cruisinon2

First thing in your signal chain is the input block, which has a noise gate...season to taste.

On 3/29/2024 at 10:23 AM, MikeC59 said:

I need to check/update software on a Variax 600. I'm having difficulty finding the USB interface to buy, so I can use Monkey or the Workbench. Anyone know of a source, I've tried Amazon and done an online search, no luck so far?

 

With all the Variax platforms having been officially discontinued several months ago, I'd say the odds of finding a  new USB dongle anywhere is slim to none. You can always trudge through the swamp that is the used gear market on eBay and/ or Reverb and maybe you'll get lucky. But honestly, those things were hard to come by before they deep-sixed the whole product line.

On 3/19/2024 at 3:25 PM, psarkissian said:

"This is not a sloppy technique problem", it can be sometimes.

"doesn't have a blessed thing to do with what kind of pick one might be using", it can be sometimes.

 

Lol... so we're to believe that sloppy playing and/or the "wrong" choice of pick somehow magically forces a DETUNED signal from a piezo saddle that has had its output set to zero? Well that's some Old Testament-level miracle stuff, right there... I'll sum up, yet again:

- A string output OFF.

- Play palm muted notes on aforementioned A string, with ZERO OUTPUT.

- DETUNED  notes exit the instrument, clearly audible through amplifier.

Zero output is zero output. If notes played on a string with zero output still manage to come through the amp, AND those notes are detuned, despite the fact that the selected tuning DOES NOT ALTER the pitch of the string in question, then there's only one place that signal can possibly be coming from: The ONLY saddle that's set to detune the pitch with the selected tuning... in this case, the Low E.

But by all means, let's blame the pick...after all, I'm 15 lbs overweight because the guy at the next table is eating cheesecake.

If I play on a string that has been turned OFF, then it wouldn't matter if I were using a chunk of gravel or a razor blade as a pick... off is off. I should hear NOTHING coming through the amp...but that's not the case. And if I were 12 years old with 2 weeks of guitar lessons under my belt, I might accept the "you don't know what you're doing yet", noisy palm muting explanation... but that ship sailed 40 years ago.

It's OK to admit that the tech is imperfect... because that's the truth. Or you can just keep grasping at straws and trying to gaslight everybody. Peace.

On 3/19/2024 at 11:36 AM, psarkissian said:

- Palm muting,... make certain all strings are sufficiently muted, so that they won't sympathetically ring. Stiffer picks don't

make a thwacking noise as much.

 

At the risk of beating a decade-old dead horse, this is not a sloppy technique problem, and it doesn't have a blessed thing to do with what kind of pick one might be using, and it's all easily provable. Go into Workbench and turn the A string output to zero. Then go ahead and chug away on the A string. If perfect isolation from other piezo saddles existed, you'd hear nothing at all coming through the amp, but that's not what happens. The notes are still clearly audible through whatever it is that your playing through, albeit at a lower volume. And with the Drop D tuning engaged, the notes you hear WILL be detuned from the actual pitch you are playing. With the A string output at zero, and a DETUNED note coming through the amp, the only possible conclusion is that the low E string piezo is capturing the notes played on the A string... because the Drop D tuning doesn't alter the A string, only the low E.

That's not sympathetic ringing,  or the "dual tone" phenomenon of heating both the acoustic pitch as well as an altered note. With the A string output fully OFF, playing on that string alone should produce no sound at all through the amp, never mind a pitch one whole step below the note being played.

On 3/18/2024 at 2:40 PM, babtanian said:

I'm late to the party on my acquisition of a Shuriken, and have recently experienced the exact same issue. I ran the test in Workbench that was suggested above and was able to confirm fairly strong bleed-through of the detuned E string after reducing the A string volume to 0%. Additionally, if I reduce the E and D strings to 0%, I can then palm mute the A string without issue.

 

Based on those tests, it would seem that the issue is conclusively "un-fixable" in the current iteration of the instrument, but I thought I'd check here to see if anything has changed in the last few years - or if anyone has developed a reasonable work-around.

 

Thanks!

You are correct...I did all the same experimentation that you've mentioned when I got mine 10+ years ago. There's no getting around it. It was never fixed and it won't be, as I don't think it's possible... it's a mechanical issue inherent to the design. Plus, all the Variax stuff has been discontinued anyway, so they're not working on anything anymore.

