m6255

Update on changing tubes on dt 50, I purchased a Bias meter it wasnt too expensive, after replacing both tubes I just turned the power on. Does everyone know there is only one pot for both power tubes? anyway I turned the pot counter clockwise and that got it close to the recomended number. ˆreplaced the preamp tubes as well and used eh tubes even though it said pre amp tubes arent brand specific, Anyway after biosing I plugged a guitae in and turned the amp on as well as standby, Man what a difference, I understand Line 6 concern about someone unfamilar with tube amps fishing around inside one, Ive had tube amps starting in 1968 with a 1964 black faced dual showman. The other guitarist in our band had a silver faced dual shoman and he did some electronics upgrades like making his amp stereo, changing a cap on the brite switch making it more a boost switch and a few other things, we did those same things to my black face, He taught me on how tubes and transformers work as well as a rectifier. It sounds more wild then actually what it does. anyway, yes if a person know enough to work in your amp know you are respomsible just like you would be if you tore your car or motorcycle apart. You wreck it or you, thats all on you. and its very easy to wreck you, I double checked my work very carefully . I had just purxhased this dt 50 212 combo as well as a dt 50 head, The conbo is super heavy and it looks like it was dropped out of a cargo door of a 747, the box was destroyed but the amp just had a scratch on the corner. Im sure that it took a bad bounce and 2 weeks later the amp was making weird whistling noises so ( turned it off. I knew it was tubes ive had that happen twice before once with a fairly new ampeg V4 I purchased new in mid 70s and a Peavey custom 212. Both made weird noises and both were fixed with tube replacement, But stick to E H tubes on the DT 50. youwill damage your amp. and Line 6 sadly denies they ever existed. Best sounding amp Line 6 or a lot of other amp makers/ I love how both mine sound. I use the L6 cable from the back of my Pod HD pro x then into one amp then out of same amp into the ther. slick as hell. I hope the helix lsts a long time, I really dont understand why they sunk the dt series, If there wAS smome rumer of it being a bad amp they simply coupl have done a public notice or something. even the original prices for what it was is reasonable. I absolutly the stock 4 tones and there is so muxh editi9ng thats avaikable, cleae as a bell the different distortion of 234 are perfect as well as the Fender Twin number 1, I think its the best amp Ive ever played.

Im sorry first about the typing. Im an old coot and just had catarac surgery so i cant see well yet and i apopogize if I came across cranky. to make a long story short first I installes the editor in the main drive I was using which is an external 2 TB SSD. I could never get it to run on the exterior drive even though its my boot drive, so I installed it on the 512 gb ssd that came with the mqc mini, I GOT IT TO work until that night my mac mini automatically upgraded to Sonoma 14.1 Ive turned the computer off and on restarted the Pod HD pro X and started the editir, It detects the Pod hd but I get an error nessage saying there is an error, Your universal driver 1.0,0 has been working from Big sur toll Monteray. should I expect a ner driver. I still have my older 2011 Imac which runs my hardware fine but Im using Logic and The version of Logic in my Mac mini will not work in the older intel mac plus why should I have to use a 12 year old computer when you just discontinued the pod HD Pro X last year. Ill probably get a Helix some day but for now Im living on a fixrd retirement income and to replace the Pod HD Pro X with the helix rack mount will probably cost me over 2k with the foot controller. anyway, i hope you can help me out here. Thanks Mark

This is getting so frusterating. I have an apple M1 Mac Mini 512 gb sssd and 16gb ran, while the Nac Mini had Monteray once I downloaded and installed the universal driver 1.0.0I had no problem, often I leave my mac on all night, the next day I turned on my Pod HD pro x and the edit software. all of a sudden I get all kinds of errors. Why Line 6 I love your products but it seems like you guys put out the next best thing and what ever was yesterdays flagship you act as if it wasnt yours in the first place. I know thix because Ive owned every version of the first variax guitars and now I have 2 Line 6 Variax Standards wgich are built on Yamaha guitars. Its perfect, so far you are still managing that, but Ive owned every pod from the bean to Bean 2.0 to the xt floor to the X3 Rack to both the Pod hd 500x and then the Pod hd pro. x You just stopped selling the

