clay-man

Maybe with Workbench HD. If you can't do it with the current settings then I don't know what to tell you. I'm sure there's some way to set it up.

Well, it was broke, the real question is, is it truly fixed? :P So far I'm having faith in this "scotch double side permanent tape". Seems to be holding on fine.

Like I said, people varified that modeling is the same besides the new acoustics. upcoming 2.0 will make new of all the models, and hopefully bring in new ones as well. The change in sound is definitely mainly from better piezo pickups on the JTV. I personally like the Variax's arm. I think it's nice to gauge how loose it is and be able to spin it around all the way. With a screw arm, you can't really control the looseness of the arm, and I don't like it too loose (ie falling in front of my playing field or getting in the way of the knobs).

It's just a lone signal wire. the new one is against the old one, taped down against the female molex-esque connector, because I thought it wouldn't be secure if I just wrapped tape around it.

That's what they call it. You can't look it up directly in their site, but you can ask to order just the piezo pieces, which is called an x-insert. They do this so people with their x-bridge can repair broken piezos. They also support using x-inserts for old Variaxes. I told the person in the email it was for my Variax and he said it's cool for me to order an x-insert for it. Mine costed about 12 USD.

would you suggest doing this to the old piezo's wire to the new piezo's wire and joint them together, or should I remove the old wire and old solder at the PCB and solder it there?

Hey bud, what I did was email them asking to purchase an x insert. They're virtually identical to the piezos on the variax, and I honestly I hear no difference. I email them and they told me to call them when I wanted to order. Funny enough, the person who consulted my email was the person on the phone. They sound great if you want a quick fix instead of getting a ghost system. I don't hear any response drop since I fixed it. Do you mean over time? I don't know how to solder, and I've heard about oxidation being a problem when soldering, so I'm kind of scared to try it.

Does your trem arm come with a screw to tighten the arm? It seems to loosen over time, but it's nice to gauge how loose you want the arm. I prefer it not to fall down so I can grab it quickly if I set it close, but also easy to swing 180 out of the way. Also, I think the reason why the JTVs sound better is because their piezos are better. The LR bags used on V1 variaxes are honestly kind of poorly done, at least for the Variax. A lot of people say graphtech ghosts make the guitar sound a lot better. I don't know what LR baggs did to the JTV piezos, but they're definitely a lot better than the x-bridge copy piezos.

Any picks? You have non-whammy guitar which has a different PCB than the whammy guitars. I assume you're talking about the Molex looking ribbon that connect to the piezo PCB? I'm not sure if there's a replacement part for that other than on another Variax unit. You might have to make a solution yourself. For me, I didn't have a solder kit, so I stripped the old piezo's wire and tapped the new piezo's wire down together on the ribbon cable's female connector. So far so good, hope that "permanent" double side tape will do the job for now.

89F, ergo it's graphtech. I'm not sure if the piezos are exposed like the other models, if Graphtech's floyd is anything like their ghost system.

So, as a lot of you know, I "fixed" my D string piezo a week ago. Today I tried to maintain tuning on my variax, and I noticed that piezo was sticking out a bit, and I wanted it to be in the saddle as much as it can. I lightly tapped it in with a hammer with cloth inbetween and it started acting up again. I don't know what happened, but I attempted to put new copper back in. The problem is that I put it in too hard. I flipped the saddle over and tried to knock it out via the tiny hole where the signal wire goes. Much to what I was trying to avoid, the signal wire got cut, and the piezo's time was over. I got out my LR baggs x-insert I ordered from their site and decided it was time to actually use this. I was pushing away from using it as I don't know how to solder, and I don't have a kit. I also was afraid it would sound too different from the other piezos because some guy said the Variax piezos might be different than the X-inserts. Either way, i tried to find a way to connect it to the PCB on the vibrato-block. It was really no use doing it a traditional way. Luckily the excess wire from the old piezo was there, and I stripped the tip to expose the wire inside. I jointed the new piezo and old wire together and tapped it to the side of the female end of the cable that goes to the DSP and main circuit board. So far so good, but I honestly have 0 faith it will stay there long. So far it sounds great though. No difference between the other piezos. I highly suggest ordering X-inserts from LR baggs if Line 6 ever wusses out from restocking their piezo elements. Thanks for reading.

This. I believe any difference is sound is due to the different piezo pickups between the JTVs and V1 Variaxes.

I'm sorry to hear that. I suppose the piezos are quite different on the acoustic versions. I hope you can find a way to fix your guitar. I know how you felt though, really nerve wrecking when mine did this just days after I got it off ebay.

I hope things work out for ya. Either way, it has to be some type of grounding issue. If the piezos are similar to the electric version, this should help you out, but yes, be sure not to damage anything during the process.

