it catches the nuances of what I’m doing, the just right amount of compression that is there while still letting my picking dynamics through. For all those reasons, I’m going to keep spending time with it and see if I can pull my sound out of it. There’s a lot to sort through there with all the switches and the tone controls, with the right cab pairing this might be something I’ll use more than I expected to.

D

 

[ragingplatypi]

I finally got time in with the Elmsley, and damn! That’s a base tone I’ve been looking for. Vox chime with Fender roundness and fantastic sustain. I got some good crunch going on also. I didn’t need tweak much to get my thing going, so I didn’t have any fuss with the controls and they did exactly what I wanted them to do.

When I A/B’d with my Matchless and Vox presets, the Elmsley was substantially bigger sounding right off the bat. Both of the new amps have a thing going on where they sound bigger and wider without being louder. Something in the low mids. I’m going to have a lot of fun reconstructing my presets around these.

Once again my hat’s off to team Helix. These updates are so impressive bring me so much joy.

 

[DieSchmalle]

I think there is a quirky way of using the Elmsley as a really nice preamp platform.

Elmsley starting point:
gain 2, bass 5, mid 8, treble 0, presence 10, depth 5, master 10, NFB 0.15, bias 6

Pick a preamp and put it front of it.
Now use ONLY these three parameters on the Elmsley:

• NFB from .10 to .35 to get the right balance between lower and upper mids
• Gain until the bass / fullness is right
• Level to compensate for gain

 

[holoholo]

I don't have much experience playing a creamback IRL but this open cream cab is killer. I can use it for clean and dirty tones and don't really feel like it compromises anything. My preference is to use a single "cab" live and this is just working for me.

 

[DieSchmalle]

I was a bit underwhelmed by the 2x12 Blue Bell. But I really like the new 1x12 Blue Bell - much closer to what I expect a Blue Alnico to sound.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I was a bit underwhelmed by the 2x12 Blue Bell. But I really like the new 1x12 Blue Bell - much closer to what I expect a Blue Alnico to sound.

I found that as well, I really wasn't impressed with the 2x12 blue bell but the 1x12 seems to be much better. I'm hoping they redo the princess 1x12 from the old stock cabs too, I think that had a alnico blue in it.

 

[Mooselake]

And hereI have been mostly using the Bluebell 2X12 since the new cabs appeared and have trouble switching away from it. Guess I have stone ears, ha.

 

[DieSchmalle]

And hereI have been mostly using the Bluebell 2X12 since the new cabs appeared and have trouble switching away from it. Guess I have stone ears, ha.

No. All fine. It totally depends on what you use and what want to achieve with it. I struggle to get nice upper mids with "air" on the 2x12 - it's either harsh or not open enough for me basically. Doesn't mean it's bad - just not my idea of it.
Mind sharing your settings?