oleus

1.1.0 update is now showing in the app store.

I'll try that. Thanks. The quality of the small sample of user tones I downloaded really impressed me. As did the magnetic pickups on the JTV, which I really have never used much.

Got to playing around with this thing some more last night. With some simple adjustments on the board knobs I was really able to open up the preset tones. I even found some great user tones from the cloud (I'm a big Cure fan and quickly found a lot of tones based on them). One thing I noticed - whenever I activated the tones I downloaded, the Firehawk locked into magnetic pickups on my Variax and I couldn't change it. And even though the light on the modeling knob was off during these tones, i could switch guitar models and I was hearing the different guitars in the tone.

Got my Firehawk last night. Hooked it up to my JTV69. Impressions: 1) with the Variax hooked up, the IOS app automatically set it to control my Variax models. and it looks like each tone has a preset Variax model if you have a Variax plugged in. 2) I didn't notice any bluetooth dropouts but the iPad was very close to the unit. 3) I didn't notice any terrible lagging or weird noises going between tones. It wasn't instant but the delay didn't seem like an issue to me. 4) I found the app interface slow and clunky. I have an iPad 3rd generation with retina, but it's full of apps with very little space on it. I wonder if I should get an iPad air for use exclusively for the Firehawk. I was getting very frustrated trying to change Variax models with the app, and in general some of the edit sliders seemed very clunky. 5) I only got to explore some of the preset tones, they sounded fine, I look forward to seeing how much I can tweak these. My time with it was very limited. I was a frustrated HD500x user who was too much of a novice to fully grasp the experience and this seems much more up my alley.

Mine will be here Tuesday or Wednesday. Looking forward to trying it out finally. The hd500x was just too much of a hassle for me so I think this was made for people like me , but I'm curious to see just how many effects are missing. I used to love my x3 live ... I have a jtv69 variax so I'm really looking forward to how it matches up. I already downloaded the apps.

good to know! can't wait to order one of these (can't until next week).

as a previous owner of an X3Live (which i loved and found relatively easy to get great sound out of) and a HD500x (which i know has the capability of sounding amazing but I could never wrap my head around all of the crazy workarounds and tweaking), i am HIGHLY anticipating the Firehawk. I have a JT69 Variax and I know I will miss out on a couple of functionality options but they weren't things i used. i don't mind using the knobs on the guitar to change the guitar models. Not bashing the Hd500x - but i firmly believe I would have had a much more productive few years of fiddling if I had just kept my X3Live (which also seemed sturdier than the 500).

is there any Variax functionality in the 500X that will be missing/lacking in the upcoming Firehawk?

Re: strings. That makes sense, I could tell the strings were higher quality than the crud usually shipped with a guitar. I'm loving the baritone tuning.

I have zero experience with alternate turnings but I am immediately loving the baritone option. I'm shocked how well this thing models alternates. And my superglue seems to have worked, I have been turning the model knob with a little more "normal" force and it seems fine. I guess I'll send line 6 a bill for my superglue :-) This thing paired with the hd500 is amazing - just playing around with the unmodified pod models ( that I know are much maligned ) is giving me insane tones when I fool around with it. I've been using quality studio monitor headphones (Sennheiser hd 380s) and the stereo imaging is quite impressive on some of the preset tones. At first I was hearing a lot of noise when I switched tone presets but realized I didn't have the variax set as global, when I was switching tones it kept adding the guitar and aux inputs , and even though nothing was feeding those inputs it was adding garbage. I even messed around with the banjo sound like I used to do with my old 500. Good memories. A great guitar so far. I'm going to put gs boomers on it soon but the first one I returned had a small tag about the strings it came with and this one didn't - in my anger about the bent knob I forgot what strings it said it came with. Should I go ahead and string it up with boomers ?

Could you recommend one ? I thought an Ethernet cable was all that was needed. What is the advantage of a cable upgrade ?

Just saw it had firmware 2.0 btw via the hd500 menus. So far I love the models and think it's a noticeable step up from the variax 500 I owned. The only acoustic that sounds right is the middle position but that's fine. I tend to like the chime / rickenbacker models but noticed the gibsons sound a lot better than I remember. Amazingly the guitar seems to have been set up perfectly. It plays great. I like the lighting on the model knob that I had to fix (I'm being really careful with it for now). I have a lot of learning to do as to what this thing can do with the hd500 that I might not be aware of yet, and I'm looking forward to making my own models via workbench on the custom knobs. Other than "epic fail part two" with the knob, I'm highly satisfied after 30 minutes of messing around.

