Charlie_Watt

For those of us that do our own setups, it would be nice to have some specs or guidelines. I am not convinced that they leave the factory set up perfectly and it does not make sense to send them off to a service center. I am happy with my JTV69S setup but I have fooled with it a bit. It has fret buzz on the LowE and A before I made some slight sting height adjustments at the bridge.

The bridge grounding a design issue not a Quality Control issue. All Variax models have had this design with no actual ground wire from the piezos.

Yes you got it. Be careful first time. It may be very loud in your headphones. Start with the PC Soundcard volume turned down.

When the USB is plugged into your laptop, the Pod can become the sound card. You can then play all sounds from your laptop through the pod into whatever amp / speakers you have hooked up to your pod.

The HD500X becomes your sound card so it will allow you to play songs through it with any app that uses the sound card. I do this all the time.

And if the piezo is dead or damaged, you can replace it quite easily. For some reason, Line 6 went with a single wire piezo that relies on the case for a ground either through the string or the bridge itself. Any dirt or contamination can prevent good contact and cause a big volume drop on that string.

IMO Alternate tunings are a serious compromise. They work if you ignore the fact that you can hear the real tuning if you are not playing loudly amplified. It's like another guitar playing quietly out of tune. That is the physics of it and it's not a broken Variax. If your band always plays tuned down, tune down. If you are only playing a few songs in alternate tuning, then use the compromise.

If you don't hear it with headphones, it's perfectly normal. The 12 string should not clash since the pitch shifting is in tune with the normal string tuning. Alternate tuning always clashes if you hear the strings at all.

There are several sources of good quality VDI cables for Variax. One poster here sells them. Get yourself a good one.

I hope you meant 2000 Ma not 200.

I always use the VDI and I do not notice any problems with it. It's a different A/d so the analog results will be different but it sounds just fine to me.

Who wants to damp the strings like that? Seems like an april fools joke to me!

Modeling electronics in 300 are not same as in a JTV nor is the FW. The 300 only works with the older version of WB. You do not say which pod you have but if it has the VDI interface, you should be able to update your guitar's FW with it.

Mine does not do it but I could imagine something being loose somewhere. It then could rattle and cause artifacts.

I agree that it's a stretch! The idea that the problem is mechanical I can buy though. Winding a few extra turns on the tuners should not change things as long as the winds are smooth. It does change the angle from the nut to the end of the string slightly. Damping the strings past the nut is always a good idea too. I have a damper there on all of my guitars. I think that the pitch shifting algorithms are always going to be messed up by extra resonances that can be caused by mechanical vibrations. This may be what is causing "ghost notes" on some JTV's and not others.

Monkey won't detect the guitar if the modeling isn't turning on. Sounds like your guitar is not powering up at all. Send it back for a replacement.

Has it ever worked? If not, send it back for a replacement.

It can be used but it's not really up to the task. Get yourself a quality cable to gig with.

Sometimes the model button won't press far enough. If it's bottoming out before making contact, the variax won't turn on. Pull off the knob and put a small piece of junk in the knob to space it further away from the body and it may work.

No way would a 1 amp dc supply run an HD500.

I had problems with Monkey connecting and it was my firewall.

IMO Guitar specs are just a starting point. You can adjust to your taste if you know what you are doing. Strat specs should work fairly well as a starting point for a '69. Mine came from Sweetwater fairly well adjusted for my taste. I had to raise the Low E and A slightly at the bridge saddle to get rid of some fret buzz. Most guitars come set up much more conservatively - not to my liking at all. My JTV was set up very nicely at the nut - something that many posters here find not to be the case.

If you break a string at the bridge, the ball end can fall inside. It's not from changing them. I change mine one at a time so that the trem doesn't get way out of wack. Its much easier to get back in tune this way.

Mine is internally threaded. I had to chase the threads to get it to thread on easily. It was so tight that it was useless when I got it. It threads into a bolt that goes through the back of the trem block in the bridge.

Use the USB interface.