Palico

Do your self a favor and pick up one of these. Comes with the coupler, you remove the screw on piece (coupler) so you will get a new one. The bar itself is about the same feel as the original and you have the Allen key needed for most of the lock nuts build into the arm itself, which is really useful. https://www.amazon.com/Floyd-Rose-Turbo-Trem-Arm/dp/B00K5X1XG2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500294525&sr=8-1&keywords=floyd%2Brose%2Bturbo%2Btremolo%2Barm&th=1

I have a old VDI cable I got when I bought my second hand Variax 500. Now I use it with my JTV 89f and it still works fine. Heavy used and abused at show and after show and the cable still holds up like new. I broke my jack on the 89f once because I stepped on the cable trying to move stuff off stage quickly. It broke around the plastic mount and I was still able to use the VDI for 5 or 6 months before I got around to replacing it. So while result may vary I think it's pretty solid. The biggest drawback is the plastic jack plates can break if you abuse them like I do. Wish they made metal one.

I can for certain understand that warbles etc.... could have to do with setup. I tune my strings to half down tuning as the band does half down on every thing. So if we do a Drop C song, we actually playing it Drop B. The Variax side doesn't work as well with this tuning as it did in standard. If y'all work on a new version of the Variax in the future might be worth keeping in mind, it's a guitar and people are going to want to change the real tuning/ setup etc.... For me it's okay as I use mainly use it as a normal guitar, and it's a great as guitar in general without the Variax side of things. And it's not off enough on the Variax side to concern me for the few places I use that. Still at the end of the day, people are going to change the setups on these, seems it would be better if they knew what the factory specs where for them.

Yes setup at the location of the shipper, not yours. After shipment I would never trust a guitar to be setup properly. Dan Erelwine has a great book on setups, if you want to make the adjustment yourself. I kind of agree there should be some known factory default, but setups can be tailored to individual players. In his book Dan offers several "default" places to start type of numbers. The 89f should be close to most Ibanez Jem or RG guitars.

I would agree as long as the setup is on the guitar portion only, not working on electonics or messing with the peizos. My luither has no idea about the variax itself but he did a great job fixing up my frets and getting the guitar to play great. Along with installing and configuring the tremolo stablizer I added.

+1 have it setup by a luither. Mine had two high frets right out of the box. Once those were corrected the action etc... could be set lower etc... (although I left mine kind of high, personal preference thing). Once setup properly it played much much better. Remember if where you bought it was shipped to a different area of the country/world. The setup will not be the same, air temps, humity etc... all affect the wood.

By over/under represented, I think you mean you see they are more common on the list correct? That's because they are more common on the real amps being modeled. Although the "topology" itself is more of a slot on the DT itself and not thing from the "real" amps. But yest you will find a lot more Class A/B amps than say Class A amps.

Best solution? If you mean the correct setup for the switches on the DT, they default to the ones that would match the amp it's modelling. Of course you are welcome to change them and basically create your own power amp section that didn't follow the original. Say you can use a Plex Pre-amp and then have the DT configure that to Class A instead of the default Class A/B. So that would best be described as applying Marshall Plexi PreAmp into a Vox AC30 power amp. Never heard of doing that one exactly, but it can be setup with this rig. But by default it should select the one that would match the pre amp model selected.

If so I was not aware of it. If anyone knows please inform me! I love to keep my delay tails when switching patches. (I use a DT25 for a bit extra reverb so I tend to keep that due to being on hte amp mostly).

Do this all the time, I have my patches setup like scenes where you have all the same amp models and pedals on each one of the 4 but just a difference in which pedals are active and maybe a difference in the drive knobs on the amps to simulate a multiple channel head. The biggest annoyance do this method is you lose delay and reverb tails when switching, which is most of the dreaded switch drop out. In my group it's an annoyance but something I have to live with for now.

this is like over a year old post, but since someone asked. Don't know the specs but you can get a JTV89 pickup here: http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/235223-Line-6-11-26-0006

Might try using a EQ to push up around the 4k range to get a lot of click frequencies, which sounds like it might be coming from a pic instead of fingers. Not a bass player myself, just a thought from what I was hearing on the DT song.

Check the input setup on POD. It defaults to Input 1 Guitar/Variax/etc... Input 2: Same. Running it down both sides like that seems to double the input. Try setting Input 1: Gutiar/Variax Input 2: Aux (anything not used). It should cut the input by a lot and any clean tones to clean up a lot more.

Pretty! Nice guitar.

+1. Just setting up a tone based on [insert favorite guitarist here] without the context. Often sounds like trash to me. Tone for playing alone is not nearly the same and doing with in a group. Live vs recorded is also big differences. The recording engineer might be shaping the EQ after the fact a lot more than is often realized.

According to the update page. " Configure each Voicing independently per channel with*: Any 1 of 30 HD Preamps/Tonestacks Any 1 of 4 Negative Feedback Loop configurations Any 1 of 17 Cabinets Any 1 of 12 Reverbs with unique Decay, Pre-Delay, and Tone settings Configure XLR Direct Output Mic Emulation Reverb “spillover†between Channel A and B" Most of that is for if you use the DT standalone you can load to it with the DTEdit (third party) more model/cab etc... So if you like the Reverb knob integrated, I would stay at 1.0. With 2.0 you can off-load the Reverb to the Amp if you wanted to open up a slot on you patches. Or as I said before, personally I use the Reverb knob as a global Reverb for the room as it will say on at that setting no matter what patch I'm using.

