guitarno

Welcome to the Variax club FenderVariax! Glad you like your new AX! I recently got the 59, and I really love the guitar. Like you, I found it to be a really solid, well playing instrument. No problems with the fit & finish, intonation, neck & frets, everything was constructed well, set up and adjusted properly right out of the box. And as someone above said, it's a real sonic palette to work with - lots of good tones to be had, and a lot of adjustments available. More than I can wrap my head around yet.

One of the members of this forum "Dunkin_Dal" is making & selling cables like this for those who aren't interested in making their own. See this post --->> http://line6.com/support/topic/958-cool-vdi-cable/ I never thought that the cable they provided wasn't meant for playing (ref post #2). It would be nicer to have a little more flexible and longer cable than the stock one.

Yes, definitely upload your WB patches to the "vguitarforums.com" website. There are a number of WB Variax patches there now. It is a great site for all things virtual guitar. Anyone with a Variax should become a member there. Lots of interesting and useful info there, and a great community of players.

I understand silverhead's point and he's right to a degree - you should buy gear based on what it can do today, but I agree with gunpointmetal's post. Part of the reason I ditched some Roland/Boss gear and bought Line 6 gear was that the Roland and other manufacturer's gear I was using was a couple of years old, and after a while, it became apparent that there was zero chance of it ever being updated, and very limited continuing support (not to mention crappy or non-existent software editors). Makes me question why I should buy a given product under those circumstances even when brand new. All of modern day electronic music gear falls under the paradigm of computers in that the technology races ahead so fast that they are going to be obsolete in a relatively short time, but buying from a company that actively supports and updates their products stretches that out longer so you get a little more out of your investment. I think I like Line 6's approach to this better.

Glad to hear that you got some answer, even though that means it might have to go out for repairs. I also filled out a support ticket and sent in some audio. I haven't heard back from them yet. In my case it seemed that it was not easy to capture the issue in a recording. You could hear the extraneous notes on some tunings but at a very slight volume, it wasn't as apparent as it was in the room. There may have been a number of dynamics going on, possibly some resonances in the guitar, or sympathetic vibrations caused by the altered tuned notes re-energizing the strings on the guitar causing a kind of feedback loop that made it seem more apparent accousticly that what you would expect. It suprisingly didn't nearly as apparent in the recordings, but it was there. It is a somewhat sporadic problem for me, sometimes it has been an issue, and sometimes hardly, or not noticable. I'll have to wait to see what they recommend in my case.

I have been following, and contributing to the "Ghost Notes" thread. I have one of the JTV's (59) that has had some issues with the alternate tuning, so I guess I don't count as someone who has a "Perfectly Working" JTV. It is a strange anomaly, and I have thought a lot about whether I should choose option #1 or #2 also. The problem with either one of those options for me is that I really LOVE this guitar. As just a regular 6 string electric, without the models & tunings, it really feels and plays better that most of the other off the shelf big brand guitars I have played (yes Fender and Gibson, I’m talking about you!). It is really resonant, sustains notes a long time, intonates really well. It's really solidly built, doesn't feel like a cheap knock off guitar. I am not having any problems with the neck and frets, no dead spots or fret buzz, the action is reasonably low, and I even like the neck contour. It's a little bigger than necks on some guitars I have owned or played, but feels really natural in my hands. I have had so much fun playing this guitar in the last couple of days that I think if someone’s going to take this guitar from me, they'll have to pry it out of my hands. It would really be difficult to take it back and hope to get another that plays as well. Maybe I just got lucky and this is one of those instruments that you feel a connection with, and just sounds and feels right. I apologize, I’m gushing a little bit here but I really think this is a great instrument. After re-reading what I just wrote, I don’t think I can choose option #1 or #2. The alternate tuning issue for me is a little sporadic anyway. It happens sometimes to a degree, on some combinations of models & tunings. I think I have no real choice but to hope that this is something that will be resolved through a software or firmware update. Maybe there’s some kind of hardware change that need to be done (updated circuit board or something), but I think I will keep this instrument, and hope that the issue can be resolved, or learn to live with it as is.

Thanks for the suggestion. That one looks like it could work also. I just wasn't sure which cases fit the JTV-59 properly & supported the neck like they should.

I'm pretty new to the JTV & Variax, so I don't have a lot on my "Wishlist" right now, but I would definitely like to see a nylon string guitar. I think that should be pretty doable, even though you're starting from steel strings, it can be done. I had a Roland VG-99 previously and it did a fairly realistic nylon string classical. That's a great sound for some acoustic & classical type tunes - very distinctive.

