GlennDeLaune

That's a great deal. That's what I got mine for from Sweetwater. I am Extremely Happy with this guitar!! Since you're looking for recommendation here are mine.

1)  Get the guitar professionaly "set-up". If you don't know how to do it yourself try to find a guitar tech in your town that knows what he is doing and get him to adjust the guitar to it's optimal playing ability. This has to do with tremolo height, tilt, Pick-up height, bridge saddle height adjustent, intonnation and neck curvature.

2)  Check the edge of the frets. Run your hand up and down the neck while lightly grabbing the top & bottom edge. If you feel any "sharpness" from the frets don't worry. That's normal for most guitars that have not been professionally "set up" from the factory. It's a simple process of filing those sharp edges of the frets. The person that you get to do your set-up can fix that. Believe me you will not believe the difference in the way the guitar feels in your hands and after all that's what makes playing guitar enjoyable right?? A Great Feeling Instrument.

3)  Yes you should update the firmware as soon as you get it. I think 2.0 firmware is great and why wouldn't you want the latest & greatest. I have been using it live since January and no complaints here. It really has been my "go to" guitar since I got it.

So that's it. The fret thing is just a prefernece of mine but most guitar players will tell you a good feeling instrument makes all the difference in performance and playability.

Take all the Variax stuff away and you still have a really really good guitar. The magnetic pick-ups sound very good and I love the JTV-69 Bridge and the special locking tuners on the headstock which makes changing strings a breeze!!

I've developed some custom Variax models for my live shows. If you want them you can find them here. I'm giving them away for any one who wants to try them.

http://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=33ab952a1e3a3e52e6d22e677fdd7a6e&topic=10694.0

Yes you can do it. Turn on the wah and set the level to 34%. At heel position it's on but really doesn't affect your sound that much until you go to toe and the wah opens up. I showed this in one of my pedal board demo's. This one:

http://youtu.be/qqjCBSkkfQ8

Skip to 5:47 where I show the Wah part

You can get one brand new on Ebay for $899. Better get it before I do LOL

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Line-6-JTV-69-James-Tyler-Variax-Electric-Guitar-3-Tone-Sunburst-/261407283887?pt=Guitar&hash=item3cdd169aaf

What kind of fret and bridge work.. i'm also coming out of a 3k PRS that provided me with some nice fat crunchy sounds that i use for Praise and Worship is this capable of these tones.. Working my way towards a dream rig so wondering if it's worth it.. The guitar would be my second piece.. Thanks Glenn..

Well I had to dress the edge of the frets. No biggie. My old Variax 700Trem came with a fabulous fret dressing. This one, not so much As far as the bridge, it just wasn't at an even angle with the guitar so I adjusted it to where it is 1/8in above the body and perfectly in line with it. Now as far as the tones I have had to edit my own Strat and Les Paul and Acoustic 6 & 12 models to better match the real thing. I use all of these in my symphony concerts. Once I figured out all the right settings it sounds Better than my best strat and just as good as any of my Pauls. I used to have to bring 5 guitars to a gig, all with different tunings and sounds. Now I only bring my JTV-69 and a back-up LOL. I am seriously considering buying another JTV for a backup.

I'll try to answer your questions.

1. Usa vs Korean.. What's the real difference..fell,playability,Price range. I see some (new) for $899 and some for $1299.

I got one new from Sweetwater for $899.00. I just couldn't pass it up being that I paid $1,500 for the first generation Variax 700Trem about 7 or 8 years ago. Can't comment on the $1,200 ones but i think they are SSS pick-ups where mine is SSH.

2. Tuning stability.. I play a lot of chord inversions.

Tuning swtabilty is great. I use Nutsause on the nut and bridge saddles and it never goes out of tune even with dive bomber whammy's.

3.live and recording use . Does the guitar work better in live or studio and can it be used for both.

Yes it works very well for both. I have attached a pic of me using live in at a recent concert.

4.upgrade issues with different versions v1.9 and v2.0.. BIG DISCUSSION ON THIS..

No problem there. Some people say that the 2.0 doesn't sound as good as 1.9 but i don't find that at all.

5. Durability..

It seems to be a pretty well built guitar. I have been using it for about 3 months constantly and I love it.

6.How is the guitar as a STAND ALONE INSTRUMENT?? I own an analogue system . will the guitar interact with it like a NORMAL Guitar??

Actually as a stand alone guitar it is very good. The pickups on mine sound amazing through all of my rigs. I did have to do some work on the neck & bridge though. The bridge needed adjustment and the frets needed some work. I mean going from a 3K PRS to this guitar you will definitely "Feel" the difference in the edge of the frets so I had to fix that. I did it myself. Now it feels right.

7.Functionality with IOS. Does it work well.

I can't comment on this. Not sure what IOS is. If it has something to do with iphone or Mac I don't have either. I'm on adriod and I use the Windows platform.

8. Do i have to buy any other cables or attachments for the use with the Pod Hd.
THANKS IN ADVANCE GUYS!!

For the POD HD?? no because all you need is a stanfard guitar cable. the POD HD does not have a VDI connection. The POH HD500x however does have a VDI connection so you will need that VDI cable. Honeslty though if you want to go wireles like I do you are better off just using the standard guitar cable. The batteries last really long and you can get a spare (Authentic Line6 Lithium ION) from Amazon for 49$. You can get them from Line6 too. The only advantage of using the VDI cable is that you can make the POD change your guitar models and tunings and it can be saved within a patch.

