chuskey

I'm not too young to remember what life was like before smartphones. Far from it :) I've had the conversation many times with friends about the question of whether or not technology like smartphones have actually made life better. A lot of things have become more convenient for sure, but uncomplicated isn't one of the benefits. There are certainly times I've wished to be less connected for a bit. Technology isn't the holy grail of a happy life for sure. These things are tools like everything else. It does become a challenge to "turn off" when all of this information is at our finger tips. It becomes a matter of maintaining balance. I'm sure a lot of the same conversations were had when television became popular. Some of those criticisms were valid but it was peoples reaction to the technology, not the technology itself, that caused problems. BTW, I totally agree it is rude to pull out your phone and start doing something in the middle of a conversation with someone. People still need to learn to be decent human beings. However I do receive a lot of benefit from said technology and wouldn't want to give it up because some people can't handle it without it taking over their lives. It's up to people to be responsible for themselves and how they spend their time. I don't think anyone blames Henry Ford for all the people who have died in car accidents because he made the automobile available to the masses. Automotive transportation has done a lot to advance our civilization. I see smartphones and the ability to quickly access information as a lot the same way. It advances what people will be capable to achieve. I am able to learn things everyday via Google and Wikipedia that would be much harder to come by 15 years ago. It has torn down the barriers to learning like nothing has since the printing press. Does that mean that everyone will benefit from it? No, not at all. There are tons of people who will use it as a crutch to not have to think for themselves, spend all day reading Facebook and Twitter, and looking on TMZ to see the latest celebrity news. I have a sneaking suspicion though that these folks wouldn't have ended up being the next Albert Einstein regardless :) Yes the OP didn't say smartphones were junk, just toys. I may have taken a bit of my current cultural frustrations out against his post, maybe more than was deserved. It's just how it came across to me when I read it.

Smartphones are not just another toy. They certainly can be used for entertainment, but to write them off as a toy.... I use my smartphone everyday and would be in a tough spot without it. It tells me the time, the weather, gives me the news, it's my GPS, I get email and text, I use it as my camera, I use it as my internet connection at my office because there's no wifi, I'm constantly using it to look up information, the list goes on and on. And I don't have a single game installed on it, so it's no toy. As far as the phone part I maybe drop 3 or 4 calls a year which is far from problematic. I happen to be on Verizon. In fact I hate talking on the phone and if I could lose one part of the functionality of a smart phone it would be a relief to not have to talk into it. How can you compare the "function" of a land line that does one thing to a smartphone that does hundreds of things. I get a lot more function out of my smartphone. Haven't had a land line in years and I don't miss it. Having one line that works 100% of the time but only in your house vs a phone that works, let's say for argument's sake, 90% of the time that you can carry anywhere. I much prefer having a mobile smart phone, but that's just me. You don't like smartphones, that's fine, don't use one. Just doesn't make sense to write off a whole technology because it doesn't work for you. But that seems to be the everybody thinks these days. I'm tired of hearing "If it doesn't work for me, then obviously it's junk".

I think building that type of hype for what appears to be a mid/entry level product is counter productive. The ones that hang on every word of this type of announcement and get excited are more of the hard core users. This just gets us excited and then lets us down. Maybe I'm wrong, it's not like I have a degree in marketing or anything, but I just don't think building it up like that was a good idea. If they just announced it at NAMM without dangling the carrot out there for weeks I would probably think it's a pretty cool product. Not something I'd be interested in per se, but still a cool concept. Now I'm just really let down and want to see what other companies are coming out with instead :)

I double checked my JTV59 and I'm got really getting the clipping of the moddeled pickups over VDI the way the JTV69 is. I'm heading out of town today and won't get the chance to experiment further with it until later this week, but I'm wondering if the floating bridge could make a difference. Maybe the saddle is able to vibrate more when the string is hit hard causing this weird sound I'm getting? Maybe other JTV69 owners could chime in. I've attached a file of what I'm talking about. This was recorded using the VDI into HD500X with all amps and effects turned off. Just straight signal. The only other thing different is I added a Mag-Lok to stabilize the trem. I don't think that would affect anything, but who knows. I haven't had the JTV69 long at all, so if something is wrong with it I should still be covered under warranty. Otherwise I love the guitar!

