tim1953

I actually do the opposite thing. When I record I use all my tube amps because they sound more natural to me and the sounds I get are bigger. I can mic them up and get some real space around the instrument without using digital processing. The digital stuff just sounds one dimentional to me. I use the HD 500 & Variax for my duo when we play live - easier and I can mix the show myself because everything is coming out of the same speaker. The only time I ever use the Variax in the studio is for the sounds like the sitar and the odd instrument that I don't actually own. And oh yeah I live in Maryland too... :)

I tend to use more small combos for recording but I do have a 4x12 Marshall cabinet loaded with Celestion (Vox) speakers and that cabinet sounds great in the studio - awesome on tape. I think the key is that those speakers are low watt speakers (15 to 25 watt each) not the 75 watt speakers that come in the standard newer Marshall cabinets - a $250 speaker vs a $65 speaker - a world of difference. The green backs and vintage 30 Celestions record great as well in those 4X12 Marshall cabinets. I even plug my 65 Deluxe or my Bassman head into that cabinet for recording a lot of times when I want a more in your face punchy Fender sound. Some of those awesome Pete Towneshend tones on the early recordings were a Fender head through a Marshall 4x12 cabinet - with low watt Celestions. So I have to disagree with you on that point. Your other points are pretty much dead on.

One thing about Steve Howe using a HD 500 and a Variax. He does indeed use it for a brief period during his live show and it sounds okay but not nearly as good as his other stuff during the show. He uses it for convience, not because it gives him the best sound. I doubt he will be selling any of his real guitars anytime soon and replace them with Variax models. And I own and like my Variax but we need to keep things in perspective when we talk about who's using what. I for one use the Variax for open tunings for the live show. It works but doesn't sound as good as my real guitars when I open tune them. I use it for the convience of not carrying so many guitars to the live gigs. In the studio the Variax spends it's time in the case and so does the HD 500.

I opened a few tickets the first month I owned the unit. Even sent recordings of the front end break up. I talked to a few people - the problem was not fixed and can't be fixed without a redesign of the input section. Anyone that's been playing guitar for long enough realizes that the interaction between the guitar and the first stage of the guitar amp is a very important thing. You can't get a model of a tube amp to respond correctly if the first stage just before the A to D conversion is crapping out. I own 20 guitars - the ones with the hotter humbucker pickups are the ones that over drive the front end. On the older forum it was discussed for months - many people could hear it - lots just gave up and sold the unit or took it back to the store. I've just learn to put up with it and try to use guitars with pickups that have less output. It made the problem less obvious but it didn't make it go away. The complaints that some users have made about the overdrive pedals and distorted amps sounding off could very well be the distortion happening in the front end of the HD 500 competing with the amp modeling. You would think that after three years it would have been fixed in the newer HD 500x but it wasn't. It's something that can't be fixed in a software upgrade and I think Line 6 knows it. As far as ideascale I think Line 6 pays less attention to that than the support tickets. It's been around for a good while now and there have been lots of good ideas posted - I haven't seen one implemented so what's the use of wasting time. As far as the palming muting deal I can't believe you can't hear it. Palm mute on a standard guitar and then the Variax - there's a noticable difference in attack and definition. The Variax sounds dark and muffled in comparision. Not a knock on you or anything but maybe you're ears just aren't as trained as mine. I have spent the past 40+ years in recording studios so maybe I'm just more sensative to things such as distortion and tonal changes. I am bothered on some songs I play with the latency the Variax guitar has. It's enough on some rhythm parts to feel it. It feels like the guitar is fighting me - sort of lagging behind. The Variax 300 came out about 10 years ago - it sold for around $400. As a guitar it was a dog so Line 6 in all their wisdom came out with the Tyler models which sold for over 3 times as much. It's the same old technology in a new box and that's why sales have dropped off to the point that some stores like Guitar Center don't even carry them anymore. It's not a put down because the Variax can be a very useful tool in some instances but it does have it's limitations. Not to mention these things would be like a walk through life with blinders on. If the end user doesn't bring up the weak points the newer products will be released with the very same issues. The folks at Line 6 have developed some pretty cool stuff but they do need to spend more time on fixing issues like the ones i've mentioned here. At any rate peace to you brother - we've wasted enough time on this issue.