It’s now 2023, and i was reading down this post for retuning the dt 50. There is one specific tech who works for line 6 and specifically bench work for the dt series amps. He went around most of the feeds saying he’s had plenty of DTs on his bench after guys were putting everything in BUT EH. Well heres my story and im sticking to it. I purchased used one DT 50 head . Loved the sound and i wanted another. I love stereo effects so i found a DT 212 for a great price. Guitar center was selling it through reverb. WARNING THE 212 COMBO IS THE HEAVIEST COMBO IVE EVER CARRIED. I ONLY CARRIED IT TO MY LIVING ROOM before going out to my shop and grabbing the 4 super heavy duty 2.5” wheels and bolted them to the bottom of the combo. Granted im getting older, 68 this year, so a lot of thinkers are heavier than they used to be. Anyway when my 212 combo showed up via UPS the box was destroyed. The driver had dropped it off in my shop and threw the crushed box in the shop too. I took photos of everything how i found it. The truck had to be moving when it flew out but these amps are so heavy duty I could tell when i set it up on my level concrete shop floor,it was racked. Not all four feet touch the floor at the same time. With great difficulty racked it the other way until everything was square. I was a carpenter /woodworker for 50 years. Anyway, i plugged it in and turned it on. Like the head the face lights came on after a micro delay, then with the master volume off i turned the amp of standby. It was quiet. I started running th volume up still quiet. Anyway long story short I kept the amp sent guitar center pictures of the amp and pile of cardboard in my garage. They refunded me a hundred bucks. About 3 weeks later, the amp went haywire. So i turned it off and went to bed. Turned it back on the next morning, same thing squeals and all kinds of noises, sometimes i heard the guitar quiet and back to the Halloween screeches. Turned it off went through every thread i could find. Most of them had this line 6 employee employing people to ship the amp back to line 6. No way that amp is almost 100 pounds. So I kept reading, and that guy was everywhere. Weird he didnt find this one. HE SAID YOU COULD TRY OTHERS LIKR JJ TUBES. SOME EVEN WORK FOR A WHILE BUT LIKE OTHERS HAVE SAID BOGNER DESIGNED THESE AMPS SPECIFIVALLY eh el34 power tubes. He said you can use any flavor 12ax7 tube you like. But thev other warning was i hope i remember this correctly, this amp is a fixed bias Cathoid bios and must be checked. Well i did a lot of reading on biasing an amp because a lot of voices came with that. On Amazon they hd several flavors biasing meters. Well i got the most expensive one they had. I think it was like 65 bucks, comes with 4 leads. My EH el34 fit the socket perfectly. These only 2 power tubes in either of my dt 50s . I did more reading. Many amps have an adjuster for each tube. On at least my dt 50s there is just one touch point and one screw adjustment. Somewhere i read the number was supposed to be 25? I dont remember. I do remember, i pulled out both old tubes, then you p,ug in the tube tester in the sockets and plug the new tubes in the female side of the sockets. I powered on but never took it out of standby. Well my meter moved up past 25 to around 27ish. So i quick checked my other amp but with its original tubes. Exact same umbers. The manual i got was in chinglish so it wasn’t much help. I kept the chassis out for now, unplugged the meter and out the new tubes back in. Well the squealing was gone. I have a feeling it was the road race between ups and my amp that maybe damaged my tubes. I learned from peavey who is also fussy about their tubes from the late 70s and early 80s classic 212 series Amps. Those are the black ones with the 2 aluminum strips running down the speaker grilles. They must have Mae a tone of those in the 70s and 80s. I re capped one of them put new tubes in they glowed super red i turned it right off and called pea vey who also suggested i send the chassis in. Idk shipping might be insane anyway for one of the amps there were 3 transistors burnt out. The guy said if you put new tubes in without changing the resistors first you’ll instantly blow the new tubes. Oh great. So i bought 2 more 6L6GC and first changed the 3 transistors, but i did something wrong maybe s\mixed a tube idk because the fuse blew. These are pretty high amp fuses, the second set of new tubes wee shot. So I’ve got 2 PeaVey vintage ones sitting on my basement floor. Ill find some tech somewhere. Im a luthier and guitar tech but not an amp master. Point is i had bad luck with my peaveys which I haven’t used in awhile but mt dt 50 with 2 new EH EL34s sounded great. Matter of fact the combo now sounded way better than the head which i thought was amazing when I first got it. Prices for all dt series ms fare shooting up because no stores have them any more. This is how line 6 does business. I have tons of line 6 equiptment because i loke it a lot of their products come out like the helix. Matter of fact my dt 212 originally i believe listed for 1500. I think the 112 was 1400. By the way the 212 has 2 different speakers in there both 8 ohm but different wattage. I dont kno how the 112 sounds although as i typed ill just unplug the ione the 112 doesn’t come with. But to my the 212 the sounds that came out topo 1 the fender twin is amazing. It’s a delisous clean loud fender twin. 2 is a Marshall plexi. 3 is an ac 30 and 4 is a Mesa bogging double rectifier. All sound amazing. You can download for windows only something called the dt editor and i thought you could go from 4 toppos to 16 but you can only access all of them live when hooked up to midi. You can edit 4 sounds and they wil stay like that until you change them. Forget all the freaks that’s say i know theres dsp in there its line 6 theres gotta be. How many of you folks have all solid tube stomp boxes? Ohhhhh. There’s a few that stick a little 12 ax7 you can see glowing in your stomp box i even have a 500 watt bass amp with the choir=ce old tube no tube. My point is the dt50 was designed as part of the dream rig. Using one of the original floor pods hd or the newer hd500x or hd prox both of these came out after the original helix. One pod can complete control 4 dt amps, pl,us a variax guitar. I love my variax standard which is a Yamaha Pacifica with the new hd variax in it. Love the sounds through the pod hd pro x and mt dt 12s. Hey sorry about smelling having double cataract surgery next week right now i kinda see double so im done hope something helps. Use only ehh el34s. You’ll be happy if its not biased the tubes will wear fast nd damage your amp.

This is a really old topic but i hope someone will answer this. I purchased a line 6 pod hd500x. Loved the sounds currently have 2 dt 50 amps which the pod hd500x controlled perfectly. But im 68 years old now and currently haven’t been on a stage for going on 5 years. So i decided as long as the pod hd pro x rack was electronically identical to the hd 500x that id prefer the rack model. So thats great no bending over to edit. But now no foot controller. Knowing me instead of buying the mk II like I’ve seen is the controller designed for the pod hd pro i bought the FBV 3. Oh well the colored lights only work with one of line 6 weird amps so the buttons are red. So the looper works fine, but i dont know how to change functions . I cant bank up or down and i cant select a preset. Anybody have an answer here. I dont understand why line 6 didnt just make the mk2 work with everything then to make more money make the FBV 3 comparable. Way back i had a couple vettas and flex tones. I had a short board and a longboard with 2 expression pedals built in and either pedal worked with either amp. Sombody asked about the mk express? I think there are just too many thing you can’t control but would want to with the pod rack hd. I know helix has its own 600 dollar foot controller but the helix is way more complex. Don’t buy a FBV express for your pod hd rack. This is so frustrating I’ll finally in a couple years get it ti work like i want and ill get the helix bug, because it’s about time for line 6 to pull it’s usual gag taking the most advanced guitar controller and throw it under the bus. Line 6 barely has any heratage equipment. They will never reissue anything. It’s hard to hold loyalty sometimes. The helix is older full but extreme expensive but just like the best amp line 6 ever sold the dt. You can pick up a dt 50 head for 150 bucks , i actually paid 225. For my head. Once a thousand dollars. All those people who paid full price i feel awful. The hd50 212 was near 1500 dollars, I po aid 299 for my 212 boat anchor. This is a great sounding amp. I was pleasantly surprised the speakers sound so good i was taught way back n the 1950s that i should match dual speakers. Not just ohms but rms power and id say manufacturer. But that amp weighs over 80 pounds. I had to put heavy casters on that. I think the head and a very good speaker cab is the best. Some say the dt25 is preferabl to the 50? Why? Sonically they are identicle. If you play it at all you’ll want the 50 watts. But to each his own. Sorry for wandering. I really kneed wisdom on the foot controller. Thanks