I think this depends on your goals. The Variax 89f can get you a couple of things. 1. Alternate tuning with the flip of switch on a Floyd equipped guitar. Personally I think when you are close to the natural tuning, like using the Drop D one it works well. The further away you get the worst it gets. Just look over this forum, there are multiple treads on Alternate tuning not working so well. Some have attributed this to the mechanics of your Palm muting, or to the fact the real string itself is not detuned but done via digital side creating vibrations you can hear but he amp doesn't etc... Some are totally happy with it, some not so much. I use another Les Paul with heavy strings for playing some songs we tune down to C standard. 2. Different guitar tones using one guitar. For example, my group does "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi. I use the 12 string acoustic model and flip over to the mags for the solo and ending of the song. All one guitar and one guitarist. The tone match are real 12 string acoustic perfectly? Nope but it's pretty good and most of the audience really don't know what any particular guitar is supposed to sound like. I've had a Varaix 500 before my 89f and the modelled tone tend to be good (Honestly I'm on firmware 1.7 on my Variax as I don't like the "HD" Variax tone). But they don't change the body of the guitar. The way physical guitar feels has a effect on the way you play. Variax can give you close sound to the original but not the feel. 3. Remember you are paying the cost of the JTV for the electronics. The build quality of a JTV is not the build quality of most 1k up guitars. I had three high frets out of the box. I can say once that was corrected, I really like my 89f, it's my main stage guitar. The neck on the 89f is close to most Ibanez necks and feel is pretty good. The Graphtech Floyd is one of the best Floyd's I've used, although I have not owned too many before. The string spacing I believe is supposed to be close to the Jem spacing, which I really really like. The mag pickups are high output humbuckers with coil taps for the in-between settings and sound good to me. If I had the choice again, I'm not sure I would buy mine again, but I can say I'm not getting rid of it anytime soon for anything else.

Low Power mode uses power amp modeling internal to the DT when engaged and not tubes. So you have a similar tone to using the tube section but at much lower volume. From the manual "Low Volume Mode utilizes HD technology to pick up the slack and fill out the tone with rich power amp modeling"

Correct, if you have Firmware (flash memory) 1.0. I indeed works as you described. Unless you updated your DT it likely has 1.0. I would bet any DT you buy likely has 1.0 installed. You have to get MIDI to USB cable and then you can see the version as it was on my video at the end on Line 6 Monkey.

as you said. NOPE. On version 2.0 the Reverb Knob does NOT control the mix for your patch. It did indeed control the mix on 1.0 but not 2.0. Sorry my video skills could use a lot of work. On the video the button FS3 you can see turn on when the reverb is set on. https://youtu.be/vPERH-tKhEg

Mids Mids Mids. I have to say I've never really tried to get Randys tone, but from my understanding he used to turn his mids up really high. So much so it sounded really odd by itself.

Sorry I meant over the L6 Link. Most of the knobs (Bass, Treble) etc... all just interface back to the POD. So when over L6 link you turn up the Bass knob it's the same as doing it on the POD. If you look at the POD when turning the knob on the DT you can see it change on POD screen as well. The Reverb knob used to be this way at one time but it was changed with a Firmware update. So the Reverb is independent of the POD over the L6 Link. I use it to quickly add more reverb when I need it, although that is rare or me. Usually it's the opposite when I get lot of reverb and notice I've moved it by accident setting up and then I zero it to get rid of the extra since I have it already on my patch.

Correct, at least on the latest firmware for the DT. It was integrated at one point but is not longer, sorry I don't know which firmware version number it switched. So if you Reverb on the HD500 patch and you turn the verb knob up on Channel A it adds a second reverb internal to the DT.

I'm using a DT25 not a FRFR. But I've had this occur before when I switch to patch and get nothing. Usually I switch to a different one and right back it comes in. Never did figured out what caused it, but it pretty rare to occur for me. I connect everything (89f over VDI). > power up HD500x, wait a minute until it loads all the way > Power up DT25 wait for tubes to warm up and throw the standby.

Yes over the DT I use the "Pre" models and my master volume on the DT is usually only about 4 live. I also do use the direct out on the DT to the PA live. So I copied the patch, made note of the amp model knob setting and switch to using Full models with a couple of tweaks to work well over headphones. Typically I use them for practicing hooked to my PC but have used them in Rehearsal when I had a tube go bad once. Also not a bad backup if I needed to go straight to the PA at a show, luckily I've never had to exercise that option. The non-DT patches aren't perfect but they will do in pinch and for practicing with a tone similar to the ones I use live. As for the room itself when playing live, The only thing I tweak is the DT master volume and the Reverb knob. That verb is not hooked to the HD500(x) so it adds a bit more. So it can work for quick global adjustment if the room is really dead, not often a problem unless playing outdoors. I will say I'm not a purist when it comes to tone live. Yes I want good tone, but I'm not worried live about it being perfect. My performance itself will either make or break the show.