Bad Connection Somewhere In A Jtv59

[pheld]

I think I've got a bad connection somwhere. The magnetic pickups work fine, but the Variax only works periodically. Otherwise it's dead. Leaving it on a stand by my desk plugged in I suddenly noticed a clicking noise like a relay as it was standing there and found the variax working for a while after that. I then removed the back covers and had a look for badly connected sockets inside etc. Couldn't find any. Pulling the battery out and putting it back lights up 3 LEDs on the battery inticator. If I do this plugged in I sometimes hear the relay-click as the green battery-indicator LEDs light up. The variax circuit remains dead if there's no click as the battery goes in. 

 

Any pointers?

 

Are there spares available?

 

I've only had the guitar a couple months, but I would prefer to not swap the guitar as I've spent some resources on fret-levelling and fitting a new nut.

[silverhead]

Have you opened a support ticket for this? Sounds to me like it may be something Line 6 tech support needs to look at.

 

I can't say I've ever heard any clicking with my JTV-59.

[moondancer]

Where's your JTV plugged in? If you have e.g. a POD HD connected by a VDI-cable your Variax will be powered by the POD.

If you have plugged in by the 1/4" jack your Variax will by powered by the battery. In this case, when you plug in your cable, the electronic of the Variax will switched on by the 1/4" jack. There's a switch in the female jack, that will connect the battery with the electronic when you plug in the male jack.

By sure that you use a common guitar cable with mono jacks. You should also try different cable, maybe your jack have some worst case proportion, then the switch may no work well.

You may dismount the jack in the guitar check if the switch works correct, but you may lose guaranty.

[pheld]

Have you opened a support ticket for this? Sounds to me like it may be something Line 6 tech support needs to look at.

 

I can't say I've ever heard any clicking with my JTV-59.

I'll have to handle this via the Norwegian reseller. 

 

I never noticed any clinking noises before either, but I haven't paid much attention till now. I first noticed it in the quiet room as the guitar was sitting on a stand next to my desk, plugged in. It is probably a broken wire, bad soldering or other intermittent failure. The click when you plug in is mostly masked by the noise of the jack going in. The easiest way to hear it is if you insert the battery while the guitar is plugged in. At least my guitar emits an audible click just as the battery indicator LEDs light up just a little second or so after the circuit is closed as the battery goes in.

[moondancer]

 can't say I've ever heard any clicking with my JTV-59.

 

I can confirm clicking noise, my 69 clicks all the time, when I connect with the POD HD 500 via VDI-cable or when I plug in a 1/4" jack.

[thorneven]

I get a loud click through my amp when my JTV59 is connected via VDI cable and I turn on the amp.  I assume this is normal as the guitar electronics power up.  I don't have the OP problem though.  My mag pickups and piezo pickups work fine (except one of them is not as loud as the others and all volumes are at max).

[pheld]

Where's your JTV plugged in? If you have e.g. a POD HD connected by a VDI-cable your Variax will be powered by the POD.

If you have plugged in by the 1/4" jack your Variax will by powered by the battery. In this case, when you plug in your cable, the electronic of the Variax will switched on by the 1/4" jack. There's a switch in the female jack, that will connect the battery with the electronic when you plug in the male jack.

By sure that you use a common guitar cable with mono jacks. You should also try different cable, maybe your jack have some worst case proportion, then the switch may no work well.

You may dismount the jack in the guitar check if the switch works correct, but you may lose guaranty.

It doesn't matter where I plug in. It is usually direct into a Kemper Profiler or a Digitech RP1000, somtimes via a StroboStomp tuner or via a G90-wireless. I've tried a couple different cables, but that makes no difference as they're all mono jacks.

 

I never bought a POD as I already had both the Kemper and other signal-processors when I got the guitar. Hence I don't use the VDI connector for anything other than setup or firmware-updates from a computer. I made a solution to power it through a stereo cable to the jack, but scrapped that as it works badly through the wireless system I bought recently  ;) ... as does VDI.

 

I won'd disassemble anything beyond the back panels unless I'm told otherwise by the reseller. I did check with a multimeter though, and found that there's voltage supplied into the variax circuit when the battery and jack is plugged in.

[davidb7170]

There is a relay in the JTV  that clicks when I first turn on my HD500 with the JTV connected via the VDI connection -- usually about a second after the HD500 display comes up. It's a soft click from within the guitar. I only hear it when I power up, but don't know if a click can be heard when powering down.

 

One of the early firmware  updates actually addressed some issue with it:

 

Version 1.71
Released 8/3/11

Works with:
Tyler Variax  Version 1.71 of the James Tyler Variax firmware improves the reliability of relay switching when powering the instrument via VDI.

 

It does not sound like yours is working properly with intermittant relay clicking. I'd recommend getting in touch with the L6 service....

 

Dave

[pheld]

The guitar was shipped off for repair on June 7. Today I finally got a message saying that the distributors rep-centre is unable to fix it, so I will receive a new guitar. I've examined the internals and can't really understand why it should be hard to fix if only L6 can produce spare parts. I just hope the fretwork is a bit better on the next one so that I won't have to shell out for another plek-job. There were none in stock atm so it'll take a few weeks still.