Well that should tell you something. It tells me there are a lot of Line 6 customers that are not happy with customer support. It also tells me that some products have problems that have not been addressed - some for as long as 2 years or more. So you as a Line 6 Expert should pass some of these concerns along to your buddies oven in the public relations department. The users with problems come here not to vent but to see if there are any other users with the same issues. Guess what? - These problems are real. The EQ on the HD 500 really does suck. The front end of the HD 500 does break down under heavy load. The battery doors on the G 30 wireless are pieces of s$!T. The lack of a power switch on the HD 500 was a stupid over sight. The Variax does sound terrible when you do palm muting on the bass strings. Many of us have spent a lot of money over the years on Line 6 gear. Give us some respect - we just want some support.

No not at all. The Variax guts are pretty small and the control area on the Jet was routed a bit to fit everything in place. My guitar tech did the actual work after I planned out how I wanted the controls arranged. You can see on the photos how all the Variax stuff is in one place. The Jet is a chambered guitar which made the routing a bit easier. After the routing was finished he made up a new control compartment cover. It took some time to figure it all out but after that it took about a day to do all the work. The biggest hold back was that the main board had a fault with it since the day I bought the guitar. It came to a head during the transplant and I wound up ordering a replacement board. The 300 from day one had this problem where I would be playing and the guitar would just stop working. I would remove the cord and replug it and it would start working again but it always came back on with a different sound. During the transplant it got even worse so I figured I'd fix the problem - the new board was the answer and now thank God no more problems. If you look at the photos you will see that I kept the number of controls to a minimum. For the mag pickups there's a master volume and master tone which is controlled by a CTS 500K dual stacked pot. The pickup selector switch stayed the same. The Jet comes with a volume pot for each pickup & a tone control along with a master volume. I got rid of the individual volume pots, moved the tone pot as stated above and used the holes for the Variax controls. The only thing left to do was cut the slot for the Strat style 5 way switch which was cut near the other control holes. My tech's name is Mike Forrester - he does great work. http://www.forresterkustoms.com/home.html

The Mag pickups are wired separate of the Variax guts with their own output jacks. I wanted to keep things separate so the Jet's sound stayed the same - it's a really good sounding guitar. The volume and tone are controlled by the CTS 500K dual stacked pot that is where the Gretsch master volume use to be. I use the Variax with an HD 500 so the pickups go to the guitar input and the Variax uses it's cat 5 cable. No noise at all because the Variax guts were kept away from the mag pickup control - it's dead quiet. In the studio I can use my tube amps or the HD 500 and it's a very versatile guitar.

Thought I'd show this. No left-handed Variax - no problem. Since the 300 is a terrible guitar it's guts found a new home in my Gretsch. Complete with Graph tech ghost piezo bridge.

No one's asking for free updates - many of us are willing to pay for new amp models. When the HD500 came out one of the selling points was the ability to update and add new features through software. And what makes you think that "people" will keep buying new things when Line 6 is developing a reputation of releasing a product and than bailing out on it's user base. That kind of thing is what turns people away and makes them look elsewhere. I own several Line 6 products and I don't think I'll be rushing out anytime soon to buy another. Who knows maybe the merger with Yamaha will fix these types of issues - one could only hope so!

Seems to me that Line 6 could make a lot more money off of the HDXXX series if they kept adding amp models for us to buy. Send it out to the stores loaded with 16 amps than allow us to buy additional amp models by down load. There are so many amps out there that could be modelled. I'd like to see the Marshall Silver Anniversary series, Peavey 5150, Mesa Mark II, Fender 5E3, Fender 63 Bassman, Roland Jazz chorus, etc, etc. Some that they already modelled like the Marshall 800 & Vox AC15 should be done over again - the amps they used were dogs. Oh well I'm done talking to the wall again... :rolleyes:

Merry Christmas too all!

Sound like worn or dirty contacts. If contact spray doesn't solve the problem you need to replace the switch.

