Charlie_Watt

You should be able to make the X3 sound like the Pod 2.0 but not with the same patches.

The Ghost saddles have the piezo potted into them rather than spring loaded against the strings so the vibrations are transmitted to the piezo through the plastic. There is nothing that can move around which I think is an improvement. The sting volume needs to be reduced due to the much higher output from the piezos. If you don't reduce the string volume, there is clipping in the Variax hardware / fw that sounds terrible. I have mine set at 50% on my 500. I did not have a real good way to compare old and new volumes so the 50% is somewhat of an educated guess.

They can make a nylon string acoustic model. They did it before. However, it won't have the feel of a nylon string acoustic.

As long as they will let you return it AND you get the full Line6 warranty then it is probably ok. I would be concerned if they are not an authorized Line6 dealer though. The odds of needing a warranty are much higher on these guitars than standard guitars given all of the complex electronics. Check out Sweetwater and see if you can get the same deal with them. I really recommend them given my experience.

I got essentially the same deal at Sweetwater with their 2 year warranty and personalized service! ($999 for a JTV69S "Demo") With them you can send it back no questions asked if you don't like it. They are about the only mailorder house I would buy a guitar from.

I could do that but it would be hard to make anything that would be easy to insert and remove the battery. I would probably hard wire it and make a way to charge it while still in the guitar. I have a bunch of Lithium batteries for my electric model airplanes that have molex connectors on them. That would be an easier route. If I could find a Battery box like the JTV has I would use that but I doubt that anybody sells anything like that.

And they briefly sold a nylon string acoustic.

I have not seen any sort of "calibration" proceedure anywhere. Line6 may have one but you may have to send it to them to get it done. If you just bought it can you return it to the seller? This is certainly a defect.

The JTV69S that I got from Sweetwater was called a "Demo" and it came Flawless and set up very well. Discount was $400 of regular price. At the time (about a month ago) they had several to choose from.

I can't resist tinkering with things. I have searched around but I can't find any kind of battery box that would allow me to adapt my old Variax 500 to a Lithium rechargable. A 7.2V 2500mAH Lithium would run it just fine if I could interface to the battery.

I don't own any nylon string guitars but I have played some and I would imagine that the feel of playing steel vs nylon would totally different. It may be possible to make a Nylon model but the guitar isn't going to play like a nylon equipped acoustic.

The install on my 500 required very careful trimming and soldering. The 500 has a flex circuit attached to the bridge. The wires have to be very short. I was fortunate to have 100% success but they sound much better and I was having intermittent connections to the strings with the originals.

Sounds like you have an electrical problem. The switch serves two different functions: One is to select the mag pickups same way as a Strat. The other is to select one of five Models in the bank. Sounds like the second function isn't calibrated correctly. I would send it back.

I have been searching around and one possible use for the third connection is to monitor battery temperature. Many Lithium batteries have an internal temperature sensor. However, I would think this would come into play when charging the battery not when discharging it.

I'm glad psarkissian is looking into this. It would be good to get returned JTV's to the right folks so that Line6 can figure out what kind of problems are showing up and try to make sure that they do not continue to happen.

I converted my 500 to Graphtech Ghost piezo saddles and the output greatly improved. It sounds much more natural to me. I had to reduce the string volumes down to 50% to get roughly the same output.

I am pretty sure that the JTV comes with a Graphtec nut. They are pretty good but a well made bone nut would sound better on open strings.

I have my action way too low to be aggressive with it. The acoustics sound good when I play like an electric but you can't play aggressively like you can on a real acoustic with heavy strings.

I think the JTV could be improved with a real good nut job too. I replaced the standard nut on my 500 with an Ervana compensating nut. I like the compensation but the nut isn't that great. Not like a good bone nut. I wish I was a little better craftsman - I would make my own. I have tried with only partial success in the past to cut my own nut. I know what needs to be done but it takes lots of patients and practice which I don't have.

Since I don't have another battery to compare I really can't say what is different between the Camcorder battery and the Line6 one. I read it in both polarities to see if there was any sign of something other than a resistor in that circuit. Doesn't seem to be. If I had one of those cheap replacement batteries I would take it apart and see what's in there. I like doing a little reverse engineering from time to time. In the past I have been paid big bucks to do just that. :-) I am not all that motivated to have a second JTV battery at the moment. I would like to convert my Variax 500 to a better battery though. I am using NIMH AA cells in it.

My line 6 battery had zero volts between the negative and the third terminal. That's why I measured the resistance. It read 9.5K both directions. (I'm an EE and I know how to use a meter!)

I do not own any vintage guitars that were modeled in the JTV so I have no direct comparison. I like the models we have. Are they perfect? No. Are they fun and do they sound good? Yes. I will welcome further improvements when they are available and I will play with Workbench to adjust the models to be more to my liking. I have been a Variax owner since the 500 came out and this is very cool technology.

My alt tuning works great but you have to play loud to avoid hearing the out of tune natural string vibration. For standard tuning in different keys I prefer a capo.

Good Cables are worth the $$.

The newer stuff is better!