cruisinon2

You have got it wrong!  It's not "Planned Obselescence".  It is called Progress.  New processors are hundreds of times more powerful and orders of magnitude cheaper to make.  My Dell PC has more processing power than a $10,000,000 computer from the 70's and it cost $700.  I develop hard drives for a living.  When I started out a 10MByte drive cost $10,000.   Now  you can buy a 2TB drive for $120 or less.  We did not plan for that to happen in 1982 but it did.  (2TB vs 100MB is a factor of 200,000)  Products are designed with the resources and technology that is available at the time.  They are not designed for the future. 

 

Don't get me wrong...I love technology. I love what Line6 has been able to produce.  However, there's more than one kind of progress.  And to the CEOs and bean counters of the world, the only kind of progress that matters is the kind that makes them more money. This is easily achieved by convincing (and it doesn't take much) our "keeping up with the Jone's" culture that only the latest and greatest will suffice. Like it or not, this is what keep our economy going. I'm not saying it's good, bad, or indifferent.  It just is. If you don't think that Apple already has a 5 year plan including the next iThingy and iThingy 2 that we'll all be told we "need" to have, then I don't know what to tell ya...agree to disagree I guess.

Thanks for that.

 

Good to hear of a fellow HT5 users experience. I'll do a bit more experimentation just going through the front. Output set to front combo or whatever it is, I take it?

 

I've found that setting the 500X's outputs the "correct" way based on my amp/cab setup sounded like boiled a$$. I run studio/direct outs straight into a power amp. It may not be the "right" way to do it, but it's what sounds good to me...bottom line is there's no right or wrong here. Whatever sounds good to you is the way to go. The tweeking will go on forever anyway. What sounds good today might horrify you tomorrow :wacko:

Because IMHO the Vetta II and the HD had room for improvement and were left behind for the next best "flagship of the day". Some call that progress. In a way it is, and in another , well... I sometimes wonder if its not like the Texas two step... Two steps forward, one step back... ;) Nice to have the newest flavor of the day as long as it lasts... Which isn't very long it seems. I see maybe one more update on the HD, before it too is put out to the Vetta pasture... Ahh such is progress... A sad thing to see at times nostalgic wise...  :)

 

Planned obselescence is the name of the game in everything electronic since the transistor. Good or bad, it keeps the merry-go-round running.

C

 

I have a Variax 500. A while ago, the G string dropped out, entirely. I bought a new transducer, but before getting down to actually changing it, I checked to verify that I was still having the problem. I had been using a really raggedy CAT5 cable, but had since bought a nice, shiny new Variax cable.

When I plugged it all in, everything worked fine, so I figured the power being supplied by the cable had been dodgey.

But 2 weeks ago, setting up for rehearsal, the G string was intermittently gone again, and I was getting crackles (like digital overdrive) on adjacent strings, intermittently. The G string was acting a lot like it had a somewhat high–threshold noise gate on it. But, within minutes, all was fine again.

At rehearsal 3 days later, I was noticing that if I played a little louder, a few of the strings were responding a lot louder. At one point, I shifted position, and the ‘chirp’ of moving along the D string was so loud, the other guitar player turned to me with a “What was that?†expression. The chirp, by itself, was about 20% louder than I had been playing. (It’s a 0.026" string.)

So now I'm not using the guitar, as it is not trustworthy; but I need it... (I am using three alternate tunings for each performance.)

• Is this a typical symptom?
• Is it more likely the bridge, or the interface to the digital electronics?
• Is there an easy way to diagnose what it is, other than willy-nilly replacing parts, in the hope that I’ll eventually replace the problem child?

 

 

Crackling and/or hissing sounds usually mean one or more bad piezos, according to conversations I've had with Line 6 tech guys. Intermittent problems are unfortunately difficult to diagnose, be it a guitar or a yacht. If you send it back to Line6 now, invariably it'll work fine when they get it on the bench and they'll send it back, having proclaimed it is "functioning normally". Good luck.

Well, consider this as you go though; Boss only gives you the interface on the machine itself to make patches, right?  By contrast, Line6 gives us a very nice HD Edit program to tweak our patches without ever touching the POD once it is connected by USB, so the build quality isn't as much of an issue.

 

remember, once you get your patches worked out, or more specifically once you are playing a gig -- you won't be touching anything but the footswitches anyway, right?