I had never really bothered to A/B the tone of running the VDI vs a 1/4" cable and always assumed the VDI would always be the better choice because it's transmitting digitally. However I recently noticed some clipping when I played certain strings with a lot of attack. I also noticed that the tone of the magnetics over the VDI was very different as well. I very rarely use the magnetic pickups and hadn't really thought to check this before. I plugged in the 1/4" and the magnetics immediately sounded much better. Also I wasn't getting the clipping on the modeled pickups the way I did before. My setup is a JTV69 and JTV59 running into a HD500X. I've tested the following: Both guitars get the clipping effect over the VDI. I didn't test the 59 mags, but assuming the effect will be the same. I've tried a different VDI cables and got the same effect. I've tried using different patches on the HD500X I set input one on the HD different to input two to eliminate doubling the signal on the input. I'm guessing I haven't noticed this before because I rarely use the mags and usually only use the HD500X for live use. Live I'm not able to hear my signal quite as clearly and probably only hit the strings really hard when the band is loud. I usually use plug ins when recording, but I've been spending a lot of time dialing in some patches lately. Has anyone else noticed this happening?

I always recommend getting the best one you can fit into your budget. A used 500 is probably the best value at the moment. If you're mainly doing acoustic and don't need the amp modelling I doubt you'll ever hit the DSP limit. I really like the flexibility of the 500/500X.

I forgot to mention that it was recorded with a 500, but I'm using a 500X now. I just imported the patch when I upgraded, so it's now in the .5xe format. I'm not sure if it's backwards compatible with the regular 500, but I would think it would be.

That clip was from a few months ago and I've noodled around with the effects a little bit. But I haven't changed the core tone settings which are EQ, compression, and reverb. Here's a link to the patch: http://line6.com/customtone/tone/257095/

Yes they have the same dimensions. I currently use this case: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Gator-GK-2110-Keyboard---FX-Multi-Effects-Board-Bag-103364659-i1152124.gc It's a slightly tight fit, but goes in with no problems. I think I may switch to this bag though: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Road-Runner-Pedalboard-All-In-1-Gig-Bag-105462360-i1471720.gc It's a little bit deeper and the way it's designed I can Velcro the HD500X in there and leave it setup. Just open up the bag and plug in. Lazy man's dream :)

I think the HD500 works great with acoustic. I wouldn't recommend using the amp models though. Just turn the amp model off and get what you need via EQ, Compression, Reverb, etc. Here's a clip I did messing around in the studio using my JTV59 for acoustic sounds into the HD500. I like the sounds I'm getting.

You want to talk about hype, here's one for you. This thing is so under powered it's ridiculous, and it can't even get on the internet! Time for a class action lawsuit :)

When you see an ad for a car that says "up to 30mpg" it's commonly assumed that under optimal conditions it will get 30mpg. It doesn't mean that the car will never get less than 30mpg.

I'm not aware of any of the major retailers that don't have a 30 day return policy. Plenty of time to hit the DSP limit, decide it's a deal breaker, and return it for a refund. That's assuming you didn't take time to read any of the forum posts talking about this issue before even buying it. What difference does the marketing hype make? If you don't like something don't keep it. As referenced many times in this thread the unit has been around for 3 years. If they had lied and misrepresented the product in a morally reprehensible way they would have been chastised by now. To balance this, yes I was dissapointed when I first got the unit and hit the DSP limit as quickly as I did when setting up dual amp patches. My initial reaction was frustration. After all, I had the Vetta with the floorboard and it never hit a DSP limit, and the technology was much older. Oh yeah that's right I couldn't freely assign all the effects slots and the retail on that amp and floorboard was north of $2k... :rolleyes: The bottom line was the HD500 sounded good, even better now with the firmware updates, and gave me a lot of features for the money. So I kept it. By doing that I forfeited my right to complain. Ultimately we vote with our dollars. And believe me I have NO formal connection with Line 6 or any "inside connections". I have always paid for the gear I've bought from them, and with the exception of Guitar Center coupons, I have never gotten a discount. I think they make good products for the money. They're not perfect and they have shortcomings. However for the price point I think they have very good value.

I have been a Line 6 user from the beginning as well, starting with the AX212. Including buying the upgrade chip for that amp when it came out. With installation I believe it was around $90. I'm really not sure why you're so upset about the new X update. The HD500 launched in 2010 and after 3 years they did a slight hardware refresh. Why is this a big FU to the customer? To give an example from another industry Apple does this every year. Especially in the odd years (4 got updated to 4s, 5 got updated to 5s). They don't give out free iPhone upgrades. To me it seems like the issue you're most upset about is that the original HD series didn't have enough CPU to really take advantage of all the software would do. I can certainly relate to that frustration. I had hopes of building some cool dual amp patches and quickly realized that wasn't realistic unless you didn't need effects as well. Coming from the Vetta II I was surprised at this, and disappointed. However I was aware of the issue before I bought it from reading reviews and I knew what I was getting into. Still able to get killer tones, just had to make adjustments to suit the DSP limits. Again, these units were launched in 2010 and these DSP issues have been well documented to anyone researching them online. Except for the very early adopters this shouldn't have blindsided anyone. You know what you are getting. If hitting this DSP limit was a deal breaker then go with another unit. I also had the X3 series, as well as the XT, and I'll take the DSP limits in exchange for the new amp modelling and especially the routing flexibility any day of the week. That's my personal preference. If the tones and lack of DSP issues were more important to me I would have just stayed with the X3. So to sum up I don't see how bringing out a more powerful CPU and slightly updated hardware 3 years after the launch of the original is fixing their screw up "so soon" after the 1st gen HD500 launch. To me 3 years in the technology world is a LONG time to have a product out there. Furthermore there have been several firmware updates that have been released along the way that have improved the sound and functionality quite a bit from the first release. All of which were free, unlike the chip upgrade I did with my AX212. If anything I was ticked that the new release of the HD500X was such an incremental upgrade. I was hoping for a substantial next gen product to put them closer to competing the AXE-FX and Kempers of the world. But they did listen to the user base and fix some of the most complained about features (low CPU and bad footswitches) with the new model and it stays at the same price point as before. Can't really make out how that's screwing the customer.

