The ultimate test of a preset for me has always been through a live rig. I’ve admitted many times over that I was never completely thrilled with most of my own presets, or anyone else’s, through a rig. I discovered that there seemed to be a low mid deficiency with the Helix. I’ve tried numerous tricks to remedy that, but they were literally just tonal bandaids.
I pulled away from the Helix for awhile and came back to the table with new ideas and I’ve been banging my head on the wall convinced that I could “fix” my low-mid enemy.
I’m also convinced that dual pickup channels into a single live rig is a waste of time. Too many issues with the same speaker trying to replicate two different frequency spectrums at the same time.
I am only using a Schecter MonsterTone pickup
Here’s the explanation. This is a dual channel preset with a “simulated woofer” channel.
I’m using the Busy One Jump for the “clean ?” and the Busy One Ch2 for the “simulated woofer” both have the Rochester comp as well. If you’re gonna use one Rochester on a channel then you must use one on the other channel. ( long technical story ).
I was able to use a blend of Ch1 & Ch2 of the Busy One Jump to create an out of phase effect which eliminated the boxy midrange tonality. So both channels are always on at the same time. Distortion and clean blended to remedy an issue. Weird huh ? ?
Next was the simulated woofer channel which was easier without using another pickup. Much easier.
Blending the two signals was tricky and I found the sweet spot, which when combined with the out of phase trick on the Busy One Jump, cured the low mid issue. Happy.
Here it is. I’m calling it..
“Billy’s Hands” because my goal was to capture the tone and attack that is the signature sound of Billy Sheehan.
After all.. tone is in the hands.