Charlie_Watt

I had intermittent problems with my 500 that required me to fool with the bridge to get a good signal every once in a while. I recently replaced the piezos with Graphtech Ghost and it is the solution. All of the original Variax piezos were grounded through the bridge which was not reliable.

Yes on the old Variax that is true. That is why everyone likes the Ghost replacements to much. They each have a ground wire.

If you send it in they will replace the PCB. You probably will not like the price you have to pay though.

Buy a Warmouth Strat Neck.

That could be. I just got an HD500x. I was used to the older pods. I think most of the older ones gave you mono on either L or R 1/4 inch if you only had one plugged in. I am now using two XLR to my EV PA speaker and it's working great. The balanced inputs solved a nasty ground loop problem I had when running my HD500x with my Laptop plugged into power for charging. I could not use my tube amp at all with the pod connected with USB if the laptop was not on battery power. Lots of hum that went away if I unplugged the laptop charger. The EV PA is dead quiet even with the Laptop being powered. Since the EV has two XLR inputs I am running both the L and R into it and it sounds great - especially with Acoustic models on my JTV.

Please put your HD500 patches on Customtone. Then we can all have access to them.

I am doing the same thing. XLR to an EV ZLX-12P Powered PA Speaker I think I need to use two XLR if I want both Left and Right. I know using either of the 1/4 inch gets both channels but I do not think the XLR works that way.

I do this by using the Headphone output into the CD Player input. Works fine. I wouldn't use with USB while also running Line6Edit

Calibration info is in the online manual. It only calibrates the Expression Pedal not the FS's. If the FS isn't responding reliably it's defective.

This stuff is all driven by sales. As long as the HD products are popular they are not going to abandon them.

Read the above. I did not go with Studeo Monitors. I went with a PA Speaker.

Update: I decided to go for the EV ZLX-12P for my powered full range speaker. I got it Saturday. The Acoustic sound is killer! I need to play with a bunch of things to dial in the sounds I want but I really like what I am hearing with my JTV 69S. I used the XLR for the connection but I am thinking that I should probably connect both the Left and Right XLR. I know that plugging a 1/4 inch into the 1/4 outs gets Mono both channels but I don't think that happens with the XLR outputs. I know I could mod the patches to pan everything one way but I think I can accomplish the same thing by plugging in two XLR cables since the speaker has two XLR inputs. Anybody have any opinions on this? For now I am really having fun figuring out how to tweak my patches to sound the way I want them.

Means you changed something in a preset and did not save it. No big deal.

No but 1.2V AA NiMh batteries work just fine. I use them all the time. I have two sets that I cycle through.

It is relatively trivial to lengthen the cable. Just cut it and splice in any length you want within reason. It's also easy to change the polarity of any supply by cutting and splicing the cable. Just use solder and heat shrink to make a nice reliable connection. It's easy to find surplus DC supplies online at places like All Electronics for cheap! They also sell connectors and cables that will work.

If you use the VDI you don't need spare batteries. They are about $50 each. Since I started using my Pod500X I don't even have the battery installed in my JTV.

You can argue till you are blue in the face and the HD500 is still going to have a DSP limit and Line6 isn't going to hand you a free upgrade! Let's talk about useful stuff here like how to get the most out of these really great products.

Look for a crack where the jack is soldered to the board. If you have an ohmmeter check the connections while wiggling the plug.

You can drag and drop the HD500 patches right into HD500X Edit. You do not have to change the extension.

With WorkbenchHD you can Blend the Mags and the Models into the normal output. Then if you use altered tuning, the mags will be standard tuning and the model will be altered.

I would play it by ear but I have been soldering and making electronic stuff since the 60's. The input jack connection may be an easy solder job. I did not mean to be rude with my short post. My guess is that the jack is hard connected to the board and that means that the connection can crack due to the leverage you have with the 1/4 jack going in there. I had the cover off of mine once many years ago but I do not remember what that part looked like or what the access was. It will be easy if the damage is easy to get to. It's worth taking a look if you feel up to it.

There are LOTS of patches for the HD500X. Well over a hundred. The HD500 patches load into the HD500X just fine though. (there are way more of these obviously)

DSP hardware evolves with time. Line6 used what was available at the time when they developed the HD500. Now you get more horsepower in the same DSP - probably higher clock speed. The 500 uses surface mount technology - you cannot replace the DSP for a reasonable turn around cost. I like the tradeoffs they made in the 500 at the time. You get to use the DSP processing power the way you want with some limitations. If you need the 20% more power, sell your 500 and buy a 500X. It's that simple.

Try to fix it yourself then.

I think the 500X is a significant upgrade. Faster CPU better footswitches. The flexibility and modeling are very good - you can do just about anything with it. Would I upgrade if I already had a 500? Probably.