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About DugT

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    Just Startin'
  1. I've tried to use the Acoustic Sim but it always sounds like fret buzz to me. Instead, I use a good IR, no amp or cab and I use a little of the 12 string guitar sim. I also add a little chorus and reverb. It doesn't sound real acoustic but it sounds good which is more important to me.
  2. It looks like Schecter has a new version of this model. Now they call it the PT SLS Elite. The Controls are a little different. The headstock is 6 inline vs 3x2. There is forearm contour but you can't see it in this photo. The body is tele shaped whereas the earlier ones were strat shaped. Below is a 7 string version of the previous version of the guitar above.
  3. That was really helpful. Thank you! The Schecter C1 SLS Elite is a great guitar for the money and it has just about everything I want in a guitar except a single coil in the middle. Middle pickups really annoyed me too until I lowered it enough to be out of the way. If the middle pickup has a ceramic magnet, it can be lowered a lot. Eventually I found I could raise it gradually and get used to it. A lot of the music I play is music I learned playing acoustic guitars and I find a middle pickup replicates that best but I also like flat (Schredder) fingerboards and fixed bridges. That combination is almost impossible to find so I might be ready to settle. The single coils split out of two HH and in parallel sound good enough. I never play anything that need humbucker tones that I can't get close enough to with the Helix. Schecter C1 SLS Elite Pro's Stainless frets Ebony fingerboard Thin neck Compound radius Carbon fiber and a seven ply neck = 9 ply neck = STIFF neck Compensated nut fixed bridge Fishman Fluence cold fusion super conducter pickups Beautiful guitar Great value Schecter C1 SLS Elite Con's No middle pickup No forearm contour Not headless Have to remember to unplug it. You can't alway get what you want, but you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need. Darrel Braun loves that Schecter. Darrell's review
  4. Thanks, Doug! I searched for a Fischer pickups forum but didn't find one. Do you know of one? A. It is my understanding that Fishmans are especially good at no noise high gain tones but they are also excellent at low gain tones. Do you agree with that? I suspect the pickups have low impedance and the boost from the preamp does the heavy lifting when switched on. It is also my understanding that, to take advantage of this, the gain of the amp or Helix, should be set high. If I set the gain on the Helix moderately low, could I get some great clean tones and flip the switch to get edge of breakup distortion? The guitar has a Fishman Alnico in the neck, a Fishman Ceramic in the bridge, and a Fishman single width Ceramic in the middle. B. The guitar with Fishmans that I am interested in has no tone knob. I use the guitar tone control a lot, especially when I switch to a different pickup or switch from jazz to rock, for example. I can't imagine why this guitar doesn't have a control knob unless there isn't room in the cavity for it. What do you think? This is the guitar: Ibanez S Iron Label Axion It is real thin and I love the neck, hardtail, and that is has three pickups. I was on the verge of ordering a custom Kiesel when I discovered this guitar. Thanks again, Doug T
  5. Thanks for your reply. I didn't know that the noise gate affects dynamics. I will check to see if my noise gate is set high enough to make much of a difference in dynamics. I haven't noticed it yet. The most distortion I use is classic rock style, not metal. Actually, noise isn't a problem for me. I'm just a sofa player in a relatively noise free newish house. I have guitars with humbuckers but I prefer the sound of single coils with the noise gate adjusted to taste. I'm no chicken picker but, for some of my music I like to get a tone that is similar to that of acoustic guitars and I like to use a single coil for that especially but everything sounds better through a single coil to me. Maybe that is because of old ears and hearing loss. Here is my real problem. I'm having difficulty finding a good SSS hardtail guitar with a flatter radius. Most SSS guitars have trems and most shredder neck guitars have trems. One exception to this is the Ibanez S671ALB but it has Fishman active pickups. A lot of people really like Fishmans so I thought I should consider them even though I wouldn't take advantage of their full benefits. I could replace the pups if I don't like them. The guitar doesn't have a tone pot. That could force me to use the Helix for that and have presets with the treble adjusted for each song or each pickup. That could be more efficient than finding the right tone knob setting everytime I play the song again. My Helix sits next to me at finger level so it is easy enough to use its tone knobs.
  6. I'm considering buying a guitar that has Fishman Fluence pickups. Are Fishmans overkill since the Helix has good 60 hurtz hum supression? Another feature of the Fishmans is the gain can be increased by the push of a button but the same can be done with a Helix. While we are on the subject of hum, does anyone even need humbuckers if they have a Helix? Thanks
  7. Thanks for the input. I replaced some 14k ohm ceramic humbuckers with some cheap 7K ohm AL2 single coil humbucker size pickups and it made a dramatic improvement but that is a pretty extreme example. Now it sounds like my other five guitars that all have different pickups but sound similar through my Helix effects. The humbuckers might have been better at heavy metal but the single coils were much better at everything I play. However, the biggest improvement in my tone has come from taking advantage of Helix options and playing in stereo. At this point, the most important thing about a guitar to me is having a neck I like and pickups that aren't too hot. I might try the B+C option if I get real board but I doubt if it will improve anything. Evidence of that is my google searches haven't found any discussions about it.
  8. The tones I've heard from YouTube videos of people playing this guitar sound good so I think I will like it as is. It is easy for me to get good enough tone for me out of my Helix and stereo studio monitors.
  9. Thanks for answering my question. My hearing isn't very good. For example, if I hear a difference between my guitars or my pickups, I can usually adjust my Helix to get them to sound similar enough to each other. I was wondering if this is common with people that have a Helix but apparently not. About two months ago, before I got a Helix, I asked here if I would notice much difference between a Helix and my Boss GT-100. Everyone was confident I would notice a substantial difference and they were right so at least my hearing is that good. Now all of my six guitars sound great to me so I am going to sell most of them. Tomorrow I'm getting a Schecter Banshee Elite-6 which might be the ultimate guitar for me, mostly because of the neck. It has two humbuckers and a five way switch so that is why I asked about A+D vs B+C. I was hoping there was universal truth and censensus about the tone difference between A+D vs B+C. Both pickups are about 11k ohms and have ceramic magnets. Between them and the Helix I think I will get good tone. Worst case I will get different pickups. Bridge Pickup Schecter USA SuperCharger Mach-6™ 12K Neck Pickup Schecter USA SuperCharger Mach-6™ 10K I get the guitar tomorrow and will play it for the first time tomorrow.
  10. I have a question about guitar tone but I'm wondering if it really doesn't matter because final tone is so adjustable with a Helix. For example, with a Helix can you have guitar pickups that are not hot enough? Instead of getting hotter pickups it seems to me you can crank up the gain, add boost or overdrive to get as much distortion as you want. Are there exceptions to this? Here is another example. For the middle 5 way switch position, I was wondering if here is much difference in tone between the two inner coils in parallel Vs. the two outer coils in parallel? I suspect not much and I also suspect that and difference in coil configuration. This graphic shows what I'm talking about. I wonder if I could even hear a difference. If anyone knows the answer to this it would save me some soldering trial and error.
  11. DugT

