psarkissian

" I don't think new board is doing something the average user could hear or feel. " --- Correct. There was a minor parts update to the board to dial-in a couple things. "... this JTV59 is the best companion for my Fishman Tripleplay. Incredible how well the FTP tracks this guitar. " --- Yes, the JTV-59 seems to be a favourite mount for a Fishman Tripleplay. Had a few come across my service bench with those on them,... pretty good.

No it's not. The charge/ discharge rates are crucial. Use only Line 6 authorized parts,... especially Li-Ion batteries. We cannot vouch for another company's product in our guitars. And could possibly void any warranties. Don't risk it! Seen some of these come across my repair bench, there are reliability issues with them in our guitars. Use only the specified Line 6 batteries.

2012.

SysEx is for data comm When using Monkey and Workbench HD. Trying to go beyond the narrow applications invites trouble. Some of our products, such as floor effects and floor controllers have some MIDI CC capabilities more useful MIDI controlling. Variax was never designed to do that. Being a guitar, there's only so much space and therefore only so much memory, and it's all used for modeling and not much for controlling. Regarding pick-ups,... with passive electronic guitars, one can take a orange chicklet capacitor and change values to match however one wants. These are the other way around. The control and board circuitry are fixed and matched, and that determines the DCR range that can be used. There is no chart. The DCR range is what we use so that it impedance matches the circuitry, so everything is a balance of circuitry, just as a guitar set-up is a balance of tensions int he mechanics of it. DiMarzio Super Distortion, one of my faves,... but not in a JTV. Too dark of an EQ tone, lose all the highs and bite of a Super-D. Some out there have lots of experience with guitars to begin with,... old timers like me, from the classic rock days, crewing for a classic rock band, and cooking up crazy circuitry. We know the in's and outs and been doing this for decades. So adding quirks of JTV's is not a problem to jump into. Maybe four to six guys in North America I trust to do a mod or transplant without mistakes. I don't know about ability of others. The box,... potential grounding and impedance issues, even if the wiring is the same, all, all the ground planes must be maintained. 6" is a maybe length. If one is out of place, it can shift the other ground points,.... that is the trap of dealing with mixed signal devices. That guy with the Variax bass transplant didn't understand that, even after explaining it to him, so he could never get his bass to work after the transplant.

" I really never use the piezo's with the Sustainaic on. " --- Very good then. Variax is either in Model mode or magnetic mode, so when one is on, the other isn't. That minimizes bad interactions. " I can flip a switch and turn off the Sustainaic, no problem at all. " --- Very good. BTW,.... your jack plate, plates are en-route.

"... the saddles already have varying heights in their physical dimensions to account for this...three different part numbers for the saddles, look it up. " --- Yes, I'm aware of that, as I'm the guy at Line 6 that services Variax guitars. Good eye. The shims are there to further assist in maintaining the height where the designers specified it. "... there are two threaded screws in each saddle for fine height adjustments, so no need for a .010" thin piece of plastic to adjust bridge height. " --- Yes, the bridge posts. "... they put the plastic in there to absorb the odd resonance vibrations,... " --- Actually they are thin metal shims. Isolation from secondary vibrations may be a fringe benefit. " If one screw is tighter than the other, I could see a saddle wanting to walk back and forth when the strings are played. " ---- Interesting thought, haven't seen that yet though. " Putting a piece of plastic would help prevent the sudden micro movements from being picked up by the piezos. This is just my theory however. " --- The tight tolerance, tight screws and precision of Graph Tech bridges, a plastic would crack. As for plink, I've yet to be able to get these to plink consistently when palm muting on "Spank", but then I suck at palm muting to begin with. Spectrum analyzer would be better than an O-scope, as past comments have plinks at between 1.6kHz and 1.7kHz. Check the L6 Knowledge Base on the subject, it's a multi faceted thing, and covering all the facets plink takes practice. Variax is not our grandfather's archtop of old with passive electronics. Keep up the good eye.

Yes. Having a guitar with both piezos and pick-ups means that set-up, regarding pick-up distance from strings, has to be adjusted just right or warbling of the string in the magnetic field will occur. And since it's a permanent magnet that can't be turned off, the magnetic field can still pull on the string to the point of warbling. And when the piezos are engaged, sounds bad. Add to the warble some Alt Tuning and you might cringe at the sound. Set-up, tuning and intonation are therefore crucial and spot-on down to a gnat's behind. Sustainiac can make it worse.

