The Line-6 cable handles like a garden hose.  I cannot imagine being able to use it on stage without having it snag on anything and everything.  Will be buying a Best-tronics cable in the near future.

My Best-Tronics cable arrived today.  Night and day improvement over the Line-6 cable - to the point where I'd advise not wasting good money on the latter.  This one I can actually use on stage.  It's only slightly stiffer than a high-quality conventional shielded cable, similar to Belden microphone cable.

Line-6 has some great products, but there are certain areas that could really use a review by the appropriate sales, marketing and engineering folks:

- The VDI cable.  Fire your cable supplier and OEM from BestTronics.

- Scarcity of stocking dealers and complete lack of training for those that do exist.  I was persistent enough to drive 500 miles round-trip to try and buy my JTV-69.  Many will not be.  I was interested in additionally buying a POD HD500 at the same time, but there was no one at the Boston Guitar Center able to demonstrate how it worked with the JTV.  The guitar itself had been sitting on the wall long enough to build up oxide on the strings and I get the impression I was the first person to test drive it.

(After doing a lot of reading on the net, I eventually bought an HD500 on eBay.  It was a close-out from a dealer in NYC who plainly was unable to move it.  Almost factory fresh and came with original box, unopened manual, etc.  Marketing and training disaster strikes again, I suspect)

- The miserable JTV-69 neck design.  Railroad ties for frets and narrow width at nut.  I'm sure some folks like this, but there are legions of us who do not.  At a minimum, consider offering a Fender-licensed Strat neck as an extra-cost option.

The fact that I (and others) have suffered through all of this to bond with the instrument is a testimonial to what Line-6 has done correctly.  It makes the negative aspects seem all the more silly and correctable.

Unfortunately I just received notice that my money has been refunded and the order cancelled due to a backorder of the cable, and that I can re-order after the 28th. Not sure why if it's only a week's delay they're outright cancelling it; I guess with certain things needing to happen by a certain time in eBay's system, they might have to go that route.

I'm toying with the idea of going the Best-Tronics route instead.  Did everyone get the 'Variax' one?  A lot of the other Ethercon cables list what the underlying cable is and whether it's for "studio and home use" or "harsh environments, venues, clubs, footpedals".  They unfortunately don't tell you what's used for the Variax one or what it's suited for.

I've had one on order with Musician's Friend since 1/2/2013. Every week they keep pushing the estimated ship time. I just checked and it's now February 20th.

I called Guitar Center on 1/2 and they did not have it in stock either.

Looks like I'll try the supplier listed above and cancel the backordered one. Thanks for the info!