DickFoster

Spectrum analyzers are nice too. The good thing about doing audio stuff is you can do the spectrum analyzer thing with a PC, a sound card and some free software. Well good enough in a pinch without spending the bucks on the real deal anyway.

The battery is there to keep the static RAM chip from dumping it's contents. Folks use flash memory for that sort of thing now but yes the back up battery being dead can make all sorts of things do crazy stuff so it's good practice to start there since they are so cheap to change. After installing a new battery, I'd probably reload the software just to be sure you get a good clean start up. I assume you've tried several patches and have disconnected the long board to simplify things. BTW you don't really need a spectrum analyzer to signal trace the amp but a common oscilloscope would sure go a long way towards troubleshooting both the digital and analog stuff. Then again you'd have to be familar with this sort of thing, if not I'm sure you can find a friend who is. BTW The service manual can be downloaded from the Internet at http://elektrotanya.com/line-6_vetta-hd_sm.pdf/download.html Ever who digs into it will need it. It's for the head amp but the head and the combo amps are almost identical in large part. Enough to nail your problem anyway.

Good luck with it. Not sure when I'll see it since I'm moving this week. What a hassle. Except for a hole in the ground, I intend to make this my very last move.

The first thing to do is change the battery. Yes there is one inside the amp that goes dead every few years. I could have gotten too low to keep the SRAM alive and that is where your address error is coming from. You need to be handy with a soldering iron to change it or find someone who is. After replacing the battery, reload the OS though the midi cable if it's got some garbage in it from your attempts with the cable before. Your saved patches are probably gone, what you want to do is back them up to a computer via the midi cable on occasion just as you would a hard drive. It's a wonderful amp but Line6 sucks for not supporting it. Until they do or at least try, I refuse to buy anthing else they make.

Well I only have the Vetta HD manual so it probably wouldn't help you. I have a Vetta Combo but I'm in the process of moving and it's packed away and buried, ready to load onto the moving van.

Since the power output is different between the head and the combo you'd expect some differences if you're using the manual for the head amp. However I think there are probably just fewer final power FETs and a lighter weight power supply.so it should be easy to figure out what was going on. I doubt all those parts were taken out just because a FET gave up the ghoast. You should probably sit down and trace out the circuit and make you own diagram of the final. Remember you have two channels and one of them is probably still working so you have a reference right there in front of you. What do you mean AX3 power supply are you using an AX3 manual or a Vetta manual?

Eric, it looks like the email bounced. send me something at ronrfoster at comcast dot net.

Check you mail.

Good! They are well worth saving. I assume you have the service manual. I have one for the Vetta Head. If you don't have it let me know and I can email it to you. The head and combo look to be almost identical. Because Line6 is so backward and mean spirited, there is scant little service info out there. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know. I'm a retired EE that got his bones the hard way. I started out techining for all sorts of stuff. Sometimes a little commiserating helps when you're trying to troubleshoot a problem. BTW I have a Vetta I combo that has been software updated to Vetta II. No digital board because they just aren't out there. I have an FBV long board for it too.

Are you going into the save the Vetta business? It would be a good thing if someone did.

What he said.

In addiion to the answer I gave you regarding the Vetta, I think you might actually consider getting yourself a low cost practice amp to start with. You can find them used all over the place for not much money at all and most have some built in standard effects such as reverb, chorus etc. Musicians Friend/Guitar Center and the others probably sell as much used gear as they do new so be sure to look there in addition to EBay etc.

Well I have a Vetta and love it but I am also an Electrical Technician/Engineer and have the necessary test equipment so I can probably fix it myself should it ever fail. With the failing to now non existent support for Vetta amps by Line6 I can not in all honesty recommend that anyone buy one unless they too are technically competent enough to undertake component level troubleshooting and repair or know someone who is. The Vetta amps are sophisticated enough that most of the common guitar amp repair shops out there today are unable to deal with it as their forte is mainly swapping out tubes in what are for all practical purposes very dated tube amp designs from yesteryear. Unless you can fix it yourself, you may wake up one day to find that you have purchased what amounts to a boat anchor. As to the other Amps I don't know but you may want to investigate the availability of service and repair parts. Most amp shops are unwilling or unable to do any thing but swap out entire circuit boards and for pretty stiff prices and if you can't get the boards at any price, then you're pretty much out of luck altogether. Line 6 has so far been unwilling to supply even service documentation to users even though they easily could if they only would. Why they won't is anybody's guess as the amps are out of production and out of warranty so there is no real viable reason not to.

Well a different amp and different cab could make all the difference. I know they are 12" Celestons custom made for Line 6. I'd go look at them but right now I have it packed up since I'm going though that home selling, buying and moving thrash right now. Egads what a PITA. It's way too much like work.

