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Will the retail version of the Variax Workbench HD USB Interface work with JTV-69?


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What's pictured there is the hopelessly goofy USB dongle that ships with the guitar...but demanding $100 for it is borderline criminal, if you ask me. Not sure if L6 will sell you one directly, but if they do, I doubt that they'd have the balls to charge a hundred bucks for it.

 

On the plus side, if you have a POD HD, you don't need that silly thing anyway. You can connect to Workbench through the POD with the VDI cable.

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Believe it or not, FullCompass.com (who is an authorized parts dealer for Line6) is selling the one that comes with the JTV-69 for $155!!!!

http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/503900-Line-6-99-065-0005

 

Unforatunately, I don't have an HD.   I do have a Helix, but it doesn't support Workbench via VDI yet and I haven't seen any mention from Line6 when that will happen.

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Believe it or not, FullCompass.com (who is an authorized parts dealer for Line6) is selling the one that comes with the JTV-69 for $155!!!!

 

http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/503900-Line-6-99-065-0005

That's insane. It's 12.5 cents worth of Chinese plastic...you're better off buying a POD. Somebody just started a thread over in the POD forum, claiming they paid $250 for a brand new one. At least you'd be getting something for your money.

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Believe it or not, FullCompass.com (who is an authorized parts dealer for Line6) is selling the one that comes with the JTV-69 for $155!!!!

http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/503900-Line-6-99-065-0005

 

Unforatunately, I don't have an HD. I do have a Helix, but it doesn't support Workbench via VDI yet and I haven't seen any mention from Line6 when that will happen.

If it were me, I'd tough it out until the Helix integration arrives...because I'd sooner set fire to a hundred dollars before I spent it on a USB dongle.

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If it were me, I'd tough it out until the Helix integration arrives...because I'd sooner set fire to a hundred dollars before I spent it on a USB dongle.

 

I may end up doing just that.   The guitar should arrive in a few days.   I guess there's no way of being able to tell what firmware version is installed without connecting it to Monkey/WorkBench, huh?

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The 99-065-0005 on the Full Compass site is the latest interface hardware.

JTV guitar firmware version 2.00 or greater is compatible with Workbench HD,

while firmware prior to that is compatible with the earlier Workbench.

 

There's an assortment of JTV guitar information here on the Line 6 Knowledge Base

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...but demanding $100 for it is borderline criminal, if you ask me. ....

 

Seems outrageous for a little piece of plastic, and it would be if that's all it was/is. But this is how Line 6 controls the licensing of the Workbench software product. Anyone can download the software, but it's useless without a piece of authorizing hardware. In the pre-JTV days when the Workbench product was sold separately and not included with a Variax purchase, this is the piece that controlled licensing. And it still does, for older Variax guitar owners who have never purchased Workbench.

 

Buyers are paying for the software, not just the little piece of plastic.

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Seems outrageous for a little piece of plastic, and it would be if that's all it was/is. But this is how Line 6 controls the licensing of the Workbench software product. Anyone can download the software, but it's useless without a piece of authorizing hardware. In the pre-JTV days when the Workbench product was sold separately and not included with a Variax purchase, this is the piece that controlled licensing. And it still does, for older Variax guitar owners who have never purchased Workbench.

 

Buyers are paying for the software, not just the little piece of plastic.

A handy justification for them no doubt, but the argument falls apart after even modest scrutiny, and still ultimately screws the customer.

 

If we can transfer the license for POD model packs between different owners of the same device, then someone in the OP's position should have some means of getting access to the Workbench software without being forced to pay a triple-digit "licensing fee". "Open box" purchase or not, he paid for the guitar. The original purchaser obviously doesn't own it anymore, and since the licensing of the software is now included in the price of the JTV, L6 would not be "losing" a blessed thing by selling him the dongle at a reasonable price for the hardware alone. They already got paid for the software when the unit was originally sold. And if the dongle hadn't been lost, the OP would be using it quite happily, we wouldn't be having this conversation, and nobody would ever know the difference. So at the end of the day, the only party with anything in the "loss" column, is the OP.