As you've noticed, there is cross-talk between adjacent piezo saddles, most noticeable when palm muting on the A string. The Low E saddle can "hear" the A string, and with any of the "drop D" tunings, detunes it by a whole step, and outputs it along with the original un-altered note(s) from the A string itself. There a reason nobody writes whole step harmony lines ;)... it's frightfully unpleasant. High gain tones make it worse. It's only a problem with alt tunings that detune some strings but not others. When all the strings are being dropped by the same interval it's a non-issue because any bleed- through to other saddles will produce the same altered pitch as the original string. But with adjacent strings where one is alerted and the other isn't, the result is a mess.

Depending on the tune/riff in question, sometimes you can get away with it... but much of the time it's useless. This was one of my primary reasons for wanting a Variax in the first place, and turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Bottom line is the Variax does some things very well, and others not so much. There are some technical hurdles that I'm not convinced can ever be fixed, and this is one of them... unless somebody figures out a way to truly isolate the signal from each string. Till then, it is what it is.

On 3/14/2024 at 12:08 PM, Bennyskoo said:

Hey guys good morning, I've noticed that FL Studio and MPC have a "snap to scale" feature where you can choose a key, and regardless of what you play, the keyboard only produces notes in that key. Is there anything similar to that for the Line 6 electric guitars or any line 6 pedal that can do this?

Mercifully, no...

On 3/16/2024 at 10:34 AM, Musicman2024 said:

As a performing musician I find that I often switch from acoustic 6 & 12 string guitars, single coil and humbucker electrics and like other musicians, swapping out guitars mid-sets is not convenient most of the time. I had been aware of the Variax guitars for years but never really bothered to try one out. About a year ago I finally tried a used Variax Standard  being sold by someone who didn't know much about guitars and guitar set up and care and although I was tempted to buy,  I passed on it. Recently I decided I'd revisit the idea particularly as the James Tyler VARIAX looked to be very well made instruments but soon discovered that all these guitars have been discontinued. I can understand that Line 6 may not have had enough buyers to continue the series.

What I now realize is that these guitars basically use a Hexaphonic pickup for each string. I imagine routing and installing a Variax electronic module inside a guitar is a challenging thing to do based on space but being able to quickly switch guitar types/tuning on the fly is very cool. 

I was wondering if LINE 6 has considered developing a foot pedal type unit (supplied with / without the necessary hexaphonic pickup) that can be used as a standalone guitar modeller and would allow anyone to use it with their own choice of guitar. Seems to me there would be a lot more space available in a box unit and switching guitar types /tunings etc. would be still quite simple for guitarist used to using foot pedals or mic stand mounted units? I for one would definitely be INTERESTED in such a unit.

Nobody from L6 monitors these forums. Product/ feature requests have to go in Ideascale, otherwise they'll never be seen by a single eyeball capable of acting on the suggestion.

And fwiw, similar requests have appeared in here more than once over the years. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

On 3/15/2024 at 8:19 AM, ramblinwreck said:

There have been issues with the new layout of the customtone page.  Why not just bring back the old layout?  It was better, and worked. 

 

Still unable to change the sort order and direction.  No matter which "Sort by" is selected, the patches are in the same order -- apparently oldest first from 10/9/15.  There is no UI element to click for the sort direction.

 

Also, it is annoying to have to click the comment icon to see the author's patch notes.

Yup... our lunch special today is a $hit sandwich. Line up and take your bite, lol.

Everybody hates it, as evidenced by the dozen other threads all gripping about the same things. In today's world "new and improved" often means "broken". It's the new normal, so buckle up...it's gonna be a bumpy ride. Politicians call it "progress". Enjoy! ;)

On 3/11/2024 at 1:42 PM, emble1 said:

I seem to remember coming here and finding page after page of tones for some of my older line 6 products but now there are hardly any at all. I have a Pod Go and The HX stomp XL and the selection is limited, even Helix offers very little. I only get one page of tones am I doing something wrong?

There are at least a half dozen other threads with the same gripe. Absent some official proclamation from the powers that be, you can guess until you turn blue about what the cause is. Website glitch, migrating stuff to another server and/or software platform, purging a bunch of crap for no particular reason... or maybe aliens stole it all. Your guess is as good as anybody else's.

There is good news though... now instead of spending hours on end auditioning dozens (if not hundreds) of patches to find the one that might actually be useful without extensive editing, now you can spend that time actually learning how to use your device and figure out how to create what you need on your own. In the long run you'll waste far less time, and you'll gain knowledge that you can apply to any modeler under the sun,  no matter who made it.