Even if you found a replacement ic board didn’t you have to calibrate it. I figured by this amount of time you would have found a link like this. I did a Google search and the whole page came up with line 6 support pages on the line 6 expression pedal. I hope if anyone else has that problem they will find this. I’ve been buying line 6 equiptment for almost 2 decades. I’m a luthier as well and built quite a few custom line 6 Variax all from the 300/500/600/700. After a while I was making my own tremolos and all of my guitars had magnetic pickups on them before line 6 had theirs although their engineering was way better than mine. My custom Variax guitars had way too many volume tone etc knobs. I’ve recently taken apart a standard, that’s my favorite Variax if you haven’t tried one you must. It’s incredible I have 2 of them. But the volume control is just a custom stacked twin pot except their not twin. One is 250 ohm for the magnetic sand the other one is 10 ohm for the Variax, just like the old ones. My point on this long note is line 6 stuff is built like a tank in my humble opinion. And for things like making my own tremolos it tolerated me unsoldering the piezo pickups removing the saddles and the 500/700 had a flat tape like cable easily damaged but are repairable the 300/600 were identical except for the tremolo, that had a 7 wire cable if I remember or 8 I think it had a ground on either side plus the 6 strings. My point is I’m more of a wood worker than electronics engineer yet every Variax I put into a custom body ended up working great with my messing around with them. I’ve messed with other electronics like these 2 vintage PeaVey vtx and vt 212 classics. I simply teplaced the caps, super easy job they even sell kits for each amp. But I did something wrong, because the 2 6L6GC tubes are red plating. I talked to PeaVey and those couple of year vintage hybrids with a solid state preamp and full tube power amp are tricky to work on. When working I think they are great sounding amps. I must love the classic underdog, I also own a line 6 DT 50 head and a DT 50 212, which in these line 6 support pages says I must SEND MY AMP BACK TO LINE 6 TO CHANGE THE TUBES. what. Jeez the 212 especially weighs about 80 pounds. So I purchased the recommended matched tube set which are electro harmonic matched el34 s and I purchased a quad channel biasing guage for about 50 bucks. Only needed 2 channels. Found only one video how to bias it and that was actually for the dt25. Totally different. There’s just one pot inside so I pulled the tubes plugged in the 2 testers in the el34 jacks is says line 6 is looking for 36mv well no matter what I even rotated the tubes but the v1 slot was always 3 mv below the v2 slot so I plug the difference. Btw if you ever try this ofcoarse be careful of electrocution and 2 there’s a switch for pentatonic (means5) and diatonic you need to test the bias in the lower 25 watt mode. The pentatonic will show double the mv. I didn’t know that at first but switched the switch it calmed down I figured that had to be right. What went wrong was the topo switc on III I could barely hear the amp but when it switched to IV wham it was full volume. I had a feeling it was a tube. Because I bought that amp through guitar center. They did a horrid job boxing up the amp. When I got it, the box was blown to pieces and. The amp was in a pile of bubble wrap and cardboard on my garage floor. When I looked at the case the top left corner was flattened out where clearly it hit the road going about 40 mph. Again a testament to the tank like over build of a very complex amplifier. I took the amp inside and immediately bought a set of 4 heavy duty removable castors. I’m 67 and could hardly lift the damn thing. Anyway got it inside plugged it in. Worked perfectly for about a month. Guitar center gave me 15% off refund for my troubles. I got a really good price, about 300 bucks for the amp original price around 1600 bucks. Anyway, my peaveys are still not working and when I got the tubes and biased them put the amp back together figuring that probably didn’t fix it, well at least I still had the head. Holy cats it sounded better than the head which I thought sounded awesome. For some sad reason my humble opinion is line 6 best effort for any guitar amp failed. It didn’t last very long and now you can get them used fairly cheap. Check out that amp in these here forums, the people that still own them love them. Just the 4 basic sounds that come on the cheat sheet are wonderful. That’s why I ended up buying a used hd500x and recently an hd prox because I don’t gig much but like to record in my. Home studio. Line 6 dubbed it the dream rig and to be honest I totally agree. I’ll never sell mine I’ll will them to my grandsons. I got 2 because that’s the only way to do stereo fx which sound incredible. I also purchased the line 6 super e pensive Xlr digital cables so I could daisy chain my amps from the hd prox. So fir chords I have my Variax VDI cable the 2 XLR cables, a speaker wire from the head to my Marshall green back cabinet. this was a long winded testimony to my faith in line 6 products lasting. I don’t know how many I have between pods and guitars and basses, but not a one has broken down. The pits on the guitars are lollipop. I’ve got a couple of 10 ohm pots to replace on a couple basses. Oh man that’s another product, the 700 and 705 bass. I’ve got around 5 and are they awesome. I think I like em better than the guitar modelers. Anyway you can get some incredible sounds out of them. Before the hd500x I had the x3 pro. I still think it’s line 6 official Swiss Army knife. I love the vocal pre amps, the lo fi one is cool too. The bass pre amps, the acoustic guitar preamps and the electric guitar patches. I bought that when it first came out. I’m bout to sell it, it’s still perfect and if I didn’t have the helix native which I do have running in logic prox in my brand new incredible apple m1 Mac mini. Unlimited tracks never a hiccup buy the 16 gig of ram and the 512 SSD. I used to love intel. The apple silicone will sink intel and amp. I shouldn’t have run on so. Sorry, I guess line 6 repare can tell you about more line 6 problems, because I’ve lost count of every line 6 I’ve ever had, and except for that dt50 the fell out of a moving ups truck I never had a line 6 piece of kit fail. And after changing the tubes the dt50 212 was as good as new. I just don’t understand why the DT amps failed and the basses oh yeah the acoustic 700 too was great. I’m watching the helix so far it’s hanging on. I think they have a winner there will probably get one of them. The only thing holding me back is someone at line 6 didn’t think of making the helix to work like the pod hd series with the L6Link that’s what made them the dream rig, you could control the amp from the guitar, the guitar from the amp etc. perfectly integrated. I hear the helix does work now with the DT amps but not completely, with the hd series if you turn a knob on the DT amps the knob turns on the pod. But not the helix, I’d say that was done but someone thought oh were through with the bigger tube amp so don’t bother making it work with the dead dog. Dumb. The only other thing the L6Link works with is the ultra expensive 1500 watt stage speaker. If you want stereo that will cost you 3k. Wow. Now I think I’ll just keep the dts. Nice jawing with you what were we talking about. Oh yeah the fox for the expression pedal !

