psarkissian

Love this Expert!

Does anyone knows how to fix the contact button /stop, on Spider Jam display? May I retire the plastis cover in order to pull the contact spring, avoid to open up the whole cabinet?

Please, mates, help me!

Hello.  I have a question about the Piezo's.  

I just got a Shuriken a few weeks ago.  I'm having several issues with string volume.

1)  The High E string is just lower in volume than all of the other strings.  I can fix this using the Workbench but I have to drop the other strings by 20 to 30% volume.  Is this normal?  Or do I need to try and clean the Piezo for this string?

2)  Probably the most irritating issue; the Low E string is much louder than the other strings and the bass really rings out on this string.  It rings out bad on the 4th through 7th frets.  I can't explain this.  Not sure if it even could be a Piezo problem or if it is a set up problem.  Do you have any ideas on what I should do here.

There is not an authorized service center anywhere close to me so if it needs to be serviced, I'll have to send it to Line 6 in California.

Hi psarkissian, happy new year! Thank you for being such a great moderator and for all you do to support the community!!

I have a JTV-69 that has a piezo saddle with a low output on the 1st string. By contrast, the saddle for the 6th string is very hot. Not a big issue as I routinely set the string volumes per preset in my Helix floor (see attached photo for typical settings). I have been considering setting the global string volumes via HD Workbench because my other JTV-69 does not have this issue. But then I had another idea, which is why I am reaching out to you.

I wonder if I could swap the saddles for the 1st and 6th strings to better balance the string volumes? If so, how difficult it the procedure? (I am fairly competent at soldering and repaired a broken saddle wire on my old Variax 500). Are there differences between the saddles themselves?

Any knowledge or advice you'd be willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

Again, thank you for all you do!

Ashley

Can you recommend any luthiers or companies that could build a custom Variax.  I have a Variax Standard but want to do a full swap (neck, body, color, pickups, etc.) and I know these are complex instruments.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!  

So how big of a difference do you think it would make if the electronics from a James Tyler 89 fixed bridge guitar were in a Les Paul style(either double or single cutaway)? You would probably notice that, but how much would Nate Nobody notice? Would it be easy enough to adjust with EQ?

Thanks Psarkissian for all the replies and help you give on the forums, it's appreciated.  If you get time, could you let me know what your thoughts are on adding these pick-ups to a Variax Standard? Thanks and no worries if you can't.   

https://lacemusic.com/collections/7/products/lace-sensor-ultimate-triple

Olá! Compadre!

I heard that Spider Jam and JM4 were discontinued.

So I ask you: How will be FirmWare upgrades?

Strong hug. Carlos Bluesman

Morning Partev- Gotta ask you - Any Idea where I can find a Model Selector Pot/Switch for a Variax 700 Acoustic? Tried all the parts suppliers I can find in the US- Full Compass, Line 6 etc. and nobody has it?? The switch I have functions "but" the shaft with the model selector knob falls out, and it sticks when in use. I've got it apart, but can't figure out how it locks in properly. I'm sure it's a simple "C" clip that must go on the end of the shaft to keep it in place, but I can't find it in the guitar or how it mounts on the shaft. Afraid to take it apart and further damage the thing. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Would the model selector "Pot" from any Variax substitute? Replacing Acoustics knob on it to keep the models straight?

Hello Psarkissian!

I heard that Spider Jam and JM4 were discontinued. So I ask you: How will be FirmWare upgrades?

Strong hug.

Carlos Bluesman

Hi! Thank you for all your efforts. Sadly my DT50H was left behind with no changes. (only thing they do was exchange the 12ax7 EH leaving on it 2 12ax7 JJ. They do not perform Bulletin 059 or any other maintenance (No bias check, etc). The hiss is very noticeable mainly on Topology III with Class A and 12ax7 enable. I know this is normal, but I dont find the level of the noise beign normal. I decided to brought the Amp to another technical service (there is NO other Line6 authorized service in Chile), look for someone to check bias and hopefully reduce the floor noise of the amp (when I put different brands of 12ax7 the floor level change sometimes for good, sometimes for bad... so that is a clue. I want to know what happened if my amp fails due to not perform Bulletin 059 when Audiomusica knowing about it dont do anything to my amp. Beside I want to ask you for help or tips to reduce my amp noise floor and perhaps instruction to when I bring the amp to another service center. Thank you so much!