On 3/9/2024 at 5:28 PM, Dkapprio said:

For the past few months the volume in my in-ears has been going up and down randomly at live shows. I've tried everything and finally deducted that its the Helix. I will literally be in the middle of a riff and my volume will skyrocket or drop significantly and its extremely irritating. I've changed all the cables, even my in-ears. wtf is happening, send help.

Without more details, all anybody can do is guess. Does it happen only with one particular patch, or can it be any patch at any time? Is there a volume pedal block in the affected patch(es), or are you using an external expression pedal for anything? Aside from a volume pedal drifting one way or the other and needing to be recalibrated, I can't immediately think of what might be causing it. Is there anything specific that you do that will trigger the problem? Posting the affected patch(es) would allow someone else to download it and see if they can reproduce the same problem on their end.

Whatever it is, it's unlikely to be hardware related. If it's just one particular patch, then I'd say it probably got corrupted somehow... rebuild it from scratch in an empty slot and see what happens. Otherwise, as with pretty much any odd and unexplainable behavior, just about the only option you have as an end user is backing up everything and then doing a factory reset. May or may not help, but it certainly won't hurt. If that doesn't solve it, then it's time to open a service ticket.

On 3/8/2024 at 7:43 AM, yoMuzicMan said:

Line6 Support got back to me with these comments:

 

"It's been on the known issues list since 2.92 (happens on HX One, too). I'm not sure where it stands in the pipeline to be fixed, I'll bring it forth to our QA/product manager. I recommend keeping eye on the release notes on future firmware release to see what's been fixed or pending."

Lol... Allow me to translate:

"We're on it! (since 5/19/2020). Keep your eyes peeled!"...;)

If it hasn't been addressed in nearly 4 years, then clearly it's not at the top of anybody's to-do list. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

This reminds me of the running joke throughout that old Tom Hanks movie, "The Money Pit"...every time he asks the contractor for an end date to the already months-long renovation project, the answer is "Two weeks!"

Hurry up and wait, lol...

On 3/6/2024 at 10:35 AM, rd2rk said:

It's so funny. If you spend any time on TGP you see the usual ongoing "AXEFX is better than Helix", "QC is better than Helix", KPA/QC/ToneX/NAM/Tonocracy Profiles/captures are the way of the future", "When will L6 release Helix II with capture capability?", "L6 is clueless and falling behind".

 

Lol...I went digital a dozen-ish years ago. I have no amps left to "capture". I'd be stuck downloading somebody else's profiles... which is guaranteed to be the same exercise in futility as combing through the Wasteland of Unusable Sounds that is Customtone, ;)

If that's the "future", then I'm SOL...

On 3/6/2024 at 3:30 PM, Poopghost64 said:

Idk just wanted to get some ideas out there incase anyone in development looks at these.

Trust me, they don't... it's a user forum. L6 personnel rarely show up. Feature requests have to go in IdeaScale, otherwise nobody "official" will ever lay eyes on it.

On 3/6/2024 at 12:30 PM, datacommando said:

 

TGP is hilarious.

 

When this launched yesterday, there was quite a bit of complaining about, "it's made of plastic", "there is no IR loading capabilities", etc. I think those guys are so serious that the miss the point about some young kid just staring out buys their first guitar along with one of these things and "WOW!, I can sound like this in my bedroom". I guess they don't quite understand the market that Line 6 are aiming for..

Hard to say if it's a lack of understanding about the target demographic, or the genuine belief that "I have no use for this thing, therefore no one else will either". We live in a bizarre time, and people are weird.  And guitar players are weird and crazy....

Ok, then. Unfortunately, just about the only recourse we have as end users when weird stuff happens (no matter what it is), is to back up everything and do a factory reset. It might not help, but it certainly won't make anything worse. If the issue persists after you've restored everything, then it's time for a service ticket.

All kinds of weird stuff can happen when you copy/ paste a patch to another slot... it's also possible you've discovered a bug. However, if the behavior only happens after you copy and paste, and the original patch otherwise behaves normally, then at least you know how to avoid it...

On 3/4/2024 at 1:20 AM, JordanDennis said:

I'm relatively new to the world of amplifiers, and I've been looking into Line 6 for live performances and recording sessions. Have any of you used Line 6 amplifiers? How do they compare to other amplifiers you've worked with?

