cruisinon2

Is it me, or is this guy intensely creepy?

Mere mortals cannot achieve such a sound...He practices that in between reminding everyone that he went to Harvard, and droning on about injustice and his personal philanthropic efforts.

First of all, it's called sarcasm...not intended to be taken seriously. But I'm sure the company appreciates you leaping to their defense. Maybe they'll send you a coupon. Second, I'm a realist. I don't expect firmware updates every five minutes or a press release about future products every time their R&D dept has a meeting. Plenty of others whine about being "abandoned"...I've got better things to do. Generally, I don't think that L6 is any better or worse at customer relations than any other company I've dealt with. I like their products, and I'm sure I'll buy more. In fact, I'm considering a Stagesource set-up myself. At the same time, I've been around long enough to learn not to expect perfection or miracles from anybody. The instant gratification crowd doesn't seem to grasp that. All that said...you gotta admit it is kinda funny that with all the issues raised on the forums, and as rare as it is for anyone "official" to say anything at all, when they do its: "The solution to your problem is to buy more of our stuff". And I'm sorry, but unless you have absolutely no sense of humor at all...thats funny. There...I clarified. All better now?

Doesn't seem to matter where the tuning knob is on mine. As long as the tuning I want is saved to the preset, it changes as it should. I just tested it to be sure before replying. To the OP...Select the patch you want, and hold down VIEW button for a second or two. A settings menu will open. Scroll thru the pages until you get to the Variax tuning page. The default is set to Don't Force. Use the knobs to change it to whatever tuning you want, then save. Be careful with the following though... If you save the tuning you want to the patch, then at some point after that you change the guitar model and save again, the tuning choice will revert to standard. Its generally regarded as a bug, and a major pain in the a$$ until you realize why its happening. Hope that helps.

I know I'll get flamed for this, but the Amplifi imho, is not pro gear. While it has some cool features, its clearly geared towards the beginner. If you need versatility, there are better options.

Commercials now? lol...

You can't go directly from the Pod to a cab. The Pod has no power section, so it cannot drive a speaker cabinet. If you don't want a combo, or a head, you'll need a separate power amp. But no matter which way you go, be prepared to tweak everything all over again with whatever set-up you choose. Patches that work for headphones will sound VERY different through anything else.

Sooner or later some angry user with a ruined JTV will file a McLawsuit...then there will be a warning label just like on the coffee cups at the drive-thru...

Yup. The marketing makes it sound like the tones of all your favorite players are just the click of a footswitch away, but it's never gonna work like that. It's a bitter pill for some...and for the novice who likely doesn't yet understand how much subtle nuance and feel contribute to one's sound, the straight-out-of-the-box experience is bound to be disappointing.

You can fix it yourself in two seconds...just level them out in Workbench. Waiting for Line 6 to do it for you may prove to be disappointing.

Nothing needs to be pristine...that's my whole point. In fact, these ruined-by-design monstrosities have all the "pristine" sucked out of them before they leave the factory, and yet they're still functional. So if a $400 pawn shop guitar feels and sounds good to you, by all means buy it. But why on earth would you part with thousands of dollars for an instrument that looks like it was found at the bottom of a swamp, when the truth is there's not a scrap of difference between that Strat, and the $400 one at the pawn shop? To build a guitar that is intentionally made to look like it was used for target practice, then hang a tag on it that says "Custom Shop" and demand 5X the price, is asinine....once upon a time people were also talked into buying Yugos...but I digress. I've got a couple of old beaters with dents, dings, and scratches that I refuse to get rid of, and still play, mostly for sentimental reasons...but they're not worth anything to anybody but me. If I tried to sell them on eBay for $3K, I'd get laughed at...but when Fender puts the same guitar in a red velvet case, and tell you it's "custom made", I'm supposed to believe it's actually worth the money? Nothing more than a good marketing campaign. And it obviously works...stores have whole rooms full of these things now. For the same money, buy five old war horses from the pawn shop...leave them outside for a couple of New England winters, then take some 60 grit sandpaper, or a dremel to them if they still don't look sh***y enough for ya, lol.

There's a reason they do it, but imho it's a stretch to call it logic. They do it because there are people who are willing to buy them, end of story. But people can be concvinced that just about anything is worth money...our entire economy is based on this premise.There are those who are willing to pay $100 for a pair of jeans that already has 27 holes pre-torn into them...there's a market, but does it make any sense? Maybe it's me... "If you take two things that have never been nailed together before, and nail them together...some schmuck will buy it from you." -George Carlin

I agree...the whole thing is an interesting concept, but a 500 it's not. That doesn't make it any better or worse, just different. I really think they were targeting a different user base with the Amplifi. Before this thing was introduced, never once did I say to myself "Gee, if only I could stream music through my guitar amp". I've got a stereo for that. So obviously they were going after another demographic, lol.