 

Not saying Line6 gets a pass on flimsy switches and knobs but I'll bet the cost of developing the companion spoftware (neither cheap nor easy BTW) is factored into the cost of the POD itself, hence the tradeoff being less robust knobs.  Make sense?

 

Yep...there will always be a corner cut somewhere. They could make the knobs bullet-proof, but then we'd be paying $650 for he thing, and we'd all be bitching about that instead, lol

I hooked it up to workbench once to fiddle with that, but then was paranoid about saving anything after hearing about the strat "position 2" problem, so I didn't save anything.

I'm still waiting to be approved by the vguitarforums.com admins so I can download the volume-leveled bundle for the models. Been 4 days and no reply. Tried again, and it said my username was in use. So I'm guessing I'm in limbo. Can't reapply, not getting an answer. Is it safe to change global volume and upload to JTV? Or will that mess up the strat tones?

As far as I known those strat issues can happen if you overwrite the individual Spank model and save it to position 2. Adjusting the global string settings shouldnt do that since you're not changing the models themselves. Didnt affect mine any, and I've played with various volume levels and havent noticed anything funny about the strat sounds.

Good point. No, it's not that I just don't like it; there's definitely a sound problem. It's connected to the front of the Coyote, set clean and neutral. In the POD setup menu I've selected 'power amp stack'. When I play there is a very distorted sound coming through the amp. When I first bought it and plugged it into the Zinky blue Velvet it sounded fine. I think I tried it in front and in the EFX loop and both sounded fine. But when I got my Mark I Reissue, it sounded terrible (hollow, thin, empty) out of the front of that amp. I did a comparison and it sounded fine out of the front of a fender deluxe reverb RI, so it was the Boogie that was the problem. But since then I've tried to adjust some of the parameters via Glenn DeLaune's youtube videos. Now, plugging into the Coyote there is a very distorted, harsh, sound, and still thin sounding. 

 

My frustration is that I assume the HD 500 must work well or it would't be popular. But I can't seem to make it work well for me and also there seems to be so many parameters and features that it's overwhelming. 

 

Ideally, I'd like to use it stereo sending it to both my amps, and set up a nice fuzz, univibe, wah chain. Or even use an ABY and send it the coyote while another chain of effects feeds the Boogie. 

 

But first, foremost, I just want it to sound good.

 

I've got the HD500X, and personally, I hate the way it sounds running into the front of a head, or to a dedicated tube power amp (I've tried both) when using the "correct" output settings on the 500X. However, if I leave the POD output set to studio/direct, I have no problem dialing in tones I like. I realize that this is not the way it is "supposed" to be done, as I'm running cab and mic emulations through an amp and cabinet, but for me and my ears, it works (perhaps I'm going deaf...I've been at this a while, lol).  The band has yet to complain about anything sounding funny though, so it might be worth a try before you decide to toss the POD...but as always, your mileage may vary.

@cruisin: It happens when I have my hands clear of the adjacent string. It seems to be a tone from the bridge as it can be heard even in the mags.

 

@charlie: I'd read about the foam above the nut. Some folks used a hair scrunchie. I think I may restring and put electrical tape on the bridge where the ball-ends of the strings are secured. If that doesn't help then I may just pack it in. Too expensive to have to fix their issues.

It may be worth messing around with the string volumes in Workbench before you return it. I adjusted the global string volume to lessen the piezo "quack" in certain models.  Lots of others have done the same and seen improvements.  I think that the piezos are just too hot on full blast, particularly if you're used to picking hard.

I think I may end up returning this 59 after all.  There's a strange harmonic "ping" or "tang" sound on the low E string, especially on the frets from 5 down to open string.  Very harsh and digital sounding.  Extremely noticeable on the single coil tones, but even shows up on the humbucker models as well.  You can actually hear it a little even with the mags, so I can only assume it's something with the piezo saddle and bridge. Sympathetic vibrations?  Voodoo? Anyways, I can't imagine playing this thing live and having that sound assaulting the audience.  Suggestions before I make the short drive to Guitar Center to return it would be great.  Guitar plays like a dream with no fret buzz, but man, I can't take that sound.  Even my wife can hear something is weird with it.  I'm going to change the E string and see if that helps and look the saddle over while I have it apart, but if you guys have had this issue or heard of it, please shoot me some links or suggestions.  I found a lot of issues with folks with the 69, but not much with the 59.  Thanks.

