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Retrofitting Variax 700 with James Tyler Electronics


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I own a translucent blue Variax 700 that I purchased in 2003 from Musician's Friend. I love this guitar, but lately I am having trouble with the jack connection (although it works great with the Line 6 TRS cable, and floor pedal).

 

If anyone has any experience or knowledge with fitting the legacy Variax 700 with the James Tyler electronics and battery pack, I would be interested in retrofitting the guitar. These units were very well made. I called Line 6 in 2014 to talk to them about it, and Line 6 did not do this type of project.

 

Any help would be much appreciated!

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They are different beasts.

Try Full Compass. 

 

There still may be some 700 Electric parts left, or they might be

able to do a special order for you.

 

The battery compartments and voltages are not interchangeable.

Nor would a JTV battery compartment fit in a 700 Electric, without

routing out the cavity.

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They are different beasts.

Try Full Compass. 

 

There still may be some 700 Electric parts left, or they might be

able to do a special order for you.

 

The battery compartments and voltages are not interchangeable.

Nor would a JTV battery compartment fit in a 700 Electric, without

routing out the cavity.

Thank you very much. I appreciate the referral. I reached out to Full Compass and they advised me to email their parts department, so I will await their response. My luthier does not know how to deal with the Variax, so my quest continues not only for the parts, but a luthier who is versed with working on the Variax. I actually called James Tyler Guitars yesterday also, but they mentioned that all of the work on the Line 6 instruments is of course done at Line 6.

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HI

 

Do you mean the jack socket or the VDI? And what are the problems you are having?

 

Either way try cleaning and adjusting all the pins inside the sockets. I did this and it has worked ever since

 

If not contact Neutrik or go on their website to track down the individual components. If you cant see what you want, call them, they were really helpful to me.

 

Cheers

Mark

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EricR1954,...

 

-http://line6.com/find/service_center/  is an option. Set the search for places that do guitars.

-Logging a support ticket and see if you can get a return authorization. Line 6 Repair is in Calabasas, CA.

It be evaluated there.

Thanks very much the response! I think I can log a support ticket with Line 6, but I am just not too sure that Line 6 would grant me a return authorization when I tell Line 6 the reason that I am talking to them since this is not a routine type of repair, can you explain a little further what you meant so that I can follow your suggestion?

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  • 3 years later...

I am more than a little late replying to this thread, Petrov, I lost contact with this forum until now. If you and your work mate happen to still be in business and willing to do this mod, I would love to set something up. I will message you with my contact information.

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If I were you I would simply replace the Variax 700 jack plate, no soldering required, and it costs just 33 $ + shipment

 

343540.jpg

---> Line 6 50-04-0181-4 - Jack Plate Assembly For Variax Bass, 600, 700

 

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All about POD HD500/X

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Thanks for the suggestion, hurghanico! That's a great suggestion that I will follow up in case I cannot get the remaining electronics replaced. The JTV electronics sound better than the original from everything I have read and heard, and the JTV has a battery that is rechargeable, but to get an American JTV, it would set me back over $4,000 and my Japanese Variax 700 legacy is probably built nicer than the Korean-built JTV models, and I've had Kunio Sugai work on setting the guitar up. I just hate to part with it!

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6 hours ago, EricP1954 said:

Thanks for the suggestion, hurghanico! That's a great suggestion that I will follow up in case I cannot get the remaining electronics replaced. The JTV electronics sound better than the original from everything I have read and heard, and the JTV has a battery that is rechargeable, but to get an American JTV, it would set me back over $4,000 and my Japanese Variax 700 legacy is probably built nicer than the Korean-built JTV models, and I've had Kunio Sugai work on setting the guitar up. I just hate to part with it!

 

You're welcome..

 

IMO the 700 (which I own) sounds better than the JTV, at least much better than the JTV of one of my students, but everyone has their own opinion.

Several models on the 700 sound to me more full bodied, fat, more pleasant for my taste compared to the JTV ones, and also they don't suffer the excessive compression applied by the JTV modeling engine which limits the optimal dynamic range which I would like to have always at disposal, like with my 700.

 

I bought 2 full sets of good quality rechargeable batteries and I use them (always fully charged) when I need to work directly with real tube amps for some hours, since I prefer not to carry around with me also the XPS A/B box, but I still use a TRS cable for guitar safety reasons to make the connection (as suggested by the techs).

 

Before trying the JTV electronics transplant (that I do not recommend at all) I suggest to go to a store with your 700 and try a JTV so you can compare them side by side connected to the same amp.

 

And if you really like better the JTV just buy it and make your life easier.

 

Transplants don't guarantee good results, or the expected ones.

The 700 modeling engine is made to work with a guitar that resonates like the 700, which is build in a certain way.

The same thing could be said for the different JTV.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All about POD HD500/X

help and useful tips

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Great points, hurghanico. Funny you said that, and though I just retrieved your last message now, and had more or less decided today that if I was going to get a JTV Variax, I would just get another guitar. Its funny you mentioned the compression factor because that was my exact thought when I watched several YouTube videos demonstrating the JTV, there was a noticeable amount of compression on the electric models. My Variax 700 has some kind of a loose connection around the jack that cuts off the sound so it's got to be fixed. I've gotten a suggestion here to clean the contacts, and another one to buy a replacement jack, but I'm not sure that part would work on the older unit.

 

Calabasas isn't too major a distance for me to just take the guitar down there and have them fix it. The guitar works perfectly with the XPS A/B box for now, didn't think of using a TRS cable in battery mode (I usually plug into the front of a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx). I even got the old Variax Workbench program to work on my Windows 10 machine :D

 

 

 

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$4k JTV's will be American made.  Korean built JTV's street price north of $1k, often much less for GOOD used specimens.  

 

I play both Gen 1's (500, 700) and Gen 2 JTV.  Each version has their own +/- depending on what you're comparing.  

 

No sensible reason trying to make a silk purse from Sow's ear.  If you can hand deliver to factory service folks I'd do it in a heartbeat.  Since it's working okay on XPS probably ain't nothing terminally wrong.  

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