Building a Classical Guitar / Nylon String Preset - Line 6 Helix

[@picksalot1]

@Akex - I play a lot of Nylon String guitar through my HX Stomp, and previously through my Boss GT-6. Many years ago, I installed a Piezo disc pickup using strong double-sided tape on the underside of my guitar top just a little bit behind the 2nd string under the bridge. The Piezo is an inexpensive, $2.50 Radio Shack item, and I figured out how to make it sound awesome. The guitar is a high end, concert quality, custom made Classical Guitar. With my settings, I prefer my Modeled sound to the acoustic sound, as it sounds totally natural and with no hint whatsoever of Piezo tone. Here are the settings that work well for me on my HX Stomp: Amp - Jazz Rivet 120: Drive 4.9, Bass 5.0, Mid 5.0, Treble 4.3, Presence 0.0, Channel Vol. 7.3, Master 10, Bright 0.0 Cab - 2x2 Jazz Rivet: Mic 57 Dynamic, Distance 2.5, Low Cut 83 Hz, High Cut 3.1 kHz, Early Reflections 28%, Level 0.0 In-Z - 1M Ohm Hall Reverb: Decay 7.0, Pre-delay 22ms, Low Cut 166Hz, High Cut kHz 7.5, Mix 32%, Level 0.0, Trails On I do not need to use any EQ. I usually play with a thumb pick using a "Fender Heavy California Clear" for the part that strikes the string and fingernails. With the settings I use, the thumb pick attack is almost inaudible. I find adjusting the settings so if that is case, the guitar will produce an excellent tone, and it also reduces string noise and squeaks to a bare minimum. A side benefit is that I can play the same strings for many months without needing to change them, as the critical parts of the tone are captured via the Piezo pickup and don't change much over time. I have not tested my settings on an under-saddle Piezo pickup, but it should be easy enough for you to test my settings on a new Preset. I'm curious if it works on your guitar. Thanks

[@DorothyOzmaLover]

Marvelous insights on using the preset with a useful depiction, and your melodic playing is inspiring to me as a guitarist as is your passionate tone this is very alluring!

[@TonyTenor3000]

Nice preset! I’m under the impression the first thing you should put in the chain is the IR so it can work directly with the piezo signal, then you can add comp and EQ as needed…

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Yes and no. Sometimes that's the right call, sometimes EQing and compressing before the IR sounds better. I've made presets both ways.

[@harperj72]

Nice playing

[@AlonMusic]

Thanks for the great video! Made my guitar sound 1000% times better

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Glad it was helpful!

[@JS62515]

Thanks for the tips man, been putting this off for a while but need a good nylon preset in my Helix too.

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Any time! Hope it helps

[@tperry5839]

Excellent

[@RezzhaF]

thanks for the free presets man, ill subs for that

[@efnbrg]

Great tips here! When you said "and this is with increased reverb", does that mean you had a snapshot with the reverb raised and one of the footswitches triggered that to happen? Also did you find that that too much reverb and delay amplifies the squeaking sound which is common on the steel strings of a classical guitar?

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Kind of. I use footswitch parameter changes in place of snapshots for many reasons. Search my HX Stomp XL footswitch mode video of you’re interested in learning how to set that up. The reverb definitely does amplify the string squeaking. The best way to avoid that is just to play with good technique honestly.

[@rombsix]

Night and day 😁

[@guidoventurini3678]

Nice nice sound. Question: what classical guitar are you playing ? Bye from Italy

[@AlexPriceMusician]

It’s an old Alvarez AC460c.

[@guidoventurini3678]

@@AlexPriceMusician Many thanks

[@JoePariseauMusic]

Can you make a banjo or mandolin preset?

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Would love to. I don't have pickups for either of those instruments at the moment though. Hopefully sometime soon!

[@agustinyosiura]

Hi! Does it work in Helix Native? Good preset!

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Hi Agustin - technically yes, though you won't be able to access any of the footswitches without diving into MIDI assignments for an external controller. This preset is pretty simple though and if all you need is the modeling, the footswitches with effects are irrelevant anyway. I threw them in there just because I had the room.

[@agustinyosiura]

@@AlexPriceMusician Great! I just need modeling. Thanks a lot for your reply

[@jcaryali]

Hello Alex from Spain. I´m thinking to buy a nylon string guitar, godin or another, but i´m electric guitar player. I only have money for one acoustic guitar (nylon or steel). I have a modeler like you. With a modeler like helix, fractal, etc, and with your nylon guitar, can you take sounds like steel acoustic guitar if was necesary?. With reverb, delay, etc?. Or ever sounds classic?. Could you play pop, jazz, etc? I hope explain me. THANKS

[@CRP2426]

Hola! tengo Helix, y con mis electricas puedo hacer que suene a cuerdas de metal a travez de el Acoustic Simulator en la seccion de EQ o tambien con un Impulse response. es mas dificil emular el sonido de cuerdas de Nylon que las de Metal. tengo una Godin Duet Ambiance. With the Helix's Acoustic Simulator on the Eq section, or a good impulse response is easier to emulate a steel string acoustic on an electric with magnetic pickups. I find nylon string emulation somewhat unpalatable, so my electric Double as a Steel String acoustic, and my nylon is a Godin.

[@alf1o1]

Sounds great, maybe you could do a video for helix preset for an electric guitar with piezo if you have any?

[@AlexPriceMusician]

I have a custom guitar on the way with the Ghost system. Hopefully soon!

[@alf1o1]

@@AlexPriceMusician nice! looking forward to it :)

[@josephstewart5201]

I don't get it? Color me ignorant, but how is this a "preset", when it doesn't ship from Line-6 as a factory preset on the Helix, and you have to spend added funds to a private citizen to acquire it? Have I missed something somewhere? Or is this just the usual privateering, capitalist style? I mean, lets be real. Shouldn't it be called a "post-set" rather than a "pre-set"?

[@AlexPriceMusician]

I've made a point to share all of the settings I use in my Helix videos. No one has to buy anything if they don't want to - just copy the settings from what you see on the screen. If you want to make your own custom IR, I have a video on how to do that too. These videos and presets take hours to create. I don't think that asking a fee for the convenience of downloading my work is insane.