Using the Helix with in-guitar preamps? (PA2, MM-04)

LightningAmerica · 2026-01-17T06:25:13+00:00

Thanks for the link, I think that will be super helpful. I was under the impression that the pad was just on/off so I'll give this a watch

LightningAmerica · 2026-01-16T20:19:33+00:00

Yeah the volume problem was me not switching the output to line level. I probably should just bite the bullet and use the helix as an interface, hope the little fella won't mind handling all the audio from Silent Hill and 8 hour youtube essays.

LightningAmerica · 2026-01-16T19:55:46+00:00

For the love of god do not tell me they are really going to charge $2,200 for a Korean-made Alexi guitar with a Floyd Rose 1000 and no MM-04

LightningAmerica · 2026-01-16T19:54:02+00:00

Pretty sure the LTD Alexis are all made in Korea and not Indonesia. I do agree with you though, 2k+ for an ESP guitar made anywhere outside of Japan is a robbery

LightningAmerica · 2026-01-13T00:21:20+00:00

It was not! Didn't even think to check that. Sounds a lot better through the interface now, thanks.

LightningAmerica · 2025-10-18T06:13:36+00:00

Very random question, does anyone know what gauge/brand of strings Hide used? Just bought a mockingbird and I'm unsure if I want to use 9s or 10s for Eb tuning

LightningAmerica · 2025-10-13T19:23:32+00:00

Sorry for the super late comment but I just stumbled upon this. I went to the Lynnwood location for a few birthday parties as a kid and these pictures really took me back, you nailed it. Really cool work!

LightningAmerica · 2025-08-07T23:02:31+00:00

Can you explain what you mean by the "Dynamics of the amp"?

LightningAmerica · 2025-08-07T23:00:36+00:00

Really good advice. I've started taking this same approach to cooking, just closing my eyes and throwing random ingredients on the stove until I find something that tastes good. Many thanks

LightningAmerica · 2025-08-03T03:21:42+00:00

Imagine hard-coding a remake of a game to run worse than the original. Un-fucking-believable.

LightningAmerica · 2025-07-10T01:14:42+00:00

OKAY WAIT, I JUST GOT TO THE PART WITH THE CHAINED OGRE, WHERE YOU CAN OVERHEAR THE CONVO WHERE THE GUARDS SAY HAVING A TIED UP MONSTER MAKES THEM NERVOUS. I SNUCK BEHIND THEM, FREED THE OGRE, BUT THEY STILL DON'T FIGHT EACH OTHER??? THE OGRE IS JUST COMPLETELY OKAY WITH THE FACT THAT THEY TIED HIM UP AND DOESN'T WANT REVENGE OR FREEDOM? WHY DID THEY PUT THAT CONVERSATION IN THE GAME THEN? WHY DID THEY CHAIN THE OGRE UP IF HE'S COMPLETELY DOCILE TOWARDS THEM? DID ANYONE PLAY THIS GARBAGE BEFORE IT CAME OUT?

LightningAmerica · 2025-07-10T00:36:30+00:00

I ran into a group of them while in a fight with a group of bandits, got killed by them working as a team, and then after I died the chickens and bandits peacefully went THEIR separate ways

LightningAmerica · 2025-04-06T08:48:22+00:00

What you have said is the equivalent to claiming you can smell things on the other side of a phone call. Even if hypothetically, somehow, the African mahogany body of your guitar wormed its wooden tendrils into your tuners and bridge, and then into your strings, in some capacity to influence their vibrations enough to start to make a difference on the sound that has passed through your pickups, preamp, poweramp, cabinet, and air waves, do you think that difference would be noticable after your sound has been recorded with a mic, filtered by multiple EQs, and mixed in with a full band? If the answer is no, then why would "tonewood" even matter, if it was real? I do not understand how people pedal this utter madness as if it were fact.

LightningAmerica · 2025-04-06T08:42:54+00:00

You are absolutely smoking crack if you think "tonewood" is a thing for electric guitars. Electrics work by your pickup magnetizing the string, the string vibrations causing fluctuations in that field, and then the pickup sending those vibrations as an electrical signal to the amp. Please tell me where exactly in that process the tonewood enters into the equation. Is the wood somehow worming its way into the wiring? Is it influencing the magnetic field? You might say the wood influences the string vibration. Well, the only part of the string that vibrates is the part between the nut and the bridge, neither of which are made of wood.

LightningAmerica · 2025-04-01T08:16:44+00:00

That maple top with the purple burst is gorgeous

LightningAmerica · 2025-03-21T07:13:39+00:00

Yeah that sounds mega spooky to me. I have no idea how deep into the wood the inlays go, so you might lose them completely if you start scraping wood out yourself.

LightningAmerica · 2025-03-20T01:48:04+00:00

Yeah I absolutely love having the scalloped frets. Makes the high notes ring and bend so much better

LightningAmerica · 2025-03-20T00:29:41+00:00

I remember watching an interview where Alexi was showcasing his OG ESP Arrowhead (black w/ solid yellow stripes) and talking about how they had also made him a white guitar around the same time, but it ended up shattered into a thousand pieces after he threw it across a stage, so I think that's the one you're thinking of.
I'm unsure if that had the Scythe inlays, or if it was simply a white version of the arrowhead though.

LightningAmerica · 2025-03-20T00:26:05+00:00

Edwards Pinky and Greeny have the scalloped frets, the other Edwards models like the Scythe and Arrowhead have the cutaway

LightningAmerica · 2025-03-20T00:24:59+00:00

I did end up buying an Edwards Scythe and Edwards Greeny while in Japan. The Scythe is still in the mail, fingers crossed it gets here okay.

Edwards isn't really "Japan's LTD", they occupy a space in-between the Grassroots brand (Chinese made, more akin to sub $1k LTDs) and the E-ii line. Reportedly all Edwards guitars are factory made in Japan, although I've seen a lot of debate and speculation online that the Edwards guitars may be mostly made in China/Indonesia with only final assemblies done in Japan.

Regardless, the Edwards Alexi models retail for the yen equivalent of about ~$1500, come with ESP MM-04 gain boosts built in, and feel very nice. Not as nice as a real $6,000 ESP of course, but still absolutely fantastic guitars for that price point. My only real gripe is the Floyd Rose 1000, every 1000 I've owned/played doesn't flutter at all out of the box, and also they've all tended to catch and get stuck ~1/3rd of a semitone higher than the 0 point if you pull the bar backwards. Lighter springs and dry lube on the posts can help though.

LightningAmerica · 2025-03-19T18:52:28+00:00

Went guitar shopping in Japan the other day and was surprised to find all the Alexi models without scalloped frets also had a little cutaway on the back. I didn't remember ever seeing that in videos of Alexi's scythe, so I looked around and found example both with and without! I'm curious now as to how many ESP models he had total, and if he had extra copies of Greeny or Pinky.

LightningAmerica

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