clay-man

The thing is, most people with the ping issue have unusable E string regardless if they palm mute or have high gain tone.

Firmware might be that old but the modeling technology is over a decade old.

I totally agree, but like I said, fixing firmware = breaking all the guitars without this problem. If the piezos being swapped means the problem transitions along to that string, then the problem is the guts, so why not do a breakdown of the hardware inside of the Variax to figure out once and for all what part is malfunctioning on these guitars?

Though I prefer HD Variax, the firmware is a matter of taste and I can totally get someone wanting to have the old firmware. Accuracy of HD might be better, but at the same time they could of used guitar sounds that some people don't like as much as 1.9 offered. The problem is expecting Variax Standard to do 1.9. They don't want to support old firmware because it's that, old firmware. They want to move forward not backwards. You can easily get another JTV used on ebay for less than a Standard honestly.

Problem with ordering new boards from fullcompass: They're not flashed and will not be recognized. I've tried this with my 600 and it would not detect the board. They need to be flashed by Line 6.

You could always use both.

If the problem is not universal then that means there's a defect within the guitar and not straight up the software. They need to find out what's wrong with the PCB, or whatever is causing the issue. If it doesn't happen on all guitars, then editing software code isn't going to fix it, because the problem is within your guitar itself. The problem is Line 6 owning up to there being a problem when they get a guitar with this problem, and FIXING IT, instead of handing it back saying there's no problem. Replace the guts until the problem vanishes. Pinpoint when the fix happens to relation to what was fixed. Strip down the guitar and replace the hardware with new proper hardware until the problem is gone. Once we do this and pinpoint where it happens, then we can start aiming towards the problem hardware for now on. How is this so hard for them to do? Are they too stingy to replace the guts? It'll save them a lot of money and grief in the end.

HD acoustics definitely are harder to mix because they're a bit more muddy than the older ones. They sound good alone, but as a music project, it's frustrating to EQ.

There is a difference between EQing to shape your guitar's sound and EQing to fix a hiccup in a guitar. It's like getting a noisy guitar when the guitar isn't supposed to be that noisy and telling someone to get a noise gate. The Variax is supposed to sound like something specific, and if someone has a defective unit making plinking noises while other people have guitars without that issue, "EQing out the plink" is an insulting resolution of the problem. You don't buy a brand new car, have the car not run right, and be told you have to replace the engine.

"EQing the plink away" defeats the purpose of the guitar sounding like the guitar's it's simulating. If you have to resort to EQing to fix a problem on a Variax, then it's not doing it's job. It's supposed to sound like the guitars it's simulating and "EQing the problem out" ruins that whole aspect.

Like I said before, we have a neutral body, which I believe just means having the body modeling off. So why not a neutral pickups? neutral pickup, no pickup, or piezo option? neautral body + the latter = normal piezo sound. There's no way in hell they CAN'T add a bypass feature on the Variax. It's not like they have to add more modeling code since it's not actually a new model, just the guitar's piezo sound raw.

Some of the sounds are interesting, but like I said, not as depthy as a Variax, no where near as depthy as a Variax. It seems more traditional though, but like I said, if you're trying to expand to key guitar sounds, it's not gonna happen other than humbucker vs single coil.

It's a lot different than a Variax, and seems to be focusing more on just expanding the sound of the guitar, than nailing different guitar sounds. I don't see this as a threat to the Variax. It's too different of a beast. It's going to be a lot more limited since they're using regular pickups.

Jailbreak your Variax.

If the shrink isn't thick enough to really mute the strings, it might be enough. I'm not really sure. I think it's a combination of that and other factors.

I forgot about that, yeah, the sound cuts out when you dive bomb and that used to lollipop me off. I was like, what's the point? I was super happy to find out they fixed that issue with the JTV. It had to do with contact falling off the piezo when divebombing.

The delay/silence between changing models is extremely short that I don't even notice it. It's just a really short dropout of the sound when you switch a model, which is totally understandable because it has to load in all the data of the new model. Like I said, I don't even notice it, unless I'm paying attention to it on purpose. Like Zap said, you can roll back to 1.9 if you don't like the HD stuff, and 1.9 is virtually the old gen modeling. There are some specs on my 600 I miss, like the bevels on the body, the wider neck, but I've gotten used to my 69 by now.

I get the debate with 1.9 vs HD as some may prefer one tone over the other, but the JTV has superior features. Dividing Alt Tuning from modeling on the JTV made changing the possibilities of your sound more vast. It's a serious pro of the JTV. The fact you can even choose between the old modeling and the new one is huge as well. You got 2 options of how your guitar will sound, for FREE. And like I said, the piezos on the JTV are 10000 times better than the ones on the old Variaxes and give the attack sound much more natural sounding. I will admit, I loved my 600, but after I got the JTV, there's no turning back. The only times I pick up my 600 is for nostalgia, but other than that, it's my JTV, always.

Like I've said, the old Variax has this weird quacking sound on the attack of hitting the strings hard, which instantly ruins it when the JTV doesn't have this issue. I don't know if all old Variaxes have this problem, but I think it's that "wolf tone clank" thing that comes from piezos. As for 1.9 vs HD, I can see how some people prefer 1.9, but hitting the strings hard and getting this quacky sound, that no real guitar produces, just ruins it for me. No offense.

Maybe replace the neck if you 1) neck is a big contributor to judgement of playability/feel 2) don't care about warranty I haven't touched my 600 for the longest time, but I do like the neck slightly better. I just kind of got used to the JTV, but ultimately it's still kind of annoying playing anything complex on the low E string because it's too damn close to the edge in my opinion. The JTV's sound stomps the 600's out by a longshot though. The only thing I miss is my twangy tele preset on my 600, but other than that, the attack on the 600 is just too unrealistic with the JTV around. There's annoying quacky noises when hitting the strings hard on the 600 that aren't akin to a real guitar. It's not like the plink noise people complain about, but has this tonality that I can't get out of any of my other guitars. The JTV doesn't have that problem and the dynamics of picking sound just like a real guitar.

It's ironic. I'd say that Line 6 should honestly went exclusively with ghost tech piezos since they're better quality than LR baggs for the Variax's application, but I've heard that there's been a batch of 89's that have the plink problem (They use ghost tech piezos). I don't get it. Piezos are really annoying to deal with.

I've had this problem with my A/B box. You need to either get a new box, or find another way to power your guitar. The battery isn't that bad. It'll last you a good while and you can recharge it when you go to bed. I use it when I want to just use the guitar and amp and not my POD HD500.

I really don't prefer to send my guitar out and have it shipped back. I don't trust being at work when the guitar comes back. I better try to send it to a service center before early January hits.

Can I still just bring it into a Line 6 area after the first year of the warranty is up? I'm starting to have problems with the input jack and the guitar turning itself off when moving the guitar cable. I still have 1 month left for the 1st year of the warranty, but I've been too busy to send the guitar in for warranty repair. Also, can I just show them the Sweetwater invoice? I've had my guitar swapped out 2 times for a replacement when I first got it because I thought they had issues. Ironically, this one is the one giving real issues this time. I have an email of the receipt for the first guitar I got, but obviously that isn't the same guitar as the one I have, but I do still have a physical invoice of the current guitar.

Actually, the problem isn't the electronics but the guitar hardware itself, so no, it won't just die in a few years.