Does this happen with or without palm-muting the string(s) in question? I had a similar issue that turned out to be odd noises coming from the adjacent string that I was resting my palm on. Drove me nuts till I figured it out. Not sure if your problem is the same...

Apologies if this was already raised in this thread, but I'm too lazy to read thru 6 pages of posts to find out. I've been running 2.0 since the guitar came out of the box a month ago. Wanted to try an earlier version just for a comparison. Rolled back to 1.9, and without touching a blessed thing on the HD500X, right away I noticed a HUGE increase in sustain across most models, but particularly all the Lesters. Notes ring for days now....I like it. Anybody else notice this?

 

Also enjoying the lack of popping when switching patches on the 500x. Think I'm gonna leave it on 1.9 for a while. Acoustic models may not be quite as convincing as 2.0 versions, but not bad enough to make me switch back. 

this Amplifi product release could perhaps be a sign that the top of the line will be abandoned in favor of products even cheaper and more for the mass ..the HD line has been cut to the bone, the only products still in production are the HD500X and the PRO X ..I wonder how much longer the JTV will continue to be produced, as the brand new products do not even provide its integration..

 

are these the effects of the acquisition of the company by Yamaha?

No idea what their plans are, but I seriously doubt Yamaha had anything to do with this particular product at all. They've been in charge for what...a month, five weeks at most? No way this thing went from concept to release that fast. I'd be surprised if Yamaha has even gotten their name on Line 6's stationary yet. At this point they're still trying to figure out how many people they're gonna let go...mundane things like the future of various product lines will have to wait until all the hiring/firing/cost cutting gets sorted out.

Take an amp, any amp.  Plug in a Strat and play it.  Without changing the amp settings at all, plug in a Les Paul instead of a Strat.

 

Louder?

 

What he said...lol.

 

Difference in volumes doesn't really bother me. I find it easier to compensate with the volume in each individual patch on the 500x rather than relentlessly tweeking the guitar models in Workbench. Your mileage may vary...

All I know is that Line6 claims that the models all reflect the output of the guitar they are trying to emulate. Thus models with humbuckers can be expected to be louder than those trying to mimic single coils. It says it in the Pilot's Handbook somewhere. Whether or not that's a convenient excuse for the disparity in volumes, or a deliberate design is anybody's guess.  I haven't tried the bundle though...

Check variax 700 from 1st gen, play with fingers, pick, bottle neck, hard, light, moderate..It will be working awesomely...It was the other way around..

 

My point is, they read some praising from fanboys or happy users and then it comes to us like boomerang, decreasing the quality, playability etc.

OK...noted. Never played a 700, so I have nothing to compare the JTV to. Fanboy signing off.

There is an easy work around for the Workbench strat position 2 and 4 bug.  It's been posted since August.  You just have to swap pickups around in WB.  No big deal.  Once you do that the strat works correctly.  I do wish they would fix that bug along with releasing drivers that mate WB to HD500.  I leave my laptop connected to my HD50x and it would be very handy if I could run WB with that setup.

When you say "swap the pickups around", what do you mean exactly? I havent experimented with workbench all that much yet...

Yeah, but it is supposed to go the other way, the variax to be adjusted to everyone, not everyone to the variax.

 

Look, I'm not shilling for Line6, but I think you're asking a bit much. There isn't a single guitar on the planet that is 100% suited to anyone who touches it. That doesn't exist, and it never will. Guitarists are the pickiest/craziest people on earth.

I have just upgraded to flashware v2.0 for my JTV59.  I had several problems getting there but that's another story.

 

I have noticed these two odd behaviours with my JTV59 and HD500 since the upgrade:

 

1) loud pop/click when swapping between patches on the HD500.  Does anyone else get this?  Is there a fix for it? I can't live with this and if there is no fix, I will have to roll back to a previous FW version.