Hi! Thank you for all your efforts. Sadly my DT50H was left behind with no changes. (only thing they do was exchange the 12ax7 EH leaving on it 2 12ax7 JJ. They do not perform Bulletin 059 or any other maintenance (No bias check, etc). The hiss is very noticeable mainly on Topology III with Class A and 12ax7 enable. I know this is normal, but I dont find the level of the noise beign normal. I decided to brought the Amp to another technical service (there is NO other Line6 authorized service in Chile), look for someone to check bias and hopefully reduce the floor noise of the amp (when I put different brands of 12ax7 the floor level change sometimes for good, sometimes for bad... so that is a clue. I want to know what happened if my amp fails due to not perform Bulletin 059 when Audiomusica knowing about it dont do anything to my amp. Beside I want to ask you for help or tips to reduce my amp noise floor and perhaps instruction to when I bring the amp to another service center. Thank you so much!

Hi! Thank you for all your efforts. Sadly my DT50H was left behind with no changes. (only thing they do was exchange the 12ax7 EH leaving on it 2 12ax7 JJ. They do not perform Bulletin 059 or any other maintenance (No bias check, etc). The hiss is very noticeable mainly on Topology III with Class A and 12ax7 enable. I know this is normal, but I dont find the level of the noise beign normal. I decided to brought the Amp to another technical service (there is NO other Line6 authorized service in Chile), look for someone to check bias and hopefully reduce the floor noise of the amp (when I put different brands of 12ax7 the floor level change sometimes for good, sometimes for bad... so that is a clue. I want to know what happened if my amp fails due to not perform Bulletin 059 when Audiomusica knowing about it dont do anything to my amp. Beside I want to ask you for help or tips to reduce my amp noise floor and perhaps instruction to when I bring the amp to another service center. Thank you so much!

Well Sir, I can't leave without write a big thank you to you for your great help. Sadly, I call yesterday Audiomusica, they told me they receive Bulketin 059 and "diagnose" the año..... the amp has nothing bad ?I doubt they checked at least for tube Bias value), and Bullleyin 059 does not affect the function of the amp so they have not doing anything about that either. They ask me to pick up the amp by next Friday. I bother you for the las time asking you to assist them about the step necessary to check this very special amp. I thank you in advance and understand if there is nothing you could do. Thank you!

Thank you very much! Audiomusica told me that they received the Bulletin 059, but they think that that is not related to my  "problem". I ask them to proceed with Bulletin 059 anyway. I take my DT50 Head to them in the first place because it is second hand and I hear a lot of "noise" mainly in topology III, and because of that I want an "authorized Line 6 center" to do the maintenence (check bias, tubes, etc) and with the hope that the noise floor can be lowered... when I ask you here in the forum (THANK YOU ONE MORE TIME), you told me about my serial number being candidate to perform the Bulletin 059 work. PLEASE tell them step by step the hints to make a good maintenance of my amp, check bias, etc, and to decrease the noise floor.... They will do whatever you say, because this work is too much for them IMHO.... they told me they dont found anything that cause noise so they want to sent it back to my, without perform Bulletin 059, and without checking BIAS or perform any maintenance. PLEASE!

Dear Sir,

What would be the real weight of a Spider Jam 75w. ?

Thanks for attention.

Carlos Bluesman

Thank you for check it!

.... so, what it is supposed to do with this information?

... Im have planned to go to my local Line6 authorized Service (Audiomusica! In Chile) for maintenance... Must I tell they to check for sometthing? Or tell they to change the tranformer?

21A901S6047000468

DT50 head

Thanks!

Hi! I dont see other place to put my DT50Head serial number.... it is OK to put it here?

Thank you in advance 

I replied back to you, but you obviously haven't seen it. Would be very helpful if you could re-read the message on what I'm attempting as all you did was correct something I specifically wasn't doing.

Original question (with highlight) 

I own a JTV-59. And I'm seriously considering a transplant I don't believe has been attempted.

I also own an Artist 8 string guitar. Very cheap instrument that punches way above it's weight. 26.5 scale.

https://www.artistguitars.com.au/buy/Artist-Indominus8-8-String-Electric-Guitar-Black/70452

So here comes the crazy. Can I make 1 instrument to rule them all?

My plan would be to buy a Floyd Rose 8 string tremolo (https://floydrose.com/products/frt8?variant=29879554962)

Then change the first 6 saddles only to graphtech (https://graphtech.com/collections/ghost-pickup-systems-guitar-saddle/products/ghost-floyd-rose-saddles-set-6-string-pn-0080-x6?variant=29500005449751)

From there route in and mount the JTV-59 Electronics.

