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JTV89F has died


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In '13, after a long wait, I received my 89F.  Out of the box -- the trem arm was loose and intonation was way off.  I had to unstring the guitar to tighten the trem arm screw and intonate the strings.  You know what a pain in the butt that is - and coming right out of the box... grrrr.  Now, when I depress the "model selector" button I get the light but no sound.  I've tried every combination, with battery, no battery w/pod500, different battery, different amps.  I have a 59P that works fine, so I know I'm not screwing up the setup or knobology.

 

It's no longer under warranty, so I'm out on that account.  I'm not going through the PIA of taking it to a "local repair center" -- did that with my DT25 - never again.

 

Both the 89F and 59P are great guitars  without the emulation.  The 59P is hands-down the best guitar for the money that I own.  The 89F is a killer guitar without the bells and whistles.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to trouble shoot?  (I am not going to going through the pain of having to deal with the "local repair center" again.)

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Disheartening story..

FWIW - to clarify/be sure - I assume what you meant by that you tried both with a tested fully charged battery and with the VDI, is that the "DSP sound signal" was tested with both a regular 1/4" TS or even TRS jack/cable, and the VDI; even though the Module knob LED lights up when you depress it far enough, that then still only the mags produce sound when Modelling is off, correct? From the context, at least the POD and cables are tested and still working with your 59.

 

If true, then you'll have to take on Line 6 Support's advice, and give them - perhaps a different specific service center than last (few?) time(s) - another shot to win back your trust/"faith" in "the system" at Line 6.

 

If something is missing in this view, I'm sure, or at least hope, that someone will point that out.

 

Does your mag signal stop when you turn on the Modelling btw? Just curious.

EDITs:

Have you ever been using both the 1/4" jack and VDI cables simultaneously with that 89F?

Have you been using the 89F much more often in high temperature environments?

Still just curious.

Edited by ZenBalancer
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Make sure your 89F is registered, then log a support ticket.

 

http://line6.com/find/service_center/   to find a service center in your area, there is a search selector for guitar servicing.

It's registered.  My experience with the "local service center" with a brand new DT25 was not a good one.

The 89F, IMO, is a great guitar without emulation.  At this point in time it's not worth the time, money and effort.  I use my 59P for emulation (I LOVE that guitar)

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to clarify/be sure - I assume what you meant by that you tried both with a tested fully charged battery and with the VDI, is that the "DSP sound signal" was tested with both a regular 1/4" TS or even TRS jack/cable, and the VDI; even though the Module knob LED lights up when you depress it far enough, that then still only the mags produce sound when Modelling is off, correct? From the context, at least the POD and cables are tested and still working with your 59.

 

Sorry - yes both TS cable and VDI with every possible combination. Yes to your question about the mags.  The 59P works as advertised.

 

Have you ever been using both the 1/4" jack and VDI cables simultaneously with that 89F?

Have you been using the 89F much more often in high temperature environments?

 

Yes and no to your questions.

 

My feeling at this point it's not worth it to me to get it repaired.  I took a look a the circuit board to see if there were any obvious problems.  None that I could see.  That's when I decided to throw it out to the forum.  The 59P is my preferred guitar.  The 89F is still a great playing/sounding guitar on it's basic merits.

 

Thank you for taking the time to answer my post.

 

 

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If it's under warranty, and you're not happy with local servicing in your area,

log a ticket in the support system to get a return authorization, see if it can be

arranged to have sent here,... then I could deal with. I'm the JTV guy here at Line 6.

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Things break.  I'm willing to accept that.  It's still a great guitar.  I use the 59P for emulation.  I just thought I'd throw it out to the forum.  I'm not complaining about the guitar per se, but I was not happy about having to pull off the bridge to tighten the arm screw and then having to intonate the strings in the absence of any adjustment at all.  I still take great pleasure in playing it.  Thank you.

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Make sure your 89F is registered, then log a support ticket.

 

http://line6.com/find/service_center/ to find a service center in your area, there is a search selector for guitar servicing.

If it's under warranty, and you're not happy with local servicing in your area,

log a ticket in the support system to get a return authorization, see if it can be

arranged to have sent here,... then I could deal with. I'm the JTV guy here at Line 6.

It happens, but you might have noticed by now that you didn't read the OPs original post tentatively enough, can Line 6 still help though somehow? :

...

It's no longer under warranty, so I'm out on that account.

...

Things break. I'm willing to accept that. It's still a great guitar. I use the 59P for emulation. I just thought I'd throw it out to the forum. I'm not complaining about the guitar per se, but I was not happy about having to pull off the bridge to tighten the arm screw and then having to intonate the strings in the absence of any adjustment at all. I still take great pleasure in playing it. Thank you.

