edstar1960

I have had exactly the same problem. I raised it in a thread and never found out what the problem was. I don't have the issue at the moment but I don't know what fixed it or if it just went away. I am on latest Hd500 firmware v2.20. My original thread on this issue can be found here: http://line6.com/support/topic/2181-hd500-dt25-very-bright-sound-on-patch-change/

Thanks for doing the recording and forwarding it to me - I have passed it on to Line6 support in my ticket and I hope it will lead to some action. Thanks again - much appreciated!

Thank you very much! I will send it Line 6 support! :) I will let you know what they have to say.

Thank you. Unfortunately I get an ERROR 403 when I try to use the link. I will message you my email address so you can forward it to me. Thanks.

If the battery charging has the correct indicator lights and the batteries have had the full recharge and the indicator lights have started blinking at the appropriate rate to indicate charging complete then it does sound like it must be a problem with the battery box as Charlie_Watt has suggested. One more thing to check before you have to contact Line 6 support for help - are the batteries sliding correctly into place within the battery compartment and making contact with the terminals? If they do slide in perfectly and make contact then I suggest you call Line 6 for assistance. Hope you get it sorted.

Personally - I went for what someone else recommended in the forums which was the Fender 150Rs pure nickel - I was quite happy using EB slinky's and Dean Markley strings on my other guitars before that but on the JTV they just sounded too bright - way too much treble on everything - with the Fender 150Rs everything is much more natural sounding and warmer. The EB's were brighter than the stock D'Addarios' but the stock D'Addario's were still too bright for my taste. So, I think you need to find strings that suit your ear and playing style. Comments above from the other guys are very helpful concerning flatwound, half wound and the Elixir strings which also found favour with JTV players and reduce various bright/harsh overtones/artifacts, as do the pure nickel strings. So, if you think the D'Addario's on the JTV still produce a metallic plink you would rather not have, then it is definitely worth trying one of the suggested options to see if you can get a tone you are happy with.

Thank you! Very much appreciated! :)

I have raised the popping noise issue on Ideascale - please vote if you would like it fixed. Thank you. http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Please-fix-popping-noise-changing-JTV-model-from-HD500/605833-23508?submitted=1

I have raised this on Ideascale - please vote if you would like to see it fixed. Thank you. Here is the link: http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Please-fix-popping-noise-changing-JTV-model-from-HD500/605833-23508?submitted=1

Just raised this on Ideascale - so please vote for this to be fixed. Thanks. Here is the link: http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Please-fix-popping-noise-changing-JTV-model-from-HD500/605833-23508?submitted=1

I have just raised this on IDEASCALE - so please vote for this to be fixed! Here is the link: http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Please-fix-popping-noise-changing-JTV-model-from-HD500/605833-23508?submitted=1 Thank you! :)

The popping noise was introduced with JTV firmware v2.0. Roll the firmware on your JTV back to v1.9 and you will find that you can change presets on your HD500 without the annoying pop. That is what I am currently doing. This has been reported by a number of people now and I have an open ticket with Line 6 support but they want me to upload an audio to demonstrate the noise. BUT. problem is that I have rolled back to fix the issue and don't want to roll forward just to recreate the problem for the purposes of an audio to prove that there is a problem to Line6 especially as it has been reported by a number of users on the forum. However, if you have some spare minutes and can upload an audio demonstrating the popping noise on patch change then we can give that to Line 6 and hope they will work on fixing it for us - we will probably also have to add it to Ideascale and vote for it.

I used to have Ernie Ball super slinkies on my JTV59 but upon a recommendation I found in one of the Line6 forum threads I tried the Fender original 150Rs pure nickel strings and immediately found everything sounded much better - previously I had found everything way too bright - too much treble - but the Fender 150R nickels are much more rounded and warm to my ears. Definitely recommend everyone trying different strings to find what suits their ears and playing style best with the JTV. They make a big difference - and more so on a JTV than on a standard guitar because the piezo's are so sensitive.

The toe switch is within the HD unit so you won't see it, and yes you have to press down hard to get it to engage. I think by default when you plug the unit in that the Expression pedal is assigned to EXP 2 and the green light next to it illuminates - if you press down hard on the toe switch then it should swap to EXP 1 and illuminate the red light next to the pedal. Certainly some of the factory presets with WAH and/or VOLUME pedal assigned are set up like that so you can test to see if it is working.

Sounds like you have it configured correctly. This may seem like a silly question but are you singing in the mic and playing the variax at the same time with the Vocoder enabled and still not getting any sound output?

The XLR you see on the pics is the alternate output - the other is standard 1/4 inch - the foot switch allows you to A/B between those two outputs, so you can be connected to a standard amp and a PA at same time which is ideal for swapping between variax electric and acoustic sounds. The connection from the footswitch to the Variax or JTV is via the TRS cable as stevekc pointed out above - that carries power for the Variax or JTV and also carries back the output model sounds from the instrument.

Once you have adjusted your input guitar settings, and then turned down the amp DRIVE and turned up the VOL level possibly even to max, if you still don't get the clean sound you are after, then look at the MASTER VOLUME deep edit parameter on page 2 of the AMP EDIT screens - often that is set at 100 for most amps and it controls power amp distortion level - so if you want it cleaned up some more you can dial that parameter back to a level you are happy with. NB: as per the manual the MASTER VOLUME parameter is highly interactive with the other amp controls, so the lower it is set the less effect the other controls will have.