Boy I really feel bad if you had to replace the ic board for your expression pedal. All you had to do was look into most of the pod hd xxx advanced pilot books or the downloads. story time number 2 this last year I purchased what looked like an almost brand new pod hd500x and I got it on reverb. Part of the discription said “ yep it’s all ready for you I reset it back to factory removing all my edits so it’s all set for you” I literally ignored that statement but when I just happened to be reading this post this time your words of ref lashing the firmware hit me between the eyes. When I got my hd500x home and quick set it up, I started messing with editing a patch, at first I had the floor board on my desk and I noticed when I moved the expression pedal there was no midi movement. I tried cranking down on the pretend toe switch, nothing. I got upset and went online, read quickly over a few other peoples complaint about the expression pedal till finally I got to a page right in this line 6 support pages. it says WHENEVER THE FIRMWARE IS FLASHED THE EXPRESSION PEDAL MUST BE CALIBRATED. so wow I did a quick search on calibrating the expression pedal on a line 6 hd500x and found this link .

Hello, I don’t play live much anymore but I still have my dream rig. 2 Variax Standards, 1pod HD500x controlling 2 line 6 DT 50 amps with L6S link. I’ve been watching the helix for years now, and Sweetwater over Xmas of 2021 had the helix native on sale for the non hardware owner for 199.00 so I couldent resist. The HD500x does not work well as an audio interface when using the VDI so I purchased a Berlinger uphoria 204. That works nice but now I haven’t figured out the midi yet to use the HD500x as a midi controller for native AND still control my 2 DT 50s. First I tried just plugging the Berlinger outs into the 2 DT 50s returns. Nothing at all with the l6 link connected, unplugged one amp just to try it mono, it worked, sounded great but there’s a lot of hum. I would totally have to control amp controls in the helix native, using the DT 50 gives you a tube power amp with zero control. Except for the mix control next to the dt50 fx loop. Turning that down to the middle detent almost makes the hum tolerable . It’s loud enough for my studio but not if I ever wanted to use native live/ in case I do. I’ve decided I’m never going to bring a computer into a live situation. I don’t think a computer is reliable enough for something critical like live playing. There’s no do overs should something freeze. anyway, I’ll probably get a helix floor or better but much more expensive the helix rack with the almost 500 dollar controller. So in the meantime it looks like the HX stomp has all the sounds of the full helix. I’m wondering if I can create patches in the HD500x so I still have an expression pedal although it could only be used for the hd fx, the volume pedal would work the whole thing, I’m one of those that still thinks the HD500x sounds great and to be honest the price difference now between a full helix and my hd500 isn’t worth 3x the cost. I love the I/os and for example the what is it 6 fx loop ins/outs can be used both ways you can select one as another input or outputs, it’s amazing if I’m reading it right it like they just put some empty jacks in back and when you assign them to something it’s like they are magically hardwired correctly. That’s amazing, I know the helix 3.0 has some control over the DT series amps but not as com-Pete as the hd. what I’m asking is if one of you still wanted to use your 2 hd series amps as stereo amps with the L6Link, and the control plus some dsp of the HD500x and the Variax control, but you wanted to add some of the large number of amps with full amp or pre amp, tons of fx, basically adding helix sound to my existing dream stereo rig, how would you do it. Would you leave the HD500x in control and add the HX stomp long version to your HD500x fx loop and not the other way around. In other words just like if you were adding just one stomp to your HD500x through the fx loop you add the full HX board the same way, but then in my mind comes the massive amount of programming for lack of words, you gotta build your HX preset first, then through the midi controller add the HX preset like other things to a HD500x foot switch. Question, if I have multiple different presets will the HX change everytime I step on a new button on the hd 500x? I hope I’m not too discouraging, I’m just afraid I’ll buy it and leave it in the box because I’ll have 3 days of manual reading to learn how to hook it up. Thanks hope it’s not too annoying.