 

And if that's not enough...the software without a guitar is useless, so this isn't a piracy issue either. Nobody has one without the other. Unless your JTV "fell off the back of a truck", the software is paid for. What's the bottom line? The powers that be should be selling that stupid thing for the ten bucks it's worth...anything else is absurd and without reasonable justification.

 

There's no way the OP is the first guy this has happened to, and he should have some recourse that doesn't cost him a c-note.

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Not to mention that I also own a Helix, which should have worked with Workbench via VDI "at launch", but is even more disconcerting as we have had at least two Helix firmware updates since it's debut 3+ months ago and Variax --> VDI --> Helix --> Workbench is still not supported :(

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Not to mention that I also own a Helix, which should have worked with Workbench via VDI "at launch", but is even more disconcerting as we have had at least two Helix firmware updates since it's debut 3+ months ago and Variax --> VDI --> Helix --> Workbench is still not supported :(

For a company that touts "product integration" as much as L6 does, it is baffling. Nobody wants an unfinished product.

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A handy justification for them no doubt, but the argument falls apart after even modest scrutiny, and still ultimately screws the customer.

 

....

 

"Open box" purchase or not, he paid for the guitar. The original purchaser obviously doesn't own it anymore, and since the licensing of the software is now included in the price of the JTV, L6 would not be "losing" a blessed thing .........

 

......the software without a guitar is useless, so this isn't a piracy issue either. Nobody has one without the other.......

 

Well, I disagree with you on the first sentence. But so be it. Nothing I say here is going to change your mind, and vice versa.

 

As for the second point, I hope the OP negotiated about $100 discount off the full market value of the JTV. Otherwise he/she paid too much. And I expect you're right that the original purchaser doesn't own it anymore. It's worth about $100 if sold separately to an owner of an older Variax - and that is a direct loss to Line 6.

 

And it is a piracy issue, because many people have one without the other - namely, every owner of an older Variax who did not purchase Workbench separately. Like the one who may have bought the dongle separately from whomever the OP bought the JTV from. If so, that unscrupulous person sold a pirated copy of the Workbench product (in the from of the dongle) from Line 6 and got paid whatever amount he/she received for the dongle. That's money that properly belongs to Line 6.

 

.... but again - I don't expect you to agree with my view.

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As for the second point, I hope the OP negotiated about $100 discount off the full market value of the JTV. Otherwise he/she paid too much. And I expect you're right that the original purchaser doesn't own it anymore. It's worth about $100 if sold separately to an owner of an older Variax - and that is a direct loss to Line 6.

 

By this logic, if I buy a car, put aftermarket rims on it, and sell the OEM ones, somehow I'm costing Ford money? That's interesting.

 

Somewhere a JTV and USB dongle were purchased. Line 6 got paid. End of story. That's all anybody knows with any degree of certainty. You've assumed the rest of this fairy tale. Unscrupulous black market guitarists, the Dark Web, illicit deals with mysterious owners of decade old instruments...who knew there was a Silk Road for used USB dongles? For all we know, the damn thing is rattling around in the trunk of the original owner's car...not costing anyone a dime.

 

Good read though...not quite Tom Clancy, but still a good read.

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I recently bought a jtv 59 and it came with the latest firmware so yours probably does too but obviously no way of knowing for sure, I needed to use workbench anyway though because the volume of the strings was unbalanced, all were at 100% volume but the E,A,D strings were much too loud when playing chords

If I'd have blown that much money on L6 gear I'd be hoping they'd throw me a bone to help me out somehow

Might be worth a pm to digital igloo asking how imminent integration with the helix is, if it's miles off it might make your decision easier

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I got a used JTV-89F from GC. It came with the soft case, documentation, the VDI/USB dongle and cable, another VDI cable with the Neutrik thing (only on one end), and a battery charger with four batteries for $800. Most important of all, the guitar itself sounds and plays great! It was actually set up pretty well when I received it. Better than a new 59 and a new Standard I had to return for different reasons. Go figure.

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