I got a G3 for this purpose. I notice an audible drop out when switching on/off any of the stomp boxes. It's the same gap when changing patches. It's really annoying me. Does the G5 do this as well? With the 500X there's a gap between preset changes, but the stomp box on/off is seamless. I'm surprised the Zoom isn't the same way, unless I got a bad unit.

There's some really good advice in this thread. This is the kind of sound I use for my main tones. I really like the Dr. Z amp for this. The Divided by 13 is good too. Here's a patch that I built for this purpose. http://line6.com/customtone/tone/256861/ It's tuned for FRFR and played at or near stage volume. Played with the volume down it will probably sound kinda flat.

Since I've replaced my VDI cable with a new one I haven't had a single reboot. Thankfully that seems to have corrected the issue and was the cheapest variable that could have gone wrong. It seems like I remember having a couple of random reboots in the months leading up to my reboot loop problem. Probably worthwhile for you to try a different cable. You could probably just use a regular cat 5 cable just to test this out.

I've had a 59 for about a year and just got a great deal on a floor model 69 at GC. I had the same feelings as you, except I'm a Gibson guy as much as a Fender and couldn't bear to part with the 59 :D I have to say I like the 69 more than I even thought I would. It plays great and just feels nice to play. The only issue I had was after playing it for about an hour the nut came loose. Dab of Elmer's and a few hours to dry and that was fixed. Definitely worth putting up with for the hundreds I saved! I haven't noticed any problems with the 1st string slipping off. I agree that the width at the nut is a little slender, and probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but I don't have problems playing it. Also having the 5 way selector is a big plus. I find with the 59 I pretty much ignore positions 2 and 4 because it's more awkward to get to. It adds more flexibility, for me at least, as well as having the tremolo. As far as the tremolo goes I've not had any problems with it. I found a cool trick to setting up non locking trems that involves taking into account the difference in tension between the bottom and the top strings and adjusting the claw to compensate. It has changed the way I use the trem on the 69, and my regular strat, because I don't have to worry about it going out of tune every time I touch it. You can check out the method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVQCaQxdSH0 I don't think you would be making a mistake to switch to the 69 over the 59. They are both fantastic instruments and I wholeheartedly recommend either one of them to anyone who will listen :)

After messing around with it for a while I decided to entirely ditch using the tone knob to control the HD500. One distinction I did realize is that when changing banks it completely unlocks the tone knob, which according to the manual is expected behavior. When changing pickup positions it presents the problem I described above. It does this when I change manually. If I use the HD500 to load a patch and settings, but don't change anything on the Variax it works fine. Typically I don't change patches on the HD500, at least not during a song. I use it like a tube amp and pedal board and have it set to F1-F8 mode. This is how I've used Line 6 gear since the AxSys 212 I bought in '97. Having the added flexibility of using the tone knob on the Variax was very appealing to me. I change pick up positions sometimes in the middle of solos, not to mention for different parts of the song. Often times depending on my mood during the song or how that particular performance is going. So using the HD to change presets when I want to change pickup positions is not in the realm of an acceptable solution. Even if it were the fact there's a break in the signal when you change patches would be a deal breaker anyway. Using it setup as a stomp box pedal board means there's never an interruption in the sound. The fact I'm pretty much always using the same patch means that it wouldn't be feasible to commit to one position on the Variax the whole time. If it would at least work properly within the same bank on the Variax I could make that work. Just reload the patch if I need to switch to another bank. But it doesn't, so oh well. I look at it the same way I would with using the expression pedal to change parameters. I wouldn't expect that to stop working or change settings every time I made a change on the Variax. I'm a fan of Line 6 and have owned some of every generation of product they've put out. I currently have the HD500 and 2 Variax guitars. There's no way I'd want to go back to a traditional setup. I just don't know that this feature was very well thought out. That or I just use the pedal/guitar in a non typical way and my scenario was never thought of, which seems hard for me to believe. I would think lots of players have a "main patch" they use and don't keep the Variax on one bank and one pickup position the whole time. I can see using this feature for a patch made for a specific purpose, but I was hoping it would add to my general purpose, Swiss Army Knife of my tones patch.

