Still struggling with the helix for overdriven tones...

**jzucker** · 07-23-2023, 10:44 AM

Smooth jazz jam - crying/fusion guitar, Gibson 339

I'm playing through a gladio SC and then a helix stomp preamp with a grammatico - dumble style - amplifier.

Everytime I think I love the helix, I run into another glitch. Not sure what happened on this one but the high/pass lo pass of 100hz and 4k didn't seem to work at all. I ended up having to do the eq in post processing which is extremely frustrating. I had the EQ after the speaker. In previous iterations I have tried it right after the amp. So maybe I'll give that a go next time.

Still struggling a bit with these heavy strings but I love the tone and the girth of this guitar. Debating about whether to change it to .011s instead of the .012s that are currently on there.

I feel so good these last few days. Got to see my grandson i'm feeling better and it's now been two months since my spinal surgery and I'm feeling great.

Love all you folks who are always in my corner. My *REAL* friends - I will never forget you having my back. And not just in words only. IN YOUR ACTIONS!

**DawgBone** · 07-23-2023, 11:13 AM

Whatever you did post processing made it sound good. And the playing here is really killer and smooth. I feel like I'm back down in Florida near the beach just breezin'! It took me there! Nice! I'm going to have a couple more listens as it's the closest I'll get to a beach vacation this year....

TBH I much preferred the tone here vs the Yamaha into Helix/Grammatico you posted a few weeks back. That one was pretty grainy to my ears. This seems a good deal smoother and creamier so I'm not sure where my disconnect is. Maybe it's just my ears. Regardless, thanks for sharing. That was great.

**jzucker** · 07-23-2023, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by DawgBone

Whatever you did post processing made it sound good. And the playing here is really killer and smooth. I feel like I'm back down in Florida near the beach just breezin'! It took me there! Nice! I'm going to have a couple more listens as it's the closest I'll get to a beach vacation this year....

TBH I much preferred the tone here vs the Yamaha into Helix/Grammatico you posted a few weeks back. That one was pretty grainy to my ears. This seems a good deal smoother and creamier so I'm not sure where my disconnect is. Maybe it's just my ears. Regardless, thanks for sharing. That was great.

Thanks for listening. Honestly, the yamaha was a much brighter instrument. It doesn't have the gibson flavor. But additionally, I'm struggling with getting the speaker sims and eq working for overdrive so that probably was also screwing things up. I now have this filter saved as a preset in my recording software but I'm trying to figure out which configuration worked because on one clip I did recently, I didn't need any post processing...

For clean sounds, it doesn't seem to matter as much but with overdrive, the added harmonics from the distortion end up in an audible part of the freq range that is above a guitar speaker's normal output. Not sure why helix would even allow that.

**GuyBoden** · 07-23-2023, 11:17 AM

I like it.

**DawgBone** · 07-23-2023, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by jzucker

Thanks for listening. Honestly, the yamaha was a much brighter instrument. It doesn't have the gibson flavor. But additionally, I'm struggling with getting the speaker sims and eq working for overdrive so that probably was also screwing things up. I now have this filter saved as a preset in my recording software but I'm trying to figure out which configuration worked because on one clip I did recently, I didn't need any post processing...

For clean sounds, it doesn't seem to matter as much but with overdrive, the added harmonics from the distortion end up in an audible part of the freq range that is above a guitar speaker's normal output. Not sure why helix would even allow that.

Sounds kind of like my experiences with a Sheraton II vs a 333 loaded with '57 classics. The Sheraton just has a slightly brighter, more focused tone. It was also a newer guitar, which I find are usually brighter and more focused because it hasn't opened up yet. The ES was 20 years old. I didn't find that it really mattered to me for gigs. It was the neck dive that killed the Epi for me, another story.

I'm guessing we are also talking about a rosewood board vs an ebony one? It might be part of the equation. My Edwards w/ebony and Duncan Jazz is also slightly brighter than the Gibson I had but still closer in tone than the Epi was. You are definitely running more gain than I do for a more fusion-eque tone so I don't know how that would factor in with how the helix interfaces with the rest of your gear. I try to keep things as simplistic as possible so I don't have to sweat dialing too much stuff in but I'm playing blues so there is less gain and more volume to achieve the sustain I like. I spent many years fighting a strat into a Marshall at gigs, trying to get EQ right per the room. It frustrated me at a lot of places enough times that now it's just Edwards into a blue note into a Twin that I set pretty much the same everyplace I go and it has worked out well. No more strats for this guy for the time being.

Probably take anything I'm saying with a grain of salt because my ears are likely compromised from a weekend of loud gigging in the heat. Just my two cents, worth what you paid, lol. In the end the playing is what matters most, and you were hitting it quite nicely, as always. I think this is my favorite video so far even though I really like the tone on that Kessel....