Charlie_Watt

Headstock doesn't bother me. I would actually prefer a hardtail - don't use the whammy bar. I don't like the scale length of the Les Paul guitars as much as a Strat or I would probably have gone with the 59 too. I really like the looks of the 59. The funky model switching sucks though. Standard 5 way makes way more sense.

Neck swap is not difficult for anyone that has any basic guitar setup skills.

I thought he meant PotHead. Being from Colorado.....

I don't think you could put more than 64KB of memory on those. I had a TRS-80 with 48K of Ram. Before that I had an Altair S100 machine that I built from a kit. I had 4K of ram in that one.

Sweetwater!

I Don't know why Line 6 doesn't make a good VDI cable but there are others that do.

I just play at home and I still always use the VDI cable.

Partly Moore's law but it's also due to high volume automated manufacturing. I think I spent over 3K for my first useful PC. My current one set me back about $800 and it's at least 1000 times more powerful. On the other hand, things like regular electric Guitars have doubled in price in that same period with no change in performance. I work developing Hard Drives for a living. The first ones I worked on in the early 80's were 1K$ per MB. Now they are $50 per TB. I can't even calculate that difference without a good calculator.

Most people use the VDI cable to power the JTV so that they don't have to deal with the battery.

One risk of FW updates in the field is that they may bring out a HW problem in some units that did not show up in final test in the factory. My recommendation would be to stick with the older rev FW if it works unless your unit is still under warrantee. If it is, you could send it in and get it fixed.

They may be right. New FW uses the HW slightly differently so there is always the possibility that a HW problem is brought out by a FW change. Since most units are working fine with the new FW, there has to be something different with yours so that is probably why they are saying yours needs to be looked at. Troubleshooting long distance is a crap shoot at best.

Cheaper and Better often happens when electronics are involved. I agree that it is unlikely for a new Variax to be both. But that would be my wish. I expect the Standard to only be cheaper - not better.

If you are buying a JTV as in investment you are making a big mistake. They will not retain value like a standard namebrand guitar. I could care less what my JTV is worth. I would rather have the next generation be better and cheaper.

I can confirm it works fine on Windows7.

Look at it this way. If we all buy the model packs, maybe Line6 will make more! They are not going to invest in free stuff when they have limited resources.

VDI is standard Ethernet cable pinout - NOT crossover!

I too find the Standard very uninspiring. I will stick with my JTV 69S.

PA speakers are powered full range speakers that bands use for vocals (and some use for their instruments too) PA is short for Public Address. Might not mean much to you. I use an EV ZLX-12P with my Pod at home. It has more output power than a studio monitor but you may not need that for a small room. (also it is not stereo unless you get two of them)

I would have thought that the Optical Trem was more common in Fender amps. I know they have used both. The Deluxe Reverb is Optical as are the other amps using a variant of this circuit. (Super Reverb) I don't know about the Twin Reverb. I think the Princeton is bias trem.

Sounds like Edit has a "Memory Leak". This program should not continue to use more and more memory. This is a bug! Eventually, it will crash if it continues to consume memory.

I don't think 9's sound as full as 10's either. Gauge is a tradeoff.

You should consider a powered PA speaker too. I think that is one of the best options especially if you play any acoustic guitars into the Pod. A combo amp just doesn't cut it for acoustic guitar (or for piano)

Even though your Pod will work with the older FW, it may be that patches saved with the newer FW may not be completely compatible with the older FW. Just a guess here.

You don't need to use XLR unless your PA requires it. You can use any AB and use a DI box that converts 1/4 inch to XLR. You are stuck using batteries if you are using wireless. The Line 6 A/B box that used to come with the old Variax did have XLR and 1/4 out and it powered the Variax through a stereo TRS cable. You might be able to find one of these on Ebay. You would not be able to use it to power the Variax but it would still work as an A/B. By the way, I think you are smart to do what you are doing! The acoustic models sound great through a PA and not so good through a guitar amp.

Problem with USB is it's a standard. Maybe some jacks are more robust than others but they are all flimsy when it comes to daily use.