Some of us JTV users are experiencing the same thing you're talking about. This has been discussed on this thread ---> http://line6.com/support/topic/2382-variax-ghost-notes/ Read through that thread. It's being debated as to whether this is just hearing the acoustic natural notes of the strings, or if the mag pickups are bleeding through somehow, or if its resonances or sympathetic vibrations, or ???... You should try to record it using a direct signal (no mikes), and see if it shows up on the recording. Some people have tried to record it and it doesn't show up in the recording. If it does, it's obviously not the acoustic string sound you're hearing (if you don't use mikes to record). Some of us have opened up service tickets for this problem. I'm having the same issue. Not really sure what the cause or solution is yet.

B) Thanks guys! I appreciate the help. I'm sure one of these cases will work for me.

So I recently bought my JTV-59 from the local GC (Korean version not the USA$$$ Version), and it came in a gig bag. Not that the gig bag isn't nice, but I really don't like soft cases, I paid way too much money to lug around this guitar in a soft case. I have a Gator "Universal" case I bought for another guitar, and it works fine for that guitar (Godin Progression - Strat style guitar), but I tried putting the JTV into it and it doesn't support the neck correctly. There's so much tilt back on the headstock on the JTV that the tip of the headstock touches the bottom of the case and the neck isn't actually being supported by the neck pocket in the case. It's sitting above it. I was actually amazed that they sell this guitar for $1400 with no hard shell case, but I guess that's how it goes. I guess I'd rather they put the money into the instrument, rather than the case, but now I have to find one to fit. Can anyone out there with a JTV-59 recommend a particular case that will fit this guitar correctly? I don't know if a case made for a Gibson LP would work - body's are kind of similar. Anyone buy a case for their JTV-59 that they like? Thanks!

Very Cool! Thanks for posting this! Should be very helpful! :D

I guess I have to agree with you. I was playing some fingerstyle stuff in DADGAD with one of the new acoustic models (I forget which one), and I recorded some of it into Logic, just screwing around to do some testing, and I thought it recorded really well and sounded pretty authentic. I am a brand new Variax user though, and I didn't have the older stuff to compare it to, so I can't really say if it's any better or worse than it used to be. I do see a lot of people complaining that it isn't as good now. It would be interesting to hear the difference. I wonder if anyone that thinks it's not as good could post a few "Before and After" clips that we could listen to?

I'll have to look into these amps in the next few months. Can't afford it right now, just bought a JTV-59 & a HD500X, & I'll be paying those 2 off for awhile. I have a tube amp I really like (Egnater Rebel-30), but there would be a lot of advantages using a DT amp with the interconnections to those two. I don't know in the long run whether I would use 1/10th of the capabilities that would give you or not, but it sure sounds like it could be pretty sweet. For the little bit of time I tried the one in the store, just as a standalone amp, without any connection to a POD, I thought it sounded pretty good.

Well I wish I was in a position to buy it right now. I tried one at the local GC and it seemed like a pretty nice amp to me, but I didn't really have time to check it out completely. Maybe some day I'll buy one. So the DT25 isn't as useful without a POD? You can't use it's features, or just don't use them?

Well, I don't know how much time it would take to go through all the combinations of models & tunings, but I can give it a try. So far I have been bouncing around a lot and not checking things systematically. I'll try to go through things a little more thoroughly and jot down notes on which combinations I find problematic.

Yeah, it seems that most people notice it more on the top 2 strings. Seems to me to be worse on some combinations of guitar models & tunings. There's a lot of combinations of those 2 options, so I haven't tried all combinations yet. Doesn't seem to be a problem for me on Drop-D tuning, regardless of which model I use, but that tuning only changes the bottom E string. DADGAD tuning seems to be a problem with a lot of models - maybe all of them. Still trying them all out.

Thanks! I appreciate all your input & posting your findings here on the forums. Hopefully my results with the new cable will mirror your own. I know what you mean on the concern about a "flaky" system. You always want as solid & trustworthy a system as you can put together for performing. I have enough to think about with the music. I don't really want to have to worry if something is going to go wonky with the gear in the middle of a song. I actually was debating putting together a completely computer based system, but I wasn't confident in depending on a laptop computer not to freeze up at an inopportune moment. Somehow I feel better about a dedicated piece of musical hardware, but it's kind of the same thing, the HD500X is a specialized computer in a box. Now we even have the computer inside the guitar! It's a brave new world! Hopefully in the long run, this will all work out to be pretty stable & dependable.

