ozbadman

Apples and Oranges. The DT amps are multiple tube amps. The OR15H is a specific tube amp. I don't think you can say one is overall better. They're better at different things. Unfortunately, you've now convinced me I need a hotplate for my DT25 as I hate the sound in low power mode. *sigh*

Aweome! Thanks Zap. I'm new to tube amps so this biasing thing is a whole new experience.

Hey, when you say you biased, how did you do that on the DT25? I've been reading that Line 6 wants you to send it to them to replace tubes (and only with their tubes), and there doesn't seem to be much info on test points or values for biasing. Any advice?

Maybe a spike on the line?

Perhaps a silly question, but why didn't you buy a Head and Cab in the first place?

Sounds like it's the potentiometer itself. I haven't had my DT25 apart, but I would imagine it's a standard pot. Since it's out of warranty anyway, any local electronics dude could probably fix it. Just be sure to warn them it's a tube amp, so there are high death-causing voltages in there, even when it's turned off (big capacitors).

Ahh. Yes, it's definitely a complex system in terms of the number of options available to you. Given the breadth of coverage Line 6 gives, I think they've done a remarkable job of reducing the complexity. I also have an AxeFX and that thing is layers of tweakability. Very, very complicated. But yeah, if it's overwhelming you end up learning nothing. Forests, trees, and all that. I hope your Orange suits your needs better. Good Luck in your search.

There's very few parts of the JTV/HD500/DT25 combination that are Line 6 specific and not transferable so I guess I don't understand what you're getting at here. It's all just guitars, effects, and amps that happen to be models. Even HDEdit (apart from the EQ, but that's another story) just presents the effects to you on a computer screen in a very similar way to if you were actually twidding the knobs on the real units. To my way of thinking, there's very little gained knowledge that doesn't transfer, so I guess I don't understand your point or concern here.

Or, you could think of it this way: Using a JTV, HD500 and/or a DT50 allows you to explore and learn about a wide pallet of sounds. Thanks to these devices, I get to learn about and understand the difference between pickups, woods, effects, tube amp feedback setups, amp models, effect ordering, tone resistances, balanced outputs, microphone placement. etc. Now, when I go to choose my next expensive instrument/effect/amp, I have a much better understanding of what I'm looking for. Knowledge at an unbelievably cheap price compared to any other way of obtaining it. my 3c.

Not that I don't agree with you, but I'll be devil's advocate for a second. Lefties make up 10% of the community. Unfortunately, that means the other 90%, while they are serviced to some degree by the current JTVs, would prefer Line 6 spend their time on something other than a lefty guitar, which is no use to us. For me, I hate the current JTVs, apart from the passable JTV59. My vote would be for a PRS style JTV. So the question for Line 6 is then are more people going to buy a righty PRS JTV (or something else), or a lefty JTV. Of those, what % is taking away from other sales. So equality is not as straight forward as lefty vs righty. You can turn a JTV upside down and not be happy, and I can buy a JTV69 (or something else), and be equally unhappy.

Yes, the best way to update the JTV69 is to use the HD500. Yes, that box is the dongle, but just use the HD500 for the update. Use the dongle if you want to use Workbench.

I like Charlie's idea. I don't have my JTV with me, but is their any power indication on a JTV when a cable is successfully plugged in in modelling mode? Does a light come on? If Charlie is right, when the JTV is not working, there shouldn't be any light on on the JTV as it will be powered down. The jiggling would then bring the power up and therefore, the light.

The JTV doesn't distinguish between pickups and modelling at the 1/4inch jack. So "fiddling" with the cord should have the same effect on both. Are you sure it's a normal Mono cable and not a stereo cable? Other than that, it could be a bad connection, but the problem should be on both the pickup and modelling modes if jiggling the cable fixes it.

I agree with everything else you wrote, but local culture plays a role in manufacturing. I'm originally from Australia, and we have an expression there: "she'll be right". It means everything will be alright, so don't worry. For years we manufactured cars, and they had lots of problems because the "she'll be right" mentality made its way into the cars. I can't picture "she'll be right" being part of the Japanese culture, which is part of the reason they make flawless guitars. I buy Toyota cars now, although when I want a decent cheaper version, I buy Hyundai's. I don't buy Australian or American cars. There are exceptions of course: Australian and American-made guitars are excellent. Maybe Germany should make guitars too.

Me too :)

1. No 2. Each input goes to path 1 or 2. So setting to same means the same signal is sent to both paths. This is a normal setup (although read in the HD500 forums about distortions some believe this may cause). To further understand these inout choices, look into dual paths on the HD500.

Well, here's the problem: how long did it take before you spotted this issue? Last minute quality checks can only do so much. I know on my guitars I haven't always noticed things initially either. You can really only solve these things by making sure your production processes reduce the likelihood of them being there in the first place. My Japanese guitars are waaaaayyyyyy higher production quality than my Korean guitars, including the JTV59. Out of respect for Line 6 I won't go into the manufacturing issues with my JTV59's, but definitely way below Japanese quality, but above Chinese quality. It's a mid-range instrument with expensive electronics.

Nice find Steve.

I doubt that's the scratch and dent problem. That's the Korean Guitar problem.

Historically, Line 6 has basically had no spares, except for the piezo pickups. That means for variaxes, you needed to buy a second hand one for the electronics, or pay a LIne 6 repairer to fix it. That wasn't so bad in the past as they had cheap Variaxes, which you could then pickup second hand on eBay. Not so for the JTVs. So basically, unless it's something really easy, you can't fix them yourself. It is a computer at the end of the day. That being said, a common fault with the model selector switch is that the shaft is too short for the knob, so the knob slides down until it bottoms out on the guitar, thus stopping the switch from working. The common solution is to take the knob off, and put a thin slice of cardboard, or plastic under the knob to act as a spacer. This seems to work. I would have thought Line 6 would have fixed this by now, but maybe not. Or maybe you got a re-stock.

FWIW, it sounds like there is a short somewhere between positions 3 and 5 of the switch when it's modelling. You could disconnect the switch and at least check that with a multimeter. After that, it becomes much harder to fix yourself.

I haven't heard of this before. It sounds like hardware, not software. I can't remember if the new 3-way switch has separate poles for magnetic and modelled pickups or not. So, it could be the switch, or it could be some of the hardware after the switch. I'd call Line 6 Support.

You're doing the update using the HD500 through the VDI yes? FWIW, the battery is not used when you use the VDI cable. Just making sure you're not using the dongle that comes with the JTV as some people have had a few issues updating that way.

Compatible in what sense? You can certainly use it like you would use any pedal board. I don't think you can use the HD500X to automatically select the model on the acoustic variaxes, but I could be wrong on that. Also, the HD500/X doesn't have any modelled acoustic amplifiers. You can use all the standard effects like reverb, compression, EQ, etc. And you can use the amp modelling, but they're all guitar amps that are modelled.

Can you not already achieve this with a midi device? I would think a GK-3 and a GR-55 might be able to do this, or if you're into software the fishman triple play might do this also.