Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[JiveTurkey]

Had a co-worker — a balding, 350-pound hulk of a guy — do a karoake version of Pink Pony Club at a staff retreat once. First time I had heard the song, but dude NAILED it. Sadly, there is no video.

The 12-string definitely requires a different approach. I generally use a Clarity amp with the acoustic sim running in parallel to help give it a little more "real acoustic guitar" flavor, then go with a parametric after that to shape the tone a bit and filter out some of the harsh highs.

I know a lot of people recommend sticking with the same amp to help make the sound guy's job easier, but I can't make myself do that. What's the point of having all these different models to choose from if you're only going to use one? But I haven't gotten any complaints from our sound guy yet.

I get it, part 2. How much acoustic stuff are you doing? We just added Crazy Little Thing back and I have toyed with trying to recreate an acoustic-y vibe but I have been lazy and just used my "clean tone" (aka my bandmates saying "Is that an Anthrax song?" )

 

[Sascha Franck]

Dan; it's time to break that cycle!

I would agree on that - but I can perfectly understand people accustomed to other ideas. It's never been for me, though - I'm a "get the most out of a little amount of core tones" guy at heart (started because I was kinda forced into it, now I absolutely enjoy it).

And ftr, the vast majority of things I'm playing is "functional" stuff (but I'm not even using dedicated patches for that weird ABBA tribute band I'm in), hence anything from jazzy cleans to kinda classic rock tones.

I can cover most of that with just 4 tones: clean, dirt and lead variations of it (plus one dedicated acoustic patch in case I bring one). I do add: Some dirt boxes for a different flavour and to beef things up (doesn't matter much whether they're analog pedals or virtual ones), some kinda lush echo-y stuff for swells and what not and the ocassional modulation (I usually have a phaser and slow flanger for cleans and a uvibe-y thing and a tremolo for dirts).

All of this (minus the acoustic patch) was easily possibly within one kitchen sink kinda preset within the OG Floor.

And well, apart from such a thing being easy to maintain, IMO it also offers further advances:
- No drastic change in playing feel. I learned to hate that when I went for other approaches (which I did a lot when I was in my "formative" years).
- IMO better consistency for stage and FOH sound. I know quite some FOH dudes, and they usually have enough to do keeping the 626784 sounds the keyboarder will deliver under control, so they all seem to love straight and consistent guitar sounds, not adding any further sound trainwreckage.

Also: Listen to the stuff Paul Gilbert gets out of one main sound. He can basically play the entire western pop music encycopledia and you wouldn't miss a single thing.

Now, as said, I can perfectly understand people going a different route (it obviously also depends on the musical material, there's possibly not much of a way to get through with my approach in a, say, Pink Floyd setting - but then, who knows...), but for me it's a kinda "liberating" thing.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I would agree on that - but I can perfectly understand people accustomed to other ideas. It's never been for me, though - I'm a "get the most out of a little amount of core tones" guy at heart (started because I was kinda forced into it, now I absolutely enjoy it).

And ftr, the vast majority of things I'm playing is "functional" stuff (but I'm not even using dedicated patches for that weird ABBA tribute band I'm in), hence anything from jazzy cleans to kinda classic rock tones.

I can cover most of that with just 4 tones: clean, dirt and lead variations of it (plus one dedicated acoustic patch in case I bring one). I do add: Some dirt boxes for a different flavour and to beef things up (doesn't matter much whether they're analog pedals or virtual ones), some kinda lush echo-y stuff for swells and what not and the ocassional modulation (I usually have a phaser and slow flanger for cleans and a uvibe-y thing and a tremolo for dirts).

All of this (minus the acoustic patch) was easily possibly within one kitchen sink kinda preset within the OG Floor.

And well, apart from such a thing being easy to maintain, IMO it also offers further advances:
- No drastic change in playing feel. I learned to hate that when I went for other approaches (which I did a lot when I was in my "formative" years).
- IMO better consistency for stage and FOH sound. I know quite some FOH dudes, and they usually have enough to do keeping the 626784 sounds the keyboarder will deliver under control, so they all seem to love straight and consistent guitar sounds, not adding any further sound trainwreckage.

Also: Listen to the stuff Paul Gilbert gets out of one main sound. He can basically play the entire western pop music encycopledia and you wouldn't miss a single thing.

Now, as said, I can perfectly understand people going a different route (it obviously also depends on the musical material, there's possibly not much of a way to get through with my approach in a, say, Pink Floyd setting - but then, who knows...), but for me it's a kinda "liberating" thing.

I am good with not trying to mimic the tones for every song 1:1. Specific FX I try to keep to a crucial minimum but have enough on hand in a single preset to make that work. I just don't have the focus for the herculean task of building out and maintaining 40-50 presets. I really should work on getting something "cleaner" in the queue but I generally provide more of the "oomph" in our band anyway (when I am not blasting trumpets)

 

[Sascha Franck]

I just don't have the focus for the herculean task of building out and maintaining 40-50 presets.

Yuck, me neither.
Also, most often on my gigs there's no premade setlists. We sit down with our tablets (or actual paper sheets) before each set and decide. No way I'd enter the stage and program a new setlist on my modeler of choice.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Yuck, me neither.
Also, most often on my gigs there's no premade setlists. We sit down with our tablets (or actual paper sheets) before each set and decide. No way I'd enter the stage and program a new setlist on my modeler of choice.

Plus it would open doors to doing a bunch of navigational footswitch config to get across all the presets as needed. Another chore I don't want to spend time on.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Plus it would open doors to doing a bunch of navigational footswitch config to get across all the presets as needed. Another chore I don't want to spend time on.

Absolutely. In fact, my main footswitch layout exists since I don't know for how long already. Of course, sometimes it varies a little based on the system's options and amount of footswitches, but the general layout idea is always the same. And I never ever switch banks on any gig. Been there, done that - wild modulation sound instead of a bone dry rhythm sound, no thanks.