    Why buy a Helix?

    1 hour ago, LongDuckDong said: I researched the Helix. My favorite amp is the Mesa Boogie, Dual Rectifier, which the Spider Jam, has. I asked if the Helix brought more to the table than the Spider Jam. Of course the Helix has a lot more than a Spyder Jam except a power amp and a speaker. They are very different and no one here wants to study up on your Jam and then list the differences for you. The Helix costs four times as much and you are happy with your jam so party on. If you want someone to try and sell you a Helix, go to a guitar shop and talk to a salesman. Essentially you challenged us to argue why you should buy a Helix even though they are a lot more expensive but why should we bother? There is an excellent chance that you shouldn't buy a Helix. Please feel free to tell us why we should have saved a lot of money by buying a Spyder Jam.
  12. DugT

    Why buy a Helix?

    It seems we don't know why you should or shouldn't buy a Helix. I know at least one of us doesn't care. You might try googling Spider Jam vs Helix.
  13. Thanks for the good ideas I tried the looper. The tone that I hear while I'm playing sounds a lot better to me than when I replay the loop. Is the looper telling the truth? I hope not. I might stick with snapshots and also the return button.
  14. To A/B compare different settings within a preset is it best to use Snapshots? I tried using a A/B split but that wasn't fast or easy. I also tried saving as different Presets but that wasn't real convenient either. I suspect Snapshots are the best way but before I learn how to use Snapshots, I thought I would ask here. Thanks.
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