This is kinda like asking if anyone's ever driven a Chevy, and if it's better than a Ford, or a Kia. The "best" amplifier is the one you can afford, that also suits your needs. They're just tools... and you might decide that you like the inherent characteristics of Marshall amps more than Fender... but that doesn't make one any better or worse than the other. They just produce their own distinctive tones... you like what you like.

Also, as L6 is primarily know for their amp modelers and not so much actual amplifiers (though they have made several), you have to decide what it is that you actually want/need. Modelers and traditional guitar amplifiers are two totally different kinds of equipment.

On 2/24/2024 at 10:29 AM, ziboric said:

Bob,

 

I am curious about the results of your neck replacement journey.

 

Where you able to find a suitable replacement?

 

I am in the same boat with my 89F. I dig the guitar, but hate the neck.

 

This is a nearly 10 year old thread... and according to his profile page, the last time that guy logged on was in 2018. Don't hold your breath for a reply.

On 2/23/2024 at 8:19 AM, majicmanmaj1 said:

Hi.  I'm looking for some advice on getting a decent live sound from my Variax through my POD Go.  I'm playing Guitar 2 in a pit band in a couple of months for a performance of Bonnie & Clyde.  Most of the sounds are acoustic guitar, Dobro slide parts, Banjo, electric and I've managed to get a half-decent mandolin sound by fiddling around on the workbench HD.  My problem is that I can't seem to get a  convincing sound through my POD Go for the acoustic instruments.  For the show I will be going from the POD Go directly into the PA. Has anybody got any advice, please?

Getting a convincing acoustic tone is mostly about what you're listening through when creating your tones. You need some sort of FRFR speaker solution, as that's what you'll be dealing with at the gig... studio monitors, a good pair of reasonably flat response headphones, etc. If you're currently running your POD Go through a traditional guitar amp, you can tweak until you turn blue, and it'll never sound like an acoustic guitar as typical guitar speakers lack a sufficiently wide frequency response. Also, it will then sound wildly different when you run through the PA.

Beyond that, you don't really need to bother using an amp sim in your chain either, in fact it'll probably do more harm than good. Some compression, a studio preamp, EQ, and any fx you might want (reverb, delay, etc) are really all you need to get a decent acoustic tone. You could also just run a completely empty patch using the raw Variax acoustic model of your choice, and let the sound guy deal with the EQ and fx...if you were playing an actual acoustic/ electric guitar, or a mic-ed acoustic at the gig, that's exactly what would be happening anyway.

On 2/16/2024 at 8:56 AM, BrettinMS said:

My setup: HX Stomp run directly through JBL 305s

 

I'm curious as to why overdriven tones thru just an amp block sound more open than when adding a cab block.  It's like throwing a blanket over the sound after the cab is engaged.  

 

How am I erring?

You don't mention anything about what cabs you're pairing with a given amp, or more importantly your choice of mic sims and their position. Just grabbing a cabinet and dropping it in the chain after the amp block is only half the battle. The mic choice and where you put it have a HUGE impact on the final result... just as it does in a studio mic-ing a real cabinet. There are a bunch of mics to choose from... try different ones and move them around.

I assure you that the cab/mic sims in Helix can produce anything from the "wet blanket" effect you mention to "screeching like a f*cked cat during a bird calling contest". Your job is to find a happy medium...

You should post this over in the POD Farm section, under "computer based recording". Those whom might have the answer you're looking for are not likely to see it in here... The Lounge is a ghost town, lol.

On 2/12/2024 at 1:32 PM, rd2rk said:

 

The problem with Fractal sandwiches is the plethora of advanced options - mayo, mustard, ketchup (even CATSUP!), lettuce (6 different types), tomatoes, eggplant, rutabaga, the list goes on and on! I'd spend all my time tweaking and wind up starving to death!

The mustard sub-menu would be exhausting. I can think of at least a dozen adjustable parameters for Dijon alone...

On 2/12/2024 at 11:44 AM, ricstudioc said:

So..... models of the Danelectro Tuna Melt trem, BLT Slap Back, Pastrami Overdrive, PB&J Delay?

 

Ah hell - now I'm hungry.

Pastrami Overdrive would be a great Weird Al album title...

If Helix can't make me a sandwich after the next update, I'm going Fractal...

Might as well ask for a tuna sub and a foot massage... nobody "official" frequents this forum. Feature requests have to go in IdeaScale.