What guitar are you using with your HD500X? Does it have single coils or hum buckers? Or are you using a Variax or JTV? Are you using the default input settings for the HD500X for INPUT 1 and INPUT 2 ? (ie: INPUT 2 = SAME) ? Have you any fx in the path in front of the amp model? If you are using a guitar with humbuckers and using default INPUT 1 and INPUT 2 then you may simply be overdriving the input to the amp. You can address this by setting INPUT 2 to AUX so you only have one input active. Also you can just turn down the volume pot on your guitar to lower the input signal. If you have an fx model in front of the amp model maybe the output is too hot going into the amp model? Also, if using GUITAR, in your SYSTEM settings what do you have the GUITAR IN-Z set to on page 3 of the setup screens? Default is AUTO - but possibly you have set that to a mismatched value for your guitar? Hope that helps.

I have the same problem with my JTV59. It's intermittent and as I normally use the HD500 to control model switching I have not been too concerned about it, but it is definitely not right. My JTV59 is from 2011 and was from after all the early bad switch problems - so I know it has the correct latest switch design BUT it still exhibits this odd behaviour some times when selecting between mags which means it is not suitable for live usage. I don't understand why a fault on the switch would affect the volume of the mag pups - so I was wondering if it is something else that is failing that is noticeable when using the pup selector - certainly moving the pup selector will route the signal differently - and if Inerzia has had a similar problem on his JTV89 then I doubt it is a problem with the JTV59 selector - more likely a common component that comes into play when the mag pups are engaged. Just my guess. Would like to know for certain though so I know what needs fixing when the time comes.

For a brief while my JTV59 exhibited the behaviour you describe - ie: the HD500 changed the model, then the JTV remained in the same bank and using the pickup selector switch selected models within that bank - BUT then it mysteriously went back to the previous normal behaviour where the MODEL control knob on the JTV was what controlled which bank the pickup selector was choosing models from. I can't remember exactly when it changed but I seem to recall that it was after a firmware update ( I think moving to 1.9 or 2.0) - I was having to reflash a few times due to flakey update issues and it definitely changed behaviour during one of those. I am sure I posted about it in one of the threads on the forum and I am sure there were other people who had exactly the same issues who also commented in that and other threads. HOWEVER, all of us discovered that the behaviour went back to the pickup selector using the MODEL selector chosen bank as it's reference and NOT what was forced from the HD500. We never got to the bottom of it - so don't understand why it changed and then changed back. There is a LOCK and UNLOCK setting for the JTV on the HD500 to allow you to control whether the JTV control knobs will affect a forced model if you adjust them - I have not experimented with that setting and I was wondering whether that may also have an affect on whether the JTV MODEL knob setting is recognised or not. It may be worth trying that to see if it makes any difference, but I seem to recall from the earlier threads that we did check out that setting and it didn't help out - but your mileage may vary.

You can also assign the EXPRESSION pedal to control the amp volume parameter (as well as pretty much any other parameter), so you can have a min and max volume of the amp controlled by the pedal - just toe down for your volume boost. Or just use the EXPRESSION pedal as a VOLUME pedal and set a suitable MIN value then toe down to have the MAX at full volume as per the amp channel volume control.

Hi Peter - yes that makes sense - the ability to change tuning on the JTV from the HD500 was introduced at one of the v1.8x firmware levels (can't remember exactly which one) for the JTV. If you had JTV firmware v1.71, the software would not have supported being changed from the HD500.

Sounds like you have been hit by the mystery firmware 2.0 ghost in the machine bug that only affects some JTV owners. I had issues with v2.0 when I upgraded on my JTV59 - then I re-flashed a few more times and suddenly one of the updates produced better results than before and it seemed that just a bit of tweaking in Workbench HD would be all that was needed. However, I had to roll back to v1.9 because I use my JTV59 with an HD500 and I was getting a nasty click when I swapped patches which also forced guitar model changes. This went away with v1.9 so I am staying on that until Line6 can fix that problem. I found that if I performed the flash update while the JTV was connected to the HD500 and then to my PC and Monkey that it worked OK pretty much every time without any midi errors. However, I had to ensure I was using the VDI cable that came with the JTV to connect to the USB dongle rather than the longer separately bought VDI cable used for live use. The shorter cable connecting the JTV to HD500 resulted in more stable reliable flash updates - so if you have not tried that yet, then I would recommend giving that a go a few times before abandoning v2.0 altogether - assuming the nasty click when changing patches on your HD500X is not a problem for you. Glad to hear that you are happy to v1.9 anyway - at least that is something - and it is where I am at and I am sure a good number of others who have been bitten by the v2.0 gremlins. Though it would be nice to get an official answer and a fix for the mystery bugs that are afflicting v2.0. I won't hold my breath - but I will keep my fingers crossed that it will be fixed at some point because I would like to use the v2.0 models and use Workbench HD.

As cruisinon2 says - the click is present with JTV firmware v2.0 and rolling back to v1.9 does get rid of it. I have a support ticket open with L6 - they tell me they can't reproduce it - even though many on the forum have reported the same problem - so they want me to upload an audio/video demonstrating the problem for them to pass on to the engineers - however I have not had time to re-install v2.0 to reproduce the problem, also I am reticent to do so because v2.0 firmware install seems to be flakey and it may require several reflashes to work and then I will have to roll back to v1.9 because I just cannot stand the click! Also, as many people have reported it, I don't really see why they need an audio to prove it exists - and it s the same type of click everyone gets when they switch to the acoustic bank anyway - so why can't they just forward to the engineers for research and fixing? Beats me. Anyway - if you are experiencing the issue and have got some spare time and don't mind uploading a demo recording of the problem then that will be most helpful and I can then point L6 at the hard evidence that they have asked for. Thanks in advance - but don't worry if you can't oblige. :)

Yes - Workbench HD default is to upload and automatically save a backup of all 60 presets. However, if you don't want it to do this then you can simply CANCEL the upload by clicking the cancel button. Saves a bunch of time! I don't know about the noise you are hearing though through headphones when adjusting volume or tone controls. Maybe someone else has experienced that and knows a solution.