edstar1960

Maybe the intonation is slightly out on the 59 - it may need some slight tweaking to get it spot on if it's a new guitar - it probably also needs to settle down to conditions in your house which may be very different from where it has come from - so the wood will take a few days to acclimatise and the neck may move a little - so you probably need to double check your set up, including neck relief, once you have had it for a week or two, and adjust as necessary.

If you have a JTV connected to the HD500X via a VDI cable, then you can assign INPUT 1 to VARIAX (which gives you the model) and INPUT 2 to VARIAX MAGS (which gives you the magnetic pick ups on the JTV). You can assign this setting as GLOBAL or PRESET (patch by patch basis). On any patch that is set up like this then you can choose to blend the 2 together into one common path or keep them both separate and running on PATH A and PATH B and separated at the MIXER to have L go one way and R go another. You can decide per patch whether you are using both sounds simultaneoulsy or just using one or the other. You can also program things so you can use the expression pedal to move from one sound to the other from heel down to toe down. You will have lots of choices and loads of flexibility.

The drop in volume is what gives you the "desired sound" because it is accurately reflecting what happens with a normal guitar into an effect or an amp. The default setting (input 2 - SAME) on the Pod HD gives you a +6db boost into whatever you have first in the chain - either effect or amp - if you are not using a split path - this does not accurately reflect a normal guitar into effect/amp situation and ends up sending too hot a signal into the signal chain. If you are using "input 1 - guitar and input 2 - Variax" but wish to boost the volume then you can do so by using one of the EQ models in one of the fx slots at an appropriate point in your signal chain - or you can use the MIXER block to increase volume levels - it really depends what you want to do and what effect or tone you are trying to achieve. Bear in mind though that if you boost the signal volume at the start of the chain you are probably negating any benefit you had from using the different input settings. Hope that helps to clarify the situation.

Yep that's right clay-man - the acoustics model a mic'd acoustic and that sounds authentic and best when played through a Full Range speaker system such as a PA - a guitar amp only has one speaker and a more limited frequency range that is ideal for electric guitar - hence the reason that the mags get routed to the guitar amp as that is where they will sound best.

The virtual capo is programmed based on fret 12 being the nut - so virtual capo 1 would be programmed by playing strings at 13th fret, capo 2 at 14th fret etc. This also allows you to go the other way, so virtual capo -1 would be fret 11, -2 fret 10, etc ....

That does not sound right - I recommend you open a support ticket with Line6 support and enlist their help - it may be that you have a faulty JTV69 or a faulty component. Hope you get it fixed.

Read the manual as referred to in the post from alienux: http://line6.com/support/manuals/podhd500 What have you got plugged in to the HD500 and what input socket have you got it plugged into? How have you connected the HD500 to your amp? What output socket are you using? What have you got the MASTER control knob set to? Do you hear anything if you plug headphones into the phones socket and listen on them?

The saddle height will depend on where you have set the trem plate. The JTV69 comes from the factory set up with the plate floating allowing you to pull back on the trem (raise notes) as well as dive bomb. The saddles with the factory set up are not raised much at all - just enough to follow the radius of the guitar necks and frets to avoid buzzing. If you don't want to use the trem or never want to pull back on it to raise notes - then you can lower the trem plat so it is flush with the guitar body - but then you will have to raise the saddles a fair bit to give your strings sufficient height over the frets so they don't buzz. Your saddle height and action will depend on how you want your trem set up. If you lock the trem out with something like a tremo-no - then you can treat it like a hard tail and you will be able to achieve lower action - but if you want to use the trem then you will have to compromise and allow a little bit of extra height to allow for string movement when you engage the trem.

If you can successfully save an open G tuning then I can't see any reason why you can't save a virtual capo tuning - from the JTV perspective it's the same thing - that is, you are just altering the note of each string to the saved tuning. When you say it does not sound correct - what exactly do you mean? Are some of the notes reproduced correctly and some not - or are all the notes reproduced incorrectly? And the ones that are incorrect - how far out are they?

