paulmackay1979

will do, still waiting to hear from line 6, not holding my breath

yeh, pretty sure I will be out of warranty, not impressed with this at all, had quite a lot of problems since buying this, don't think ill be buying another one, by the looks of things ill be stuck using just the pups, ive just raised a ticket so itll be interesting to see what line 6 say about it

my variax has been running relatively well, apart from a delicate pickup selector and not being able to run v2.0. but just yesterday when I turned on the variax I have no output on the g string, if I hit it hard enough I get a very quiet short distorted tone, does this mean my piezos are also faulty now and if so any idea how much to get a service/repair on a jtv59 in the uk?

I haven't tried using headphones yet, still trying to get to grips with a lot of the functionality of the pedal. Matching the sound of the vox sounds like it could work though, didn't want to use amp/cab modelling through the headphones if im using my Vox preamp when im gigging, but I suppose its just a case of turning off the model and turning on the fx loop and tweaking, duplicating might be easier though, thanks

Ive just started using the hd500x after years of standalone pedals and im really impressed with it. im using the 4 cable method into a Vox AC30 cc2x, its a great setup once its up and running, ive even used some of the modelled preamps straight into the power section with great results, just have one question Im trying to find a method of setting up patches through headphones for the vox because its not exactly the quietest of amps but im assuming that ill have a very different sound between headphones and amp? has anyone any tips for working this way?

Thanks for that, does anyone know where you can purchase switches or how much a repair is if your out of warranty?

Does anyone know where you can get repairs done on a James Tyler Variax in the UK? preferably in Scotland? My pickup selector switch feels like its on its way out, feels like it doesnt quite latch securely in the down position even though it does stay, any help would be greatly appreciated

Well I spent most of last night messing with the variax. I reflashed it to 2.0 about 6 times but the results were the same every time, the models were still weak sounding, almost banko like! I decided to try taking it back to 1.9 and WOW! All the models were back, full bodied and nicely balanced, I was quite relieved as I started to think the guitar was faulty. Knowing that 1.9 worked I decided to try 2.0 one more time but the results were the same, the models sounded nothing like the guitars they were trying to imitate. I noticed a few things wrong with this update, the update failed a couple of times with an I/o midi error, causing the light to turn red on the variax usb box, there is an electrical popping noise when using any of the variax control knobs (switching tuning/models/toggling on and off) im pretty sure that wasn't there before I updated originally. Besides the volume drop from the tele/strat etc, I noticed the 12 string electric was almost missing the octave strings making it sound like a regular electric and the acoustic 12 strings octave strings were distorting making it sound very nasty. I found some balanced banks that someone had created for 2.0 on the vguitar forums and tried them, which definitely boosted the volume and balanced them more but it didn't solve the weak shrill like tone on most guitars. I purchased this second hand and im glad I did, don't get me wrong, I love this guitar and the mags sound amazing in my vox but I would not have been happy spending £1100 on a modelling guitar that doesn't model properly. This is a major disappointment because I love the look and feel of the workbench HD but it looks like ill be stuck on 1.9 until line 6 bring out another update or fix whatever issues myself and others are having with 2.0.

the main realisation for me was the strat and tele models, in the neck position they used to nearly take the pictures off my walls with the bottom end produced through the ac30, now they just sound weak and quite shrill, I have noticed that the les paul hasn't got as much bottom end also but not nearly as bad, not sure if the LP was intentional in the update

yeh, im used to the differences having been using a les paul, strat and tele as my main setup before the variax but only after the update the strat, tele, semi models have almost halved in volume compared to the lester/acoustic models. just doesn't seem like real life dynamics between the guitars, I do realise this is majorly down to preference/pickups/amps/pots etc but just feels all over the place to me

I'll try reflashing it later and recheck the global volumes, thanks for all your advice today guys, still very new to variax, just in the process of building up an hd500x using the four cable method, which has been a lot of head scratching :)

the mags are about the same height to the strings as my les paul, it was setup professionally, the balances seemed fine on 1.7, although the acoustics were a bit quieter and thin sounding, after the update the opposite has happened, the acoustics are almost louder than the mags and full bodied and the electrics are thin and quiet, pretty much everything besides the LP, although that doesn't have the same balance and body that it did have before

its a real drag, pretty sure it was 1.7 it was running originally, thanks for the advice, would it make a difference trying to reflash? also is it pretty straight forward rolling back if I haven't been on 1.9 before?

I cant find the link for the settings, anyone help?

Ive recently bought a jtv-59 and was using it for jamming in my house run through an AC30 cc2x, as soon as I bought it I had it setup by a pro luthier I use and it played great, I don't think it had ever been updated so was running an earlier firmware, it sounded great, although some of the models were better than others. I really liked the tel, strat and lp. The mags are really nice on it too. I decided to update the variax and now the model volumes are all over the place, the LP model is a little quieter than the mags but the other electric guitar models are incredibly quiet, the acoustic models are about the same output as the mags, I cant see a way of balancing out and increasing the models to match the mags, everything seems to be at 100% in workbench, this has made the models unusable for me which kind of defeats the purpose of having a variax. can anyone help with this, I don't really want to go back, also the models sound a little thin and high endy, its a total pain having to constantly adjust the vox for each models tone and volume