Moving to Helix, am I an idiot?
Moving to Helix, am I an idiot?
Ok, I've cracked. I have a nice pedal board and I can get some nice sounds from it. But I'm selling almost all of it and moving to Helix. Keeping a rams head muff and blues driver. But the expandability, versatility, simplicity of setup and no need to worry about patch cables, power supplies etc..
Am I going to regret it?
You're not an idiot but it's certainly possible that you end up regretting it. I've toyed with the idea of putting the small helix on my board purely for tuning, digital delay and looping, but I don't think I'd ever lose the wahs, boosts, dirt and weird stuff in their dedicated boxes
Is there a way that you get the helix and try it before committing to getting rid of the old stuff?
If you're feeling it, go for it. I do these things from time to time. I went from a tube amp to a nice solid state, thought I'd regret it but haven't at all. I once sold all my hardware synths and bought Ableton and some nice VST synths, and did not regret it. A few years later I started collecting hardware synths again (there are some great affordable ones now that didn't exist before). I once sold all my delay, reverb, chorus, and dirt pedals (including a rams muff!) and got a couple of big Boss pedals that model all that stuff. Thought I might regret it, but I love it, and I can always go back. It's fun changing things up and getting a creativity boost. Enjoy! (btw I've never had a Helix, but hear great things.)
I use a Helix (the big full floorboard one), but I also have a small collection of pedals. I would say its just a big guitar pedal at the end of the day. I will say that stacking lots of effects and amps internally can limit what you run, the DSP is about 6 years out of date - but still powerful if you're careful.
I'd say keep a couple of good drives (which you are), but also keep a flanger as the models in there are not my fave. If you love ambient verbs (eg Strymon/Eventide) then keep one of those. The Helix verbs are good, though, just DSP intensive.
For me personally, the main appeal of something like a Helix would just be for performances. Being able to program in the set list would be really convenient in that context. But at home for noodling around I don't think I would like it much. I like just having all the knobs on the pedals to just lean over and fiddle with as my mood suits me. If you don't have to sell your current pedalboard to fund the Helix, maybe hold onto it all until you've convinced yourself the Helix is all you want for both settings.
No, you won’t regret it unless you sell pedals that are niche or hard to come by again. Definitely keep your fuzzes.
Helix has a ton of great FX and the quality of most are nearly indiscernible form their pedal counterparts. The fuzz in all modelers isn’t quite right in my experience. I’ve got an HX Stomp (had the older Fractal floor unit before that) and I have kept my favorite pedals and a couple of niche or rare-ish pedals not in the Helix library. I’ve sold off the majority of my pedals.
After 6-7 years into my modeling journey (had a Fractal AX8 before the Helix), I am now into a less is more mindset. I still prefer a real amp with as few pedals as possible. I own amps that don’t need additional drives, EQs, or boosts. They either have a great built-in attenuator or a usable sweep in the master volume for bedroom use. 99% of the time I’m going guitar->amp these days. For that reason, I’ve only fired up the Stomp for updates. I don’t want to fiddle with things. I just want to play.