johnnyayyy

In the interests of providing a balanced view showing all different experiences, I can say that my upgrade to v2.0 was completely uneventful. Successful upgrade on first attempt, and the firmware delivers far superior tones across the board, including Spank models, imho.

You forgot to add "Let them eat cake!"

Day 1. Upgraded to 2.0 using POD HD500 to connect to Monkey, thought my guitar sounded better but was behaving badly in new ways - 12 strings badly out of tune, crazy KLANK/PLINK/KLUNK type noises when fingerpicking. Not happy. Day 2. Figured maybe the weird behaviour was caused by my firmware update being corrupt or bad install or something, decided to reflash. Using POD HD500 to connect to Monkey my first reflash had no affect on bad behaviour. Did the incremental reflashes back to version 1.0 then 1.82 the forward to 1.9 and 2.0 again unplugging guitar, selecting new device in Monkey and double flashing each version to "reinstall current version without saving presets" step by step as stated in Psarkissian's posted .pdf. Tested guitar on each reflash and re-reflash, I think I did a total of 10 reflashes that day - it took hours and hours and all the reflashing did nothing to solve the problems I was having. Day 3. Decided to try using the Workbench widget instead of the HD500 to connect to Monkey and attempt a reflash. Had already been charging my battery for 36 hours, popped it into the guitar and connected to the Workbench Widget and did a "reinstall latest" to 2.0, chose "do not save presets" and began reflash. Halfway through reflash received error "XXXXXX update failed - midi port timed out" or something to that effect, the same error I keep seeing people post here. Powered down the guitar to re-initialize the board, reconncted to the Workbench widget to reflash, changed device in Monkey to reset Monkey, tried the update again, halfway through update failed again, same error code. Repeated the disconnecting, repowering,resetting Monkey procedure and tried reflash with widget again this time choosing "update from file", halfway through update failed again, same error code. LESSON LEARNED: IF you have a POD HD500 or another POD with a Variax connection DO NOT USE THE WORKBENCH WIDGET TO CONNECT THE JTV FOR FIRMWARE REFLASHES/UPDATES!!! It seems to work fine for Workbench use but is IMO a lollipopping pile of lollipoops for firmware update/rollback/reinstall use. I AM NOT HAPPY LINE 6. BAD WORKBENCH WIDGET DESIGN AND WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SPEND HOURS FLASHING AND REFLASHING. Messed around with guitar, the 12 string out of tune anomolies are caused by physically tuning the guitar down a full step to D. Support has said the guitar is calibrated to be tuned to standard E tuning only and attempted to dismiss the problem, I pointed out that all previous versions of Variax software worked perfectly with full step downtuning (I have been using my Variaxes tuned to D for years and the JTV has worked fine since I got it tuned to D, the problems began when I upgraded to HD 2.0. Have been told tech is looking into it. SO after all these tedious flashes and reflashes with no improvements I figured this is probably as good as the new firmware is going to sound and decided to tune up to standard tuning and give the new sounds a fair listen. At standard tuning the 12 strings immediately sounded GREAT. Good Job L6. After some noodling around I discovered what was causing the KLUNK/KLACKing noises, the Piezos do not fit snugly into the slots on the bridge and when they move from side to side they strike the side of the slot causing a big KLACK!. I will be shoving something in there to hold them in place (already tried but haven't found anything small enough to fit into the space, the point of a toothpick is just barely too thick, a staple is too thick... will keep searching), til I fix this problem I am mentally tuning out the KLACK!ing while I play. To hear the KLACK! plug the JTV into a medium or high gain amp setting and gently pull the string side to side at the bridge, you will see the piezo move a little from side to side in the slot and when it hits the sides of the slot it makes the KLACK! My Variax transplants both have nice GraphTech tune-o-matics so this KLACK! sound is all new to me, didn't notice it before 2.0 HD firmware because A. I didn't give the guitar a huge going over til I updated the firmware and B. the new firmware seems to be more responsive to every little nuance of playing which will of course include making noise from the piezo slipping and sliding around in the bridge slot. I hereby give the Tyler bridge with its sloppily mounted loose floppy piezos an F, total fail, you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir! Should have held out for the JTV89F... will probably replace the bridge with a Graphtech T-O-M (and maybe add a Bigsby while I am at it !) if shimming the piezo gaps does not work. There goes my resale value...I AM NOT HAPPY, LINE 6. TERRIBLE LOLLIPOPPING BRIDGE DESIGN. Well, maybe the design is okay on paper but the measurements/tolerances on the slots or the piezos is bad as they would be okay if they just fit together better. Either way, FAIL. BOOOOOOO... I know, I know, you are saying "Okay Johnnyayyy, if you are so unhappy with the guitar just sell the JTV and go buy a similar product from a different manufacturer!" Okay Line 6, I apologize. Please take me back... I GOT NOWHERE ELSE TO GO! Apart from all the issues I think the HD 2.0 Firmware sounds really good. While reflashing I gave the old Strats a listen and I think the people who prefer the sound of the 1.9 Strats are like the people who prefer the sound of the X3 compared to the HD Pods, maybe that is what you are used to so you like it more and it still works fine so go to it, but I A/B'ed both the 1.9 Strat and the 2.0 HD Strat to my real Strats during hours of endless reflashes and the 2.0 Strat CLEARLY sounds more like my real Strats in all pickup positions. I never used the Spank 2,3,4, or 5 positions much in the previous versions of the firmware, they sounded okay but didn't work for me and what I was doing. The Spank position 1 in the old firmware has become my go to guitar, I have never been a Strat guy but my JTV with 1.9 turned me into a Strat fiend in the last couple of months, I now own 4 real Strats and a Japanese Strat copy and I am tempted to buy another that is on Craigslist at the moment in search of "The One" but I think I may have already found it - one of the Strats I own currently has Fender Custom Shop pickups, I installed them in an attempt to make it sound more like my JTV for recording. Well, it ended up sounding better than the JTV, like WAY better than 1.9 and a good stretch better than 2.0. I currently have THEE ultimate classic Strat sound I was looking for and a bunch of normal darn good sounding Strats to compare my JTV to and IMO JTV 2.0 HD is MILES closer to the real thing than 1.9 ever was. Of course, I don't have a 1959 Strat to compare the JTV to so maybe HD 2.0 sounds exactly like the Strat Line 6 modeled, if so I simply prefer the sound of my much newer Strat with the Custom Shop (Fat 50s) pickups to a real 1959 Strat, but what I am saying is the HD 2.0 sound is really in the ballpark and with some tweaking of amp sounds will likely sound very close to my real Strat - IMO this is NOT true of the Spank sounds in version 1.9 and earlier. In all the reflashing I also notice the Spank position 2 and 4 sound really good UNTIL I connect to Workbench - at that point I have to do the workaround to make those positions work properly, and even with the workaround I am not 100% sure that the Spank 2 and 4 sound exactly the same as they did before I connected to Workbench so after my last few reflashes I am not connecting to Workbench til the Spank bug is fixed, I am pretty happy with the sounds of the stock 2.0 models at the moment but will do more experimenting in the future when it is "safe" Taking into account the improved tones, the crazy pitch tracking problems with the 12 strings, the annoying Spank bug and the widget requirement for Workbench connection (like many I will be much happier when I can use my POD to connect again) I give the 2.0 HD upgrade a "D" Line 6: Fix the 12 string tracking, the endless reflashing and the Spank bugs (and fix the bug I discovered last night where changing the body type on a model kills all sound in that patch while you're at it) , make connecting with the USB dongle as reliable as connecting with a POD, and let me connect with my POD so I never again have to use the lousy USB dongle and I will revise the grade to an "A".

