leesteel Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 As far as I can tell from pictures I am finding online, the main PCB in a 500 and a 600 are the same except for the orientation of the cable connector. Does anyone here know for certain if the boards themselves are interchangeable? Yes, I also see that the piezos connect to this PCB in a different way (circuit board and jumper wires) and not a mylar tape like on the 500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb7170 Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Lee -- I have a 300 I bought in 2005, and the main thing I see that's different (other than body woods - mine's basswood) between my 300 and your 500 is the placement of the knobs. Your 500's are mounted on the body, like the 700's. My 300 has the knobs mounted on the face plate, same as the 600's. This was to unitize the manufacturing, so they could mostly assemble the face plate as a whole and drop it into the routed cavity without having to mount the volume, tone, and model selection pots and knobs and connect to the pcb's. To me it looked like a simplified manufacturing process, nothing more, but could cause issues with compatibility between models. The 300 & 600 had what was called the "coffin" inside to shield the electronic guts. Don't know if the 500 & 600's had this, but in the days when people were doing Warmoth body replacements -- Warmoth made bodies for Variaxes, and the offerings were different due to the "coffin". For 500's & 600's, they offered a Tele style and a Strat style. For the 300 (don't recall if for the 600) only the Strat style replacement bodies. I was THIS close to doing a Warmoth body and neck transplant (even thought it was not too economical), then L6 announced the JTV line, so I backed away. I notice Warmoth no longer offers the Variax compatible bodies.... I bought my 59 first, then a 69S about a year and a half later. I don't know what other differences between the 300 pcb's inside the coffin are compared to the 500... Just an observation. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leesteel Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 Thanks Dave, I have one of those Warmoth VXs I think that I am down to the question of wether the jack assemble and knob modules will still connect. The piezo connection is different. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb7170 Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Sweet! Nice job! Were you also looking for 500 jack assemblies? Someone was.... I found the following at Full Compass - you probably have too, but just in case: http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/218353-Line-6-50-04-0181-4 "Jack plate assembly for Line 6 Variax Bass. Also fits the 300, 600, and 700 guitar models. Includes 1/4" and RJ45 jacks." -- has the hinged cover, and oddly doesn't include the 500... I'm surprised they would make a difference for just this one model... The body contours were that the plate had to fit to were the same for all the 300 - 700 line. You can see the Warmoth modified the edge to make the plate fit -- they were for the 500/700 guts... http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/238699-Line-6-30-27-0052 "Jack plate for Line 6 Variax 500 guitars." -- the plate only, if your jack plate is buggered, you could transfer the jack guts to a new one -- no cover... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzric Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Beautiful guitar Lee, My first time over in a while. It's good to see folks still play this variax's I have a like new 600. Had some cracking noises going on with it. It's been packed for a few years. Time to read though this site for some answers. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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