JTSC777

I also charged a lot more when I did do customers stainless steel frets.They also kill your strings but thats a whole other subject! And I shall RAWK!!!!

If I could stay married after buying one I would buy it!

I will no longer work on anyones stainless steel fretted guitars and they do need attention from time to time. Too many of my files have been killed by Stainless Wire lol! Also I dont like the sound of stainless but yes for the player they have many benefits.For me I like to play different guitars and do this also so if some lucky feller decides to steal one of them its no big deal.I just grab another and keep on going! This time of year is when I spend evenings at my bench crowning/ polishing frets/ soldering changing pickups/ replacing parts/ installing LSR roller nuts/ etc... because of the beating my instruments take from April until New Years Eve. I will be done with 6 or 7 of my guitars in time for spring.Hooray Beer!

What Pianoguy said times thrice!

My Fender BDRI loses its master volume when I go into the effect return with my HD500. 2 of my Marshalls still allow me to use the volume. A JCM800 and a DSL401.

I have always doen it the same way since my Digitech RP-1 days lol! By Bank 1 General Purpose 2 Country Roots 3 Alt Rock/ Modern 4 Latin/ Santana 5 Metal 6- Jazz 7 Specialty etc... clean to dirty / left to right on the bottom switches with top switches assigned to anything I want to turn on and off that feature makes the HD 500 superior to the Boss units and yes I know they do that too but not in an intuitive simple way. I can cover 80% of everything I need to do with the first three banks at least until someone starts screaming for Crazy Train/ Metallica/ Sabbath/ Slayer etc...

My HD500 kills with my little ADA cab simulator. I finally gave up on the cab sims in it.I send a cab sim feed to the PA and a thru send to one of my amps when I play live. Best tones I have had in years.The Orange amp is too much fun lol!

I think after living with and really gigging this guitar I am finally understanding what it is and what it is for. I just finished playing it just for fun for an hour.This is a damn fine instrument and the only thing that I struggle with is having to fire up my PC and my HD500 to edit with Workbench but man every time I do I get real usable results.I realize many here are playing their JTVs using an HD500 and an FRFR speaker monitors etc... and thats cool I do that when its called for but I highly recommend a really good tube amp and a pedal or two.The modeled guitars and tunings are unbelievable when played through a good reactive tube amp at volume.I am not having any plank/ clank/ plunk/ pluck or any other wierd noises.Just killer realistic models which will get me more gigging opportunities. To those of you who have a really good Marshall or two( I have three) you know that these amps will let you hear every fingernail scratch and are not forgiving if the guitar ot player is lazy/ sloppy or drunk lol! All of my working pro player buddies are looking for their own JTV now after hearing me play it. I may have to get another one so I am not crowning polishing frets every 3 months as I play out a lot.I have a Roland GK3 pickup on it so I can use my GR55 or GR20 with it. It is also an excellent synthesizer guitar! I appreciate all here who have answered my questions and concerns about getting one.It is well worth it and will make my gigging life a lot more fun!

Does the HD500 have to have a setting changed to see either the 69 or 500 when using the VDI connection?

Which is why I keep 3 spares around. I never roll without a backup lol!

Try the M13 with your amp.EZ 4 cable method/ minimal suckage and killer effects only no amp / cab tweakage. The best HD500 tones I have ever achieved have been with an open back 1x12 loaded with a 400 watt Eminence PA speaker and an EHX 44 Magnum power amp.Absolutely killer from clean to mean!

And man do I dig it! Into my Marshall Haze 15 its stupid good! Got to go to work or I would just keep playing it lol! Thanks Mr Psarkissian!

I had ordered some replacement piezos for my minty fresh JTV69 as the high E would not work after cleaning and holding its hand etc... This AM I had some time and thought I would disassemble and investigate. Found a barely soldered piezo with maybe one tiny wire barely hangin on lol! stripped the wire a bit / tinned/ resoldered and It Works Perfectly. so the moral of the story is even though it may look right you may try just resoldering before replacing these things.

I am referring to the Roland GR33/55 etc...guitar synthesizers.Playing those things for 25 years has forced me to get rid of Chuck Berry slop and play correctly. I would also highly reccomend lessons from a good classical teacher.They are the left hand masters. Look up Mr Morse.I have spoken with him recently at NAMM in Anaheim and also first met him when I was only 19 at The Old Waldorf in San Francisco. Just watching him play made me better and then studying what he does and most importantly why he does it.

Steve Morse.Study everything that guy does and I guarantee you will get better.Also start playing guitar synthesizer that really requires perfect technique.

Having owned/ gigged Boss GT-3/8/10-Roland GR33/55 etc.../ Korg multi-effects/ Digitech multi-effects etc... I quite like the layout of physical switches on my HD500 and dont care about naming banks.I always learn where all 10 of them are and always know how to access them.Right now I am not using it a lot.Waiting for the new IR loading pedal by Atomic to use with it.

Workbench does not see it.Search through the other threads and read Lee Steels posts.He helped me/ my tech get my other one going. Lee uses a different output jack and or replaces the just the VDI part.

I believe that this earth loop wire is a tremolo cavity connection not necessary on the Variax 500. My HD500 now "sees" my Variax500 if I plug it in using the VDI connector after the HD500 has fully booted. Now to test it with the workbench.

True dat.However if I am playing Folsom Prison Blues using the rear Telecaster pickup I would really rather not switch to the Lester rear pickup setting for the solo even though it pops out.I dont even usually like single/single/ humbucker guitars for this reason.I like to use all pickup positions for rhythm and lead work. I adjust all three pickups on all three positions of all of my strats to have the same relative output level for this same reason. But yes many players use the pickup selector on any electric to raise the level of a solo and it works very well!

Its a brand new output jack from Full Compass.I am assuming its never been used.Yes the VDI cable works perfectly with my JTV. This is the smaller non- JTV jack for the 300/700 and bass.It has the trap door on it.It fits perfectly and connectors are exactly the same. The leads that are soldered to the small board from the jack are top/ black lower one / green perhaps they are reversed?

Thank you! That is helpful and I shall investigate where it may go under the main board. I have tge 1/4 in side working but the VDI input does not.

Interesting thread. The Line 6 Custom Tone thing makes a player think it will be easy to get one of theses HD units up and running.Roland /Boss have Tone Central as their enticement for ease of use. Neither does what one thinks it will do. The OP will have to just put in the time to get what works for him out of any of these devices.And as far as an Axe or Helix goes those are 10/20 times harder more fiddly to use.I keep a Marshall JCM800 combo and a real nice Marshall Haze setup with a Blues Driver/ wah pedal in front and get any modeler I use as close to that as I can.Those amps are my reference points for building patches on my GP10/HD500/ME70/POD2.0 etc...those amps or live recorded guitar sounds of great players.

Hello I had my tech replace the output jack on my Variax 500 last year. I have another used one and am replacing the output jack myself. my question is where does the ground wire from the jack with the loop for a screw connection go? Any help would be appreciated. I have a really nice JTV but still dig my Variax 500!

Great Tip! Just barely started adjusting this myself.I usually have to my own sound so I pop my solos/ emphasize parts with a boost pedal. Having all the guitars jumping around does not work for me either.Very very helpful info!!! Thank You!

I am also starting to use my second HD500 after selling my first one to a friend who needed it for his dream rig.That was a couple years ago.The POD is tough to beat for convenience/ connectivity/ great all in one device.The only thing I have given up on is the cab modeling.I bought a passive Palmer cab simulator and just use that after the POD and its very good.I may investigate an IR loader for it at some point but the Palmer is surprisingly good.I think a lot of players use them.