Line 6 Variax Trem Stability

[Len Biglin]

Hi everyone , a customer bought me his Line 6 which is like a strat , but only has piezo pickups (one under each saddle ) and no other pickups .It has processing onboard and you can select from a range of sounds ie acoustic , resophonic etc. The complaint is that it does not return to pitch after using the tremolo arm . I serviced the nut and bending notes is ok , but not trem use .  I also removed the plastic sleeves over the trem springs , this made a big improvement . But I suspect the cabling which runs from the underside of the bridge to the processor cavity is to blame.It is a flat ribbon cable .I have tried a roller nut , then a locking Floyd nut , The bridge is a two post strat style.Recently a demonstration came through town , showing off these guitars but trem work was not featured , making me suspicious of a known design flaw . If anyone has ideas or experience on these guitars please respond thanks . Len

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Did you clean the trem knife edges and posts? Did you put some grease on them? What's the string gauge?

[Len Biglin]

Thanks for your reply , It is a new guitar so I didn't check the pivot points , but I did oil them .String guage is 10 -46

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

These points are okay, or considered so. The only other sources of tuning stability should be :
-the strings but I guess you already checked another set
-the string trees (if I remember well, there are none on the Variax)
-the nut, but you worked on this point already
-the way the strings are mounted on the tuners, but the locking nut tests says this is not the cause
-the springs : since it's new, there should'nt be any problem with them. Check the wiring does not touch it.

Last try : is the vibrato set floating or lying on the top?

[Mark Wallace]

Len,
Overall I believe the Line 6 guitar to be a pretty cool electronics package housed in a guitar that, on its own would probably retail around $200. It just doesn't seem that a great deal of thought was put into the quality and overall playability of the instrument side of the package. See if there is any way that you can get some extra slack into the ribbon cable. How many springs are attached to the trem?

[Len Biglin]

Thanks Pierre and Mark , I will have another look and get back to you.Len

[Rob Mercure]

Len,

While this probably isn't that helpful I just wanted to note that while the Senior Tech (electronics) at BRM I did warranty on numerous Line 6 offerings and they some of the poorest quality equipment combined with some of the slickest advertising hype. The result was a greatly overpriced item with high customer expectations - I'm actually suprised that they are still in business. For one "modelling" amp the factory had sent out about 60 TSBs (technical service bulletins - field service repairs) in it's first two years of manufacture. I'm not sure who owns Line 6 now but the company was started by a couple of computer software experts who thought that computers could duplicate all musical experience so the excellent software was offered on electronics that were sourced from low end Chinese computer manufacturers (with the exception of really good speakers) who didn't have a history of manufacturing music electronics. Heaven knows who makes their guitar "chassis" but my experience would suggest that the were low-end sourced with the concept that the modelling software would "correct" any deficiencies in the "wood." Any chance you can get the customer to swap the electronics into a good guitar?

Rob

[Len Biglin]

Thanks for that input Rob , it confirms my suspicions . It is actually very close to being OK .I will just have to zero-in on where this G string problem is . I have been snowed in with guitars lately and cant get time to look at it . thanks again Len