circu5 Posted July 4, 2021 Share Posted July 4, 2021 Hi folks, My band played at a festival today. All was going well, until my JTV 59 Variax guitar suddenly lost sound right in the middle of one our set-piece instrumentals. Just dead. The lights were all on, but no sound was emitted. We had to bluff and blunder our way through to the end, as I stood there looking like a spare ***** at an orgy. As soon as we stopped, I switched the Helix off and on again. Bingo. Working again. I've spent months preparing for this gig trying to ensure nothing goes wrong. My Variax is connected to the Helix via one of those "ethernet" type cables (can't remember the name). And the Helix is connected to a Line 6 Powercab. All three elements - Variax, Helix and Powercab - are fully up-to-date with the latest firmware. Anyone else suffered the same fate? Any ideas what might have knocked it out of action? A stray arm touching the cable? I've been really excited about this new set up. Now I'm not sure I can trust it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverhead Posted July 5, 2021 Share Posted July 5, 2021 Ouch. That sucks. Sadly, I’ve never been involved in an orgy so I can only imagine what you describe actually feels like but I imagine….not good. My first guess at the culprit would be the cable between the Variax and the Helix. You describe it as an Ethernet type cable, which it is. The cable you should be using is called a VDI cable, which is an Ethernet cable with both ends securely fastened to the RJ-45 ports by a secure housing. If you are using a regular Ethernet cable, or even the one supplied with your Variax guitar (protected only on one end) you are vulnerable to displacement of the cable. That could explain the dropout. Please confirm that you are using the Line 6 VDI cable that is protected and secured on both ends. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
circu5 Posted July 5, 2021 Author Share Posted July 5, 2021 Hi, thanks for replying - yes, that’s the cable I’m using - a VDI - all plugged in correctly and secure. Knowing that, might there be any other reason for the dropout, do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_m Posted July 5, 2021 Share Posted July 5, 2021 You said it was a festival gig, so I’m assuming it was outdoors. If your LT was in the direct sun, the optical sensor for the onboard expression pedal could be affected, and if you have a volume block tied to the expression pedal, that can cause issues. I’ve actually seen this reported a number of times with outside events and the onboard pedal. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierM Posted July 5, 2021 Share Posted July 5, 2021 If you manage to control the main output from Helix to FOH (to avoid a loud pop), from your position, you can quickly reboot as soon as you have a similar problem. With latest firmware, it takes ~10/13 seconds to reboot. I do have all my rig plugged to a power conditioner, so if anything goes freezed, I just do a superfast OFF/ON on the conditioner, and restart everything. Still a bad thing to happen, but better a hole of 10 seconds than dropping the entire performance 'til the end of the piece. Then, as said above, avoid overheating your units and, probably even more important, take care of the quality of the power feeding your system, using a power conditioner (this is not just for the Helix, but anything digital, works better with a clean and stable power). Even the cheapest Furman, is better than nothing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
circu5 Posted July 5, 2021 Author Share Posted July 5, 2021 Thanks for your insights, everyone. Pier, what make and model of power conditioner do you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PierM Posted July 5, 2021 Share Posted July 5, 2021 51 minutes ago, circu5 said: Thanks for your insights, everyone. Pier, what make and model of power conditioner do you use? Adam Hall PCL 10 Pro for the Rack, and Furman AC-210 A for the pedalboard. It'EU stuff, if you are in the US, you need to find the correct models for your AC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
circu5 Posted July 5, 2021 Author Share Posted July 5, 2021 Great, thanks for all your tips, folks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codamedia Posted July 6, 2021 Share Posted July 6, 2021 21 hours ago, phil_m said: You said it was a festival gig, so I’m assuming it was outdoors. If your LT was in the direct sun, the optical sensor for the onboard expression pedal could be affected, and if you have a volume block tied to the expression pedal, that can cause issues. I’ve actually seen this reported a number of times with outside events and the onboard pedal. This happened to me at a show last summer. Fortunately I had seen the behavior before with my X3 Live so I was able to react quickly.... but if someone wasn't aware of the potential issue I could see this being a real nightmare to troubleshoot during a gig. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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