I will definitely have to try this. I will swap out a regular ethernet (cat5) cable and try re-flashing the firmware tonight. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed till then. :unsure:

Well, I just opened a support ticket for this issue. I am still weeding through all the comments on this thread. There are some very interesting points being brought up by various people. Thanks to the Original Poster "spmartin" for starting this discussion. :) And for posting the audio samples! :) This is really a maddening issue. I really love the guitar models & the fact that you can have alternate tunings instantly available. I really want to make this work & be practical for live performance. In my case, for the altered tunings at least, I would be playing them in very small venues where extreme volume levels are just not practical. I also recorded samples to document this problem. I did some recordings direct to a DAW, trying to document this, but the effect is significantly less apparent when recorded direct. I was amazed at how much less actually, because it is so apparent, even at relatively loud volume levels in the room. On at least a couple of recordings, on some tunings, you can hear that when playing one string, there are multiple notes being produced. The 2nd (note other than the intended “Altered†note) is at a lower volume but still audible. This issue is more pronounced with some tunings, and also more of an issue with certain guitar models more than others. It also seems to be more apparent in the upper 2 strings (Top “Eâ€, and “B†strings). There may be other factors at play here also. Maybe there are sympathetic vibrations & resonances happening that are reinforcing the “bad†notes making them louder than they would otherwise be. I have rolled-back the firmware version to 1.7, and am trying to see if this is less apparent in earlier firmware versions. I don’t know if this is a software, or firmware, or hardware issue at this point, or if there is a possible solution or not, but I wanted to be on record that I am having an issue with it. I will have to try to see if the "VDI Cable" is an issue. I ordered a homemade flexible VDI Cable built by Dunkin_Dal on this forum. Maybe that will make a difference. So using a better cable when you do the firmware update is the key? I'll have to re-read that post. I was also concerned that maybe this particular JTV is defective. I just bought this JTV from the local GC, and with their 30 day return policy, if I have a defective instrument, I was thinking maybe I should return it. I really don't want to though. I love the guitar and the models. I also love the tunings, but they won't be practical until this issue gets resolved.

Big "Thumbs Up" :D for fixing "Ghost Notes" on altered tunings!! Any and All improvements to the general sound, stability & quality of the altered tunings would be a HUGE improvement for me. These tunings are a large part of why I was interested in the Variax in the first place, and if bad notes are bleeding through the signal, they're completely unusable. :angry:

Thanks for the reply. I was beginning to think my Variax was deffective (still not positive it isn't). I tried reloading (re-flashing) current firmware but still the same. I've listened through headphones, and on some altered tunings, it sounds OK, on others not so good. I haven't recorded to a DAW yet, so that will be next. Also maybe re-flashing to a previous version. I may have to open up a support ticket if I find the DAW test confirms what I am hearing through headphones.

I was looking around the forum trying to find more info, resources, and opinions on the "Ghost Note" issue we've been discussing. In another thread I saw a reference to a procedure to reset one or all of the alternate tunings on a variax. This is out of Rev.E of the Variax Pilots guide (2013). It sounded like it might be a good way to eliminate possible problems with the alternate tunings. The procedure in the guide is: To Reset one or all of the Alternate Tuning presets: First, set the Pickup Selector Switch to it’s middle position, then press and hold the Guitar Model Selector knob while you plug in a 1/4†cable to power up the guitar. Your Guitar Model Selector LED and Alternate Tuning LED will both flash red. Switch the Alternate Tuning knob/roller to any new position - the Guitar Model Selector knob will no longer be lit. To restore all Alternate Tunings, now select MODEL on the Alternate Tuning knob. To restore only 1 preset, select the desired tuning on the Alternate Tuning knob. Once you’ve made your selection, press and hold the Guitar Model Selector knob. Guitar Model Selector knob will flash red, rapidly 3 times, indicating all 10 Alternate Tunings or 1 selected Alternate Tuning are now restored to factory settings. Guitar will now return to normal operation. I tried doing this several times, but absolutely nothing happens. No lights flash or even light up. I believe I was doing the procedure exactly as stated. Is this procedure obsolete? Should my Variax respond to this? Has anyone successfully done this?

Excellent work! This is really a great way to record the parameters by model. Thanks!

Yes, very good idea. I will double check things to get my facts straight when I get home tonight, and will open a support ticket so they know about it.