Touch a nerve? No. Million times,... more half a million,... no problem, it's why I'm here. A "dis"? No. Just want you to be informed, it's what I'm here for. "... to see if I can "functionalize" something for reuse beyond it's current limitations. " --- Not a god idea, as this our products don't take kindly to mods beyond what they were designed for. As far as "gotchas",... changing tuning machines or pick-ups is one thing, tampering with the programming is a bad idea. And L6 takes a dim view of program hacks, as they guard their IP. Best not to go down this road. When using 3rd party pick-ups, use those with a DCR (DC bulk resistance) between 6k-Ohms and 8k-Ohms. Use the pick-up wiring diagrams in the Line 6 Knowledge Base. Magnetics don't get processed in mag-mode, only the piezos do, but the signal runs thru the board,... so don't mess with that. Don't disconnect the mags, it messes with the modes,.... can't elaborate further on that. Misunderstood,... I've done transplants, but never run piezo wires out beyond a few inches to do lefty conversions for the likes of guitarist and L6 endorser Carlos Rios (Stevie Nicks, Chick Corea). Yes, I know the pitfalls of transplants, so I discourage them to all but a few very experienced people with intimate knowledge. One guy took a Variax bass, transplanted it in a custom body. The electronics didn't fit, so he took off half the case, thought he got all the ground tied off. It didn't work,... the case being half apart threw off and changed the reference point of all the ground planes. Don't know if he ever got it working again. Line 6 won't support mods of its product. I'm not allowed to walk people thru mods or transplants, I can just point out the pitfalls, the rest is up to all of you out there. Best of luck.

" I also noticed that under each saddle piezo pickup, there appear to be plastic vinyl spacers, or maybe a thin metallic spacer. I can't figure out why they are there,... " ---- They are shims, so the bridge curve matches the neck radius curve,.... don't mess with them.

:)

"... Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, and Cat8 all the same? " --- No, they are not all the same. The CAT series network cables designations go to the frequency band data rates they are made for. For best use with our product, CAT5e with the Neutrik casing is best, and no more than 25ft.

"... say i use mine (SR250), with a preset,,,then i switch to a SR270 using the same preset.. both tuned the same. Would the tone be noticeably different? "--- You might notice a slight tone color EQ difference, being that the scale length is different between them. It's a slight different program to access the same Model set. As for Stevic, he does a lot of custom stuff.

With a DCR of 13.68k Ohms, DP100 will sound very dark in tone color EQ. With a DCR of 13.50k Ohms, DP209 will also sound very dark in tone color EQ. If you're going to swap out pick-ups, it has to have a DCR between 6k and 8k Ohms. And use the wiring diagrams in the Line 6 Knowledge Base,...

1) Rack Vax is no more. They wanted us (and me) to take care of support for them, but I already kept busy servicing our own Variax products. 2) Parker Fly is iffy, trying to use MIDI with a Variax. 3a) Doing transplants is something for those with intimate knowledge and experience with this product. 3b) Line 6 does not support modifications to its product. 3c) If you were to mod it or do a transplant, something went wrong, and you sent it to me to be repaired, I'd have to send it back untouched. 3d) I have done transplants. But they were for high profile artist endorsers, as a favor to the endorsers and the execs here. 3e) We don't have a custom shop for this. MIDI SysEx is for updating Flash and using the Workbench HD app. Claims of success have been limited as what can be accessed is limited. "... have a Raspberry Pie 4 that I'm looking at adding Windows 10 ARM OS onto and am wondering if anyone knows if the Workbench HD software will run on it? " --- as far as I know,... no, it won't. AS far as I know for the query after,... no it won't. ---- Lots of proprietary stuff, not made to be messed with like that.

Line 6 does not support mods that affect the products function. This is ill advised. These are incompatible with Variax products.

Try using a blank custom patch in Workbench HD and build one, or a close approximation of one. Also submit to Idea Scale for a future feature.

Variety and versatility, the sky is no longer the limit with these things. Might try to reach out to Guitar World Tech Editor Paul Riario and ask him. There's probably an email at the publication to contact him. BTW, that is the 27" scale guitar. On the screen behind Stevic shows the Workbench HD display showing what's in the patch. His guitar design, amazing guitar, in amazing hands.

Might want to check out Stevic McKay videos out there, as he designed the guitar and it's custom Artist Patches and custom Alt Tunes. Stevic uses a Helix.

The finer tuners and the piezo position adjust screws are made use of during intonation, so I guess you can say you both have a point. :)

This works on dirty piezos as well. the casing is chassis ground, so if there's debris under it, it function intermittently. Drip it in with a swab, then blow out with canned air, repeat as needed.

There's also those violin like tuners on an 89F, they can confuse someone if they are not used to the fine bridge tuning on a violin. That and intonation (like silverhead suggested) should be spot on tuned and intonated.

Where multiple devices are used, it's convenient to have an integrated path. The devices work together more seamlessly. The original concept was "The Dream Rig",... Guitar --> FX (like the 500X) --> L6 Link --> DT amp(s) The Band Station, L2 and L3 series Sound Reinforcement also made use of Line 6 Link running between them for a soundscape live system. Link 6 Link is extended into some our current products like the Helix.

:)

Helix also has L6 Link, so that it can connect to DT series amps. 500X is still relevant for now, but I don't know for how much longer, with Helix being more substantial and versatile.

Check the Downloads page and select the hardware, software and OS that you are using. Updater like app??? Don't know. The first I hear of anything new is when there's a glitch in something new and they need me to fix it. Haven't seen anything.