Might not have warranty if it was a "demo" model that was thrown around and played, but if its a new, never been used guitar with only a cosmetic flaw and no functional issues, they can't not honor the warranty...L6 just sells it at a discount to one of their dealers because of the cosmetic issue. Otherwise its still a new instrument. Plus, Sweetwater gives you extra year warranty on top of the factory one on just about everything they sell. Can't really go wrong with that.

I have long been mystified by the whole vintage guitar market. Where is it written that just because something is old, it must be good, and worth a premium price? And the faux-vintage market is even more bizarre. They take a brand new strat, drag it behind a pick-up through a gravel pit...and suddenly its worth $3K? Why not buy a regular one for $1200 and destroy it yourself? Boggles the mind...

Sounds like your problem is a bit more involved than mine. If you check out the piezo crosstalk thread, I went into great, gory detail about the problem. It only affects the various drop D tunings (drop D, drop Db, open D). All the others are OK. Seems to be the result of low E piezo picking up vibrations from the A string when I'm palm muting. Check out that thread...it explains the whole thing. As far as "fixing" it...the only solution I've found is angleing my picking hand so that when palm muting the A string, I'm not touching the low E string at all...then the funky overtones disappear. However, this is easier said than done. I have no problems with any other strings.

I'm not complaining either, and nobody can read the mind of the whomever drafted the release notes. But simply acknowledging a problem really doesn't imply an impending solution at all. In fact, all it really says is what everybody already knows. Then they're giving us the solution in the next sentence...use the USB interface. Technically, it's "resolved"...not to anyone's satisfaction, but resolved notheless. I'm not holding my breath.

Some of the lower prices you are seeing may be "scratch and dent" models, which usually means there's a minor cosmetic flaw somewhere, a light scratch or two in the finish, etc. Don't let that stop you though...it can be a great deal. Got my 69 for $900 from Sweetwater...tiny scratch on the back, looks like somebody's screwdriver slipped puting on one of the backplates. Eventually I'll do worse damage to it myself just from normal use, and it's on the back anyway, so who cares? The $500 savings bought my 500X...

Well somebody owes you a battery no matter what happens...as far as the other stuff goes, I would definitely try reflashing the firmware first. Its quick and easy (usually), and it isnt likely to make things any worse. Browse thru the forum and you'll see numerous reports of all kinds of weird issues that can be remedied with reflashing the guitar. Anecdotal evidence suggests that sometimes reflashing several times is necessary...no one knows why and it makes little sense, but it has apparently made a difference in more than a few cases. Good luck.

Yup...not touching the firmware again until the next update arrives...whenever that may be. And even then I"ll probably wait and see if it sets fire to any guitars before I chance it. :wacko:

I suspect that even they don't know why the firmware behaves this way. It's never the same problem twice. Makes a universal fix rather difficult. Explains why they seem to have opted for the "cross your fingers and re-flash" approach.

This would be way-cool, but I suspect that Gibson and most of their loyal "traditionalists" would consider it sacrilege. Makes no sense, but this is the mindset. Same reason you can't buy a liquid-cooled Harley. (yeah I know...the V-Rod, but even the Harley guys don't consider them to be "real" Harleys)...but I digress. And since Gibson is fond of putting amusing price tags on stuff, can you imagine the cost? It would price-out most buyers.

Agreed...you'd think that either everything would work, or nothing would. Had similar issue with the position 3 acoustic model after flashing to 2.0 the first time. That model had a very strange, bass-heavy delay if the tone knob was anywhere but 100% on. I'd play a note, and about 300 ms later this loud "whump" (and I had no delay in the patch at all). Re-flashed the firmware, and it disappeared. These guitars can get really odd at times.

The integration is a great concept...but I just can't see myself trusting this set-up live. At home, or in the studio is one thing, but I don't want to be handcuffed by dodgey bluetooth connections...they tend to drop out at the most inopportune moments. And relying on battery-driven devices that have the same appetite for juice that an Abrahms tank has for gas wouldn't thrill me onstage either. Anybody who's gigged enough to have a few Spinal Tap "Pod" moments onstage knows all the stuff that can go wrong with just a guitar, amp, and a cord. Also don't want to be locked into iOS forever, either. Probably lotsa fun to play with in a controlled environment though.