Charlie_Watt

Small action adjustments don't affect intonation much but I would check the intonation as part of any setup or string change anyway. My intonation was off a bit when I got my JTV. That too is an easy adjustment and one it's good to learn how to do.

Most guitars come set up with the action on the high side. Anyone that knows how to set up a guitar can adjust the action on your 59. Important thing is that there can be no fret buzz. I actually had to adjust my A string up a tad at the bridge on my 69S when I got it to eliminate some fret buzz. I spent some time years ago to learn how to do setups. I do my own.

the cable from btpa.com is a very nice one! That is what I use. Much nicer IMO than the one Line6 sells. btpa makes great regular guitar and other audio cables also.

A bunch of folks have changed the pickups - and connected them the same as the stock ones. If you route them separately, you will have to add new volume and tone controls.

I would not modify the knob. Just put a bit of something in there to keep it from going too far on the shaft. Easy solution. Folks here have been doing that for ages because it is a common problem with the JTV.

Mag pickups are always unprocessed coming from the Variax.

Mine is internally threaded. (never use it though)

I won't even go into a GC.

My advice is hold your breath (at least don't touch anything) during the FW update.

Try it for yourself. I think not much difference with my JTV 69S.

To protect the Lithium battery used in the JTV, the battery monitor in the battery box will shut it down when it reaches a critical voltage. The older Variax just stopped working when the battery got too low. (at least that is what my 500 does)

Remove and charge the battery but you don't need it to run VDI. Dead strings are unrelated to battery. If three are dead, I would check all connections to the board and make sure nothing is loose. At least with the JTV, you can switch to mag pickups if you have a piezo pickup go south on you.

The Variax battery cannot be charged while in the guitar. It is a Lithium cell and it requires a special charger.

Mag signal goes out the VDI.

How do you power up the Variax. Normally you have to plug something in the regular jack to power the modeling. ALso - do you run the amp on the variax power or does it have it's own battery?

I think it's really a blend of the mag pickups. It will sound terrible if you do that with alt tunings.

Cover is on in the fourth pic.

Alt tune requires separate pickups for each string. Mags are not.

I get normal single coil hum with my JTV69S. Much less in positions 2 and 4 than 1,3,5 just like my normal strat.

The label on my cable is 98-030-004-015 . I have had it for about 4 years but I assume they still make them. Give them a call if you can't find it on their site. BTPA.com

I got mine from Besttronics. Very well made. They make great regular guitar cables too.

Spec may be 5 meters but you need a good quality cable to be reliable at that. Most USB cables are not really good quality.

USB will get unreliable if the cable gets too long. I don't like more than about 4 feet.

What does NOT make sense is that Helix doesn't support the current models with WB either!

The Pod 500x will not run the old WB that goes with the 600 unfortunately.