Haven't seen this one posted: I was goofing around in Workbench HD tonight and tried changing the body on Spank 1 to a Les Paul body and Spank 1 became "Silence1", lost all sound in that slot til I shut down Workbench.

I know, I know, I can  hear what you are thinking, "Well DON'T DO THAT ANYMORE!" - but this worked in the old workbench and should work on WHD (otherwise why would they give us the option?

Immediately switching Spank 1 back to the Spank body in Workbench did not fix the problem.

Tried switching bodies on a couple others, I think the Lester 1 and T-model 1 and had the same results, no sound output at that position after changing bodies.

Can anyone duplicate this behaviour and confirm it is a bug, or am I overlooking something?

purpleJTV69 by toasterdude, on Flickr

Very cool! Thanks for sharing the pic

I mostly love hd 2.0 but strat lost so much body. I don't want to downgrade to 1.9, just for the lester it worth the 2.0. But for now I'm using T-model 1 and 5 instead of spank 1-5. (T's are awsome btw) Yes I'm not happy with 1 and 5 too and I'm not talking about the 4-2 non-sense. 3? meh don't bother ;)

 

Please do something quick or at least find a way to cut and paste the spank 1.9 into 2.0

Are you experiencing changes in tone similar to what is shown in this video, or does your 2.0 Strat sound different than this somehow (Strat at around 4:14) ?

updated.... (not sure why someone gave the pin a negative vote though??!?! seems absurd since it only helps people and has none of my opinions... but whatev's)

Haytaz Gon Hayt...