One comment on Variax. I have 2 700 basses and a 705. Still great hybrid basses. I’ve owned several of every Variax made except the heavy metal version. I think the line 6 marriage to Yamaha was brilliant. Because your early Variax guitars had nice electronics but the guitars were under built . My favorite of all 4 electrics was the 600 mainly because of the neck. The JT variances sounds were awesome but I hated the necks, the headstocks were like boats paddles and the only body I liked was the Les Paul style. Then the standard came out and I bought a black one and fell in love, the pickups wernt the 450 dollar sets like Fralin etc but they were as good as any stock fender pickups. I’ve changed out the pickups on my black one. The first one I bought but I’m not going to change out the pups on my white standard. Both necks are as good as any 90s or 2000 fender American necks . Matter of fact a little better I think. I’ve been a luthier for years made my own necks and purchased a few too, Warmoth necks are my favorite after market. Their premium standard neck profile is what I started calling the D or school bus shape. You know how the roof of a school bus starts to come in right away like the famous C for crap shape but then there’s a very soft almost flat on top. Your Variax standard is very much like that. I like the headstocks. I can always add my own locking tuners on but a couple of things that make their guitars so fabulous besides the tops and the perfect detailing is the setup those guitars better than fender or Gibson leave the factory finished including the frets leveled. That’s expensive and at your price don’t expect that. But I am sure a set of looking tuners, throw an extra 2.0 bucks on the guitar. You use decent springs on your tremolos but there’s somethings you could do with your tremolo to make it great. Balance it to a set of 9s 0r 10. They are not balanced and will be impossible to keep in tune till they are. Otherwise for the price point of the Variax standard I can’t complain. I’d like to see the Pacifica belly contour put back, I realize that’s for the battery. I almost always play through my pod HD500x and before that my X3 pro. Again I know it’s cost but not that much offer a pod version with no battery. I’ve never used that battery maybe once when I tried out my DT amp. I realize you didn’t put a VDI in the DT amps because less people would believe you about having modeling dst I the preamp section even though so many of your guys making video kept calling it a pure tube amp it’s not. Just hook up the DT edit software through midi and you can see all the hd amps in there. Still I just love that amp I don’t care of there’s dsp or not in the amps what ever you did sorks. It’s too bad they are gone forever except for used. I heard from one YouTube music reporter saying nobody wants them. Why? I must be weird I’ve been playing electric since 1964 me second amp was a beautiful black face dual showman with twin JBL d130s. I loved that amp. I’ve had vettas and other line 6 amps no spiders though. My first hybrid was raw PeaVey vtx series. Great amp analog but transistorized preamp and full twin 6L6GC tube power amp, stil got it and a earlier vt series 212 as well. Still my favorite is the dt50s never tried the 25s but I’m sure the combination of line 6 dsp and bigness tube amps they are one of the finest amps made. Maybe because of some of the negative line 6 early line 6 solid state amps btw I thought unjustified. It was the tube Nazis that put the hex on lin6 6 stuff early. I have a tube Nazi friend who I believe I’ve convinced him helix is the top of the modeling world and blindfolded he’d think some of the helix sounds a bd wit their real tube amp models that he’d pick the helix as the real thing. Even I think your hds come close if not the same. I think I’ve said enough. I was looking for help so I can get helix tone into my DT amps but controlled as well as the hd amp controlled the dts that truely is a dream rig will always be the Variax standard , the HD500x ( wish I bought the rack for the direct dry guitar out, and then twin DT amps. I’ve watched tons of guys with the same rig that will never sell their twin dts . If I had the money I’d probably get 2 dt 25s too. For some reason used the dt25 seem to sell a bit more than the 50s could be the weight. When I got my dt50 w12 I had to put removable stainless steel castors on I wasn’t going to Tri to carry that to mr house. Man it’s a ton. Sounds sweet though

No offense line 6 but you have a reputation of getting the hot product out there after the sales are milked dry you sell off al your inventory like to that anderson’s music in the us for Pennie’s. Ok that’s your choice although I still think your DT project with Bonner was one of your best , but then the next pod or helix that comes out you forget about all your faithful DT purchasers. Just because the helix comes out doesn’t mean I want to dump my dts. I wish you had some support of replacing your helix into your dream rig some of us believed you

This is now late 2021 talking back to a 2019 forum. But I’ve been struggling with getting any HX or helix product for one reason. I have 2 line 6 DT 50s one head and one 212 that I’ll probably never get rid of. I’ve had every line 6 pod since the first several line 6 solid state amps along with my collection of fender PeaVey ampeg amps and a few others. The first time I plugged my Variax standard straight into my first DT 50 head I was hooked. All the sounds were way more than I expected, sweet clean tones and sweet distorted tones. I was going to have to have stereo so I got the 212. Currently I have the HD500x I also purchased the helix native last weekend. The HD500x doesn’t have a seperate dry guitar tone like the hd prox does. I worked on using the 500x as a audio interface. It works fine for using the hd500 sounds but adding the native as a plug-in, well I haven’t been able to figure out how to do that live yet. I have read everywhere that line 6 stupidly I think first had no L6 link in the helix then when they added it via firmware I heard it no way comes close to controlling the DT amps in fact I love how the 500 x controls my Variax standard can split up the modeled and the magnetic pups and can route them left and right to two different rigs, there’s no pre amp control from the helix to the dts , the only answer I thought of today was to buy a HX stomp one or the other or an HX effects and just use the 500 amps. The 500 is soo limited on amps compared to the helix but here’s the real spoiler the line 6 X3 pro I still have has more amps than the 500, so if there’s a way to use a new preset with No amps, no fx just use it as a midi controller as a controller for my Variax and the DT amps and the midi with in each preset can also control the stomp functions. Yes I’m disappointed in the HX stomp ins/outs . There’s no VDI input , if\d want to still plug my Variax guitars into the HD500x then the options are midi control , 7 cable method for stereo ? Boy maybe I can figure it out in a year I’d rather pay someone to build some HD500x presets with midi control built in for the HX stomp. Right now my hook ups are the Variax into the VDI , I purchased 2 digital CLR specifically for the L6 link so besides a couple speaker cables I have 3 cables for my whole rig I wonder adding the HX stomp what kind of spider web I’ll have to deal with. Any thoughts will be worshipped!

