Helix Jose Modded Marshall Ideas?

[jay_bucketzbrigade115]

Hello all on TheGearForums!

This is my first post/thread, and I’m happy to be here among so many like-minded gear heads like myself and to get to know you all.

I have been working on a fun project starting last year of documenting how to sound like many of my favorite guitarists using the most efficient gear possible. So far, my searches have landed me with using the Line 6 Helix as my main modeler of choice to do this with (IMO, Fractal would be the best modeler for what I am doing, but the budget is not quite there to own multiple modelers at the moment and I am not ready to sell the Helix anytime soon), and for my next artist to attempt to replicate, I have chosen Michael Landau.

When researching his tones, I found that on “Tales from the Bulge” he used a Jose-modded Marshall 1971 amp (presumably a Super Lead, though it could have been any Plexi model) in combination with a Soldano X88R to get his various rhythm and lead tones on the album (not counting the clean rack tones which he is notorious for). The Soldano is easy enough to replicate as the SLO 100 model in the Helix is a great amp and sounds similar.

However, the Marshall tone has been tougher sledding. Researching more about the Jose mods has brought me to some of the other artists that have used Jose mods, most notoriously Steve Vai’s Marshall that he used during his tenure with DLR. Dave Freidman’s recently announced Jose tribute amp got me fired up as well; that amp sounds fantastic from the demos I have heard!

I realized that this was gong to have to be a tone of importance to try and replicate, so I have set out to attempt it on the Helix. However, I am not sure how to do so. I know from researching that the Jose mod primarily involves diode clipping involved to give the amp that high-gain “snarl" and adds a Master Volume to a non-master amp, which can come either before or after the gain stage of the amp.

This is easy to do on the Fractal and there have been a lot of videos demonstrating it but I am not sure how to attempt such a sound using what the Helix has available. Do any of you have any tips on how to do this, and how have your attempts gone if you’ve tried? If the answer’s simply “you can’t,” that’s fine too; that’s also why I have a TONEX pedal! But I wanted to see if it was possible on the Helix as well.

Thanks all and look forward to reading your replies!

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Hello all on TheGearForums!

This is my first post/thread, and I’m happy to be here among so many like-minded gear heads like myself and to get to know you all.

I have been working on a fun project starting last year of documenting how to sound like many of my favorite guitarists using the most efficient gear possible. So far, my searches have landed me with using the Line 6 Helix as my main modeler of choice to do this with (IMO, Fractal would be the best modeler for what I am doing, but the budget is not quite there to own multiple modelers at the moment and I am not ready to sell the Helix anytime soon), and for my next artist to attempt to replicate, I have chosen Michael Landau.

When researching his tones, I found that on “Tales from the Bulge” he used a Jose-modded Marshall 1971 amp (presumably a Super Lead, though it could have been any Plexi model) in combination with a Soldano X88R to get his various rhythm and lead tones on the album (not counting the clean rack tones which he is notorious for). The Soldano is easy enough to replicate as the SLO 100 model in the Helix is a great amp and sounds similar.

However, the Marshall tone has been tougher sledding. Researching more about the Jose mods has brought me to some of the other artists that have used Jose mods, most notoriously Steve Vai’s Marshall that he used during his tenure with DLR. Dave Freidman’s recently announced Jose tribute amp got me fired up as well; that amp sounds fantastic from the demos I have heard!

I realized that this was gong to have to be a tone of importance to try and replicate, so I have set out to attempt it on the Helix. However, I am not sure how to do so. I know from researching that the Jose mod primarily involves diode clipping involved to give the amp that high-gain “snarl" and adds a Master Volume to a non-master amp, which can come either before or after the gain stage of the amp.

This is easy to do on the Fractal and there have been a lot of videos demonstrating it but I am not sure how to attempt such a sound using what the Helix has available. Do any of you have any tips on how to do this, and how have your attempts gone if you’ve tried? If the answer’s simply “you can’t,” that’s fine too; that’s also why I have a TONEX pedal! But I wanted to see if it was possible on the Helix as well.

Thanks all and look forward to reading your replies!

The Friedman BE is a handful of components away from a Jose. It has the clipping diodes and MV etc. An actual jose circuit is a bit more aggressive so you might have to push the controls a bit more on the BE, or pair with an aggressive cable/a touch of EQ. The Helix BE model is one of its very best.

 

[jay_bucketzbrigade115]

For some reason, I completely forgot about the Friedman already on the Helix when researching! That’s a great suggestion; thank you very much, MirrorProfiles for that. I haven’t used the Friedman model too much yet so I guess I didn’t know that the Jose controls were staring at me right there, but now that’ll be a great reference point for the future.

