maxnew40

I did notice something at a gig on Saturday. It seems that my tones that use the variax strat model and the fender twin model seemed louder. I thought I had those tones volume matched to the other tones I use but Saturday the two strat + twin patches sounded louder. -Max

Meambobbo's guide has a nice chart that shows what output modes enable what types of modeling. -Max

Sorry if you found that a little misleading. Now to keep your response from being misleading also: To be technically correct the output mode controls what is modeled. According to the diagram that I saw only studio/direct uses the cab and mic modeling. Also it is a fact that the pre models were developed specifically for using with the DT series amps because they have power amps and speaker in them and only need a preamp model. Think about the signal chain, for a real amp setup you have preamp -> power amp -> speakers -> mic. In the case you provided your signal path is preamp -> speaker model -> mic model -> power amp -> speaker -> mic. It just seems like this setup is going to put two stages into the path that will effect the tone. Why put models in when you are actually using the real thing? -Max

If I bought a guitar amp I don't think I would leave all the controls the way they came set out of the box, the same goes for a POD. Those presets have about .1% chance of being what any one of us is looking for. All the amps and effects have many settings that need to be adjusted to get your sound. I like to start with just the amp and get it sounding good before adding any effects. -Max

Are you using the pre version of the amp on he HD as recommended for the DT series? If so there is only preamp modeling, no power amp, no speaker and no mic modeling. Only the full versions have power amp, cab and mic modeling and I wouldn't expect it would sound right to send modeled power amps and speaker into real power amps and speakers. I know that full models sounded like crap when I tried them with a tube power amp and speaker cabinet, the pre versions sounded great in that system though. -Max

Kenmac, they also make the stagesource speakers to use with the HD500, so it appears that the fact that they make the DT may just as easily be because old guys won't buy amps that don't have tubes in them. I switched from using a tube power amp to using a L2 Speaker and I think the HD500 sounds better into the L2 than the Bogner designed tube power section of the spider valve amp I used. The other guitarist in our band is a tube and analog purist and he still can't get over how good my system sounds on stuff like the strat into a fender twin. I play in a band that plays rock music from the 60s and 70s so there is no high gain stuff going on at all. There is real psychological problem when you know what device is producing which sound (identical wine with a cheap looking label and expensive label will fool people into perceiving the cheap labeled wine tastes bad and the fancy wine is superb when they are in fact the same thing). When a blind test is performed the results might surprise you. Less than 20 people at a gig? Do you get paid for attracting that tiny audience? -Max

I am 52 and post mostly from my work computer. I spend all day at work in front of a computer, so after I get off I work I tend to avoid more computer time. -Max

Please submit a support ticket if you get it to reproduce. If this is indeed a firmware issue the only way we will get it fixed is to have multiple people file support tickets.

The issue that some of us are having with this new firmware is that the HD500 buttons do nothing if the HD500 is powered up with a JTV connected via the VDI connection. In some cases it takes some time before it fails, for me it takes using the PODs tuner before it fails. If you then disconnect the JTV and power up the HD500 it will work correctly. I also have the L6 Link connected so I may need to do a test to see if this connection is also required to duplicate this error. I find this interesting as I believe that 2.6.2 contains a fix related to the tuner that was an issue for the 2.6 firmware. Here is one of the threads about the issue: http://line6.com/support/topic/13653-hd500-with-jtv69-problem-after-update/ -Max

I bought them all and I have liked the few I tried, but I am thinking of rolling back the firmware because of issues with the new firmware and I will lose the new models when I do that. -Max

If it weren't for the new models I would just roll back to the previous firmware. I am still kicking myself for not waiting for 6 months before updating the damn firmware. -Max

Please submit a support ticket for this. You have reproduced my exact problem. Line 6 isn't going to fix it unless they get a bunch of support tickets.. -Max

I tried two different JTV guitars with my setup as I own both a JTV59 and a JTV69. It seems from the testing that I have done that the new 2.6.2 firmware is required for this error to occur for me, and I am not rushing to send them an out of warranty HD500 so that they can most likely find no hardware problems with the device. I am pretty sure now that the tuner triggers this fault on my device (it might work fine forever if I re-flash again and just never use the POD tuner again). -Max

