maxnew40

Have you tried placing the flanger in front of the amp and then after the amp? It will sound different depending on where it placed. -Max

I found the pre versions great when using an actual amp. I found them incredibly terrible when going FRFR which makes sense because a pre amp with no power amp, speakers, or mic isn't expected to sound good. -Max

The lack of a power switch has never been an issue with me. It would be just another point of possible failure and nearly everyone has the crappy power supply unit connected to a power strip anyway. -Max

The pitch glide is not going to make a 6 string sound like a 12 string guitar in case that is what you were trying to achieve. a 12 string has the b and e strings tuned in unison and the other strings tuned in octaves. You can't do that with a pitch shifter. -Max

I have been gigging with my JTV variax for a over a year and have not had any issues with my VDI cable yet. I do have a spare just in case though. -Max

I have purchased three L2m speakers in the last several months and none of them have had this issue. -Max

We found some L3s and L3s for sale. However a sales rep told us that the L3 speakers were most likely repaired speakers that were sent back from dealers for the fan repair. It still seems that no one has the M20D in stock yet. -Max

I had an issue this last weekend where the tuner wouldn't work right until I unplugged my Variax JTV and plugged it back in. You are not the first to report an issue with powering up while the Variax is plugged in. Please be sure to submit a support ticket with Line 6. I am sure as soon as they see a few of these they will investigate and fix it. -Max

What is not unsubstantiated rumor is that many of the European sellers of this gear already state the product is discontinued. This is not rumor but fact. Guitar Center no longer carries this stuff, but claim they can special order it. Does this mean that Line 6 is not going to make it anymore? We can't really be sure, it may be that these dealers have found that they can't sell enough if this stuff to make it worth having any stock on hand. For myself I am not that worried about if the product is discontinued as long as Line 6 supports the units for many years down the road. I love my L2 speakers and our band plans on buying two L3s, L3s, and an M20D, but even finding these pieces in stock anywhere has been a real challenge. -Max

Line 6 didn't design the USB connector and that same connector is used a ton of computer gear, I don't think a broken USB connector has anything to do with the product reliability. I deal with computer and printer hardware every day at my job and I don't think I have seen on of those get broken before. I have seen them get loose depending on how they were mounted but not broken. How did that thing break, did the unit get dropped? I really do think you should sell your gear as in my mind you seem to have an unrealistic expectation for this stuff. Real amps and stomp boxes don't have computers and USB interfaces which can add more points of possible failure. If you are looking for drop dead reliability I would also avoid tube amps, maybe a Roland JC120 would fit the bill. For anyone else following the thread I will try and do some testing to see if I discovered a repeatable firmware issue or if it was just an anomaly. -Max

I forgot about the dreaded scooped mids. Sounds great in the bedroom by itself and nearly disappears in the mix with a band because you attenuated the frequencies where the guitar lives. Gain is harsh mistress and it is way too easy to go overboard with gain in a modern amp (vintage amps just don't have that amount of gain on tap). I find that I nearly always start with too much gain and usually don't hear it until I hear it recorded. -Max

I have heard rumors from several different sources that the whole StageSource line is going to be discontinued. I am just about the pull the trigger on a M20D, a couple of L3, and an L3s. The whole rumor thing is making me hesitate and I have no idea if the rumors have any basis in fact or not. I do think that this equipment does what I need and I fully expect if they stop selling them they will still support them. -Max

I used to hear a lot of bad tone from 5150 amps when I played in original bands. To my ears too many players I saw in the local original music scene used way to much gain and ended up sounding like a can of bees. -Max

I really like the Pete Custom and Fawn bright channel so far. -Max

I think I may have experienced something similar at band rehearsal this weekend. I always have my Variax connected when the HD500 gets powered up. I switched to tuner mode and the tuner was not working correctly, it displayed a note value but was not what the guitar was outputting. Power cycle of the HD500 did not help at all. I then powered up the HD500 with the Variax disconnected and then connected the Variax after power up was complete. This fixed the tuner problem. I am going to try and test this again and see if I can consistently reproduce the issue, I will then submit a support ticket. It does appear there may be some issues with the firmware in this scenario. -Max

hurghanico, I am not one of the POD owners that only likes to download ready made patches. I play 60s and 70s classic rock and I went through a lot of the stuff on customtone and found that I mostly wasted my time. I ended up using two or three out of over a hundred I tried and then only as starting place to create my own. I feel as if the style of music I play is not what most owners of the POD play. Because of the all the ways you can hook up a POD you also have to wade through a ton of tones that are created for a connection method that you don't use (I use a FRFR type system). -Max

I haven't ever noticed this fizz, is it mostly apparent in higher gain tones? I don't play high gain. -Max

In my days of using old pedals I found that many pedals had an effect on tone also. Since I have only owned and used a handful of the pedals that are modeled, I expect to not know how most of the pedals in the POD will effect the tone when placed in front of or after different amps. -Max

It sure sounds like a hardware issue. If it were the firmware I would expect that your problem should reproduce for everyone that has updated the same model of POD and has the Variax connect via VDI at power up. I can confirm that this not the case as this is what I did. One other possible power related thing occurred to me. I leave the battery installed in both the JTV59 and JTV69 even though I connect via the VDI from the POD. I know that you don't have to have the battery installed when powering from the POD. If your Variax battery is not installed and charged give that a shot. Just trying to think of things for you try before you have to send the unit in for service. -Max

Deaminglad, can you check to see if you are powering up your HD500 in the new Variax set list? The reason I ask is that I overwrote that set list with my own set list and I can't test powering up with that new set list selected and a variax connected via VDI. -Max

So even the 5150 comparison is bogus. The POD models the original 5150 and they compared it against a 5150 II head. The test started out flawed. -Max

Hate to keep chiming in, but since we are not seeing any complaints about this issue but dreaminglad claims to know that lots of people are having this very same issue. Where are these problems being reported or discussed? dreaminglad can you point to us to where you are reading about all these problems. I am always interested in reading other forums that discuss this gear. -Max

Just to add another data point, I updated this my HD 500 (not HD500X) this weekend and I always have the Variax connected via VDI and I did not have this problem. -Max

It seems the OP is waffling in his diagnosis of the problem. First he states that it is an issue with power supply, then decided that it is an issue with the firmware, all without doing any testing that would help narrow down the problem. I have some questions about this that might help narrow down the problem: Are you using the actual line 6 power supply? I have not seen anything out there that puts out the required 3 amps other than the line 6 power supply. The 3 amps is need to power the vairax and POD together. Did you do the required Global reset and pedal calibration after the firmware upgrade? This is not an optional step. Have you tried a different VDI cable? Did you roll back the firmware to see if all the problem went away? This is all basic troubleshooting steps that you should have lots of experience with due to you many years of recording work. -Max

I use the Line6 Link connection to the a L2 speaker. I hear no difference after updating, but Line6 has confirmed that Global EQ does not effect the Link signal. -Max