Helix isn’t just for electric guitar, it also has patches and models for bass, vocals and stereo input through the effect returns. Helix has many amp models for electric and bass guitar, and has the Studio Tube Pre preamp model that can be used to warm up tones for other instruments. Even though there are no specific amp models for acoustic instruments like acoustic guitar, mandolin or fiddle, Helix can still be used effectively for these instruments. Hopefully Line 6 will include new amp models in the future, and one will be provided that is designed and voiced specifically for acoustic guitar as many of us play electric and acoustic guitar, often different places in the same song, and especially using a James Tyler Variax.
I play a mix of mandolin, acoustic guitar and some electric guitar in our band No Worries. I use a different Helix patch for each instrument. My previous post, Creating a Helix Electric Guitar Patch, describes the design of the patch I use for electric guitar. This post covers the acoustic guitar patch. What makes this patch unique is that it uses an Impulse Response block to capture the body response of an acoustic guitar in order to compensate for the tone of the under the saddle piezo pickup and restore the natural tone of the acoustic guitar. Under the saddle piezo pickups are known to be quite bright and have a “quack” tone resulting from an emphasis around 1 kHz. There are some differences in under the saddle piezo pickups, and they do sound different on different guitars. But I’ve heard it said that you could put a piezo pickup on a 2×4 with strings on it, and it would sound pretty much the same as the pickup on your $10, 000 Martin. You can try to EQ the quack away, and EQ can improve the tone of a piezo pickup. But its very hard to use static EQ to reproduce the tone of an acoustic guitar body. This is because the body response, like a speaker, varies over time. This variation is exactly what an impulse response can capture.
Creating an Acoustic Guitar Impulse Response for Line6 Helix provides details on how I extracted acoustic guitar and mandolin body images out of my Fishman Aura Spectrum into an IR I can then load into a Helix Impulse Response block in order to compensate for the piezo pickup in my Martin 00C-15AE. This works very well, accurately reproducing the excellent effect of the Aura body image using a Helix.
Creating A Helix Electric Guitar Patch (updated)
This post covers the details of using that body image to create my go-to acoustic guitar patch. As always, the tone that works for my playing style, acoustic guitar and its pickup, and the FRFR amp I use may not be even close to what you are looking for. But the process used to create the patch might be useful in helping you taylor the patch for your needs. The biggest variable will likely be the body image IR.
Even though this patch is for acoustic guitar, I try to keep the footswitch assignments between my three live patches for mandolin, acoustic guitar and electric guitar as similar as possible. This makes it easier to remember where each effect footswitch is located as I switch instruments and patches. Helix has the scribble strips, which do help identify what a footswitch does. But you don’t want to have to look down at the pedalboard to find an effect switch in a live situation, or run the risk of pressing the wrong footswitch.
I use two slightly different patches for acoustic guitar. Patch 001 Acoustic Guitar is used with No Worries. Path 1A has a similar layout to my electric guitar patch, but includes an impulse response block for the acoustic guitar body image, uses a Studio Tube Pre instead of a guitar amp, and uses very different distortion effect settings and voicing.
Helix Family 3.0 Acoustic Preset Pk
Notice I’m using a return for the acoustic guitar input. That’s because I’m running three instruments into Helix in my live setup. My Strat is connected to the guitar input (since it needs a High-Z input), mandolin is connected to the Aux input, and my acoustic guitar is connected to return 4. This what there’s no cable switching when I change instruments.
Path 2 is setup for a vocal mic input. I generally don’t use this in live settings since my mic goes directly into our Presonus 16.0.2 PA. But, you may find a patch like this could be optimized for vocals, and have effects and tone controls that aren’t available in your PA. For example, the Presonus 16.0.2 only has two effects busses. Those are setup for reverb and delay. If I want a little chorus, or a very different delay on my vocal, its easy to get it using Helix. The only issue with this approach is that its inconvenient to have to reach down to the floor and select an output block in order to balance the guitar and mic paths. It would be nice if Helix had a separate path 1/path 2 physical balance control for this. Maybe I’ll show how to use an iPad as a MIDI controller to provide these extra controls in a future post.
Patch 023 Acoustic G-XT is used for solo gigs and includes integration with a TC-HELICON harmony G-XT for the mic input, vocal doubler and harmonizer. I use a combination of loops and the harmony G-XT to make up for my limited vocal capabilities, and to provide variation and interest in solo performances (which I don’t do that often).
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Path 1 uses the same setup as 001 Acoustic Guitar except the input is now set to multi since I’m only playing one instrument and can use the guitar input for the acoustic guitar. The other difference is the send block right after the input. This sends the raw, unprocessed piezo pickup to the harmony G-XT guitar input in order to control the harmonizer. The Guitar control on the harmony G-XT is turned almost all the way down so that no guitar signal is coming though the G-XT outputs. The acoustic guitar tone is achieved entirely in the Helix.