I have not had this happen, but from what I recall from the manual, the alt-tune knob should be set to MODEL to ensure you get the tuning that is set for the particular model selected - if you then move it to another position it overrides whatever is set in the model and enforces whatever tuning is set to that position. Now with the HD500 and 500X you can store in a patch a forced tuning for a variax model, so when you choose that patch the forced tuning saved with the patch takes over - but what I am not sure of is whether that forced tuning will override the setting of the ALT TUNING KNOB on the JTV. I have not tried it myself, but I would think that logically the patch setting should override the knob setting BUT if you move the knob on the JTV that then would override the patch setting and reset the tuning to where you have moved the alt tuning knob to. I always have my alt-tune knob set to MODEL and control and altered tunings from the stored HD500 patch. But I wonder whether you have uncovered a glitch where the guitar can jump to the setting of the alt-tune knob without being forced, if the alt-tune knob is set to anything other than MODEL, but I wondered what triggered it to do that, especially as it is behaving itself now.

Glad to hear that through headphones it sounds fairly decent to you - that means the unit is not faulty. Can you actually get it to sound as you want via headphones or is it just very close but still not quite there? It could just be that you don't like the sound of the unit and can identify the digital sound above all else - or it could be that your chosen methods of monitoring or the equipment you are using to monitor the output are highlighting the digital characteristics. Hearing is very subjective and some people will always hear the digital characteristics of the HD500 no matter what they do to overcome it. Have you got a valve pre-amp or power amp that you can use to monitor the output through? Or a mixing desk which has quality mic pre-amps on the input channel? These can add warmth and help cover the digital characteristics and may be all you need to get to that sweet spot. Have you seen the MEAMBOBBO guide on the HD500? It covers many things and does have a very useful section on EQ that may be just what you need to tweak the unit to your needs - here is the link to the EQ section of his guide: http://foobazaar.com/podhd/toneGuide/eq Hope that helps.

I don't have a 59P but I do have a 59 and I have read many threads on this forum so hopefully I can offer some information regarding your questions. 1) Apparently the palm muting is much improved but I think some people may still say it's not good enough - you won't know yourself until you try and see if it meets your requirements. 2) All Variaxes and JTVs suffer weird overtones and digital artefact issues - it's the nature of the beast. They can be addressed by ensuring you have your guitar setup correctly and by playing style, however, that may or may not address all issues because that is down to your individual playing style and what you are expecting from the JTV, and also down to the physical characteristics of the actual JTV59P you end up with - so you may find none of the issues bother you or you may find that to your ear they stand out so much you can't live with them - again you won't know until you try for yourself. 3) String volumes can be adjusted at a global and an individual model level with Workbench HD and firmware v2.1. Some people (me included) have reported that 2.0 and 2.1 out of the box has incorrect string volume balance in as much as the high E and B are too quiet in comparison to the low E and A, particularly on the TMOD and SPANK models but also on others, and that you have to manually adjust each model to correct that imbalance. Others have reported that there are no issues with the string volume balance. It appears that it may be a software glitch that can hit when upgrading from v1.9 to v2.0 or v2.1 - however - the problem has not yet been identified or fixed - and the work around is to manually adjust in Workbench HD or to stay on v1.9. Again, until you get your JTV59P you won't know whether you will hit this problem - you may find that you are lucky and everything works as it should. But even so - it's not a deal breaker because you can adjust them yourself or roll back to v1.9 and the problem is solved. But chances are you won't have an issue. 4) The build of my JTV59 is excellent and I understand that the JTV59Ps are just as good. The frets are jumbo, so they are tall, which means if you press too hard then it will go out of tune, but as long as you just fret hard enough to sound the string without buzzing then its not an issue. It does not fret out and I did not have any dead spots on mine. Again you could be unlucky and get a bad one but a professional good set up should take care of any issues that are likely to arise. I have seen a thread where people have complained of a piezo problem with the 59P but I don't believe it is widespread - so again unlikely you will hit it, but if you do, then it can be fixed under warranty OR you can ask for the guitar to be replaced if you are buying it new. Overall, the quality is very good and you should not have a problem. 5) If you switch models the sound will momentarily cut out because it's loading in a new model into the processor - it is very brief and is barely noticeable. And if you did not notice it with your v600 I don't think you will notice it with a JTV - again you need to try it yourself to see if it is acceptable to you and what you intend to use the guitar for. 6) Reports are that they are good but I have not tried them myself. Hope that helps.

