The "Helix for bass" guetto... I mean, thread

[molul]

All Helix threads I see are usually guitar-focused. I thought it might be nice having a thread for those who use it for bass (if any) :)

Today I picked my Harley Benton GuitarBass from the luthier, who changed the nut, tuners and bridge (and previously I had the pickups changed to Wilkinson Low Gauss Hot Rails), and I'm in love with the Helix Cougar bass amp. I saw it's based on the amp used by Colin Greenwood at Radiohead and wanted to give it a go. Great tone, and also the GuitarBass is able to produce many different tones from both the pickups and the tone knob (it's great set to around 3/10).

So yeah, who's here using Helix for bass and what's your amp (or amps) of choice?

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

There are some outstanding bass amp models in Helix, but TBH most of the time I just use the model of the Sansamp Bass Driver pedal. It just works.

 

[molul]

There are some outstanding bass amp models in Helix, but TBH most of the time I just use the model of the Sansamp Bass Driver pedal. It just works.

Do you mean you have a ZeroAmp Bass DI block directly to the output, with no amp and cab?

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Do you mean you have a ZeroAmp Bass DI block directly to the output, with no amp and cab?

exactly

 

[molul]

exactly

Wow, gotta try that. Thanks!

 

[norminal]

I usually gravitate towards the Ampeg SVT and Cali 400.

 

[Digital Igloo]

For normal 4-string rock bass duties, I almost always use the 50th Anniversary SVT model in Ampeg's SVT Suite, but on hardware, just the bog-standard SVT. With my Bass VI, whatever guitar amp the song calls for.

 

[FuzzyAce]

All Helix threads I see are usually guitar-focused. I thought it might be nice having a thread for those who use it for bass (if any) :)

Today I picked my Harley Benton GuitarBass from the luthier, who changed the nut, tuners and bridge (and previously I had the pickups changed to Wilkinson Low Gauss Hot Rails), and I'm in love with the Helix Cougar bass amp. I saw it's based on the amp used by Colin Greenwood at Radiohead and wanted to give it a go. Great tone, and also the GuitarBass is able to produce many different tones from both the pickups and the tone knob (it's great set to around 3/10).

So yeah, who's here using Helix for bass and what's your amp (or amps) of choice?

I like the Cougar model too. Mainly I just work off the presets in Native and tweak as needed. Changing the cabs around makes a huge difference. I actually have a Sansamp Geddy Lee model 2u rack unit, but haven't used it much since getting Native. It's a great preamp too so I need to fire it up soon.

 

[Orvillain]

SEVEN YEARS AGO, MI'LORD!!

 

[burningyen]

I tend not to use amp or cab blocks, either. This had EQ, chorus, pitch shift and the Kinky Comp:



This was just the LA Comp:



But I'm really liking the Woody Blue amp with my bright-sounding Bronco bass.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Helix Native is the GOAT for bass tones.

I usually just cycle through the amps and cabs song to song and see what catches by ear, there is always something that works. The choice of pedals is also great for bass.

For some reason it’s often Woody Blue

 

[molul]

SEVEN YEARS AGO, MI'LORD!!

Oh wow, those sliders...

 

[Sascha Franck]

SEVEN YEARS AGO, MI'LORD!!

Hold on, that was what the sliders looked like at that time? Why in the world has that been changed?!?

 

[the-trooper]

Hold on, that was what the sliders looked like at that time?

Yup.

Why in the world has that been changed?!

To make them more difficult to use ¯\_(ツ) _/¯

 

[FuzzyAce]

Hold on, that was what the sliders looked like at that time? Why in the world has that been changed?!?

Because it looked dumb?
Much better now. Thank goodness I didn't have to put up with that blocky looking mess.

 

[molul]

Those sliders looked bad indeed.

 

[Sascha Franck]

They looked bad but were better functionally.
But this is precisely why knobs are needed. Horizontal sliders are nonsense, no matter how you do them.

 

[sleewell]

Love the helix for bass.

Our bassist usually leaves rehearsal before I do. I have this preset where the top row is guitar stuff out to my amp and the bottom row is bass stuff w a poly pitch octave down with a compressor and rat. I use the XLR out on the helix to his bass amp. It sounds really cool.

 

[FuzzyAce]

They looked bad but were better functionally.
But this is precisely why knobs are needed. Horizontal sliders are nonsense, no matter how you do them.

As a plugin I prefer sliders, personally. Much easier to make changes with a mouse.

 

[Sascha Franck]

As a plugin I prefer sliders, personally. Much easier to make changes with a mouse.

Also personally, I totally disagree. I find horizontal mouse movements to be one of the most cumbersome things ever. Just compare for yourself whether you can do more exact up/down or left/right movements. For me it's up/down all day long. Which is why virtual mixer faders are fine but the HX ones aren't. Also, IMO vertical mouse movements correlate a lot more with scroll wheel action (but hey, that's completely messed up within HX Edit/Native anyway...).
Whatever, as we can see, people have different preferences. So why not do that justice and offer user defined switching between horizontal faders and knobs that can be adjusted with vertical movements?