cruisinon2

Dogs barking can't fly without umbrella! ....anxiously awaiting a translation myself.

+1...love the Soldano models. Been using them more than anything else...for varying degrees of dirt anyway. I like the Hiway 100 for cleans, especially with the JTV Strat models.

Well, depending on where you left it, it's entirely possible that the reason they haven't found anything, is because it's still sitting in it's case, along with 100 other repair jobs that nobody has looked at yet. I've noticed over the years that stuff tends to sit around at some of these places...

The real problem is that you can read other people's suggestions until you turn blue and start spitting wooden nickles, and still not find a tone you like...just because a patch works for my guitar, amp, and fingers doesn't mean it will sound the same with your set-up. In fact, it's pretty much guaranteed not to...too many variables in play. There are lot's of ways to set things up, and none of them are "right" or "wrong". If it sounds good to you, then it's "right". There are no magic bullets here, and no instant workaround for the trial and error stage, which admittedly can be frustrating. That said, since you're going into an FRFR amp, you will probably want to be using full models, as opposed to the pre-amp only ones, and keep your output setting on studio/direct. I believe the various modes that the Stagesource amp has (electric guitar, acoustic, etc, etc) can be configured in each patch on the 500X if you're running L6 Link to the L3T. After that it's just a matter of experimenting until you hit on something that you like. It's not rocket science, but it is time consuming...days to weeks kind of time consuming. Some don't like hearing that, but it's the nature of the beast. You need to mess around with all the deep edit parameters too (SAG, ER, BIAS, BIAS EXCURSION, THUMP, MASTER VOLUME...the one specific to each amp, not the global master volume control for the whole unit). If you only dial in the gain, bass, mids, and treble and call it a day, you're ignoring a ton of stuff that can further shape your sound.

See this is what always baffles me...if you wander the interwebs on various forums, you will find basically a 50/50 split between those who claim that it's the tube amps that are more susceptible to impedance mismatches, vs. those who say as you have, that it's the SS amps where it matters most. Likewise, I've seen people claim that it's fine to "push uphill", and supply a higher load to the amp that it asks for (at the expense of power), and I've seen some claim the opposite (which seems counter-intuitive to me, but what do I know?). I conclude that there are actually very few people who have any idea what they are talking about...and perhaps in this case there really is no completely objective truth on the matter at all. I honestly don't know. What I do know is that I spent the better part of a decade pushing an 8ohm SS amp into a 16ohm cabinet, sometimes at rather absurd volumes, and suffered neither fried amp, nor speakers. And if there was a power loss, it never bothered me...that rig was plenty loud. Now, for the sake of simplicity and not popping a rivet trying to figure out what the "truth" is, I just match everything...now I can buy all my strings with the money I used to spend on Excedrine Migraine.

You got it...baby steps. Forget the presets...they're mostly useless. Same goes for most of the stuff on customtone. The 500x is not a plug and play unit. You will need to spend a considerable amount of time tweaking things to get it to sound the way you want. For use with the DT amps you will usually want to use the pre-amp only models with cab sims. And if you're connected with L6 link, the output settings will be configured automatically by the DT. This is what I've seen thrown around on the forums...I don't have a DT myself, so someone with more experience will chime it I'm sure, but I think I mostly got it right. But regardless of what amp you're running it through, there tends to be a steep learning curve with this thing. There are many deep edit parameters to play with that will affect your sound, and there's just no way around spending a lot of time with it before you will be comfortable. I wouldn't rush into a live situation with it either (or most other pieces of new gear for that matter)...if you find yourself having a Spinal Tap moment on stage, trying to fiddle with gear that you don't know upside down and backwards tends to makes things worse.

Ping-pong delay

Variax mags = the guitar's magnetic pickups, as opposed to the modeled guitars. Running into the FX return should suffice for using any amp as a stage monitor.

It screws in...righty tighty, lefty loosy.

What happens is you lose power. You're doubling the resistance the amp is expecting to see, thus your 150W amp isn't 150W anymore. Will it damage anything? Probabaly not, because in this case you're pushing uphill...though this seems to be a debated topic, as I've had people tell me that it's impossible to do without damaging something, especially with a tube amp. Despite that opinion, I ran an 8 ohm rated power amp into a 16 ohm cabinet for years with no issues. What you never want to do is run an 8 ohm amp into a 4 ohm load...that's asking for trouble, and may require a fire extinguisher. Generally speaking, it's best to match the amp's impedance to the an appropriate speaker. That's why the numbers are there in the first place, and then you don't have to think about any of this crap.

IMHO, the HD series is more suited to live performance. Not that the Amplifi couldn't be used for gigging, but if you want versatility, HD is the way to go.

Hours is a good start, but it took me a few weeks of messing around to get familiar enough with this thing to get sounds I wanted. Could be many things. Are you using pre-amps only, or the full models? What output setting are you on (studio/direct, combo/front, stack/front)? Do you have the cab sims on or off? All of these things will drastically affect your tone. I don't have A DT series amp, but I believe that the intended set-up is a pre-amp only model with cab sims on. The output setting will then depend on exactly how you've set your signal chain...straight into the front of the amp, or into the fx return, or the 4 cable method which is detailed in a bunch of threads on the forum. All of those options can be mixed and matched too...no hard and fast rules. You need to experiment a little...actually a lot, before you will be comfortable with it. Took me weeks. The 500 is a complicated beast...modelers take a little getting used to.

