Vetta II HD - PROBLEM

[PowerTube]

If it's anything like the Vetta floorboard I received which had a similar problem (no display), I opened it up and found the connector had popped off the display board. Line 6 seems to use some sort of "gunk" to secure the ribbon connector - this eventually dries up or breaks and it can slide off in transit. Was an easy fix in the end.

I pulled and reseated all three ribbon cables in the Vetta. No good.

[charvelguy]

fonzi hit?

[PowerTube]

fonzi hit?

Aaaayyyyy!!!!!

[PowerTube]

I just got off the phone with a Line 6 tech. He walked me through flashing the head, which I had already done several times last night. He believes it's a hardware problem and I agree. And again, I strongly suspect UPS roughhousing.

Oh, well. Maybe the replacement will be okay.

[Cleveland Metal]

Yeah, seems this is the scary stuff about those... They break like that outta warranty or especially when proprietary parts aren't being produced, it hits the garbage pile...

[thenine]

ok

[charvelguy]

did you try blending the ultra pastuerized tweaker into the uber homogenized tube emulation section?

Ask it if it will make you a Martini. In your case, it'll probably give ya a slow screw back.

[PowerTube]

I've actually heard some very good things about the reliability of the Vetta (and other Line 6 gear).

One of the local music stores here stopped carrying Line 6 gear a couple of years ago because they said that their tech shop has a hard time with them. But do you know what occurred to me last night? These things aren't so much amps as they are computers. So it stands to reason that PC techs would be more suited to work on them than electronics techs. Have you ever "flashed" your old blackpanel Fender Twin? See what I mean?

I just got this old Flextone II from E-Bay. About eight years old and it still survived being shipped to me.

OF COURSE, IT WASN'T SHIPPED BY UPS!!!!!!!!!!!



EDIT: I also forgot to tell you guys this part because I didn't think it was significant at the time. The Vetta II box had a big-assed hole in it when it arrived and I could look through there and see knobs on the front panel. But since the box wasn't dented, I didn't think much of it. From what I keep hearing, those UPS assholes could damage an anvil.

[jgcable]

Well...that is good news at least! One thing i kind of got a vibe on...
while reading the Line 6 forums... way too many posts about trouble
with the electronics. On the Boss site, its about 10 times less...
"Cant get any sound out of my left side"... "funny loud popping sound
whenever i change presets...etc"... But, in the upper end HD 147 and
Vetta's there are only 1 or 2 such posts.

Vetta's are UBER dependable. Lets not go on a witch hunt here Robert!!!

I had mine all apart when I did the VDI upgrade and they are made pretty nice inside. There are some homebrew upgrades to make them even more sturdy. Most of it has to do with upgrading the way the chassis is fastened to the cabinet and upgrading the handle hardware. Mine travels in a custom roadcase and I have had 0 problems with it or ANY Line 6 products (except for an old POD 2.0 that I tried to replace the internal battery on and instead.. I dropped a big glob of solder on the surface mounted components on the PC board and cooked it good).

[Sanctuary]

UPS suck!

[Cleveland Metal]

These things aren't so much amps as they are computers. So it stands to reason that PC techs would be more suited to work on them than electronics techs. Have you ever "flashed" your old blackpanel Fender Twin? See what I mean?

When some little surface mount cap goes on your outdated PII 450, you don't get a technician to trouble shoot and replace the cap, you toss the board and buy a new MB and Chipset (or prolly a whole PC). Same thing with these units. Or any DSP upper end amp really.

PC techs won't be able to make any sense of one of those either. It would have be a tech trained in diagnosing somewhat custom ultra large scale integrated surface mount technology, and baunderstanding of the "special" proprietary main chipset. Back to the factory I guess. Ya just don't fix that stuff, yeah swap boards, till ya can't get boards or it isnt cost effective to swap.

I right there now with my $700 Voodu valve (that I got cheap), can't fix the issue with it, now I have buy a new one if I want it.

[PowerTube]

Update: The new head came in today and I ran home at lunch to get it secured inside once the UPS website said "Delivered." It WORKS! I put it across both 4x12's. It's going to sound incredible. I didn't have time to do any serious tweaking, but I set the output for Stereo and went to the Run Pink Run factory patch to test the stereo effect. Un-freaking-believable!

[Firebird V]

From what i have read the L6 stuff is very dependable. I remember when the first spider series came out there were some problems but I dont remember reading a bunch of bad things about the upper end stuff at all.

Glad the 2nd unit is good to go.

[Twisteramps]

I gigged for well over a year with my Vetta, no road case, rode in car trunks and played outdoor shows even. Never had a single problem.

Pete

[charvelguy]

make sure you download the 911 patch. (j/k of course.. I'm sure you'll be fine this time)