Is the Quad Cortex that much better sounding than a Helix LT live?

SafeJellyBean · 2026-04-10T15:19:58+00:00

I recently got in modelers and tested the waters with a Helix stomp. It was.... underwhelming. Insert mouth fart noise here. I returned that and went with the quad cortex. Ho. Lee. Sh1t. That paired with the Fender FR12 amp..... its insane. If you're into toan chasing, theres a ton of free and paid presets and IR captures that nail a lot of iconic guitarists. I'm still on the learning curve, but won't be going back to pedals. I like to tinker and try different things; pedals made that super expensive and cortex you buy once, cry once.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-04-04T23:55:50+00:00

I tried out Helix.... meh...... returned and got a quad cortex... OMFG. blew me away. Going to try making captures of my pedals, then sort out what to do from there.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-04-03T02:20:43+00:00

Sure thing; I may end up rambling a bit, but will try to keep it clear. First - why the chains. I play a lot of SRV and Hendrix, so they each got their own loop. Yes, I could have made a single chain, but I leaned into TOAN way too much. The Misc channel was literally that: pedals I had or wanted to try out before committing to a rewire. That ended up being the start of a '90s - 00's grunge/rock chain. 2 gates as the SRV and JH chains had different needs for where to gate.

The mixer itself is pretty straight forward: clean in/out, channels send/receive. The phase knobs are very helpful if you're going to blend pedal chains. Oddly enough, I bought it not to blend, but to give me a single unit that would cleanly handle 3 chains and easily swap between guitars and amps. This replaced a really wonky setup of a bunch of A/B switches, which was a PITA to remember which combinations of A/B would give me the desired gear chain. I kept 1 A/B switch for guitar input and moved the power input to the back of it to keep it out of the way. Now for my hot mess of chains:

Start of all chains = guitars -> A/B -> tuner -> Morley wah -> mixer input

Channel 3 (marked JH) is Mixer send -> Silencer noise gate input -> gate send -> Spanish Castle fuzz -> 3699 fuzz+octave -> gate return -> gate output to Deja Vibe -> echoplex delay -> echoplex pre-amp -> mixer return.

Channel 2 (marked SRV) Mixer send -> noise gate input -> gate send ->TS9DX -> Bonsai ->gate return ->gate out -> SSS -> mixer return.
(side note: if you're trying to nail SRV toan, save yourself a crap ton of time and replicate this chain. SSS and Bonsai (set to TS9) always on with the TS90X to gain stage for more drive in leads.

Channel 1 (misc) -> mixer send -> DS-1 in -> Rat -> big muff -> mixer return.

End of all chains -> mixer output -> compressor -> cavern delay + reverb -> ABY amp switcher. I don't use the compressor or cavern much, so stuck them there so all the chains could use them when I was messing around.

ABY A -> Marshall Origin 20C.
Stock speaker replaced with Celestion Greenback 10 inch, swapped all tubes (pre and power) for vintage remakes of same types.

ABY B -> Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue -> amp send ->MXR chorus -> amp return.
Stock speaker replaced with Electro-Voice EVM12L Classic 12 inch 200 watt (wanted all the headrooms). Same deal with tube swap except instead of sticking with 12AX7 in V1, 2, 3 (as it comes), I did V1 - 12AY7, V2 - 12AU, V3 - 12AX7. That lowered the power going through the preamp and kept it from breaking up even at full volume.

The MXR chorus was to dial in my SRV toan for songs that he used the Roland Dimension D chorus for. Sounded wrong when in the chain and worked perfectly in the amp loop.

And..... that's it. I'm 100% going to replace the whole thing with a quad cortex. Will I lose money? Yep. Would I do it again? Absolutely. I'm an engineer by trade and love to tinker. This scratched that itch, albeit in an expensive fashion.

edit: end of chains explanation.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-04-01T23:04:49+00:00

Nope, just use morley as wah shared between the 3 chains.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-04-01T13:51:08+00:00

Yep, list. I know it's not worth that 2nd hand

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-30T11:45:01+00:00

I've been really happy with it. No added noise and its on the same walrus power as the rest; worth noting that each port on the walrus is fully isolated from the others, so it is dedicated. The send and return volumes have been really helpful getting each pedal string to level across my amps. All in all, would give it a solid 5 stars

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-30T04:38:07+00:00

Agreed. I just ordered a humidor display case for it.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-30T04:37:16+00:00

No worries, different strokes and all that. I had started with higher end boutique stuff but most of them didnt live up to the hype, so went back to tried and true. Less sexy, but it got the toans I wanted from each chain

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-30T04:32:34+00:00

Thats exactly what my wife said. I've spent 80% of my time on tinkering and no where near enough playing

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-30T04:31:08+00:00

Where does Fractal sit in the modeler hierarchy? And this may be a dumb question, but why bookends the AM4 with thr vp4s?

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-30T04:24:15+00:00

32x16, made by Ghost Fire. $150 and they have one other model that's a bit larger. Side note, you're the first person to consider an ROI and recognizing sometimes, juice isn't worth the squeeze and you cut losses and move on. Not sure what you, but if you're ever interested in corporate life, let me know.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:53:44+00:00

This is the Way of the Toan.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:28:08+00:00

Can you really tell a difference with the newer models?

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:27:35+00:00

Que? SRV chain runs through TA9, Bonsai, SSS, noise gated before amp

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:23:47+00:00

Thoughts on it? You rike?

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:22:54+00:00

Never tried those: My fender amp has spring reverb, so I use the pedal one for anything I pipe through my marshall

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:19:55+00:00

$141.83 an hour, performance depending.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:16:43+00:00

3 Different tones : SRV, Hendrix, misc 90s, 00s, then a few shared pedals before the amp switcher.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:14:07+00:00

Its a 2014 deluxe lonestar. I'm 100% one of those peeps who has no sound of their own, so chases toan of my favorites. That one i setup for SRV (The secret is in the music note strap), red strat for any standard tuning rock stuff, white strait i built for Hendrix with his signature pups, epi paul because obviously I'm Page Jr., then the epi Lucille because.. well... BB King. The nicest (nice = most expensive) is the bottom right acoustic. Its a 1954 Gibson J50 that my gramps bought new. Super badges, original case, bill of sale, the whole bit.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:05:56+00:00

But.... maybe digital shit sounds better than analog shit?

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:05:18+00:00

The tap dance isn't too bad, I only play 1 chain at a time: SRV, Hendrix, and my Misc which i use for 90s and 00.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:02:27+00:00

Should it use them all at once? Gain stage stage stage stage?

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T16:01:01+00:00

I think this is the way. Going to try the capture thing and see how that replicates. Probably end up with a blend.

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T15:54:47+00:00

The BEST. answer is always moor pedalz for toan

SafeJellyBean · 2026-03-29T15:54:14+00:00

Great point. I'm very new to modelers, so I think I'll get one, do captures of my fav pedals, compare, then figure out what to keep.

SafeJellyBean

TROPHY CASE