You're doing The Lord's Work, Son.

Hmmm, I uploaded 5 more files there late last night and they show up in my uploads list as "approved" but they do not appear for download... weird.

Also couldn't figure out how to delete a duplicate that I uploaded... removed the file and labeled it "deleted" but is there a way to remove it completely?

Thank you! :)

I pinned a permanent link on the forum to keep the fun from getting lost in a single thread.

http://line6.com/support/topic/2163-share-and-download-20-h-d-models/

these are NOT coming....

Whoa... Ok... so... what's the deal with the leaked thing on the French/German L6 sites? Were those guitars added at some point then removed? And why? Was it all just a cruel internet hoax/April Fools gag?

thanks for your demo!

 

just my opinion

I listened carefully to the latest comparative demos of the 2 latest firmwares, and to my ears the fw 1.9 sounds more natural and believable ..

 

in this latest video clip demo in particular it seems that the volume of the fw 1.9 is lower than fw 2.0, while in reality it is the opposite ..

therefore listening to it again I turned up the volume of the video player every time you played the Variax with the fw 1.9, say from 50 to 75 in order to obtain a volume level more or less equal between the 2 fws .. since the listening volume influences somewhat the perception of the timbre .. in this way I hear better the real differences ..

 

about fw 2.0, I do not like a certain resonance quite pronounced in the higher frequency spectrum of various models, it seems almost as some frequency components are out of phase .. and something in the body main frequencies are missing..

 

at the end the fw 2.0 seems more digital to me, and I still prefer the 1.9

if I close my eyes and hear the fw 1.9 I have still the illusion that i'm hearing the real guitar that's modeled

but if I hear the 2.0 I feel there is something wrong

You might be the only one of that opinion regarding the sounds in this video, but to each his own of course.

The great thing about the JTV is the old 1.9 firmware still works perfectly so anyone who prefers the old sound doesn't have to change a thing.

You might miss out on the 61 SG, Maple Neck Strat, Thinline Tele, and all the other guitars added in coming versions of the firmware tho - maybe you will want to give 2.0 a try and see how you like it on person...

You, sir, are a hero.

I just signed up for the V-guitar site, when my membership is approved I will try to upload some stuff.

Thank you for doing this, it will be helpful for many I am sure - and don't forget to promote uploading to the page every chance you get.

Sorry- looks like the old ION Forum File sharing database does not work anymore for uploads of Variax HD Workbench user created patches 

Line6 really should step up and add "Tyler Variax HD" Workbench file sharing area in CustomTone.

Until then - I have added a Tyler Variax HD" Workbench file sharing area at my VGuitarforums here:

 

http://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?action=downloads;cat=29

 

3.5 - The 12 string clash on the "D" string when physically tuned down a whole step is major.

Yeah, it sucks alright... did you try the step by step reflash procedure shown here (maybe first revert to 1.8 firmware then try this with 2.0) ?: http://line6.com/support/topic/2128-jtv-20-try-this/

I am going to try a downgrade/reflash tomorrow and see if it cures the pitch clash.

Refinished in purple mist and put warmoth neck on it plus prails and a lipstick tube and now it is a 4.5 out of 5. Would be higher but I miss not getting neck and bridge rails or p90s setting on mags instead of just middle pick up alone.

Could you post a pic of this one?

Likely problem 1.

The patches stored at Institute of Noise are for pre-HD Workbench and will not work with HD, correct?

Problem 2.

I just tried to upload a .whd file to IoN, the site will not allow the file type .whd.

I changed the type to .vwm and the page said the upload was successful, a user would then have to change the file type back to .whd before using it in Workbench.

Unfortunately when searching for the patch I just uploaded  it does not show up and the most recent patch shown is from 2009

As I recall there was a notice on that page years ago or maybe I recall reading a message from Andy Z somewhere that said IoN was no longer accepting uploads,do not see the notice now - I am giving up on it but maybe someone else here will have more success uploading new tones to that page.

