psarkissian

There is a reason,... T= signal R=+Vdc S= ground return You don't want any two of those to be shorted to one another. Poor design? Not really,... it's poor if you want to do something with it that it wasn't designed to do in the first place. For what it was designed to do, it works pretty good, or I wouldn't own four of them myself. For going beyond and outside the parameters it was designed for,... well that's something else to consider. It's designed to do what it does, goes outside of that and you'll problem find a glitch. You wouldn't drive a Mini Cooper out into an area that requires a four wheel drive vehicle. Man goes to a doctor, puts his arm into a yoga position and says it hurts when I do that. Doctor says, "well then don't do that". So, don't go outside of the design parameters.

When playing using the VDI, use the VDI, VDI cable with XLR casings on both ends. When playing using the 1/4" jack and battery, then use a Tip/Ring/Sleeve (TRS) cable. Using both together to play thru, will stress and heat the amp chips, due to the extra current draw pull-down. You can get away with doing this with the USB Interface for Updates with Monkey, or doing stuff with Workbench HD,... because the audio circuit is turned-off.

Mark Wright Music, http://www.markwrightmusic.com/ Since he's not on the official list in the "Find a Service Center" part of the support site, you may want to consider him a second choice,... unless your amp is out of warranty, then it's dealer's choice. Mark was my opposite number for the guitar products when we had a UK location.

I work at Line 6 in California. E & M is an authorized service center. I sort of know the geography, 'cause the UK is a place I like to hang about. We used to have a Line 6 location in Daventry, and then in Rugby. Been there once or twice, nice area. Usually hang about in London when I'm over there. One of our former techs, Mark Wright, has hung out his own shingle in the midlands there, in Northamptonshire, and still does Line 6 products. I stay in contact with him. Really good at the Line 6 guitar products. We have set-up for other authorized techs to contact and consult us when needed.

He would need to use the support resources used by Line 6 authorized techs to contact me to pick my brain. E&M Electronics near Bletchley is pretty good, centrally located between London and the midlands. Nice area.

There are four things that can cause that.

Trying to re-boot on its own? If the tech has a problem finding the fault, have him get in touch with me through the service tech support channels.

Correct. You might get away with it for a while, but eventually, the circuit devil gets its due.

Using both connectors at the same time for audio output usage can stress or over-heat over time, the switches that switch between 1/4" and VDI as well as the amp chips that would be trying to put out to two outputs simultaneously, rather than one at a time. These are smaller circuits that can handle only so much current draw. So be aware and be careful. Thank you.

TRS is typically used for guitars with active electronics in it. Tip = signal, Ring = DC Volt supply, Sleeve = return or ground. There should be something about that in Knowledge Base as well.

For the purposes of using Workbench/Workbench HD and Monkey (for Flash updates), using VDI and 1/4" with battery to keep the USB power from sagging, is okay. Check the Knowledge Base for more on this, there should be a document spelling out how to do this safely. It's how I connect to Monkey and Workbench. Doing this with audio engaged is not a good idea. This should be used for Monkey and Workbench connecting through the USB interface device. And a reminder,... don't use USB Hubs, passive or powered. Strictly the USB interface that comes with the JTV's. Thank you.

jesuscares,... "Is it true that the tubes work well only when the volume is high?"---- No. There is a threshold point where the volume comes in, its lower point. Depending on the size and output power specs, that will determine whether that threshold points is perceive as loud or not. For example,... the threshold point of a 30-Watt Orange tube amp will be lower than say, a 100-Watt Marshal or a 100-Watt Line 6 HD100. This threshold also applies to transistors. In transistors, it's the "depletion zone", usually at the base/emitter junction, and is VBE = 0.3-0.7 Volts (typically). There is a similar threshold for tubes with the gas between the cathode and plate. The screens/grids are used to mediate this. **That's why tubes and transistors require biasing. So the volume jump will seem greater on a 100-Watt tube amp than say a 30-Watt tube amp. If you have a volume set, and it's jumping back and forth on its own,.... take the amp in for servicing. **Especially if the tubes haven't been changed out in more than 18 months.

Need a capacitor as well, the one on there is gone. And it's not the same as the other diode there (D5). That burn spot looks like it may have damaged a trace underneath. As for the diode,... the guitar will need to be taken into an authorized service center. Maybe the board can be repaired there. There is some specialty things to do to it that an authorize tech will have to deal with (or at Line 6). Maybe it's fixable, it's an older product, discontinued several years ago.

