Charlie_Watt

With Low volume products like these, the manufacturer only makes them when the supply is depleted.

It sounds like the problem might be the VDI interface on your Pod. Do you have access to another pod that you can try? It could also be the VDI on your guitar but if it works with Workbench, it sounds like it is able to talk. Two of the wires on that interface are power. When plugged into the Pod, the power comes from the Pod over the VDI.

How are you connecting to Monkey / Workbench? Through the Pod or with the USB interface that came with the guitar?

Nope. It was made in 2012. It may have been returned and reshipped with latest FW. When I got my 69S from Sweetwater I asked them to install the latest FW and they did. I saw some Serial numbers yesterday in Sweetwater pix that were 2011!

I agree. Soldering to the metal case is not trivial. My JTV is working fine so far but I will go that route if I start having connection problems like I did on my 500. I put Ghost piezos on my 500 and it was a huge improvement - and they have two wires on them! The only down side to two wires is that they both have to route through the bridge. It's a bit of a tight fit and the wires are already pretty small.

You need to set the pod input to Variax to get the VDI connected. But it should be powered anyway and the model knob should light up if the volume knob is turned up.

There is no rational reason for the piezo to have only one wire on it! It causes many failures by bad connections between the piezo and the bridge which is grounded.

There are lots of JTV's for sale out there that are that old. Not sure why Sweetwater just got some that are 2012 builds since I'm pretty sure they get them directly from Line6.

Bad Design! I am an EE and I know a thing or two about how to ground things. You don't rely on contact the way the Variax does.

Good deal! For the life of me I can't figure out why they did not include a ground wire on the piezos. I had constant problems with this on my first Variax (500) until I replaced them with Ghost piezos with ground wires on them.

Look carefully at the pins in the RJ45 connector. Sometimes one gets bent and won't make connection.

I think this is the one you want for your 59. http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/234088-Line-6-11-00-0010 I am pretty sure that the 59 and 69 use the same one. I have a 69.

You can buy the piezo and replace it yourself since you know how to solder. IT is a piece of cake to do. If your guitar is 2 years old, there is no warrantee so I would do it yourself. You should be able to order the individual piezo itself from Full Compass. You do not have to replace the whole bridge. Buy a second spare while you are at it. They don't fail that often and you may be able to revive it by cleaning.

Try Full Compass.

Try removing the strings and cleaning real well around that piezo transducer. It may just have a bad ground connection. It relies on contact rather than a wire. (bad design IMO). It is relatively easy to replace the transducer - and if it is not under warrantee that is what I would do. You can buy them from Full Compass. You have to solder the wire to replace it. If you don't know how to do this, don't try it at home!

You should have got a USB interface with your guitar. It comes with it originally. That way every JTV has the necessary hardware to do an update.

First off - why are you disappointed if Line6 comes out with an improved version like they did with the 500x? New cars come out every year and that doesn't keep people from buying one when they want to. Electronics have advanced rapidly with more horsepower for less $$ every year. The old cars and old Line6 products still work after a new model is introduced. Why worry about what the used value is. If you go to sell any piece of electronic equipment, you will only reclaim a fraction of what you paid for it.

Just kidding. Better to put the sunglasses on the Helix.

Wear Sunglasses. :)

I have string dampeners on every guitar I own. Especially my acoustics. I hate the sound of those short strings vibrating. It's not a Variax issue any more than a Martin or Taylor issue.

Are the amps plugged into the same power strip along with your HD500x? Is it quiet if you use one or the other amp only? If so, you need to either change how they are powered or get an isolation box for one of the amp connections. That should solve your hum problem.

I agree that tape machines are probably the major cause of recordings being off of standard tuning. Most of what I play along with was probably recorded on analog equipment. I like 60's and 70's stuff.

Don't be sorry! We are here to help. I agree that your Software is strange if it doesn't work with standard concert tuning. Many tuners let you tune to other than concert pitch. I find that playing with recorded music often has tuning issues. I use a package called Transcribe that allows me to change the pitch of the songs in cents until it is in tune with my properly tuned guitar. Some recorded songs are off a bunch for some reason. It sounds 1000 percent better when your guitar is in tune with the song you are playing along with. :-)

The allen wrenches that come with it are cheap Chinese metal. Get good hardened ones and they won't round over.

Get a good tuner and use it often. Guitars never stay in tune very long. Cruisinon2 tells it like it is. Use a tuner but listen to the results and train your ears to tell when you need to tune up. Watch good players and they are constantly tuning between songs.