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.
Turn it off
There's a real guitar speaker at the end of this chain, so it must not supply a second one.
The simplest use, and what most owners buy it for.
- GuitarINPUT L/MONO
- OUTPUT L/MONOAmp input
- Cab block
- Not applicable — there are none
- IR block
- Off