Btw, I’ve been trying to sell my buddy who is a stuck up old if it ain’t vintage tube it’s crap, lime 6 for a long time. A month ago I drove my DT 50 212 to his house and we A/Bd his Vox AC30 against my dt50, I personally thought the DT t0 sounded better in all forms, clean, crunch and high gain. He’s not talking, he did a lot of smiling saying wow that’s really nice but he’s gotta deal with his stubbornness to realize tech especially line 6 has come a long way. Personally if buy the DT 50 all over again against the Vox ac 30. I think the topo 3 is supposed to emulate the ac 30, and he’s got some vintage g12m Celestion greenbacks in his Vox, I’ve got a quad of them from 1970 out of an acoustic 405 transducer. That cabinet back then was a guitar/bass cabinet. It could never compet with my Goliath Iii 410 cabs for bass but those 55 hz coils blow away the standard 75hz coils most guitar speakers are made today. Google it. My G12 M Celestion 25 watt 16 ohm ( gives me a 4 ohm 100 watt cabinet , with 55hz coils was Jimi Hendrix favorite. I’m not sure if the 55s are around anymore no demand for the guitar/bass cab.

This is an old topic I hope it’s still monitored. I have a DT 50 head and a DT 50 212. I’ve been playing electric since 1964 and have owned a lot of amps. But when I first just bought the head and plugged my variax Standard directly into the DT I was just amazed at the beautiful sounds coming from it. I bought the 212 , only because I got it at a fire sale price don’t get me wrong it sounds great, it’s just heavier than lollipop for a 66 year old man. Put casters on that hog right away. Anyway right now I am still playing with my HD500x because of the complete control with my multiple Variax guitars and my 2 700 basses , got a 705 stashed away working on a new body for it. last week line 6 had a sale on the helix native for 200 bucks. I thought I could just get used to it. I saw a comment that both the helix , the lt and native sll have DT control/ how does that work. Currently I have no other audio interface but my 500x. And I’ve yet to figure how to play plugged into the 500x VDI usb into Logic Pro x and then the helix plug in , in UA form not VST maybe that’s in windows. I can play a dry track or even pull up one of my old dry tracks and it comes out through the helix. But somethings just not right going through the 500x into the helix native. And the sound is coming out through my studio monitors NOT MY DT AMPS is there a new manual now for the latest firmware? Any help would be great. To be honest line 6 had the tech, it’s too bad they couldent move that over to the helix, sadly line 6 dropped this winner amp and it sounds like line 6 basically is planning for the helix to be placed through the super expensive fire hawk 1500.00 for 1500 bucks or 3000 for stereo. Woah come on. I’ve been a line 6 fan for 2 decades atleast. It says I have 12 registered products. Well I guess I didn’t register them all got many more than that. . Anyway , I’ve held off getting the helix till I know the DT bugs are worked out there’s very few if any helix/DT videos. It’s not the helix but for now the hd500 still kicks lollipop and the main thing is all the control. I hate to give that up.

Hello, I just purchased Helix native. But that’s after this summer purchasing a used pod HD500x and 2 DT 50 amps one head and a 212. I’m retired living on a fixed income for now so I can’t afford a helix fit now but I took advantage of Sweetwater’s half off sale for the helix Native for 199.00 couldent turn that down plus got my buddy who prior was anti line 6 or digital anything. Anyway here’s what I’d like to do . Record into the Logic daw then the helix as AU in fx. Currently I have 2 audio interfaces my old old x3 pro and my newer HD500x. I’d like to use the HD500x and be able to plug my Variax Standard which I’m also fond of rout that signal with no coloring from the hd500, then be able to plug back into my twin DT 50s using the L6 Link of the HD500x so I can hear the helix sound through my DT 50s. I can’t find any instructional video regarding that setup. Basically I want to replace the sounds of the HD500x with the helix native but keep the dt50 setup. On top of that using the MIDI setup in the HD500x not the usb control helix native with my DT 500x. I fear I’ve made things too complicated. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know this says I’m just starting out but I’ve owned every Variax including a few basses, every pod, 2 vettas and the one before the vetta, getting old lol memories goin. Lol. Appreciate any suggestions while I experiment on my own thanks , Mark

I just have one question, I live in rural Wisconsin. There isn’t an electronics repair place let alone a line 6 service center within 100 miles one way. I have 2 DT 50s a head and a 212. The head wouldent be horrible to ship but the 212 is insane heavy. I’m trying to find instructions on biasing the tubes should I ever need to replace them. I don’t gig ou anymore too old. But I really just enjoy playing the 2 as a stereo setup in my small studio. I think I’d like to get 2 matched pair and put them on my shelf should I need them. I bought my w12 used from guitar center in San Francisco . They shipped it to my house in WISCONSIN for he rediculously low price of 29.00 but you get what you pay for. Thank God these amps are built like a tank. The box was totally demolished when I found it in my garage, opened what was left of the box the amp was upside down resting on the top left corner. There was a slight crack in the wood Jonny where I’m sure it landed probably falling 30k feet from a ups 747. Tough amp. Everything worked perfectly and as it is I got the amp so cheap. I’m saying I’d never want to take a chance shipping it back to line 6. I’m hoping I can find the instructions for biasing because I’ve been playing guitar since 1964 I’ve hade fenders including a 1964 black faced dual showman with twin JBL d 130 15” speakers. I’ve had ampeg PeaVey all kinds of amps. I love love the sounds I get from both my DT 50s. Can someone tell me why line 6 stopped selling the DT series. Such a winner.

Anybody answer this?