The piezo can come out of the saddle, and there'll be a wire underneath for the signal wire. Just light the piezo gently out of the saddle with tweezers or something to pick it out of the slot. After that, I just stuffed a piece of copper wire underneath. My wire was slightly big, as I wanted to try to stop the grounding issue once and for all. After that I clipped the excess wire jutting out of it with a nail clipper, and everything works great! As I've said, this is a nearly free way to fix this problem, instead of buying a new piezo, when that new one will probably have the same problem.

My friend, please read my topic: http://line6.com/support/topic/237-attention-dead-piezo-users-for-those-with-grounding-issues/ Original Variaxes have somewhat poorly designed piezos when it comes to how they ground. They usually eventually become loose from the slot and lose their grounding when not in contact with the saddle. If you're saddle is getting a signal but is lower and crackly, then it's 99% probably a grounding issue. Use some conductive material and stick it underneath the bottom and side of the piezo that's going out on the saddle. You need to make sure the piezo has contact with the saddle underneath so it can ground correctly. Trust me, I had absolutely ZERO times of the issue ever since I did this. I used the copper grounding wire inside of a typical audio wire. If you have any spare audio wires laying around, just cut some of the bare wire out and stick that under the piezo. Better than spending money on a new piezo when honestly buying a new piezo could just give you the same situation if the piezo slot is still loose.

Report: So far it's perfect! If any of you want to diagnose your piezo as a ground issue, you should be able to hear the string, but it should be quiet and possibly crackly. If it cuts out 100% with no sound at all then you have an issue with the signal wire, not the grounding connection. The problem is that the piezo has lost contact with the saddle, which transfers all grounding to a wire connected to the bridge. You could try to use contact cleaner, but it might go out again, so I suggest you secure the grounding contact by inserting conductive material on the side/under the piezo between the saddle. It's working great. I cut off excess copper wire with a nail clipper.

Holy crap. I'm, so stoked right now. No jinx, but I think I fixed my guitar! I stripped an audio wire, took the copper ground wire, cut off some of that and stuck it between my wonky piezo and saddle. So far so good right? I took the burden of a whammy bar and put it back on to test if it truly is fixed. My whammy was one of the biggest things that threw my piezo's grounding out since it easily moves the piezo element when you dive bomb. Guess what? I've been using it like crazy and NO CUT OUTS! Seriously! Holy crap I think it's fixed! Here's to hoping that I don't jinx myself. So anyone who has a piezo with a grounding issue, a quick fix is to stick conductive material between the saddle and the piezo. You'll have to lift the piezo out of the socket in the saddle first. Make sure it's relatively thick but not too thick. It will secure the grounding it. I hope this helps a lot of sad Variax users with this issue! Cheers!

I know that, that's what I've been doing, but I said that I also am urged to want to keep the models I replace from time to time. It's probably not really possible if the Variax is already using all the memory inside the guitar's hardware, but this is a theoretical question. While you could get a POD device for custom banks, it would be nice to have a little more on the guitar itself. While technically it is possible, maybe with hardware upgrades, that would probably be a pain. Like I said, this is a theoretical question.

Not that this would ever happen, because it probably won't, BUT if POSSIBLE, would you want more custom banks in the model knob? I think I'd kill for it, because I have a lot of custom guitars that I'd like to put on my Variax, but at the same time I'm kinda OCD about keeping the rest of the default models in with the guitar so I still have the full spectrum of guitars at my disposal. I don't use Gretch or Rickenbackers but sometimes I get in the mood to jam on them from time to time because of their unique tone. I'd love for custom models though. Also if you want, name some presets you'd put in. For me I'd have: SG style models (LP with backed up pickups for more bite) Fat Strat (Strat with 2 single coils combined as a humbucker) Humbucker Tele Jaguar (Rickenbacker with 2 strat single coils) Strat modeled after a Billy Corgan custom Strat.

If it is loose, all I can think of suggesting is stuffing a piece of paper between the side of the hole and the part where the knob hangs on to tighten the space between it.

Nice. I was hoping the JTV piezos were massively improved.

I made SG presets for my Variax. Basically the LP model with the pickups backed up towards the bridge to add more bite. http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21663288/workbench/Fat%20Strat%20%26%20SG%20bridges.zip

Has anyone ever tried to use graph tech on a JTV? (excluding the obvious 89f)

Sleep mode is called sleep mode instead of straight up Off for a reason. Like people said, it's a state of minimalising the power consumption, but not being completely off. This is usually so you can go back into operation without waiting for everything to boot up again, and basically go back to where you were right away. Like people said, you need some power for it to sense it being put out of sleep mode. Basically the reason why it can detect when it's on when you plug a cable in is simply because it's completing the actual circuit to power the guitar when you plug in a cable. That's how all power switches basically work. Just cuts off the power circuit or connects it, which is why it has no power drainage because the power isn't connected to the components when it's off.