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VDI Cable jack disconnects


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I have two of these to use with my JTV59 and Helix. The only issue has been that if bumped, the cable end that plugs into the guitar can lose connection. Usually I just push it slightly in and all is well, but I'm not sure if the cable jack design doesn't exactly fit the JTV socket or what. Everything has been babied with maybe an hour of guitar use per week since I bought it a year ago.
 
Line 6 Variax Digital Interface Cable

 

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I have had VDI cable seating problems on my JTV-69S and a Variax 700 Acoustic. The acoustic seems sensitive to the particular VDI cable, one works better than the other. The 69S has become more reliable if I make sure the cable is firmly seated. In a gig situation, its easy to plug in the cable and think its seated, but it isn't. The resulting errors can make it seem like the guitar works, but Helix control of the models failed for me. 

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When you set a jtv59 on a guitar stand it's difficult to avoid having the cable move around within a few inches of the jack.... 95% of the time this is not been a problem but it is disconcerting because that connection is critical , especially when you're Helix patches have a lot of variax specific programming

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  • 5 months later...

I'd been having intermittent issues with VDI on my JTV-69 for about 2 years.  Usually just wiggling or re-seating the plug would get it going again.  Sometimes it would go for weeks with no problem, then other times it would act up multiple times on a gig.

 

I'd ordered a new jack assembly but wasn't looking forward to having to change it out after replacing the selector switch.  But since it was failing more often I decided to pull the connector assembly and the backplate off to see how much work it was going to be.  It actually will be pretty easy to change BUT...

 

When I pulled out the old assembly there was an end of a guitar string laying over some of the connections in the assembly!!!! This was from the tail end of the string and looked like it had been cut off about two inches from the bead that holds it in the tail.  Not only that, but looking around I found a second one exactly like the first one.

 

I removed both of these buggers and shook the guitar at various angles to see if any others fell out but looks like it was only those two string ends.  Slipped the original jack assembly back in and it has been rock solid ever since.  I'll need to get a few more gigs on it before I'm sure that it's fixed but that sure seems like the cause of the issue in my case.

 

Note I have NEVER broken a string on this guitar so I'm guessing it was either at Guitar Center in Nashville, or maybe even was in there from the factory and the guitar string ends just finally made their way down to the connector assembly over time.  The bad thing is that the main board is also pretty much exposed so it's possible that they could have landed somewhere on it and caused some real damage.

 

This problem acted like a bad connector, in that of late if I twisted the VDI plug slightly it would cut in and out.  But after removing the guitar string pieces I can twist it very hard and wiggle the VDI with no issues.

 

So you might want to check for metal debris in and around the VDI jack assembly.  4 screws will take it out and you can slide it out enough to see if there is anything there that shouldn't be or may be rattling around in the guitar body.  Note also that you can pop the cover off of the board that the jack assembly plugs into and check there as well and while you are at it make sure that the plug from the jack assembly is properly seated on the main board.  I disconnected from my POD AND removed the battery before opening the guitar up.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Yes, it was definitely strange.  I've not had any problems since I got those two ends of guitar strings out from inside the body.  The VDI cable seems to have a solid connection and no more issues with the guitar cutting out.

 

So this seems to be a solid fix in my case.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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