And finally replace the pickups within the 6-8Kohm range (if that's right) with these (https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/8-string/paf-8).

To clarify, I would only be using the piezos on the 6 upper strings. I don't expect (nor intend to use) any string functionality in the lower 2 strings in anything but magnetic mode. Hope that changes things. The main purpose of this is to simply have my 8 string be a variax for tuning purposes over the 6 strings it normally occupies.

My main concerns are (a) K-ohm pickup compatibility of the replacement pickups I linked above (b) any weird circuitry that would not pass the 2 low strings through as magnetics. 

Thank you for the assistance.

Greetings from the prison colony of Australia.

Due to enforced poverty being a big thing here these days, my wife and I are about to sell virtually anything not being used.

I point that out to make it clear that the following is an attempt at minimalism, nothing more. It's not for show-off cleverness, etc. It's because this makes economic sense.

I'll also qualify that I was an AV tech by profession for many years, whose father was a woodwork teacher, so the physical side of this isn't particularly scary to me. I'm looking for any unknown factors.

I own a JTV-59. And I'm seriously considering a transplant I don't believe has been attempted.

I also own an Artist 8 string guitar. Very cheap instrument that punches way above it's weight. 26.5 scale.

https://www.artistguitars.com.au/buy/Artist-Indominus8-8-String-Electric-Guitar-Black/70452

So here comes the crazy. Can I make 1 instrument to rule them all?

My plan would be to buy a Floyd Rose 8 string tremolo (https://floydrose.com/products/frt8?variant=29879554962)

Then change the first 6 saddles to graphtech (https://graphtech.com/collections/ghost-pickup-systems-guitar-saddle/products/ghost-floyd-rose-saddles-set-6-string-pn-0080-x6?variant=29500005449751)

From there route in and mount the JTV-59 Electronics.

And finally replace the pickups with in the 6-8Kohm range (if that's right) with these. (https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/8-string/paf-8)

If I'm right, you're probably rolling your eyes and saying "just buy an 89F'....

Apart from the fact they're not available and now way over my budget, check your L6 records... I did. Bought new from Authorised Dealer (I don't know rules on name and shame, so lets just say I don't recommend music stores in QLD with 'Oasis' in their name. Having said that, I've got hard copy paper trail of the whole debacle, so I don't give much of a damn) The neck was out of alignment, so Yamaha Australia ended up taking it back under warranty, point blank refused to replace it, had it for 6 weeks, gave 3 'delivery dates' that nothing showed up for (they blamed the couriers every time) and when I said 'enough', they refused to return MY instrument, refunded the money direct to my account and said that's the end of the matter. So full disclosure, extremely unlikely I'll ever buy anything Yamaha again. I don't blame L6. Adopted kids aren't responsible for their parents being literal thieves. 

I am aware that you have many times pointed out the modelling will sound 'different' I don't care, my reasoning for doing this is the same reason I bought the 59 in the first place. Alt tunings. If it will do that I'm happy. Sorry, I set workbench to blank body, 89 p/ups and never touched it again.

Sorry, I know that's a lot to take on, but I wanted to give as full a picture as possible.

Thank you in advance for your take on this madness, your knowledge has been very helpful over the years. I t is appreciated.

Look forward to your thoughts.

Hi psarkissian,

May I ask you a general q. as I’m new to the forums. If you could please steer me..

I have two jtv59s. Buying a helix lt this week. I tune my low E and A down one octave to play bass under the four treble strings. This works great but I need separate processing of the bass strings and the treble strings. How hard is this to set up on the helix lt, and can I route the bass sounds to a separate output on the helix? Thanks

I would like to install zexcoil noiseless pups and have a separate output jack for the mags. Would the Variax be ok without the mags connected to the JTV electronics?

Some of the reasons for this include i want a split coil in the bridge and I think the electronics affect the tone.

thank You!

I would like to install zexcoil noiseless pups and have a separate output jack for the mags. Would the Variax be ok without the mags connected to the JTV electronics?

Some of the reasons for this include i want a split coil in the bridge and I think the electronics affect the tone.

thank You!

Hi,

I have a JTV69 yr2012 Modeling works fine but mag pups only put out a very very weak thin signal barely noticeable unless you really crank amp volume. Same result through VDI or 1/4. same on all 5 pu selection positions. If you had to guess where the (in order of mostly likely) problem is. 

Jack Plate assembly

Pu selector switch

Wire connection

main board

other

Thanks sooo much!

Gary