FWIW - User Created Variax Workbench Files are traded here:

http://www.instituteofnoise.com/L6/filesearch.asp

 

I'm not understanding something, so that was discussed here about strat 2 and 4, so many people like different opinions, so much controversy, but now we actually found that there is a bug and it was not just question of opinion but of software, and yet, it seems to me that people do not give much importance, anyone? you guys do not think this bug is very important and that it is fixed to bring back the sound of strat we were looking for? obviously say this more for those who were not satisfied with the sound of strat

There is a bug, there is an easy workaround (follow the directions above or download the fixed Strat and upload to your JTV) and the bug has been reported to Line 6.

Not sure that everyone experienced the bug, the people who did not experience loss of Strat tone may not be seeing the same thing on their computer.

Don't know what kind of response you are looking for from people (an angry mob with pitchforks and torches maybe?) , but if there is an easy workaround and Line 6 has been made aware of the problem I don't know what more we can ask for at the moment - I am sure it will be addressed in a future version of firmware/Workbench, for now it looks like a problem that is easily remedied.

they didn't have the original variax files either..

Since the old tones don't work with the new Workbench anyway this is no great loss, but maybe now that L6 have settled on the HD format they will add this to Customtone. Maybe wishful thinking but maybe not. If it doesn't happen I am sure people will do as they did before and improvise online storage of tones, Institute of Noise/Vettaville style

Et voila!

Oh, COOL! Thank you!

Could you do this forum (and ME :D) a HUGE favor and upload a copy of your modified .whd file?

 

And maybe post a soundclip or vid demo of the modified tone?

looks like someone posted it already -

Try this to see if it will work for you guys. You should be able to save it now. There is nowhere else to share, so I put it in my google drive. Here is position 2 setting .

For Position 2 do the following:

1. Grab the neck PU and draw it somewhat towards the bridge

2. Grab the bridge  PU and draw it to the old position of the neck PU.

3. Grab the PU from step 1 again and draw it to the original first position of the bridge PU.

4. For this PU edit the value for position to 1.7" and the angle to 10.7. Level at 0db is quite good.

5. Now change the PU type of this PU to spank bridge.

6. Activate the middle and the bridge PU.

7. Upload to variax.

Done.

These steps worked for me and everything works as expected.

Could you do this forum (and ME :D) a HUGE favor and upload a copy of your modified .whd file?

And maybe post a soundclip or vid demo of the modified tone?

Please, can somebody comment?

The future's so bright... I gotta wear shades ;)

The 12 strings are the problem!  I haven't noticed this problem with 6 string guitars.  See the first post.

So... a little offtopic, but other than the crazy pitch glitch how does the new HD 12 string compare to your real Rickenbacker? I thought the sound of the HD Rickys was a huge improvement (found them unuseable til now) but I don't have any genuine articles laying around to compare them to.

http://snd.sc/19EUB9i little sample of strat pos 2 and variax mags, ... really disappeared quack

 

Firts variax model and 2 part variax mags

Did you try adjusting the pickup volumes in Workbench? Sounds like raising the volume of the bridge pickup a little (or lowering the volume of the middle pickup a bit) may fix the problem for you.

Just to clarify: on Strats, although the middle pickup is reverse wound, the magnets are also installed reverse polarity. Thus, any selection with the middle pickup is IN-PHASE, not OUT-OF-PHASE (but it does kill hum).

Unless you are a boob like me and reverse the leads :P

Did this recently when installing a new bridge pickup, the guitar instantly sounded terrible in position 2 - both out of phase and with twice the noise of either of the pickups alone.

I DID wire it properly the first time according to the GFS supplied wiring diagram - it looks like they may have mistakenly switched the leads at the factory...? Or sent me a middle position pickup mistakenly labeled as a bridge pickup? One of the wires was yellow, usually Fender color coding for middle position as I recall.

I haven't tried it on any other models in WB yet.  I submitted a ticket on this flaw (feel free to do the same!).  Let's keep our fingers crossed.

I tried to submit a support ticket this morning but have not yet registered my JTV so the ticket was not allowed - will do so when I register for sure.

Here is a quote from one of the Fender.com forums that I think is relevant to this subject:

http://forums.fender.com/viewtopic.php?p=399385

"I start with both N and M at the same distance from the strings and then slighty lower (like 1/4 turn) the bass side of the middle pickup. I do the same for the treble side but usually a little lower. I usually do this by ear because you can change a dull cluck into a sharp cluck with a fraction of a turn and i'm usually trying to sharpen up the bass side and mellow out the treble side."