Charlie_Watt

No that is not it. The balanced connection with XLR is not as sensitive to ground noise. In both cases I was using high quality shielded cables. My setup is dead quiet with XLR and it was unusable with my single ended cables when my laptop power supply was plugged in. Balanced inputs are much better at rejecting noise on the ground.

For me, XLR does give much betters sound quality - when I have my Laptop connected via USB. I get ground loop noise using the single ended cables but it is dead quiet with the XLR connection from my Pod 500X to my powered PA speaker.

That tuning Stabilizer is really nicely done!

You might want to try a new set of strings before you give up on it. Most of these guitars are at least a year old when you get them.

Me too. I had mine upgraded to 2.0 before they sent it out to me. Never went back. Don't plan to ever go back. I like the HD models better than those on my old 500. No they are not perfect. Workbench allows enough tweaking to get them the way I want them though.

I compared my 69S to the above pix and it is more like the 600 pic. (but it's a rosewood fretboard) It doesn't look anything like stevekc's 69S board that he had replaced. Clay-man's board looks ok to me but it's harder to tell from that angle. I have never had a sting slip off playing mine. I am not a great player - mostly chords. I have tiny hands to go with my tiny 5'6 body so the narrow neck fits me. My advice is to either swap it or ask Line6 to replace the neck if you are not completely satisfied. You could explain your problem to Sweetwater and have them look at the other 69S blacks that they have and see if any are better for string spacing. They will do that.

If the string broke at the tuning peg, it's probably just a bad string or it wasn't strung properly. With the locking tuners, you don't have to wind it around the peg much but I still like having at least a turn or two.

Glad you solved it. I had grounding problems on my 500 with the original piezos. I also upgraded to the Ghost saddles. It was difficult to connect all of the ground wires but the results were worth the effort. No more grounding problems. I wish that Line6 would do that on the newer Variax designs. It's still the single wire relying on the case for ground. This works for a while but it's easy to have a bad ground which causes all sorts of problems like the one you had.

1.75 has been out for years.

Only thing that understands updates is Monkey.

There is no NEW workbench for the 600.

What is "phf"???

You can try damping the springs with some soft foam or other soft item. Also damp the strings above the nut if you have not done so already.

Most DSP code is written in C or C++ these days. Compilers have gotten pretty good at optimizing the code. It still pays to know what creates efficient code. I write C++ code for ARM processors which have fairly decent DSP capability. Pods use Analog Devices processors.

I found the same thing with my 500 years ago. I have used Elixir strings since for that very reason.

Guitar side means the dongle is not communicating with the Variax. It has nothing to do with the PC side. You need to figure out why that side isn't working. Could be the dongle, the cable, or the guitar itself. Look carefully at the pins in the VDI connector on the guitar and make sure that the pins are not damaged. That is one possible cause of the problem.

Any decent set of headphones will work well. I use a Sony set that I have had for years. MDR-7509HD

Your USB jack is busted. It's missing the plastic center part.

Yes the 69, 69S are two point Trem.

Which red light? Guitar side or PC side?

I agree that it's low risk. I do a couple things to make it lower risk: I try to always download the FW image to my PC before flashing. I don't touch anything on my PC or guitar while it's flashing. I use my Pod so that power is coming from it rather than relying on my battery. I have only done one update since I got it but it went smoothly with no glitches or errors.

I found their service to be excellent when I got my JTV69S. They updated the FW for me before shipping it. I ordered some strings and they even asked me if I wanted them put on. (I did not.) I did not have any problems with my guitar so I do not know how easy it is to return stuff with them but they also increase the warrantee over the normal one. My next large music purchase will be with Sweetwater. Don't know what that will be yet. :-)

Some still listen to vinyl with their hugely expensive tube amp and tube preamp. But most of us have learned to live with digital music. Analog has some advantages but it also has some disadvantages. Digital is so much cheaper and there are not enough Analog nuts so we are stuck with it anyway.

Not necessary to do that. Just find the fault. IT's either a short or an open.

When there is, I will buy a 150. (I should say if there ever is!)