I've run into a frustrating limitation when using the tone knob to control parameters on the HD500. Setting it to lock the tone control doesn't do so completely. The HD500 firmware is 2.2 and the JTV firmware is 2.0. Here's an example I ran into: I have the tone knob set to control the amp drive control. At maximum knob value the gain is at 60% and at minimum knob value it goes to 100%. Tone knob lock is set to preset not global, but I've found this happens in both instances. When playing and turn the tone knob everything behaves as it should. However whenever I change pickup positions or banks on the JTV the tone is rolled off. Even if I turn the tone knob back up the tone stays rolled off, but the amp parameter is still affected. I have to run the tone knob back up to maximum and change pickup position or bank to get it to tone back to maximum. So what is happening is that whenever I change pickup positions or bank the guitar recalls the tone setting for where the physical knob is set. However I'm then unable to change the tone setting because the tone knob is locked. The only slight work around I've found is going into workbench and saving the tone knob position to 10 on each model. The problem here is that now when I change pickup position and/or bank the amp gain setting follows the preset saved value. So if I have the knob at minimum and the amp gain is at 100 when I change to another pick up position it goes back to 60. This is very frustrating! I don't mind if the HD500/JTV don't have the ability to work together like this, they didn't when I bought the HD500. But don't add a "feature" that only half way works. I've wasted the last hour trying to get this to work in the way it logically should. I can see no good reason for designing this feature to work this way. If this is just something I'm doing wrong PLEASE someone point out how I need to set it up and I will gladly recant my anger with Line 6 programmers. Thanks

Thanks for the reply. I somehow totally looked past the first sentence of the original post where you said to connect midi in to midi out :) That's a cool trick!

Are you saying that you setup the midi messages from the F1-F8 foot switches to control internal functions of the HD500? If so that's pretty cool, I didn't know that was possible. Could you elaborate more on that setup? Thanks

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed the video! That is a Jamman Stereo that I'm using in the video. There were a few reasons that I added the Jamman instead of just using the built in looper. Obviously having extended recording time is a major plus, as well as being able to add an SD card. Also you can store loops. I have some instrumental tunes that I've recorded in the studio. It's cool to be able to load the tracks without lead guitar on them and be able to jam with them live if I'm not playing with a band. One last advantage, and this one to me is a big deal, is that you can set loops to fade out rather than stop abruptly. I hate creating an increasingly intricate loop and then getting to the end and just killing it. I much prefer being able to fade out loops if I'm doing live improv stuff. The HD500 looper is still fun, and I still use it. Sometimes if I just want a quick part, and sometimes I'll layer quick bits on top of what the Jamman is looping. So it gives me the ability to have 2 separate loops. Not as effective as what the Boss RC-50 type loopers can do, but still pretty flexible. Congrats on getting setup with the JTV and 500X. They are great pieces of guitar and work so well together. When I was playing music full time about 10 years ago I carried 4-5 guitars, a Marshall half stack, and a pedal board so big and heavy I had to put wheels on it just to keep from killing my back moving it around. The JTV and HD500 would have pretty much replaced all of that with 2 pieces of gear and I could run straight to the PA. Oh how I wish this gear would have been around back then :) I still love guitars and gear, but for when I go out to play or track in the studio the convenience of the Dream Rig, for me, trumps any of it's shortcomings.

On the parallel pitch tab does it only allow for +12 or 0? I noticed in the manual it says that it defaults to +12 kind of implying, in my mind, that you could use other values. But that doesn't seem to be the case when I try it with Workbench. What I was trying to do was figure out a way to emulate a Micro Pog with 1 octave up, 1 octave down, and regular pitch. I had in mind that I could use alt tuning to drop an octave, parallel pitch to go up 2 octaves (+24), and blend in the magnetic pickups for standard tuning. I figured it was a long shot, but worth a try. I haven't actually messed with this via the guitar, I just had the idea while I was at work and loaded up the software to see if it was theoretically possible. Any ideas on how this could be done?

I think I found the missing variable that was causing my reboot problem. The last few weeks I've had no problem with my HD500, but I had to go into calibration mode this weekend to get the expression pedal right. When I rebooted it I was getting the same rebooting loop that I had before. For some reason the first thing I tried was unplugging the Variax and it rebooted fine and worked great. Once it was back up I could reconnect the Variax no problem. Apparently there's something about the Variax (JTV-59) being connected during reboot that randomly causes problems. Doesn't do it every time, but after it happening 2-3 times I can verify that the Variax being disconnected fixes the problem.