Path 2 is again used for vocal, but is setup differently that 001 Acoustic Guitar. In this patch, the mic input goes directly into the harmony G-XT. The G-XT outputs are connected to the Helix stereo Return 3/4 which is the input to Path 2. I use a combination of the effects in the harmony G-XT and Helix for the vocal tone. The G-XT Tone switch is on (including the pitch correction), but the other G-XT effects are off. The G-XT effects are nice, but they’re fixed. Helix effects sound as good or better and can be easily controlled.
The rest of the post covers the details of Path 1 for the acoustic guitar. I won’t go into any further details on Path 2 other than what’s covered above.
Acoustic Guitar Piezofier Ir For Mag Pickups Posted
Path 1 has all mono effects into the amp model, then stereo after that. This minimizes the amount of DSP required while maintaining a stereo image for all the modulation, delay and reverb effects. The effect blocks and block order in the signal chain is similar to my electric guitar patch, but with the blocks optimized for acoustic guitar. Tone shaping blocks are early in the signal path. Modulation and ambient effects follow the amplifier. The amplifier is a Studio Tube Pre preamp, and there is no cabinet model since electric guitar speakers seldom sound good with acoustic instruments. The ambient effects include slap-back and modulated delays followed by reverb. The last block is the Looper in order to capture effects in the loop and to be able to overdub or play on top of the loop with different effects.
For this patch I have the Noise Gate on the input turned off since this is an acoustic guitar patch and there are no high-gain amplifiers in the signal chain. But its probably a good idea to leave the Noise Gate on with a minimum threshold in order to eliminate noise while still retaining the subtle dynamics of your guitar.
The first effect in the signal chain is the Fassel Wah. Of all the Wah Wah pedals in Helix, this one sounds the most musical to me, and works well with acoustic instruments. I don’t use this a lot, but its there if needed. We sometimes play bluesy Americana and I use slide on an acoustic guitar for something different. Its before the compressor to deal with any odd peaks when using the Wah with a clean tone.
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I like this compressor because it gives a lot of control that can be used to reproduce other compressors as needed. The compressor is to even out the guitar dynamics a bit, and make the acoustic guitar stand out a bit more for solos. It’s placed before any EQ or distortion effects in the signal chain so it sees the dynamics of the guitar itself, not the output of most other effect blocks.
Path 1 uses the same setup as 001 Acoustic Guitar except the input is now set to multi since I’m only playing one instrument and can use the guitar input for the acoustic guitar. The other difference is the send block right after the input. This sends the raw, unprocessed piezo pickup to the harmony G-XT guitar input in order to control the harmonizer. The Guitar control on the harmony G-XT is turned almost all the way down so that no guitar signal is coming though the G-XT outputs. The acoustic guitar tone is achieved entirely in the Helix.
Path 2 is again used for vocal, but is setup differently that 001 Acoustic Guitar. In this patch, the mic input goes directly into the harmony G-XT. The G-XT outputs are connected to the Helix stereo Return 3/4 which is the input to Path 2. I use a combination of the effects in the harmony G-XT and Helix for the vocal tone. The G-XT Tone switch is on (including the pitch correction), but the other G-XT effects are off. The G-XT effects are nice, but they’re fixed. Helix effects sound as good or better and can be easily controlled.
The rest of the post covers the details of Path 1 for the acoustic guitar. I won’t go into any further details on Path 2 other than what’s covered above.
Acoustic Guitar Piezofier Ir For Mag Pickups Posted
Path 1 has all mono effects into the amp model, then stereo after that. This minimizes the amount of DSP required while maintaining a stereo image for all the modulation, delay and reverb effects. The effect blocks and block order in the signal chain is similar to my electric guitar patch, but with the blocks optimized for acoustic guitar. Tone shaping blocks are early in the signal path. Modulation and ambient effects follow the amplifier. The amplifier is a Studio Tube Pre preamp, and there is no cabinet model since electric guitar speakers seldom sound good with acoustic instruments. The ambient effects include slap-back and modulated delays followed by reverb. The last block is the Looper in order to capture effects in the loop and to be able to overdub or play on top of the loop with different effects.
For this patch I have the Noise Gate on the input turned off since this is an acoustic guitar patch and there are no high-gain amplifiers in the signal chain. But its probably a good idea to leave the Noise Gate on with a minimum threshold in order to eliminate noise while still retaining the subtle dynamics of your guitar.
The first effect in the signal chain is the Fassel Wah. Of all the Wah Wah pedals in Helix, this one sounds the most musical to me, and works well with acoustic instruments. I don’t use this a lot, but its there if needed. We sometimes play bluesy Americana and I use slide on an acoustic guitar for something different. Its before the compressor to deal with any odd peaks when using the Wah with a clean tone.
Shop Online For Line 6 Helix Lt In Australia. Guitar Multi Effects Processor Musical Instruments
I like this compressor because it gives a lot of control that can be used to reproduce other compressors as needed. The compressor is to even out the guitar dynamics a bit, and make the acoustic guitar stand out a bit more for solos. It’s placed before any EQ or distortion effects in the signal chain so it sees the dynamics of the guitar itself, not the output of most other effect blocks.
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