cruisinon2

I heard that the next generation of modelers is being developed at CERN, in Geneva. Two things: wormholes, and time travel... you're gonna get to be your own delay...stay tuned ;).

Yes...any power amp will do that. Many options...plenty out there that are specifically designed for guitar rigs, others that are more geared towards PA systems, but in the end they are all doing the same thing as the power section in your head...they take the signal you feed it and drive speakers. You'll probably be better off if you look towards the ones designed for a guitar rig, as they are tailored to the task. Either way it's another piece of gear to lug around, but depending on what you choose, you might save a little weight and/or space compared to your head. Tube power amps will take up at least 2 rack spaces, and they're heavy. A Marshall 9100 for example, is 3 rack spaces and weighs 50 or 60 lbs...ditched mine years ago in the interest of remaining vertical, and staying off of an operating table. Or you can get a single rack space, solid state power amp from Rocktron that doesn't weigh any more than the 500...but power ratings will hardly be comparable to the tube units. What's the "better" or "worse" choice will be debated until the end of time.

Like I said...no right or wrong here. But if you like the Vox that much and want to use it's pre-amp for your basic tone, then you are really only using the 500X for fx, and you're missing out on much of what this unit can do. It is after all, an amp modeler. There are a couple of dozen options in there, and you might find one that you like 10x more than your Vox. If not, there are a bunch of other multi-fx units out there that are a lot less complicated to use than the Pods.

Nothing wrong with going that route...just know that you will end up with 3 or more sets of patches: headphones, amp at bedroom volume, and gig volume. Everything will need to be dialed in, and they likely won't be interchangable.

There are no magic bullets for tone matching on this, or any other amp in the universe. Someone else's settings will never sound the same in your hands. The guitar, the pickups, the player, and to a great extent the volume you're playing at will all contribute to the tone. Trial and error is the only way to get even half way to what you're looking for.

Doesn't matter how you're listening...you'll always have to push buttons and turn knobs till it sounds good. But you'll want to use a quality pair of studio monitor headphones...preferably open, or semi-open back. Closed back cans will give you an artificially pronounced low end, and you'll find yourself rolling off the bass to the point where it's at or near zero, and depending on the amp model and guitar you're using, it might still be too much.

You're not alone with the output settings...combo/front, stack/front, etc are all just different EQ curves being applied to approximate what you'd want for a given set-up, but its never gonna work for every amp out there. You can also experiment with using full amps vs. pre-amp only models, as well as changing cabinet models, or turning cab sims off altogether. Many ways to set things up, and none of them are 'right' or 'wrong'. The deep edit parameters (sag, bias, early relflection, etc) will also color your tone significantly. Tends to be a learning curve for the 500x...mess around with everything. As far as amp choices, as was already said above, it won't matter what you get, you will have to tweak things all over again regardless of what you choose. The simplest choice, in terms of maintaining consistency with your tones from headphones, to recording direct, to playing live, will be an FRFR set-up. Lots of options for that too, depending on how much $$ you want to spend. Happy hunting!

Not sure what you mean by 'artificially'... fx send/return, and "pre-amp out/ power amp in" are really the same thing. Either way you're bypassing the head's preamp and slaving the power section to drive a cabinet. But despite the name, don't plug an external power amp's speakers outs into the 'amp in' jack...its looking for a line level signal, and you'll fry both amps.

2.0 seems to be a bit flakey. Rolling back to 1.9 is worth trying too, as some have reported night and day differences. Why is anybody's guess.

The Black Knight always triumphs!

It's an eternity, really...unless you're the Lord of the Dance... :P

This might be stupid...but you're not in an alt. tuning right? Check everything with the mags to be sure there's not some funky JTV/DSP weirdness going on.

Also, when in doubt, reflash the firmware. It seems to be the magic fairy dust in many cases.

Relative prices of the other guitars have nothing to do with it. If you had three different Strats in front of you, they will not all sound identicle. Ditto for any other kind of guitar...so don't waste any more time comparing it to other guitars. If you already know the ins and outs of the 500, then you're probably not doing anything wrong...the JTV is just a different guitar, actually a very different guitar. Let the tweaking being...Right out of the box, mine sounded much like what a boiled landfill would smell like. You'll need to spend some time with it to get it to sound the way you want.

If only you had taken it to an authorized service center... ;) It's odd that it's off by an entire 1/2 step, and that's gonna be a pretty big saddle adjustment, but it should be fixable. If I understand you correctly, the fretted E at the 12th fret is flat compared to the 12th fret harmonic? That being the case, the vibrating length of the string needs to be shortened, so you would adjust the saddle by moving it towards the nut. Do it incrementally, and check the fretted note against the harmonic after each adjustment until he tones match.

"We want another shrubbery! And place it beside the first one, so we shall have a path..."

I believe "rubbish" is the term our friends across the pond would use in a situation such as this. If you're actually playing mid-patch change, it's as clear as day. If you mute the strings, then switch, it's less obvious, but still there. I suppose it depends on exactly how they're "testing" it...

You'll hear that if you're listening/tweaking while connected to Workbench. Don't know why.

Would be like reviewing a Ferrari vs. a Honda Civic. Both are cars, both will get you from A to B...but that's about where the similarities end.

Yeah, it's pulling whatever models are currently saved to the guitar into Workbench. If everything you have in there is stock, then it doesn't matter and you can hit cancel...but if you've messed with anything [string volumes, creating cutom models, etc] and want to keep what you have, let it go through the motions or you might accidentally overwrite changes that you've made.

If you're running 2.0 on your JTV, that click you are hearing when you switch patches came as a free gift with the firmware update. Everybody hates it, but it ain't going anywhere until the next update...maybe, if they feel like addressing it. There are other threads discussing it somewhere on here. Rolling back to 1.9 gets rid of it...at the moment thats the only fix I know of. As for the acoustic sounds...its a long wait for a train that ain't coming. No electric guitar amp is gonna be convincing. They just dont't have the frequency response.

That's kinda what I figured...lol

I only know what others have posted: http://line6.com/support/topic/4917-jtv69-alternate-tuning-issue/ It's towards the end of the first page in that thread. This guy posted what he claims was the official explanation that accompanied his repair. He says that he was advised to keep 10's on the guitar. This is what I was referring to above. NONE of it are my words, nobody at Line 6 ever told me that the string gauge couldn't be changed...as I said, I can only go by what I've seen others post. Maybe he made it all up...I have no idea.

I think that FRFR is the only solution. You can tweak until Doomsday..if you're running into any kind of electric guitar amp, its never gonna sound like a true acoustic. I can get some really convincing acoustic sounds through headphones, recording direct, or straight to a PA...but through an amp? Never been able to get there.

Actually, if I had to find a gripe about Sweetwater, this is it. Got mine at the end of December, and it came with 1.7 firmware, so check when you get it to make sure it was updated, cause it might not be. Minor issues tho, and wouldn't stop me from ordering from them again.