leesteel

If you are interested it's black and has locking Sperzel style tuners from Guitar Fetish. Send me a private message.

I have the same thing.. It's posted in another thread that LINE6 is already looking into this.

Thank you Duncann, YOU ARE AWESOME!

I've done the system reset a few times and I don't get the Variax bank. It's called Variax, but it is all my user preset tones from before the update. Would it be possible for one of you to save that setlist of demo Variax tones and email it to me?

It's been reported to LINE6. Several of us are having the same problem.

I was hoping to do that same thing between a HD500X and a M5

Guess I'm not the only one wearing "clown shoes". :) It's gonna draw some laughs and criticism but I will post a picture of my solution. It involves a button guard from the space shuttle.

My update went well last night also. Updated the USB drivers first, HD500X firmware second, updated HD Edit, and then went to the store and purchased the Vintage Pack. I am on an Intel Mac. I had no issues until I installed the Model Pack and it says "cycle the power on your HD". As soon as I did that my computer crashed. After the restart, the new amps show up in HD EDIT.

I also only purchased the Vintage Pack and I am also showing "Acoustic" and when I click on it, it skips to the next model "Hiway 100 Pre".

I've been using the Soldano Clean amp for my cleanest settings. I had a JC-120 back in the 80's and was hoping that the model would be a better choice to pair with Acoustic Variax tones. Thoughts?

Nice comeback!

I'm very curious to hear some feedback on the Roland JC120

I was hoping, at least, that they would include code to allow the HD500X to act as an interface for the Variax 500. I was also hoping that they would add a feature to, at a minimum, disable the looper button and at best, be able to reassign that button to be something else. Twice, I have accidentally "looped" something in the middle of a live show.. It's in my way and I'm no looper.

Can someone do a review of what's included in the new Firmware… 8 hours is too long to wait. I found the release notes and all it says is Global EQ and support for Model Packs. It that it? No new stomp models?

I bought this guitar from someone on eBay who purchased the body from Warmoth while they were still making Variax pre-routed bodies. I think I might be safe with the ground solder points. If there is interference I will probably relocate the ground connection on this bridge as shown in my latest mock-up above. I'll let you know how the fit goes when the guitar arrives.

I'm really surprised that you say the neck is thinner… Every JTV that I have seen, Strat and Les Paul models, had necks that felt like logs compared to the 500. I had a JTV69 briefly and did not notice any difference in the guitar models.

First I want to start by thanking Charlie_Watt who has been very helpful and regularly communicated with me through this process. Please feel free to offer any comments and suggestions. This was my first of 2 upgrades so I will have another one coming up after testing this one. I started out with a stock Variax 500 bridge. I used an Exacto knife to scrape away the conformal coating to expose the copper ground plane. With some solder wick, I removed the blobs of solder from the original piezo installation and removed the original saddles. I used the carpet needle shown in this picture to enlarge the holes just big enough to allow a passthrough for the ghost wires. After enlarging the holes, I used a multi meter to make sure that each pickup signal pad was still isolated from ground. I cut the wires attached to the Ghost saddles at a length of .75" (3/4"), used the Exacto knife to separate the two wires, the silver is the HOT wire and the blue is GROUND. I found that the #28 stripper size on these Ideal strippers was the perfect gauge for prepping the wires. I pre-tinned each of the ends and pre-tinned the pads on the flex circuit. By doing this, very little heat was required to make the final connection. This keeps the insulation from being unnecessarily stressed. I tucked the extra wire up underneath the saddle so that it would have room to travel during intonation adjustment. Here is the finished solder job. And the top view. Here is the guitar that this bridge will be installed in. It's a Warmoth body with 500 neck and guts. When I upgrade the next bridge, I plan to locate the ground connection points as shown in this picture.

Charlie, are both wires (+ & - ) insulated and then running inside of some clear (translucent blue) plastic tubing?

So here is what I am proposing Charlie. Tell me if you think this will work. Actually the jumper wire is not even required. You could drill a small hole through the adhesive strip and through the flex circuit and attach the ground with a tiny wire soldered on top and bottom.

So I am very adept at soldering, this is no issue. I have a spare bridge and I ordered a set of Ghost saddles directly from Ghost. It doesn't really say, but I am taking it from the way that you worded your response that these saddles have a mini connector attached to them? Like a little molex connector?

So, each saddle has it's own ground.. Where did you connect all the grounds? Did you take any pictures?

Charlie, can you tell me the proper ghost saddles to purchase? String spacing?

Personally, I prefer the neck on the 500, above and beyond any JTV that I have played.

Thanks Charlie, going to have to try this on one of mine. I have replaced saddles in the past and have no problem soldering.

I had custom ones made with my name, by Philadelphia Luthier : http://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com If you are bent on having the original, I will sell you one of mine, send me an email: lees@megahits.com