I know this is a super old post 2015 and I’m in the future 2021. Just a couple comments. I noticed you using a pad switch? Not sure where that is I have a DT 50 head and a DT 50 212 combo. (Heavy sucker). Mine have no pad button, unless it’s on the hd 500, come to think of it, probably is. I’ve always understood you only use pad if you have a hot instrument and you’re getting close or clipping. The pad button muffles everything. I have a HD500x, I use 2 L6 Link blue digital cables. When I first got my first dt50 head I just used a regular mic cable and it didn’t sound right. I don’t know if you’ve read the advanced 500x manual but there are multiple ways to use the pod HD500x with the DT 500 or 25. You can use no amp, when setting up a preset use no amp this I believe sends your signal directly through your DT preamp. Then you can use your pod to switch through the 8 amps you setup using DT edit. I have Apple computers but last night I dug up an old dell latitude i7 e6520 installed DT edit and had some fun messing with editing the amp with the DT edit. Note the power section has boost , piv hi lo, and smooth,and I forgot the other. Only boost does anything significant. I don’t even know what piv is I suppose they are more power amp settings. at any rate I didn’t ab anything but I didn’t find using the DT edit alone no pod very interesting as far as quality of sound. my setups are always an amp pre amp not the upper amps that model the whole amp. I am completely happy with starting with like the twin reverb pre for my clean amp, there are a number of great amps for crunch and sustain. On YouTube you’ll find a couple of super line 6 xperts my favorite is Richie Castellano a guitarist from blue oyster cult. Look him up he’s got several channels. I first found him looking for line 6 settings years ago. When I listen to him it’s through my iPad Pro and it although is tiny speakers he does a lot of ab examples shows you how he does stuff and it’s awesome. He does not use the DT amp. But he uses a ton of different tube amps. That’s all he does is music and recording he’s got a masters in sound engineering. . When he’s not playing with BOC he and his wife host a bunch of musicians playing tons of cover songs. You should hear his bohemian rhapsody. He uses a bunch of pip and plays and sings every part himself. It’s excellent. Anyway he now uses just the helix floor and leaves that with the BOC equiptment . For his studio he has the helix pro rack mount and helix controller. He’s gotta have hundreds of k dollars of equiptment. Before he was helix he was HD500x then HD500x. I believe he also works with line 6 as a rep because he has videos on all the helix units plus he uses the helix with that solid state 1500 dollar fire something . It’s one of those full frequency flat speaker cabs. A dollar a watt. Lol. Anyway years later I hope something helps. I haven’t bought a helix yet because I’ve always been slow to switch. I still have my pod x3 pro. Thinking od selling it but I like recording in my studio and that is the only pod with full acoustic guitar sections, vocal sections, bass pres etc. no other pod since has been as complete. I do like the HD500x only had mine for a year paid 213 bucks for it. I’m retired on a fixed income so I can’t afford a months income for a helix right now till I get back to making custom guitars again. Have a great life. I’m a line 6 fan now for a couple decades. Btw try the line 6 Variax standard. It’s my favorite Variax to date. It’s actually a Yamaha Pacifica . Richie Castellano uses the standard for a few live songs, if I write to het a JT Variax it be the Les Paul looking one. Don’t like the others.

This is an update to a much older posts but they are still read. Myself for example just purchased a used HD500x, I have an X3 I’m still deciding the fate of. There is also a couple small differences between the HD500x and the hd prox . I also found these differences between the x3 pro and the x3 live, by the way when I bought my x3 to upgrade from my DT live my Sweetwater salesman said the x3 was the most advanced processor ever made. Obviously the hd series wipes that statement away with its own best ever which is now wiped away with the helix best ever. My Gid I wonder what line 6 is going to put out in 5 to 7 years to replace the helix which will go from 1500 bucks to 275.bucks. That’s what I paid for my like new pod HD500x. Lol Back to the differences between the hd 500x and the hd pro x. For one the pro has an extra output where the dry signal comes out for things like wet/dry/wet on stage 3 amps or w/D/W for recording. I know there are a couple s,all differences but the extra outputs is pretty big.

I don’t know how old this post is but if you use the 4 cable method it will automatically do what you want. First of all the x3 pro has a switch to turn off the amp in the patch your in. You can choose to save it if you want the patch to default that way. 2. I have several tube amps. I’ve got two vintage 80s PeaVey hybrid 212 combos the vt and the vtx. Those have effects loops but when you are plugged into the effects looop on the back of those you automatically eliminate the preamp, unless you use the 4 cable method. Then when you toggle the amp off and on with the x3 it should go back and forth with using the pre to that amp. I have a Bugera V55 head. I had a v22 head but sold it I’m kicking myself now because I love using the modulation effects in stereo.. the Bugera v 22 and 55 both have a switch on the amp as well as in their foot switch to turn the effects loop off and on. The simple way is use the 4 chord method. There are a million examples on YouTube. Richie Castellano a lead guitarist with BLUE OYSTER CULT uses line 6 Variax Standard, I love that guitar, plus he has a helix live he permanently keeps with blue oyster cult while at his home studio he uses the Helix pro which is the rack version of helix. That’s the most expensive option because you should get the floor box with that as well. Not required but functions easier. Depending on what you can afford line 6 makes the helix FX which is the helix minus any amp patches. I don’t have one yet because well I can’t afford it yet but I’ll be getting the helix pro to replace my X3 pro. When I bought my X3 pro line 6 heralded it as the most advanced guitar system ever. That’s until they came out with the hd boards but now the hd boards are antique compared to the helix. It would take me all day to tell you what it does. For example your X3 has one set of fx loop . The helix has 4 sets I believe. go to the above YouTube channel make sure you subscribe to richies 3 channels I think and be repaired to be blown away. I know line 6 doesn’t pay Richie a penny but they should . He is a master with ... lollipop everything. He is an amazing guitar player and singer and amazing recording engineer. He will show you the 4 cable method and the 5 cable method for using your X3 for FX only and I hope the 5 cable works with the x3. With the helix he’ll show you how to have one center tube amp. To use that pre amp with 2 other tube amps but those he just uses the power section. Then when he uses the helix harmonizer which when you play 1 string you hear 3 strings in harmony. Furthermore you hear the main lead in the center channel and the first harmony to your left and the second harmony to your right. Oh yeah the helix has a looper too plus it’s has so many functions it makes out x3s like from the Stone Age. Visit Richie and line 6 you should make him a Richie Castellano Variax standard and helix and pay the guy. Nobody I’ve ever listened to demonstrating your products including me who ownes a ton of line 6 product can demonstrate line 6 better than him. You’ll see full songs done by his separate studio band showing the wonders f helix and Variax, so there ya go, a top name guitarist using everything line 6 . If you younger guys don’t know who BLUE OYSTER CULT IS SHAME IN YOU. “Don’t fear the reaper” etc. great 70s band I don’t think Richie was born yet when BOC first started. But he’s living my dream life. Too bad I’m as old as the founders of BOC and don’t have a 10th the talent of Richie. On YouTube check out Richie Castellano’s version of Bohemian Rhapsody it’s amazing. When he’s not on the road with BOC he’s in his studio playing and recording covers awsome covers plus he and his musical wife who also has a band play out together. And his younger sister in law boy can she sing while she makes your eyes bleed. the above link is for you. Is Richie setting up a helix fx for his stubborn dad because his dad also has a band and he’s a tube purest no digital anything until Richie sold him on the helix fx . Effects only box about 1/3 the price of a helix. check them out all your questions will be answered.