Please add to this thread if you have experienced this problem - thank you.

The springs are stretched between the trem block and a claw that is screwed into the body - the tension is controlled by the distance between the trem block and the claw fix points. The screws that hold the claw into the body can be loosened which moves the claw fix points nearer the trem and will lower the tension produced by the springs as they are not stretched as far- conversely if you tighten the screws and move the claw fix points further away from the trem then the springs are stretched further and more tension is produced. You adjust the amount of tension to suit what you feel comfortable with.

Does it sound OK if you just monitor with Headphones in the phones jack? You should be able to get a good sound just using a guitar with an amp model with cab+ mic sims on in STUDIO output mode. You should then be able to record that in garageband and get a very good playback. Also - as pfsmith0 says - what have you got inputs set to? GUITAR/SAME setting is +6DB louder than GUITAR/VARIAX - and if you are using a guitar with HUMBUCKERS and you have not engaged the PAD switch on the front of the HD500, then you may well be over driving your inputs as pfsmith0 suggests. If you can't get a good sound with a simple patch and set up and you have double checked all input and output settings are correct and that all your leads and connections are in perfect working order then perhaps you have a faulty unit.

Thanks John - I have a gig this Saturday so I don't want to mess around with this just in case I brick my JTV59 - however I may get up courage to try again when I don't have any gig dates coming up.... Meanwhile, has anyone else encountered a problem when selecting a different body type within Workbench HD? Thanks.

Please spare a moment to record your issue with low volume B and E strings in my thread here: http://line6.com/support/topic/7445-who-has-had-b-e-strings-very-low-volume-after-flash-upgrade/ And please spare a moment to vote for the issue to be fixed on Ideascale here: http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Please-fix-model-string-volume-imbalance-with-fw-2-0-and-2-1/619937-23508 The more people that report the issue the more likely it is that it will be fixed. Many thanks. :)

That's interesting - I thought when no amp was selected in a patch that the DT25 defaulted to the on board amp setting on channel B of the DT25.

Last night I was using Workbench HD to adjust the string levels for models on my JTV59. The JTV59 connected with VDI into HD500 then via USB to Win 7 PC running Workbench HD. Everything running latest firmware levels. I adjusted string levels on quite a few models and reviewed all of them. The ones I changed I transferred (uploaded) to Variax - and I did this several times. Most of the time it was fine, however, sometimes it seemed to take a few seconds to recognise when I had selected a different bank and model and the Workbench HD would grey out and appear to hang but then a few seconds later there would be a click and everything would be in sync. Once I was happy with my string volume adjustments I then thought I would try out swapping a body on one of the models just to see how it worked. I had noticed that whilst adjusting the string volumes that whichever model I had selected, the body type on the Workbench HD screen would always show as Neutral, when I thought it should show the body of the actual model selected. Anyway, I had SEMI bank selected and position 1. I had just tried swapping the pickup from SEMI HUMBUCKER to LP HUMBUCKER and then swapped it back which I did by downloading the SEMI pos 1 model from the JTV59 rather than re-updating the Workbench HD definition. So everything seemed fine at this point and I could see the SEMI model chosen in the main window, and NEUTRAL showing as body type in the bottom part of the window, so I clicked on the slider and rotated through the different models and noted that the main window did not change and still showed the SEMI body type. I just happened to stop on the CHIME body type and decided to use that - so I clicked on the body icon - this seemed to take after a pause and the chime model body was shown but now the sound I could hear sounded like the Chime 12 string model. Odd, so I decided to reset it but then discovered it would not change even when I selected the Semi body type or any other body type. So I tried to download from Variax again and received a popup which I think said Midi time out error with a code. Oh no. So I then tried switching model banks on the JTV59 and using the pickup selector switch and discovered that all positions now just played the Chime 12 string model. So I tried switching off the modelling on the JTV59 and discovered that the push down knob would not disengage modelling mode. Oh no again - what had happened? So I ended Workbench HD on the PC, and again tried to switch off modelling and to select a different model on the JTV59 and found that all I could get was the Chime 12 string model. So then I decided to disconnect the VDI cable and power off the JTV59. I did that and waited for about 30 seconds to make sure that all power had gone, then I reconnected it and to my great relief it reverted back to normal and the settings that I had previously made before messing with the BODY option. PHEW! Unfortunately, I panicked at the time and did not make a note of the popup window and error code or an exact note of every single step I had taken to get to the problem or every step I took to resolve the problem. The description above is what I remember but I am not too keen to try it again in case I break the JTV59 more permanently next time. I am on latest firmware for everything - so I was not expecting any issues. Has anyone used the MODEL BODY Selection with Workbench HD without any issue or has anyone experienced this problem or something similar? Is the MODEL BODY selection part of Workbench HD broken - or was this just a one off glitch that hit me - or was it a particular sequence of actions that caused the problem? Thanks.