How would you recommend EQ’ing? I was thinking something similar to what I did to emulate the SIR #36 mod when I was constructing Slash’s tone, i.e. putting an EQ block right in front of the amp and boosting the mid frequencies, as that really helped give the amp that aggressive bright quality the mod is known for. But it’s a different kind of mod, so I’m not sure.

I’m looking forward to comparing the Placater to the main Plexi model on the Helix as well when choosing a Plexi-style amp for future presets. Thanks again for the suggestion!

 

[Byrdman]

For some reason, I completely forgot about the Friedman already on the Helix when researching! That’s a great suggestion; thank you very much, MirrorProfiles for that. I haven’t used the Friedman model too much yet so I guess I didn’t know that the Jose controls were staring at me right there, but now that’ll be a great reference point for the future.

How would you recommend EQ’ing? I was thinking something similar to what I did to emulate the SIR #36 mod when I was constructing Slash’s tone, i.e. putting an EQ block right in front of the amp and boosting the mid frequencies, as that really helped give the amp that aggressive bright quality the mod is known for. But it’s a different kind of mod, so I’m not sure.

I’m looking forward to comparing the Placater to the main Plexi model on the Helix as well when choosing a Plexi-style amp for future presets. Thanks again for the suggestion!

Another idea I eventually gave up on was to add a pre-amp as a boost to the amp you are using. I tried different combinations that just carried me further down the rabbit hole, so I gave up on it, lol...

I imagine the BE preamp before the new 2203 might get you close to a modded JCM800 so I would suggest you try it on the Brit Plexi Jumped amp and see how you close you can get. Maybe clean boost it with the TS or Klon in the HX distortion options.

Good luck and if you get close, please share the preset!

 

[GTR37]

For some reason, I completely forgot about the Friedman already on the Helix when researching! That’s a great suggestion; thank you very much, MirrorProfiles for that. I haven’t used the Friedman model too much yet so I guess I didn’t know that the Jose controls were staring at me right there, but now that’ll be a great reference point for the future.

How would you recommend EQ’ing? I was thinking something similar to what I did to emulate the SIR #36 mod when I was constructing Slash’s tone, i.e. putting an EQ block right in front of the amp and boosting the mid frequencies, as that really helped give the amp that aggressive bright quality the mod is known for. But it’s a different kind of mod, so I’m not sure.

I’m looking forward to comparing the Placater to the main Plexi model on the Helix as well when choosing a Plexi-style amp for future presets. Thanks again for the suggestion!

The HBE is going to be your 4 gain stage pre
The BE the 3 stage
The saturation is the diode clip mod , imo it works. Best in the lower BE mod with the gain turned up
You could boost either channel w something like an EP booster clean boost , hitting the front end of the amp with that will make it a bit hotter to
You could also turn up the bias a bit so the power amp runs a bit hotter too

 

[jay_bucketzbrigade115]

Yeah, the Placater was definitely a spot on recommendation; I was able to get the tone by using the Saturation switched and increasing the Bias like GTR suggested. I agree that it's best with the normal BE channel; the HBE gets way too saturated with the diode clipping.

I'd definitely love to share the preset when it's finished! I am actually documenting all the artist tones I am creating and plan to share that at some point on this forum after some more research and writing, which will continually be updated as well. For the Landau preset in particular, the 80s and early 90s sounds are nearly finished, but still need some editing and I need to figure out how to add some other effects to the preset, or even if I need to create multiple ones.

 

[riffy]

I could be crazy, or just deaf. But I find the BE models in the Helix, to be too polite to really sound like a José modded Marshall. Every Jose style modded Marshall I have ever played, and to be sure I have never played a real Jose modded Marshall, just that style of Marshall, and they are all much more aggressive in the upper mid range and the high end than any Friedman or Friedman model I’ve ever played.

 

[GTR37]

I could be crazy, or just deaf. But I find the BE models in the Helix, to be too polite to really sound like a José modded Marshall. Every Jose style modded Marshall I have ever played, and to be sure I have never played a real Jose modded Marshall, just that style of Marshall, and they are all much more aggressive in the upper mid range and the high end than any Friedman or Friedman model I’ve ever played.

That is correct Freidman filters the amp so that the highs and harsh kerrang of the Plexi is smoothed out
It’s a main reason why people like Dave’s amps or don’t
The Marshall would take your head off at volume , the smoother Friedman is more pleasing to the ear at concert volumes , but you do lose some of that aggressive nature that makes a Marshall a Marshall