Nine times outta ten it's something simple like that. Glad you got it sorted out of peanuts. Alls well that ends well.

Did you get full volume in the headphones? Plugging in headphones does mute the speakers. Wait a minute, head amps don't have a headphone jack only combos have the headphone jack ????? I assume you've rechecked all the settings to ensure nothing else is amiss. Has it ever worked since you did the patch load or is that when things went to hell in a handbasket? You don't for example have a floor board and the volume pedal is dialed back or something silly like that? Yeah I know but it's the simple stuff like that that sometimes goes over looked and I've pulled that kinda stunt myself. Everyone does once in a while. If you have a head amp, have you tried another cab? Speaker cables OK all that stuff?

I have the Combo which has the known to be somewhat bright Celeston 12's. Good for rock, metal and that sort of stuff maybe but not really that great for jazzy kinda stuff. That's why I was going to fiddle around with closing up the back and try it. If no joy, I'll probably get around to something in a 15" someday. However, I'm not performing and don't intend to so it's no big deal really.

Unless you have the latest version of the Uno, it isn't Windows 8 compatible. That's according to the Uno folks anyway. If you get the latest version of the cable, you don't need a driver for Win 8 because it's class comliant but there are no Win8 drivers for older versions of the cable. How that all works with the Vetta and Line6 stuff is anybody's guess but I know Line6 stuff is kinda touchy in this respect. "Hi Johann, Thank you for contacting M-Audio. I'll be glad to assist you. The latest version of the Uno works class compliant. (no driver needed). Here is a link to help determine which Uno you have: http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.faq&ID=dafbe23c0f3791fd6e457ee947e4daba " "Hi Johann, Thanks for the update. Unfortunately the older versions of the Uno aren't compatible with Windows 8. These older versions require a driver, and a driver isn't available for Windows 8."

It should be simple enough to brighten it up as needed. The amp has so much EQ and sonic control at your finger tips. I typically find bottom more elusive than top. I think that has more to do with the speakers though. I've been thinking of doing a little experiment by closing the back temporarily just to see. Maybe make it adjustable with hinges or a tuneable port or something along those lines.

Good to know. I'm about ready to swap the pickups in my Ibanez archtop hollow body. It currently has their ACH pickups which are a bit shrill for my tastes but I've got a set of Super 58 Custom four wires that I intend to install and switch to the hilt. They are supposed to be some very nice sounding mellow pickups but well rounded for a lot of stuff including jazz etc. With the split coil and the rest of the phasing etc. switching I should get just about anything I want out of it. The next step will dropping a Roland GK3 Hexaphonic pickup on it and get into Rolands VG99 and or GR55 synths. Wheeee, that should net all kinds of sonic stuff to play with.

That's odd, the adjustablilty avaliable in the Vetta should have gotten you there if you were that close with your old pickups. Well at least you're happy now and that's what counts. I wonder, if the sound you had was what the amp being modeled would have sounded like with your old pups driving it.

Yep, settings, patches etc. are stored battery powered SRAM and when it dies, the amps do strange things. It's soldered into the main board so you have to be handy to replace it. They are supposed to last six years or so depending on stuff. It takes a 3 volt lithium CR 2430 cell that you should be able to find at a hardware store. The manual says if it measures any less than 2.7 volts you should replace it. Be sure to measure it place, not just open circuit. Although there isn't much current drain from it in use, only about 3.7 microamps or so according to the book.

I think you need to get your amp in the hands of a techie type. They should start with a battery replacement then check all the power supply voltages and take it from there.

I think the best you can hope for is find something that is kinda close then dive in and tweak it till you get what you're after. Don't forget to play with the knobs on your guitar too. Maybe you could start by looking up what kind of gear whomever it is that you're trying to emulate and start there. At least with their choice of amp. However what you hear on a recording is likely to be far and away different than anything you'd hear live. Then there is that bit with a different guitar feeding it and all that kinda stuff to deal with on top of it all. Sound is a really complicated thing with many components adding into the mix and anything less than actually sampling the original end result, guitar,effects, amp, speakers, player, enviroment, then reproducing that via a MIDI type guitar and MIDI sampling based type of MIDI DSP based memory table driven synth equipment is likely to result in nothing but a whole lot of frustration. Attempting to emulate amplifiers and tone via electronic circuit modeling alone is actually a bit silly to start with. Not that the Vetta isn't a really decent and flexible amp because it is but I look at it as more of a tool to create your own sounds with. There is a whole lot of stuff in there to work with to that end.

Maybe start clean and build from there instead of from an existing patch that's trying to be something it isn't. . Personally I don't care for most if any of the factory patches. It depends so much on the guitar driving it and all that, there is not a whole lot to share really, Plus no one really knows what you're looking for in the end. It's all so subjective.