The latest response is to send it in for service. I think it is unlikely to be fixed by sending it in, so I guess I just live with it until they release something new. Maybe look for a good deal on a used HD500X. -Max

Before I bought the L2 speaker I was running the HD500 into the power amp in jack on a Spyder Valve head it sounded real good to me. -Max

Yes I am using the original PSU that came with HD500. It appears from my testing that the tuner may be part of the equation. My connections are just JTV to HD500 and HD500 L6 Link to L2 speaker. -Max

I am not sure, maybe Line 6 collects some demographics information. In my case I am in the older guys category, I had my first bar band in the 80s. -Max

Well, all I can say is the results were interesting. I re-flashed my HD500 with the latest firmware as suggested by Line 6 in response to my support ticket. Initial testing seemed to indicate that this fixed the issue of the HD500 not working if the JTV is connected to the HD500 at power up. However about an hour into band rehearsal I switched to the tuner and it wasn't getting a signal so I turned off the tuner and then the HD500 was in the same error state as I had before and now it does the same if the JTV is connected at power up. -Max

I got a response from Line 6 this morning that wasn't super encouraging. It basically says "Didn't happen when I tried it, try re-flashing the firmware" You would think that they would at least do a checksum verification after a flash update to verify that the flash was complete and successful. Maybe I will get lucky and this will fix the issue but I am not going to hold my breath. -Max

That is good news! The JC120 probably should have been included with the base unit. That amp was used on tons of recordings in late 70s and 80s and it turns out the metal players love it for clean sounds too, so it really doesn't fit into either vintage or metal. -Max

I made sure the JTV battery had a charge and then plugged in a 1/4 cable and made sure the guitar volume was up all the way. I next powered up the HD500 while connected via VDI to the POD500 and it still has the same issue of none of the buttons working. I also tried a different power supply but it wasn't a valid test because that particular PSU only puts out 2.5 amps and so cannot be trusted for this type of test (it failed in the same way though). -Max

I have a friend that went by lollipop when he was younger but now goes by Rich (his full name is Richard). He loves to tell people that he used to be a lollipop but now he is Rich :-) Oh well the filter doesn't like the name and changed it to lollipop -Max

I submitted a support ticket this morning for the issue. I will report back when I receive a response. -Max

And yet actual testing confirms that the new firmware is required to have this issue. Older versions of firmware did not have this issue for me or Line-6-user with the same exact PSU unit. It would be an incredible coincidence for both of our PSU units to go out of spec at the same instant we upgraded the firmware. What this proves is that the firmware is at the very least one component of the problem (I test software for a living and this is just basic troubleshooting logic). The fact that this issue does not reproduce on every unit points to more than one factor required to produce the failure (new firmware plus some other factor we have not yet determined and could use some help from line 6 to find). I will try plugging in a 1/4 inch to the guitar tonight which will cause the JTV to be powered up fully before I power up the HD500. If this fixes the issue then it logically points towards an issue with PSU not being able to maintain voltage under a load. This would be easy to test if I had a scope but I don't. If a new PSU unit fixes this issue then it appears that Line 6 needs to investigate the build quality of the PSU and address why an out of spec PSU didn't cause a failure until version 2.6.2. -Max

I don't think I said that the power supply needed to be regulated. I do know that in most cases these little wall wart power supplies are not designed to be super stable power supplies and often this shows up under max current draw. I have been working in electronics manufacturing and software test since the 80s and in my experience anything that is running a processor will choke when the voltage dips. Even an internal voltage regulator isn't going to be able to make up a serious dip in voltage or current. I didn't even state that this is the problem, just that it may explain what we are seeing. I really did ignore my better judgment when I decided to update firmware so soon after release. The facts in my case are: I never had this issue even one time before upgrading the firmware. Nothing in my setup has changed other than the firmware update. It reproduces on two different JTV guitars with two different VDI cables. The only way I have found to get the HD500 to work at all now is to power up without a JTV connected to the VDI port (I have yet to try the Variax without a battery or with battery and 1/4 inch connected, but those are work arounds not solutions). -Max