Traditionally over drive pedals, distortion pedals sound best when ran into a clean guitar amp. In the case of an amp modeling box like the hd 300 you should try using a clean amp model. Running a distortion pedal into a distorted amp along with a modelled distortion pedal will most always sound like sh!t because all the overtones and harmonics clash. My suggestion start with a clean amp model turn on the distortion + pedal and adjust it to get close to the sound you are looking for. Only add other stuff after you are happy with the basic sound. Make sure you try several different clean amps and adjust the tones as you tweek the MXR pedal. I've owned a MXR distortion + pedal since 1978 - they've never sounded good to me through a distorted amp. They always sounded their best through Fender amps that were just on the edge of distortion but not fully cranked. Try the Fender Twin or Deluxe models in the HD 300.

Chinese artifact - they never were very good with metals.

They are all over my HD 500 from 2011. I've wondered what they are as well but never bothered to ask. It kinda makes the pedal look like a cheap project box though.

You could take the unit to the place you bought it and see if they have a power supply that you could try with your unit to see if you power supply is bad. That way you wouldn't have to spend the money just to see if your supply is bad.

HD 500 - 21.5 X 10.5 X 4

It just seems to me that if you have a product like the HD 500 that you put a lot of time into development and modelling - it would make sense to keep offering new models. That way you're not only keeping the people who already own a Pod happy but you're giving potential buyers more reasons to purchase one. Like I said in an earlier post I'd be willing to pay for new models - I don't expect them to be free forever.

5 amps is enough for me if they model the right ones. I just think they picked some crappy versions of some good amps. If you're gonna model a Marshall 800 use a good one - the one in the Pod HD 500 is lame. Same way with the AC 15. I play all kinds of music but under a live situation I only need a few good amps. That's why I think having a choice of what amps you load into your own Pod would be the ticket.

Sorry but I was referring to todays metal bands who tend to use one sound all night long. Bands from the 80s for the most part were more versatile and didn't use presets to develope their sound - they did it by using different amps... anyway my point of having choice of amp models would be the better way to do it. Let the user decide what amp models they want to load in their box.

One of the advertised selling points for the "NEW POD HD 500" was that this new product would keep evolving and that the user would be able to download new amps and features - in other words the product would not become obsolete like earlier models. Well where's the new amp models? I would even be open to paying for new amp models. That seems like a reasonable way to go. That way a customer could pay for the models they want and not have memory space taken up with stuff they're not ever going to use. Medal guys have no use for a Roland JC 120 or a Fender Deluxe and the mellow rock guys don't need all the hi-gain stuff.

Yeah I guess it does. I use those amps in the studio and when my full band does live shows but I use the HD 500 for Duo gigs so I don't have to haul the amps on gigs where they won't fit anyway. Line 6 has a basic good product there that they just need better sources to model. There's just too many good amps out there to be wasting time on pawn shop stuff like the Gibtone 185 & Super O. If I only have 16 amps to choose from I'd rather they would be real work horses like the ones I've mentioned. I mean come on the Marshall 800 they modelled sounds like crap. I've had dozens of 800s come through my studio over the past 20 years (on top of the one I own) and none of them sounds as lollipop as the one in the HD 500. I can't get it to sound good no matter what. It's so bad that I bought a Tech 21 Marshall pedal and run it through the HD 500 effects loop. At least it sounds like a Marshall.

Come on Line 6 - more models please! Check The Ideas page - lots of good amp suggestions there. I'm just wondering where Line 6 got half of the amps they modelled. Because my Marshall 800, Vox AC 30 & Fender Deluxe blows all of those amps away. Where's the 5150, 5E3 Tweed Deluxe, 63 6G6-B Bassman, etc.

Before you sell it for $2 - smash it with a hammer. It will make you feel better, release bottled up stress and Pete Townshend would be proud of ya!

Update- Installed new saddles today - a-5 & e-6 are still weak while strings 1 through 4 are better. I did notice if I push down on the strings directly behind the bridge the volume gets louder and the tone cleans up and is very pure. I lowered the stop tail piece all the way down so it's touching the guitar body - it got better but the sound is still not where it should be. Even after lowering the stop tail piece there is still plenty of clearance so the strings are not touching the back of the bridge. I guess I will call Graph Tech and report back to them. They have been very nice through all of this but I really need to find a fix soon. Everything else is working great other than the on going problem of not being able to get work bench to see the Variax. I never had this problem until I upgraded the software. Edit - New bridge on the way. Work bench is working. It appears you have to click on the HD 500 (not 300/600) before the software can find the Variax. Will report back when new bridge arrives.