With the Line 6 Variax guitars, it's not the norm that the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) is < 3 (way less than 3, not a heart ASCII emoji) years. Way less, because you don't rent-out the guitar for it to be used 24/7 for 3 years, nor do you have insomnia combined with workaholism for 3 years (I assume), nor are you an alien (aside Mr. Trump's "showmanship's" views on the homonyme). It's not the norm, your experience is the exception. At least, it should be.

 

Many have their original Variax since the debut still working, electronically (DSP), so has the PCB quality degraded to trade-off costs for more processing power? If yes, then there would have been many more reports of JTV failures after the warranty period.

 

What's important for you, is to *not* repeat the conditions that "killed" your JTV-89F DSP sound signal, otherwise you will lose your beloved 59P as well, and this is not a threat from me.

 

The only thing from your feedback that could have resulted in the premature "death" of your 89F "emulation"/simulation sound, is perhaps a "fried", "pre-amp", or whatever chip @psarkissian has repeatedly warned about in the past, that it's not designed for "simultaneous dual output" (perhaps a costs decision), so using both the 1/4" jack/cable simultaneously with the VDI (thus also powering through the VDI) might have "killed" the chip that normally passes on (slightly amplified) signal from the DSP onto the connected cable(s - should be only 1 cable). If you've done that a lot, it might have been the culprit, but that's just speculation.

 

Whatever "killed" your 89F, it might be interesting for you to make a deal with Line 6 to find out, to avoid "killing" your 59P.

 

I also assume judging from your standpoint, is that the 89F is purchased from a batch before that of the 59P. Otherwise I don't understand your confidence that your 59P will outlast your 89F. If you depend on it for a living, you need answers for yourself (even if you won't pay-up for a fix), or a backup Variax.

 

imo.

 

EDITs: clarity.

Edited by ZenBalancer
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There is no data here to support that Variax reliability has changed over the years.  Yes some fail but that is true with all electronic items.  If there is any MTBF data you are not going to see it here and the data here is skewed because many users never visit this site until they have a problem.

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Things break. I'm willing to accept that. It's still a great guitar. I use the 59P for emulation. I just thought I'd throw it out to the forum. I'm not complaining about the guitar per se, but I was not happy about having to pull off the bridge to tighten the arm screw and then having to intonate the strings in the absence of any adjustment at all. I still take great pleasure in playing it. Thank you.

Given that there was a reason you had 2 JTVs, and that you've your justified reservations about another "brand new" JTV, also reservations about Line 6 Service Centers (at least 1 or 2 you've experience with, or specific individuals on a bad day there, or just a "cosmic joke" on all of you), I assume you're not sure how to proceed with your problem. You first wanted feedback about how you can yourself troubleshoot the malfunctioning 89F, to be sure it can't be fixed by yourself somehow. Now driven to the choice to try to have it repaired by others, or buying a new backup one, you're settling for trusting the 59P for now. Thus I assume you're not dependent on it for a living.

 

FWIW - I "had to" return mine 6-7 times (the last one returned there on the spot [1st 6th candidate] was at the retailer personally, after I returned my 5th), before I settled with the 6th-v2/candidate2, that has a partially very dim LED lighting at the far-end of the Model-nob, as this time the only thing wrong with the JTV-89F in this case as well from the factory (aside the missed and notorious palm-muting "plink" that is being investigated for 10s if not 100s of JTV owners). The QC/Quality Control/Check on the Korean manufacturing facility (the "plink" is a more complicated issue), even though each batch has some improvement over the previous one (I noticed personally), they just can't get it close to the 99% "SLA level norm" that for instance website servers guarantee. Even just 1% failure rate over ~250,000.00 (registered forum users), 2,500.00(edited by a factor of 10) potential less than "perfect" Variaxes would leave the facility, and make a Line 6 customer (sometimes very) unhappy. Even if it's just 1% of that number, that's still 25(edited by a factor of 100, cascaded calculation error) Variaxes. Edit: which again, they never get to such a low number of problematic "brand new" Variaxes. Aggregation of many user-"complaints"/-reports proves that. Some give up on the status quo. I was stubborn. It was worth it for me, over the alternative (no flexibility, no personal experience, no experimentation, a lot more expensive separate guitars). Even just for a new hobby, as my case. But again, that's my opinion/choice.

 

Your best bet is either a retailer where you can test the Variax you're interested in with a prepared checklist after reading through the forum, or an online retailer with flexible enough return policy listening to reason when it comes to earnest manufacturing defects/errors. Because if you're not prepared for the moment your 59P gives up on you, you'll be in a worst "place" than where you're now. Edit: that is if repairing your 89F isn't worth it for you, or is more expensive, or financially has a negligible difference. My 2cts.

 

PS

I still don't know about intonations (aside the screws for it on the Floyd Rose - left them as is from the factory), so for my hobby at this point I don't care. I raised the action to minimize string-buzz for "my style", not sure how that effected the intonation. At least I'm happy with it, and look forward to any "bonus" (firmware) improvement in the future.

 

EDIT: calculation correction + clarity.

Edited by ZenBalancer
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