 

2) after swapping to a patch that selects a particular JTV model, if I then move the pickup selector switch, it will move to another guitar model in the model bank associated with the model chosen by the patch. I can even press the ALT-TUNE knob to get positions 2 and 4 and it still stays in the bank selected by the patch.  Prior to v2.0, if I moved the pickup selector, I would get the sound of the model that was selected by the MODEL bank on the guitar and not by the patch.  eg: if patch moved to TMOD pos 1, but guitar set to LESTER and pickup selector in middle position, if I moved the pickup selector to position 5, I would get LESTER pos 5., however, now with v2.0, if I do the same thing, I get TMOD pos 5.   Is this how it is supposed to work?  I can live with this if it is just a behaviour change.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

1) Popping is annoying.  No fix I know of.

 

2) I wish I could get the 500x to do this...less thinking (it hurts me head...especially live, lol). I'd love to not have to worry about where the knob on the guitar is. Generally speaking, if I start with a Les Paul patch, Les Paul is where I'd like to stay. Sucks if you forget to set the knob to the same model before the tunes starts...then you suddenly find yourself whisked to Acoustic Land when you thought all you were doing was changing to the neck pickup

Where is the 10% number coming from? It's estimated that 7 - 10% of the total population is left-handed. I don't know how that translates to guitarists, though. It seems like the percentage of guitarists who play left-handed would be much lower than that, though. There are plenty of left-handed people who play right-handed. I write left-handed, for example, but I've always played guitar right-handed. Actually trying to play a left-handed guitar was nothing I ever considered.

 

I'm not arguing against a left-handed Variax. I just doubt that 10% number listed above.

 

Yeah, I dunno about that either...go to any GC or similar Big Box music store (whichever ones still exist). There will be 500+ righty guitars, and maybe half-dozen lefties, if that.  Nobody caters to the lefty...which admittedly sucks for those players. But if there really was a 10% market share, you'd see more on the racks, but you don't. When I used to teach, any square one beginner who wanted to play lefty, I would try and steer them away from it.  If you can't play at all anyway, what difference does it make?...might as well start out righty.  At least you'll be able to find a guitar...

Hendrix notably did not restring the guitar - the high-E was on the top.  I get where you're going with wanting left-handed Variax models but all I'm saying is that Hendrix is not a good example.  

 

But, if you want a traditional lefty Varaix I would think you could swap transducer assignments without too much trouble. 

 

I don't know one way or the other...way before my time, but these photos would seem to argue that he did restring his guitars. Looks like low E on top to me...Now Eric Gales, on the other hand does indeed play lefty AND upside down.  Seen that for myself.

 

http://www.fanpix.net/picture-gallery/jimi-hendrix-picture-26657098.htm

 

http://www.contactmusic.com/photo/jimi_hendrix_1992826

Sean Halley mentioned on his video on getting good acoustic sounds that they sound better played softly. Tried it and it worked. So  I thought I'd try the same principle across other models.  And I found that just about every one sounds better and closer to the original models if played gently.  As a result I'm trying to adjust my technique slightly.  It seems that digging in brings out the worst in the Variax possibly due to the effect on the piezos or possibly the complexity of the harmonics it causes. Does anybody else find this or is it my imagination?

 

I think you're right...that worked for me too.  I suspect that the prospect of having to do that horrifies some players, though...lol. Bottom line is, these guitars are a very different animal than what we are all used to. I don't think there will be any universal solutions, though. Everyone approaches their instrument a bit differently.  As such, any issues encountered will vary, as will their solutions...from player to player.  Experimenting seems to the name of the game.  Tedious and frustrating perhaps, but anyone who wants to spend the time can probably find a work-around for some of the odd little noises that these guitars can produce.  I was convicned my guitar had something wrong with it at first due to some peculiar overtones on palm-muted strings when playing through any high gain amp setting. Only happened when using certain alternate tunings...once I realized that I could make it go away by slightly repositioning my picking hand (which I discovered COMPLETELY by accident), it totaly changed my perception of the instrument. Anything like that, which can be produced / removed at will, I can't call a "defect"...just the nature of what is really a very complicated beast.  With that much signal processing at work, there are bound to be some quirks...

It just occurred to me today that with the impending launch of their "new" amp product, I would imagine the various firmwares for the HD500 and possibly the JTV would need to be upgraded in order to accommodate the new gear. I am just guessing here, no basis in reality...

 

My JTV arrives tomorrow, so I am both excited and nervous - knowing going into it that the firmware issues exist, I am resigned to certain problems being dependent upon a future firmware update. Of all the issues, though the popping noise is a definite "bug", I was also really excited to use the acoustic models. However it seems they have sensitivity issues, and playing technique must be adjusted and/or substantial amounts of time must be exhausted editing the device with a computer...