Uh,... lucky Charlie. Usually blows when you try to get current to go both ways thru the sane diode.

That too, what Charlie said,.... though I've never done that myself, I've heard of it happening.

"I've used the digital cable several times times with the batteries installed and never had a problem"--- It was something we always warned people not to do, back in the day when we made these (before I got here). May be something in the Knowledge Base or some other corner of the Forum. Been a while since I saw it. I've posted here on the Forum about this a few times in the past. Power coming in thru one side of the circuit from the power wedge or floor effects, and power trying to come into the circuit from the other way, can and does put stress on that very spot of the circuit in the photo. It's an over-voltage build-up that stresses that corner of the circuit. Either battery, or XPS power wedge, or VDI,.... but never a combination of them together. I've posted on this a few times in the past. You might get away with leaving batteries in while connected to VDI, with a JTV or the new Variax Standard, but I even do the 'one or the other' with JTV's and Standard's simply out of habit now. Just got into the habit of doing it that way,... one or the other, not both.

Were the batteries in the 700 when you plugged with the VDI? It was a VDI and not a generic CAT5 was it?

Let me guess,.... 700 Electric? You leave the batteries in while using the XPS power wedge?

The body is,... somewhat. Those of us players all put our two sense into it. Started with a Pacifica and then we went from there. Nip & tuck, here-and-there.

IMHO, you're not right or wrong,... looks,... it's ok. A matter of taste, and you know what you like. There are people out there still trying to figure it out. It's part of the process of finding what they're looking for. Standard, still warming up to it. The Standard is light weight and nice gigging with as a result. Feels good. So far, very little goes wrong with it. Been mostly small, minor, insignificant little things. Not bad, all-in-all. I'm a bit more for the classic designs of a Strat or Les Paul,... I own a pair of 69's and a pair of 59's, and an old 300 Electric.

Charlie and ozbadman are right about active pick-ups. The only problem with passive pick-ups is making sure the impedance is close to what's already in there, or you'll have amplitude variations that you might not be able to control easily. And be sure the pick-up distance from the strings is set so that you don't get warbling while in Model mode. And like Stevekc says,... he's one of about four or five individuals in the Americas I trust to do a mod on a JTV, without messing it up. Authorized service centers also know what they're doing. But since we officially don't sanction mods, it wouldn't be warranty work.

Tormal,... It has to do with the switch lay out, that is not as simple as it may appear. I can't get any deeper about it beyond that. It has nothing to do with policy, it has to do the way it was designed. It can't be turned into a JTV any more than a JTV of one body style can be turned into another, nor can the early Variax Models be transferred and used in a JTV (because the data blocks between them are laid out differently). The JTV Models are the same among them, the Alt Tune in the 89/89F are different from the others. If you try to use and 89 Alt Tune configuration in a 69, the Alt Tune rolls backwards from what is indicated on the knob. If you use a 59 configuration in a 69, only three of the toggle positions will function on the 69's 5-Way toggle switch,... and that whole second layer of those 59 patches aren't accessible. Can't mismatch between boards and body types,... won't work. The Model Gallery might be the same for all the guitars, it the switching configuration that distinguishes each guitar from one another. Charlie,... I don't know about a step down,... more like, just being a bit different than JTV. Interesting though.

I stand corrected,... can't roll back on a Standard. I would think that because the switch and knob lay out is different, that the corresponding firmware would be too. It's also why you can't program it to think it's a JTV, for the purpose of rolling back the firmware.

---Make sure the 500X patch edit for Variax presets is not in "Force" mode, where you are changing guitar Models from the 500X. ---Make sure the screws holding in the 5-Way switch and the Alt Tune knob are screwed in torqued and tight (not too tight). ---Check to see if the Volume and Tone controls are loose. If they are, then carefully bring up the knobs and gently torque down the nuts holding in the control potentiometers, then put the knobs back on. ---If all that doesn't do it, then there is something deeper causing intermittent functioning, then it need to be taken to a factory authorized service technician.

Hang in there. I'm in touch with the guy who responded to your ticket. He was probably unaware of our previous contact on FB, so he wasn't aware I have the parts.