Hope this helps.

If you press & hold the "VIEW" button, you will get into the system settings. On menu 3 you see the Input 1 & Input 2 settings. If you set Input 2 to "mic" instead of "same" (which I believe is the default setting) your signal won't be as "hot". That might help if you are running actives. None of my guitars have active pups so I normally have input 2 set to "same" which I find gives me a little more "bite" Especially for low gain crunch type tones. Give that a try.

Sure you can. Just rename your patches file extension from ".hre"  to  ".pxe"

Try setting your I/O Buffer rate lower in Logic. Depending on how powerful your computer is and how much RAM you have, Higher Buffer rates can cause those click & pops you are talking about.

Yeah that's a good deal you got on that POD HD. If you don't plan to do any recording the No you don't need a "DAW" and headphones would probably be all you need. If, however, you would want to hear what your tones sounbd like through speakers then, Yes the KRK's would be a good choice as long as they are Powered.

Great I was doing the same thing to mine. Wonder why they didn't add this to the headstocks??

Absolutely Yes. and even photos from the tour with me using the JTV-69. There are some descent videos of the JTV-69 out there but IMHO there are only 3 or 4 really good ones and 2 of them are by Line6 (which are really slick) but the other ones, while they are good, I think the audio is lacking. I will be doing a complete review of the instrument and even maybe a comparison between the JTV-69 and the old 700 Trem. I'll even get into the software editor which nobody has really tackled yet so that will be fun. I really appreciate the quick help I got here. I mean it was litterally, get the guitar, hook it to my computer, load my custom models and do the gig. I guess I put alot of faith into that guitar that it wouldn't let me down andf it didn't. It really came through. Now just wait till I get in there and start tweaking it LOL.

Here ya go, didn't take this long to surface LOL

Update!!  Used the Variax for a concert with the Corpus Christi Symphony last night and it worked and Sounded great. Everyone was Blown away. That's with No tweaking, just right out of the box, loaded up my models into the custom slots and away we go. Awesome Stuff!!

Is there a way to minimize battery drain when the guitar is not being played other than removing the battery?

Turning the volume down all the way will turn the guitar off.

Welcome to the JTV Glenn! :)

Thank you. I have the old version 700 Trem and a 600 but I gotta say, this James Tyler Variax is way way better. Even if you just use it for the regular guitar portion, it's a fine playing instrument and the pickups sound really good too. I got it from Sweetwater but after close inspection, I realized it needed a setup when I got it. The trem was not at the right angle and it needed to be intonated but after I did that it's perfect now and all is good. I am going to have to do some fret work though, mainly to make it "feel" better on the edge of the fingerboard but that is not a major issue. It's just a personal preference. I like my instruments to have that "broken in" feel. I'll be using this Thursday night with the Corpus Christi Symphony. I'll be in concert with them and I'll be using the 12 string and 6 string models for this show. I am running the JTV-69 into the POD HD. Not using any amps in the HD just using it as an interface between the guitar and the PA. I am using the Studio EQ to warm things up a bit and just a slight bit of room reverb. That's it . . . then straight into the PA. Thanks for the help guys. :)

Bingo!!! Thanks so much. Didn't know I had to have a guitar cable plugged in. That did it. Looks like I was already at 2.0 Firmware and Workbench HD is now connected. Everything working Properly. Thank you so much for your quick response. :)  Leaving tomorrow morning for a short tour and so wanted to bring this thing out with me.

Well my guitar is connected using the supplied Cat5 cable but the interface is showing 1 green light snd 1 red light. What could be wrong?? Maybe I don't have the Variax drivers installed. I thought Monkey would do that. Should I download the drivers and install them manually??

With the guitar connected, run monkey, select flash memory and update section. Note that the line 6 hub (plastic small device) must have 2 green lights !!

Thanks but look at my screenshot. Where is Flash Memory item??

Well just got my JTV-69 and can't connect Workbench. I have installed Minkey, Installed all of the drivers and software as per Monket intructions but it says my firmware is 1.03. I thought it was at 2.0?? When I run the Workbench HD it is not recognising the guitar. But Monkey says it is connected. I am using the uncluded USB interface. Need help fast guys . . . . . I've downloaded the 2.0 firmware file but can't figure out how to load it.  Running Windows 7

Here is a screenshot:

Yes. The JTVs come with the Workbench interface and a short VDI cable to go from the Variax to the interface.

 

One thing, though, if you already have the HD500 or 500X (or another POD with a VDI interface) you'll want to pick up the longer VDI cable with neutrik connectors on both ends if you want to use the the JTV with the POD a lot. The short cable may be alright at home if you're not moving, but even then it's not a good long term solution.

Thanks, yes I have 2 of the long VDI cables because I already have a 700 Trem and a 600 as well. Where can I get spare batteries??

Will I get everything I need with this to connect to computer and use the Workbench software??

The JTV's for $879 are "Scratch & Dent" but for $899 you can get a new one. I just picked one up. Been wanting one of those for a long time. Thanks for the Heads Up!!

Yes That is Correct.