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Wireless Variax?


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Can wireless devices be used on Variax guitars vs VDI cable?

 

Alternately, I saw some use of both VDI and 1/4" output simultaneously.  Why?

 

I have a JTV, POD HD500X, and duel DT25's. Plus one Lt3.   

 

Looked at Line 6 wireless devices but hard to tell without firsthand knowledge.

 

Would appreciate input.  

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No way you can go wireless with VDI at this time. At least, none I'm aware of. And using a Variax with both the 1/4" and Variax outputs at the same time is highly discouraged. There's a couple posts on the forum where someone from Line 6 says doing that can actually send too much voltage back into the Variax and blow out the electronics.

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There's a couple posts on the forum where someone from Line 6 says doing that can actually send too much voltage back into the Variax and blow out the electronics.

Yet it's prefectly OK to do exactly that when using the USB dongle to connect to Workbench. In fact you have to have to plug in the 1/4" in that scenario if you want the connection to work, and to be able to hear the changes you're making through an amp...just one of the Variax's many glorious mysteries.

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The VDI connection carries power; the Workbench dongle does not (hence the need for the 1/4" connection to activate the battery). I believe that's the difference in the Workbench situation.

 

Seems that for some reason (the mystery) it's OK to use the 1/4" connection when just using the battery without VDI, but it's not OK to use the 1/4" connection with VDI with or without the battery. In both cases there's only one power source but somehow if the VDI is required to power the models through both the digital and analog outputs it can cause damage to the circuitry - some sort of overload.

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I posted in ideascale looking for a way to control patches wirelessly over bluetooth. Line 6 have implemented bluetooth on so many products now with huge sets of parameters that it's surely possible to make the Variax wireless and still control it frorm, for example, a Firehawk, Helix or HD 500 with either an add on or an upgrade to new unit? I use a line 6 wireless system with a Firehawk but I have to change patches on both the guitar and the foot pedal. Would be so much more convenient to just change patches. Also I've found the VDI cables to be a nuisance on stage as they're nowhere near as robust, flexible or forgiving as a quality guitar lead.

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