Fair enough...but you'd think that if were that much of an issue, they might want to consider documenting it SOMEWHERE in one of the manuals. Especially given that many common headphones, even good ones, are not high impedance. AKG 240S for instance, an industry standard for studio monitor cans for neighborhood of 20 years, are 55 ohms.

I suspect the mixed results are due to using the wrong cans for the job. You really need a good pair of studio monitor headphones with a fairly flat response. There are a bunch of choices, preferrably open or semi-open back, as the closed back ones tend to give you an artificially pronounced bass response, which might be nice for listening to certain styles of music, but not so much for tweaking guitar tones. As for impedance, I honestly never gave it much thought until I started seeing the topic pop up on here, and I still can't find anything in either the Pilot's or Advanced guides that says what the impedance rating is for the phones output. Everybody keeps saying "high impedance" cans, which it may be, but I'll be damned if I can find it anywhere.

Never noticed the delay issue, or dropouts, but there is an issue with the latest JTV firmware and a very audible 'pop' or 'click' when switching patches. More noticeable if switching guitar models and going from heavy dirt to clean at the same time. Rolling back to the previous JTV firmware gets rid of it. A fix is supposedly in the works.

If by "can't use" you mean that there's no sound, then you may need to reflash the firmware. If on the other hand "can't use" means "I don't like the way it sounds", then its like anything else...tweak, tweak, tweak.

I've had 'em all...Schaller, Sperzel, Gotoh...but the Planet Waves auto-trims are the most satisfying invention ever. Don't need wire cutters or the clipper thing on the end of the peg-winder, neither of which I can ever manage to find when I sit down to change the strings. But with these things, changing strings is totally painless. Thread the string through, twist and the end just falls off. Best thing ever. They're not the prettiest tuners I've ever seen, but certainly not hideous and the convenience is priceless.

I've seen this on the forums a bunch of times, and I'm in no position to dispute it, but I can't find any reference to headphone impedance in either the pilot's guide or the advanced guide. Anybody know where this info actually is?

Well that's a new one...add it to the list. Other strange firmware related weirdness has been cured with a reflash of the firmware...or two, or three, or four reflashes. Only the big warranty repair bench in the sky knows why...worth a try. Probably won't make anything worse, and you can always roll back again if there is still no joy...

Unlikely that anything is broken. I downloaded a whole bunch of stuff from customtone when I first got my 500X...never used one of them for more than 2 seconds. Same goes for the factory presets. There are WAY too many variables to expect any patch to sound the same with your rig as it did to the guy who created it. Might have sounded just like Pantera to that guy, but with your amp, guitar, and fingers it might sound like the Ramones. You will learn more, and waste a whole lot less time if you start from scratch. Customtone is a nice idea, but without a whole lot of real world practicality. You might get some ideas seeing how others go about building their patches, as far as fx placement, etc...but a drag and drop tone solution it's not. All that said, I love this thing...but there's a learning curve, sometimes a steep one. Took me several weeks of daily use to get to the point where I'm comfortable with it. There are MANY deep edit parameters to tweak that will have a huge impact on your sound...just fiddling with gain, bass, mids, and treble is only scratching the surface of what this thing can do. Try different models, even if its not one that you think you'd like, or wouldn't even consider buying if it were the real thing...you might find that to be your favorite...that's exactly what happened to me. I really dig the Soldano models, and I've never been in the same room with a real one. You'll get there, but you gotta give it a while.

IMHO, thats just nuts. All those Big Box chains got balls of steel. Just order it from Sweetwater. You'll have it in 3 days with a 2 year warranty...and no, I have no affiliation with them whatsoever...just a customer. You're better off buying $90 worth of shoe laces than assuming another ceiling is gonna collapse on your gear.

You don't say what other gear you're using. Were you recording direct, or through an amp? Point is the problem may not be your 300...million other things can contribute to a lousy sounding acoustic model.

Well, these guitars are not without thier quirks. Read through the forums and you'll find a variety of problems that some users encounter. Buggy firmware, model selector knobs that have trouble engaging sometimes, a few different issues surrounding the alternate tunings, "quacky" piezos, etc etc. Traditional guitars they ain't, and it will probably take some getting used to at first. Some of the issues I mentioned above seem to be related to playing style (especially if you have a heavy picking hand and really dig into the strings) and how much gain you like to use. Piezos are VERY sensitive as compared to mag pickups, which can result in some funky noises till you get used to them. Don't take any of this as discouraging though...you may not have any issues at all, and as a whole I think they are very good guitars, and I now tend to reach for my JTV more often than any of my other axes, but there is a learning curve. Its amazing technology, incredibly versatile in terms of the variety of tones you can get, but not totally without its issues.

Just out of curiosity...how much are they asking for the extended warranty? Volumes have been written on what a comical scam those things are. Half the time they expect you to part with 20-30% of the purchase price for something that in all likelihood, you'll never use. If you were purchasing a $10K rig, maybe...but for something thats only $500, its thievery. Just my humble opinion...