 

 

I'm new to the party too...only had the JTV69 for a month or so. But I've logged many hours of playing during that time. I've found that most of the issues raised on the forum, including some initial problems I had, all boiled down to technique. Simply put, it's not a normal guitar...and as far as physical technique is concerned, some of the things that are second nature to anybody who's been playing for a lot of years may produce some odd sounds on this guitar, especially with the acoustic models.  Some might call these "bugs", but I'm not so sure that's a fair assessment. Quirks is a better word, because at least some of the problems that some folks are having, I do not consider "defects" as much as they are side-effects of the fact that the piezos are very sensitive. Any accidental string noises that would go unnoticed through a mag pickup are gonna stick out like a turd in a punchbowl on these guitars. If anything, it forces you to play cleaner.  Some issues I had with funky overtones on palm-muted strings, and the often lamented "boominess" of the acoustic models, I was able to make disappear with slight adjustments to how I approached playing the guitar physically. At this point, I can ellicit strange noises and get them to disappear at will. So a lot of these issues I think really boils down to the player.  Playing at all sloppy, or beating the daylights out of the strings, probably means you're gonna have issues. Just my $0.02...Your mileage may vary.

If I remember correctly - when I was on FW v2.0 - I tried to level the string volumes by ear and ended up turning them down between 1.5 and 4 db with Workbench HD.  When I adjusted them on v1.71 before moving on to v2.0 - I had adjusted the string volumes between 90 and 80 percent, under standard Workbench again trying to level them out by ear.   I recall that some people said they had dropped their string volumes by 6db or so under v2.0.   When I first experimented under v2.0 I noticed that the adjustment had to be 6db or more to easily notice a volume change anything less was really subtle.   It's easier enough to play around with - so maybe go for an obvious difference first and compare the models to real guitar levels through a normal amp - and if they are too quiet, then move them up a bit.   If you decide it makes no difference or not a significant enough difference that you like, then you can always reset them back to max.  I was surprised at the difference it made, I think the factory levels are too hot and it benefits from turning them down a bit, in a similar way to hurghanico's discovery that only using one input on the HD500 produces better and more realistic amp tones, tweaking the string volumes does help bring out the best in the guitar models.

This might be a dumb question, but what do you mean when you say "using only one input" on the HD500?

"Reflash the firmware" is the musical equivalent of "eat more salads and get some exercise" when your MD has no friggin' idea whats wrong with your gut...lol

I'd seen Sean's blog entry!

 

I also use 0.11's, always have on the JTV, and like I said before, the 2.0 or even those after 1.8 sound good to me when picking, but when strummed...jeez, not even close! They're so boomy, roomy...at least to me!

 

I have to EQ a lot before getting the sound I want, and I still haven't got it right! I'm 80% satisfied...for now it's enough to keep 2.0, I'm sure I'll get it just right for me on the HD500 for the acoustics...

I'd seen Sean's blog entry!

 

I also use 0.11's, always have on the JTV, and like I said before, the 2.0 or even those after 1.8 sound good to me when picking, but when strummed...jeez, not even close! They're so boomy, roomy...at least to me!

 

I have to EQ a lot before getting the sound I want, and I still haven't got it right! I'm 80% satisfied...for now it's enough to keep 2.0, I'm sure I'll get it just right for me on the HD500 for the acoustics...

I hear ya...I had same issue. I've found that strumming needs a delicate touch..and when I say delicate, I mean barrly touching the damn strings...a 'glancing blow', if you will. Took some serious adjustment on my part. Not at all a 'natural' technique...I'd been doing it one way for 25 years...not easy to change gears like that...

True - the noise will probably still be there - but reduced in volume and hopefully not as noticeable in the final sound.   I did reduce my string volumes a couple of months ago and found that the end result was that the models sounded better and more realistic - however - I have since had to reflash due to other problems and have not had time to go back and adjust the string volumes, and I have noticed that I get a lot of extraneous noise particularly when playing higher gain sounds and I know it's due to my technique but also to the sensitivity of the piezo's.  If I switch to mags then things are a lot smoother.  So I must get round to adjusting the string volumes again.    Hope it works out for you and gives you some improvement.

How far did you turn the string volume down?