psarkissian

-Old battery -Battery box power management circuit -Loose connector inside -Charger Should be troubleshooted by a Line 6 authorized service center in your area. https://line6.com/find/service_center/

-Battery contact -Battery box power management circuit -Loose connector inside -Loose connector outside -Circuit board glitch -Not using a 1/4" cable with a Tip/Ring/Sleeve plug -If it's a JTV-69,... a loose retainer nut under the volume and/or tone control can result in an intermittent chassis ground, and can effect a number of functions, including Model engagement. It should be troubleshooted by a Line 6 authorized service center.

When using the battery, are you using a 1/4" cable with a TRS tip?

Then I stand corrected. I have problems with Mac and PC, my apps though (DAW's and such) work great.

Line 6 supports it, you can still get it, it's the OS of the computer companies (Mac and Windows) that left it behind. We still have it, the computer companies just don't want to deal with it. My personal audio apps are great (DAW's and soft synths), it's the hardware and OS I have troubles with.

Yes, active pups slowing stressing the input circuit over time. Active circuit guitar on one supply rail going into active circuits in an amp on a different supply rail can be a bit of a stress on on of them. And it's an older product, so there is that to consider as well.

Active pups. Pushing too much at the input of the amp.

Needs servicing at a Line 6 authorized service center. Either a failing cable or a short on the control interface board. And it may be time for a tube swap (always use the specified tubes as stated in the posting here on Tubes). Log a support ticket in your account. Do not do this yourself, the shock hazard is too great. Take it from me, been zapped a few times myself,... it hurts.

Flickering of the elements, one glowing brighter than all the others, generally been in the amp for more than a couple of years if one plays occasionally. Too much distortion on a clean setting is usually an old or not correctly biased power tube. In general, if it's correctly biased and you're a weekend warrior in a band, or a living room jam player, chances are that once every 20-24 months should be a sufficient interval. Unless a tube goes in the interim. I've seen tubes last two weeks (crack developed and let the gas out), and I've seen tubes last five years (client treated it like a precious diamond in his audiophile system), it depends on what it's been through electronically and mechanically.

:)

1- Yes. 2- Yes, and load down the main board. Have seen JTV's come back with component blown on VDI and/or TRS jack on the jack plate, components blown near the jack plate-to-main board connector, the main board shorted, and on rare occasions the ultimate trifecta,... jack plate, main board and battery box PCBA's all go down. 3- Correct, "don't use two cables at the same time", and as Egon told Venckman, "Don't cross the streams." Most double correct, "It's probably better to be cautious and avoid the potential issue." 4- I know what you mean, I'm VDI kind of guy too.

" I think I'm starting to get why this is a "touchy" issue! It's the digital vs analog thing! "--- close,... it's an impedance, current draw, load thing. Running both outputs simultaneously puts a current draw load that it was not designed to handle. Good guess though. "... should only be one power source at a time. "--- yes, very good, that too. It goes back to the load thing. Also TS vs TRS. Since the mid 1970's, when us crazy circuit geeks did active guitar circuits, TRS (tip/ring/sleeve) plugs have always been used. It became something of the de-facto standard back then. The same pin-out is used today,... tip= signal, ring= +Vdc, sleeve= the return (ground). " First the A2D converters are probably different - Helix might have better converters. Second is the Helix 1/4" input has wide dynamic range and programmable input impedance, the input preamps might be better in Helix than in Variax. Finally, the Line6 VDI cable is 25' long. That's a lot of opportunity for jitter and noise to get into the digital signal and cause errors at the Helix input. "--- good guess, not quite. Sync issues were a bit of a glitch with the X3 Live a while back (USB recording). I made a big deal about it, engineering has been more aware of sync issues since then. When using the VDI, use the L6 25ft cable, that's for playing through. Don't use that short thing that comes with the guitar, that's for connecting to Line 6 Monkey for Updates, and Workbench HD for doing custom patching, uploading and downloading patches,... don't play through that. Very good, nothing gets by you two. Keep it up. :)

Yes. But it will have a very dark tone to it. And remember the caveats,... Line 6 does not support modifications to it's products. If it adversely affects the function of the guitar, the modifications would void any warranty. So be careful what you modify, and how you modify it. The postings in the Knowledge Base are an informative. We do not know the abilities of, or vouch for those not part of the network of authorized service centers. I see too many who tell us they know what they are doing, only to have their guitar on my repair bench a couple of weeks later. BTW,... cannot send it to me to do the mods, we don't have a custom shop for that (everybody asks that). Want you to go into this with eyes open. This is not the usual passive guitar electronics of old. It's a whole other critter, so treat it as such. Just a few things to be aware.

At a DCR or DC/Bulk resistance spec of 15.2k-Ohms, that will have a very dark tone to it. Variax is not a guitar with passive electronics, the active circuits require impedance matching. So keep it in that 6k-Ohms to 8k-Ohms range.

For single coil use this diagram,... For humbucker, use JTV69 humbucker on this diagram,... And make sure the pick-ups you are using have a DC/Bulk resistance specification of between 6k-Ohms to 8k-Ohms, or the tone colour (EQ) won't sound right.

Hanex Waaier 36 VW Leimuiden, 2451 Phone: +31172506993 Email: info@hanexservice.nl URL: http://www.hanexservice.n https://line6.com/find/service_center/

cbrillow,... correct. Anything below v2.00 will not work with Workbench HD, so the original Workbench would have to be used. There is no compatibility or portability between the between the two versions.

Main board or the controls, some short or control failure. Log a Support Ticket in your account. Also check for the nearest authorized service center in your area that deals with our guitars. https://line6.com/find/service_center/ This is not a user repairable issue.

Follow the instructions on re-Flashing the firmware to the factory defaults.

Are you using original Workbench or Workbench HD?

What arislaf said. I've only seen that happen once.

Yes, but have the set-up checked afterwards, as the tension will change, and the set-up along with it. And what arislaf said.

Leaving it in the guitar unplugged will take about a week to trickle away and run down even with nothing turned on. If you leave batteries in a flashlight for a long time, they too will trickle down over time. It's not a perfect brick-wall shunt. Use only the "real" specified 98-034-0003 batteries, no cheap substitutes or video cam substitutes, they are nothing but trouble. Internal current controls in the battery, battery box, the charger and the Variax processor board are matched to function optimally with one another.

Try saving it thru Workbench as part of a custom patch.

Luck.