Just plugged it into my hd500x. Sounds fantastic so far. I'm not sure what fw it has , I'll hook it up to monkey later when my wife is off of the computer. But it works!

Well. I got my replacement. I've decided to keep it, but I had to superglue the cap of the modeling knob. It was totally unattached and fell right off. So I received two jtv's with knob issues. Seems out of the realm of random bad luck. Everything else is perfect with it - neck is great.

I'm going to try and keep a positive attitude in hopes of good karma sending me a JTV69 in good shape. Obviously i'll check the knobs before i unpack everything else; it looked fine at first, so I unpacked the charger, cords, etc, before realizing we had a problem. I even googled "crooked variax tone knob" to see if it was some strange intended design. Since it did in fact turn all the way around, it probably would have been a functional tone knob if I had kept it. But it just didn't seem like something I should accept on a guitar that costs 1K. I really don't want the unintended irony of me starting a thread asking to convince me to buy one, and then being convinced, and then having to send two of them back. I'm a Line6 fan, i've owned a Pod X3 Live, a 500 and now a 500HDx , and was a happy owner of a used Variax 500 that looking back I should have held onto to since it was perfect (i sold when the JTV's came out but then had a job change that made it difficult to re-purchase, and i had two non-variax guitars I was happy with). So if i post about damaged product and being disappointed, I hope everyone here knows it's not that I have it out for Line 6.

yeah, i really doubt the knob was damaged in shipment. for the knob to be bent the way it was, there would likely have been surrounding damage to the guitar, or at least damage to that area of the box. none of that was the case. it looked like it was installed and bolted inside crookedly. there wasn't even damage to the knob itself, it looked pristine, other than the fact that it was at a 45 degree angle to the guitar. it could even turn all the way around, just at that 45 degree angle. i already have the RMA form and return shipping, so I should have my replacement from ZZSounds by the end of the week. I'll report what I receive.....

well i'll give it one more shot. after that, it's ebay for a 700

that may be true, but i doubt the globs of glue on the finish (that looked a lot like chips at first) happened because of handling damage.

Yeah, I'm tempted to ask for a refund instead of a return, but I opted for the installment plan for this very reason , so I'm only out $89 while going through the return process. It's a pretty glaring qc failure though , the knob wasn't bent a little, it was bent at a 45 degree angle ! And the double box was secure, no way it happened in transit IMHO. Obviously I've been looking forward to getting one of these since I started this thread. And it wasn't even one of the common problems. A completely mangled tone knob ? C'mon line 6.

Well, I struck out on my first try at this crapshoot. After unboxing everything I immediately noticed that the tone knob was bent at a 45 degree angle. It can turn all the way around but it's completely bent. I tried jostling it a bit , no luck. So the lengthy return process to zz sounds is under way , I'll give it one more shot with a replacement but so far this doesn't bode well for the variax qc. I doubt it was damaged in shipment. There was also some glue on the guitar I had to peel off.

I remember the palm muting being quite different than a regular guitar when i had a variax 500, so that won't come as a huge shock to me. if i notice fret edge/pulloff/saddle problems, it's going back. paid too much for it to have those kind of flaws. PS - i really wanted the lake placid blue model since i already have an all black guitar, but couldn't justify paying $300+ more on it just for that, plus the black looks sharp.

original topic poster here - i have a black JTV69 being delivered today from ZZSounds. I'll report my impressions by tomorrow. Hoping there aren't any serious flaws, these things sound like a crapshoot!

So, is the new variax workbench still for editing custom patches, to be saved/used in the empty custom banks on the guitar (or stored on an hd500)? Can u still do things like move pickups around in the new workbench software (for a custom model, now that I understand that the main models can't be altered with firmware 2.0)

You'll have to excuse my additional questions but I am more confused now the longer the thread gets. Let me ask two questions that have probably already been answered but there is a lot of info being discussed : Assuming I get a Jtv and use the newest 2.0 firmware, can I : 1) Use the two custom banks on the guitar for whatever crazy settings/models I want, for easy access on both the guitar and with the hd500. 2) change settings on the main banks (like pickup placement using workbench) and save them, but still have access to the original models ? Thanks in advance for your patience with my ongoing questions / clarifications

i'm also getting confused here. do the JTV's not have two custom bank/knobs where any kind of modeling patch/variation can be stored? i'm getting murky as to the differences being discussed now between the JTV's and older variaxes with these custom/modification banks.