snhirsch

Ouch. It sounds like someone rubbing against a live microphone. To be sure I understand: That's being recorded directly from the guitar? If so, there's something wrong for sure.

My comment was addressed to 'rchibnik', not you :-). I'd hate to see someone let the magic smoke out of their meter. My Fluke bench unit is quite tolerant of such abuse, but I doubt the low-end units are as well protected. I am also seeing that quiescent 9.5K reading on the Line6 battery. If UPS ever manages to get my JTV-69 back to me, I'll dig in and try to figure out whether that's really just a simple R between those terminals or, as I more suspect, the port impedence of some sort of crypto based protection system (typical of camcorder packs, toner cartridges, etc.).

Using an ohmmeter in a situation where you have a voltage across the terminals is almost meaningless and could damage the meter in some circumstances.

I would not recommend strapping that third terminal directly to either side of the battery.

That would be the best outcome, wouldn't it? Let's hope it's that simple.

Really? Interesting. Mine is off getting the neck Plek'd, but I'll take a close look at it when it gets back. Since the battery voltage of the replacement is identical, there must be some mechanism for id-ing the unit. If you get a chance, mind posting a sharp closeup of the battery compartment? Update: Just did a bit searching on the interwebs. All the battery identification schemes I can find require a third connection to the battery. I suppose it's theoretically possible to do this with only two wires, but such a scheme seems a bit impractical. The bad news is that these "protection" systems (designed to protect the vendor's cash-flow, not you) largely rely on cryptographic methods similar to those used in ink-jet printer cartridges. Not so simple to work around. For the techically curious, see the Maxim and TI websites. Both firms make chips for this type of application (although there are likely to be many others). A number of Chinese companies have reverse-engineered the schemes used in mass-produced camcorders - thus the batteries on eBay - but I doubt the potential sales volume from Variax owners would be of interest to them. Philosophically, I hate the idea of being held hostage to one supplier for a consumable product like a battery. Let's hope Line6 gives the community fair warning if they intend to discontinue these packs.

I put a MagLok on mine and it helped quite a bit. But, it's not a magic bullet. If there are other mechanical issues you should deal with them first. Check the nut for pinching as a starter. There are a great series of YouTube videos on mechanical setup by Italian guitar maker Galeazzo Frudua. He covers the subject thoroughly and seems to understand the fundamentals better than about 99% of the luthiers out there.

The Variax models appear to have some logic built in that relies on the third battery contact (on bottom). I don't think it will be rocket science to figure it out, but I'm not planning to pursue it until my warranty expires next month. Standby.

Try removing one of the springs and increasing the tension on the remaining two.

My JTV-69 works fine. I did replace the neck, but that's out of personal preference.

That's why I posted the warning advising folks not to go out for a long lunch during the first few charge cycles :-). The energy density in an LI battery is fairly high and that can easily translate into pyrotechnics. My sense is that a catastrophic failure would be more likely to appear earlier in the battery lifetime than later. Is that your experience?

Well, I'm glad to hear someone finally say that. I have many years of software development background - including embedded systems - and have always had trouble accepting reports to the effect that "..doing it second time fixed things". Nothing is impossible, but I agree that any robust environment would run a checksum (if not actual CRC) on the image and throw an error on miscompare. Beyond that, I suppose it's possible that a BSS data area (i.e. not incorporated in the firmware image) somewhere is not getting updated or cleared properly at runtime. You cannot completely disregard the amount of anecdotal evidence that cycling down to a backlevel version and back changes the results.

If you use a crossover cable between an HD500 or XT pedal board and a variax, I can well believe that the outcome might not be good. Both those units supply power at enough voltage and current to let the magic smoke out of logic circuitry.

The ones on eBay have a slightly higher current rating, although I doubt that will amount to noticeably longer run time. One bit of caveat emptor: Lithium battery packs with manufacturing defects have started fires in a number of major brand laptop computers, so it's probably smart not to leave one unattended in the charger - at least not for the first few cycles. And, yes, the markup on batteries is enormous. I'd be surprised if Line6 was paying more than $8-10 in quantity for their branded batteries. The only item I can think of with higher markups would be an HDMI cable at a big-box store.

Mine shows solid red while charging and starts blinking when complete.

Do you have the interface plugged directly into a motherboard USB port? Sometimes the ones on the front of the case don't supply enough current. Worse, I have seen cases where the motherboard USB ports do not supply enough current for certain devices. My Tascam guitar trainer will not stay connected unless it's plugged into an external USB hub with its own power supply. This is why standards are so valuable: Everyone gets to have their own! If the motherboard ports aren't working, see if you can buy or borrow a hub with its own "wall wart" power supply and give that a try.

That sounds like a USB communication issue of some sort. What computer are you using to run WB? Do you have the Variax interface box plugged into the computer directly, or through a hub?

+1 on the Mag-Lok. Should be standard equipment on floating-tremolo instruments, IMHO.

If that's the case, then my apologies for interpreting it as sarcasm... I was just trying to make a stab at counteracting all the negativity that's been running rampant.

I should have known better than to post anything positive here.

Finally had a chance to use the JTV-69 in an ensemble setting and am pleased to report that everything just sounded great! Although the new strat models have noticably less "squank", they are also more realistic to my ears - particularly at high volumes. The 12-string Rick is different, but seems to be free of a lot of the tracking artifacts of v1.9. Les Paul (all 5 settings) is a huge improvement. Under 1.9 this model sounded like a strat with humbucking pickups trying to be a LP. Now, while not perfect, it's much more believable - particularly with the highs rolled off a bit. All in all: Nice work Line6! No complaints from me.

Take a look at the SuperVee MagLok. Gives you the best of both worlds. I'm not a big fan of Fender-style floating bridges either, but this gadget solved all the tuning stability problems and prevents adjacent strings from diving when you bend.

If you are able to lift the piezo element out of the bridge, that thin teflon tape used to seal plumbing threads should be about the right thickness. You certainly won't be able to push it in from above, it would have to be wrapped slightly around the element.

I think "caricature" is actually a valid term for the 1.9 sound. It was cool and squanky when playing alone through headphones, but tended towards being vague and tinny in performance situations. Initially I didn't like 2.0 but it's starting to grow on me - particularly since I managed to get one of the Strat2 fixes to "take". Unless I'm being thick about it, I haven't noticed any problems with the Strat4 setting on my JTV-69.

For whatever reason, my reply never appeared. When I load your Strat2 file it initially behaved exactly the same as the 2.0 firmware. I had to cycle the bridge p/u off/on before getting the correct sound - and even after that it reverted back to the incorrect behavior when uploaded to the guitar. After going through several rounds, lo and behold it started working! I'm not going to touch it until Line6 releases an update. Nor sure what was going on nor why it suddenly began to cooperate. I have not tried your Strat4 sound since it's not clear to me that there's any problem with that setting. It does not sound like the old Strat4, but it's distinctly different from 3 and 5.