JTSC777

I will jump on an HD500X soon but my HD500 is still sounding not good but great. I have gone back and forth with different modelers/ amps etc... but keep coming back to the HD500. Finally sold my GT-10 that I used a lot but having to use external switches made me start not wanting to use it. Also the cab models blow in the Boss units.

I use rechargeable Energizer bunny grade NiMH batteries and they work great. Older Nicad batteries suck. Dont use them.

Paul Pesco of Hall and Oates tours with an XT live and two K10s.He is hardly an entry level player. He can play whatever he wants and he does not use an Axe/Kemper etc... live. When guys like Paul Pesco and other real touring pros start using the Helix I will get interested. For now my HD500($250 used) and crappy little Variax 500($250 used) sound and feel real good through 2 10 or 12 in powered speakers for all but a few of my live gigging needs. I have made a nice profit quite a few times over on my $500 used Line 6 investment. I think an HD500X is in my future much more immediately than the Helix.

I use the Line 6 VDI cable. I will probably return the JTV-69 output jack assembly and just live with the faulty VDI side of the connector. I only use it for editing anyway. Playing the guitar with that cable is like playing my various Roland GK equipped guitars. Heavy unweildy and I have to wonder what the engineer/designers were thinking who decided on those cables for live performance. Obviously that is what the 1/4 in output is for because in actual use the VDI cable is terrible. thanks for the info

@leesteel So I finally got my replacement output jack for my Variax500. I am confused about replacement. Is it a matter of a few jacks or is it some soldering too? Do I disassemble the existing one to get at all the connectors? Any hints would sure be appreciated! thanks TC

Nice!

Great post! I highly recommend doing the PA on a stick with two of them if possible if you are not running direct. Gets your guitar to all points in the room!

HeHe Full Compass just sent me an email saying that the JTV assembly wont work in the V500 as I had asked them via email a couple of days ago. If Lee says it will work I am sure it will! Thanks Again!

Change them one at a time and you will be okay. Just dont twist the saddles with the piezo wires while doing it they are very delicate.

Works fine for me live when I play my Variax 500 and need some acoustic parts in a few songs. I am not comparing it to a high end acoustic amp though with a high end Martin/Taylor etc...when I play an all acoustic gig I use my Breedlove/ Boss ME70-25 and one Alto 10 FRFR speaker. Works well with my little Ovation Mandolin too.

After agonizing about spending the money on one for a monitor a bass player friend of mine was floored by how good it was at last night huge open air farmers market gig. I used one of my Alto 10s for my personal monitor.5 piece band with 5 good singers and I couldnhear everything perfectly! They are one hell of a value!

Thank you for this info I have just ordered the assembly for my Variax 500.Looks pretty easy to install. My VDI output is a little dodgy.

Go to the V-Guitar Forum. They have several members who use the JTV series Variaxes and the GR55. Germanicus is a master of using both simultaneously.

That is a very good amp.I wrote a set of patches with the cab modeling turned off for running my HD500 into the effect return of my tube amps. I find it sounds better with the cabs off but still in studio direct mode. YMMV.

My tuner / tap tempo switch started to fail a few years ago and it made my M13 do a lot of strange behaviors like that. May be time to replace that switch.

I do not have the Supersonic. I have had great results however using the M13 in the effect loop(4cable method) of my Egnater Tweaker/ Fender BDRI/ Fender HRDLX and my 1982 Marshall JCM800 combo with aftermarket effect loop installed. I would think my Fender amps effext loops are similar to the one in the Supersonic. I sure would like a Supersonic head!

sorry if I spelled Metallica incorrectly

Yes please return it. I am a heavy duty jazz player. That JC-120 is better than any JC-120 I have ever owned. It is better than Rolands own various modeled versions of it. I should know I have gigged/ recorded/ gone to war with all of them. Besides a crappy Polytone the JC-120 is the definitive loud clean jazz amp. I am not talking Mettalica fiddling around with it I am talking about thousands of great jazz players using it. If you have not owned the amp then maybe thats is part of the problem. These are however software modeled amps. I can make that Line 6 JC-120 model sound like lots of other amps. Thats the beauty of it. With enough futzing around I can get a Mesa Metalish tone out of the Pete Anderson. Run into a good set of FRFR speakers the L6 new Roland JC-120 model is almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Feel free to BBQ me now!

Yeah! I have fun on Sundays when I host a local talent/ jam night. It is my one chance every week to hang out/ talk shop/ catch up with friends and play music with no one critiquing everything I am doing. Making commercials in studios for years has kind of made me a bit obsessive lol! I dont do that kind of work anymore but still have a lot of high pressure gigs every week! Brazzy you have the right attitude. I had the best time tonite hosting this event. We had older blues musicians/ a punk funk band/ a couple of real good guitar slingers and a few others and we made it all work. A guy in cowboy clothes with a tiny Vox tube amp and a lap steel SHREDDED LOL! The most mournful beautiful sound and the guy was beyond chops good.I was reminded of why I started playing in the first place 45 years ago.

When I refret a guitar I will barely bevel the fret ends on a skinny neck as I like as much fretting surface as I can get away with.

I gave up on it a while ago and only use 4 cable once in a great while with my M13. Too much time / too many cables etc...At my gigs I look at how long my set up/ tear down time is . It is a business for me. I run my POD HD500 straight into the effect return of one of my 5 amps. No signal loss/ no tone suck/ no throwing the baby out with the bath water etc...and it kills! The only reason I would ever use it is if I started going down some crazy self destructive path and bought a $3,000 boo- teek amp with three channels and 14 preamp tubes.At that point I would have to use the 8 or 9 cable method and also midi switch all my amp channels with more cables. I would also need a decent divorce lawyer at that point because all my time would be spent wrapping/ buying/counting/worshipping cables.

Interestingly the frets on my recently acquired Variax 500 are perfectly beveled. That was done by an experienced worker.

Sounds like a lot of these JTV instruments are over-beveled when the frets are installed. Novice workers doing fret beveling will do this . I eliminate all this nut filing shaping business although I am proficient at it by installing Fender LSR rollernuts on as many of my instruments as I can. Jeff Beck uses them for a reason.

I spray the pots in my 30 plus years old Marshall with carburetor cleaner quickly followed by WD-40 quickly followed by electro contact cleaner. Just dont inhale that crap lol!