Rig setup
Pick what you're plugging into. You get the cabling, what the cab block should be doing, and the thing that goes wrong.
The cab block rule
Cab block ON into anything full-range — headphones, an FRFR speaker, the desk, your computer. Cab block OFF into anything that ends in a real guitar speaker. A cab block is a speaker simulation, so using one into a real cab gives you two speakers stacked, and leaving it off into a full-range system gives you a raw amp with no speaker at all. Nearly every “my new modeller sounds terrible” post is this one rule.
Helix 3.80 Owner's ManualThere is a Preamp version of every Amp model. It is the preamp stage only, without the power amp — which is what you want when you are feeding a real power amp, whether that is your amp's effects return, a Powercab, or a DT-series amp over L6 LINK. It also costs less DSP than the full Amp block.
Leave it on
You're feeding a full-range system, so the Nano has to supply the speaker.
Where most people start, and where the cue mix first matters.
- GuitarINSTRUMENT
- HeadphonesPHONES
- Cab block
- On
- Before turning the knob
- Press the headphone button above it
The Volume knob drives one output at a time. If it seems to do nothing, you are adjusting the main outputs while listening on headphones.