The suggested method used with digital tuners eliminates much of the harmonics and noise that comes through when you pluck a note on normal settings. It allows you to more quickly tune the guitar to itself at the pick strength you use when you do the tuning because it helps isolate the fundamental note. If you allow the string to ring and tune to pitch when it starts to settle as opposed to while it is still oscillating around pitch then this method just gets you to that point much quicker - obviously the harder you pluck the more you affect the initial pitch and the longer the string takes to settle to pitch. You are correct that if during normal play you then pick harder and play much nearer the bridge that the strings will react differently and certainly initial pick attack will always send a string or fretted note sharp but they should all still be in tune relative to each other if your initial tuning was correct regardless of which tuning technique was used. I have tried the suggested method with my JTV into an HD500 and it certainly stops the indicator from bouncing around all over the place and makes it much easier for me to get the strings to hit dead center on the HD500 tuner scale. I don't play with a gentle touch and I have not noticed any tuning problems as a result of changing my tuning technique - but I also don't have super sensitive hearing regarding pitch - however I can tell when something is out as it grates and stands out but I may not notice if something is only very slightly out. YMMV. :)

Hey Toasterdude - OP of this thread is looking for some Variax parts .... http://line6.com/support/topic/7635-jtv-electronics-wanted/

You need to message Toasterdude - he has some spare Variax guts that he wants to sell ...

Just a gentle reminder that if you have experienced this issue then please take a moment to comment in this thread and to vote for it to be fixed on ideascale. Here is the link: http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Please-fix-model-string-volume-imbalance-with-fw-2-0-and-2-1/619937-23508 Thank you.

I read a very interesting article on guitar tuning and guitar tuners written by an experienced sound engineer which was very enlightening and some of what he said may go some way to explaining what could be happening here which could be a combination of things related to digital tuners and electric guitars and tuning technique. If I can find the link I will post it here. Meanwhile, it is worth trying his suggested technique for tuning electric guitars more consistently and accurately with whatever tuner you use. His suggested method is as follows: 1) select neck pickup 2) roll off tone completely - set tone knob to zero 3) pluck the string over the 12th fret Also, always set each string to the desired pitch at the same point after plucking the string, because the initial pluck will always make the note sharp then it settles down, so the pitch varies as the string vibrates. I usually wait a second or so for it to settle before adjusting. You will be surprised at how much quicker the note settles down following the method above making it much easier to tune with a digital tuner. Here is the link: http://www.endino.com/archive/tuningnightmares.html

You can use one of the EQ models - I think it's either STUDIO EQ or GRAPHIC EQ - or maybe both or another one (but not the MID RANGE EQ which gives a mid range boost) - sorry don't have the HD500 to hand to check - but one of those EQ models set at default levels and just increasing the GAIN setting as needed can be assigned to a FS and give you just a volume boost without effecting TONE.