Hi, I’ve been a Variax owner and line 6 Variax pods and amp owner for a couple decades now. Sometimes I’m amazed at the comments of dissatisfied customers. (I in no way am part of line 6 nor do I speak for them) . Line 6 didn’t start as a guitar company, rather synth centered stuff. But they had some great ideas. I know line 6 advertises instead of bringing multiple guitars, just bring a Variax. Well I’ve been a luthier for years and when the Variax came out I purchased a 300, 500, 600 which is a 300 with tremolo, and the 500 and 700 are similar. ALL the models back then used the same firmware the same sounds and were interchangeable where hardware was allowed. Number 1. I have never believed one amplifier would service this guitar correctly. Especially if you’re trying to play a classic sound of any type then try to play an acoustic guitar through the same rig. If you can only have one rig let it be sent to a high quality pa and use a line pod. Usually when you plug a Variax into a pod, and turn the model non either on the guitar or the pod line six has some pretty good presets to start with, then you can tweak from there. I’m semi retired now on a fixed income and can’t afford the latest in the pod family but I’ve listened to many they are awsome. My BEST Variax rig was 2- 4x12 marshal cabinets . I accidentally came across a vintage Acoustic speaker cabinet. It had 4 vintage celestion green backs 25 watt, and Jimmy Hendrix favorite the 55hz version instead of the 75hz that almost everybody uses. I also use a line 6 short board floor pedal and a line 6 - x3 pro rack unit. For power I used the Mesa bogie Stereo 4 6L6 GC 50/50 stereo power amp. Nice tube compression. So I used my edited tones from the X3 and it sounded fabulous. I also used their Variax editing software. I grew up playing during the mid 60s through early eighties. So I created a bass guitar model that sounds similar when played through my bass amp rig which I’ll talk about some other time. I made a patch where one was a Gibson Les Paul and the bottom one was the precision bass. You know how bass guitarists sometimes followed the lead player in some funky stuff or blues. What an incredible sound and with the foot switch I can turn the bass off and on by copying a patch calling it b instead of a so when I did chords I most often would switch the bass off. what I’m getting at, and especially fir guys like me who no longer has a band but still love recording in my home studio with my Logic x. before line 6 was putting mag pickups in Variax I was doing it. Only problem I know nothing about the software part of this so my guitars had way too many knobs and switches. I saw the JT stuff. It was starting to het too expensive to buy one to canabalize and hope to get your money back with a sale. Then the standard came out. Like I said I started a strat body design with all the contours and that big battery pack is in the way. One of my Variax conversions I still have is a GIBSON Les Paul Double cut. I decided to leave the tone control out because that can all be adjusted with the pod x3 and easily edited and saved . Pluse I never moved the tone control that much . I don’t miss it. I also left the battery cavity out of that one. Anyway it’s clean. Not as clean switch wise as the jt, but it’s not bad. having a Variax is a commitment. If you don’t put much time into this platform, well your sound will give you what you give it. But put some real time in what she’ll do you’ll be a pleased player. Anyway not trying to be know it a;l. I was so impressed with the potential of this system I really got into them. I think I’ve purchased 50 different Variax guitars and bass. Sold most but the favorites/ if you ever have a question with builds or what ever, I don’t know everything like the designers but certain ally have spent the time to get what I want out of it. If you are ready to dump your Variax standard contact me.. I think they are great

I have done many conversions.. Because of family reasons, I haven’t done any in about 7 years. I finally got a building for a shop. I still have to set it up but I’ll hopefully get started before Christmas. Check with me then. Text 920-539-0447. I no longer have a website it was Markscustomguiars.com

This a security issue in Os High Sierra, I first found the issue not from installing line 6 drivers, but making changes on my SSD even as administrator I was set to read only. . I had to disable the new security,restart, then switch permissions me to read/write, restart, enable security (it's actual default is for the roots level) then restart and it was her old start. With the line 6 drivers if you don't see a notification then you have to accept the driver in settings/security

Oh. And I could configure my effects to pre or post. Not much difference

Hey Thanks for putting this up. I have a Bugera V22 infinium head and a Pod X3 pro. I cabled just as you said and just as you said it was week sounding. I just turned the. Master volume up all the way plus in settings FX Loop there are 2 gain controls. A negative one for input and a positive one for output. I tried turning up the gain but clipped like crazy and I realized I didn't need to touch them. The main thing was the master volume. I turned the amp off so there would e no volume control for that. The effects work as they should. Only thing is, stepping on the footswitch to turn the fx loop n and off does nothing. Same volume either way and same effects either way. Weird

My goal is to make a custom ultra playable American Strat clone. I'd replace the pickups with Lindy FRALIN pups. I will replace the crappy tremolo block with a bell brass block. I always level and polish the Frets. Although I'm more than qualified to make my own neck I think I'd purchase a USA Strat neck on eBay . Polish and level frets, then a nice clear lacquer finish. New custom pick guard. This will be an awesome guitar and except for the one extra pot, ( maybe I can figure out a concentric pot so we're back to 3) it would then look exactly like a normal USA custom shop Strat. Play better than anything bought from a music store. Plus the beauty of being totally standard magnetic pots or the Variax electronics. I'm really pumped about this ! Hope I get a bite soon ! Mark