Charlie_Watt

Yes it will.

That may be doable but I really don't know what the godin piezos look like. If they look like the Ghost piezos then yes it could be done.

It's not an easy conversion unless you are very good at soldering and working with very small wires. I removed the whole fixed bridge assembly along with it's flex circuit. Then I unsoldered all of the old piezos and removed them. Then I installed the new ones one by one. I cut the connector off and threaded the two wires through the hole in the flex. I soldered the signal wire to the point where the old piezo went and soldered the ground wire to the flex ground. I scraped off the insulation in an area that was large enough to connect six grounds. This is the tricky part. It has to fit under the saddle where the guitar is routed out slightly. The wires have to be very short and they are not that easy to strip and solder. It took me most of an evening to do the job but it was well worth it! Having each piezo grounded makes a huge difference in the signal quality. I was having intermittent problems with grounding with the old ones. Only thing I did afterwards was to go into Workbench and turn down the string volumes to about 50%. These new Ghost piezos are higher output than the originals and I was worried about clipping the signals. I tried to judge how loud it was before and after.

I got them from Stewart Macdonald Search for item 5443 Ghost Prewired Saddle Pickup Set. They are made for a Strat. String spacing doesn't change because each saddle is individual just like the ones on the 500.

If you are talking about the Digital VDI cable - it won't work. The data connection is not going to be compatible with any other guitar connection. You will potentially damage your guitar or pod.

If you stick with same string gauge, the neck should not need readjusting when changing string brands.

My 69S was perfect at the nut when I received it from Sweetwater. I'm sure they did not touch the nut setup either. No high frets either. I had to adjust the Low E and A strings up a little at the bridge to reduce fret buzz on those strings. It's the easiest guitar to play that I own. (And I really like the acoustic models)

This is a common problem with many guitars. Most switches are not all that good when used on very low level signals like we have in our guitars. Oxide builds up on the contacts and there is not enough current to break through it. It takes special switch design with gold contacts to prevent this on low level signals. Unfortunately, many guitar makers don't use properly designed switches.

This is a problem with alternate tunings. The feedback that a guitar normally gets is the same frequency as the strings and it interacts nicely with the string vibrations. With alternate tunings, the feedback from the amplified notes is not at the same frequency as the strings being played.

I doubt that even Yamaha will make guitars in Japan now. Too expensive.

Replacement piezos are not all that expensive but they do vary in sensitivity a lot so adjusting in Workbench is the way to go. I don't believe that these things are calibrated for volume in the factory.

Medical grade just means $$. They have to be tested for leakage to ground and other things. You do not need Medical Grade for a Pod.

Have you tried backing off on the string volumes to see if it reduces the effect?

Engineering schedules are made to be missed. :) We want it right the first time so we will wait. I always try to wait a few days to see how a new FW release is accepted here before I go ahead and install it.

If you have ANY buzzing with no power, you have a setup problem. And YES it can change with different brands / gauges of strings. Get that fixed and your Variax will sound good again.

There is nothing to upgrade. You just download the new Firmware yourself! When you buy a new HD500x it will not come with the new FW. (or additional amps)

Duct Tape! (Or rubber bands)

The Firmware upgrade itself will be free. (I'm pretty sure) You will have to pay if you want the model packs.

I agree with that. If the Standard is a quality instrument, it will expand the Variax market. That may entice Line6 to do some more new things with the Variax line. There are many folks that don't want to drop $1000 for a guitar.

Mine was labeled "Demo" and it too was pristine.

I live outside of Boulder half the year and in Arizona the other half. Been doing that for three years now. I really like Colorado best in the summer. If you like the outdoors, you will Love Colorado!

I agree with everyone here. You can not get good acoustic sounds through a standard guitar amp. With a 1 way speaker system, they roll off at about 6KHz which will remove all of the high frequency from the acoustic. You need a full range speaker system to reproduce the acoustic guitar sound. Keyboard and Acoustic amps tend to have a full range speaker system as does a good PA. I went the PA speaker route for my home playing since I like to play the acoustic models - and my real acoustic guitar amplified. I use no amp model in my HD500x and go into my powered speaker in Studio Direct mode.

I agree that the Standard will generate interest at the lower price point. I was just saying that it will probably not interest me in the least. I would pay for new improved Variax features but not for a new packaging job since I have a JTV69S that I am happy with.

What snow? It's only 80 degrees here in Arizona. :-) Has been for the past two weeks. No "In like a Lion" here. I'm much more interested in the HD500x FW upgrade / model packs than I am in the Variax Standard. I will wait until we hear about it here from folks that have become "Early Adopters". I am not expecting much to jump up and down about.

There is a connector that connects the Piezo signals to the main board. That is an easy place to flip the connections. It was a bit harder on the 500 because they used a flex circuit to run the piezo signals to the main board. That one would have required some soldering skills. Somewhere on this board there is a picture of the board and connector so you can see what I am talking about.