Have Line6 lost the plot?

Paul_C

Nothing I've owned has failed, so my view of them as a company is untainted, which was part of my point - though some stuff I would never buy, even though I've never heard a bad thing said.

Fretwired

Drew_fx said:

Impmann, aren't you the guy who works for Line 6?

@Drew_fx .. yes he is .. if I recall he works on Variax setup/support.

impmann

Yes - I do. 

Variax is one of my roles. :-)

Repair manager is another. :-)

Unorthodox

I think I need to give all my Line 6 gear a hug while tearfully telling them "The bad men on TFB don't really mean what they say, they're just teasing. *sniffle* Everything will be okay, you can modify my tone with questionable analog emulation any day :')"

Drew_TNBD

impmann said:

Yes - I do. 

Variax is one of my roles. :-)

Repair manager is another. :-)

That is in Northampton right? I've had dealings with Fred Cresson in the past, nice chap and has always had time for my rants! ha!

Do you guys do any product development there, or is that all handled in the US??

impmann

Rugby, mate. We were in Daventry, Northants.

Fred's no longer with us - but he's a good friend of mine (I built his guitar, if you know *it*). He is a top fella.

All product development is done in the US.

Drew_TNBD

Oh right, hadn't realised you moved!

Seems that if I ever want to get involved in guitar tech product development, I'm gonna have to move to the US, Japan, or Germany!

*grumble grumble*

Drew_TNBD

Unorthodox said:

I think I need to give all my Line 6 gear a hug while tearfully telling them "The bad men on TFB don't really mean what they say, they're just teasing. *sniffle* Everything will be okay, you can modify my tone with questionable analog emulation any day :')"

LOL.

The DL-4 that I replaced the footswitches in is still going strong in our band. Gotta be coming up to a 7 year life-cycle now. That's pretty good going! It still sounds great. Our bassist uses an M9, or old bassist uses an M5. I've had three M13's and two M9's because I love their form factor... but the slight niggles just annoy me in my particular rig. At FXpansion I moan - a *lot* - about small fry shit that probably wouldn't bother 99% of people... but it bothers me, so I annoy the devs until they fix it!

I think it's the small thinks that make or break a product these days. Emulation of analog circuits is pretty well understood. Getting a decent signal to noise ratio is pretty well understood. It's workflow that we're all buying these days.

ICBM

impmann said:

Yes - I do. 

Variax is one of my roles. :-)

Repair manager is another. :-)

So do you have accurate failure figures (at least of the warranty failures, since it would be hard to be sure about any others unless parts were ordered), and if so are you allowed to say what they are?

joeyowen

Can't reply properly as I'm on my phone. Buy fair play to line6 for having guys on the 'front line'. Who else remembers rick renken (I think) on hcfx who puts loads of time into answering questions about products. A real good guy! Never seen anyone else do the same (in a company that size)

Fretwired

impmann said:

Yes - I do. 

Variax is one of my roles. :-)

Repair manager is another. :-)

@impmann .. the few times I've had to use LIne 6 support in the UK they've been top notch. A mate of mine also took a Flextone amp up to the previous office for repair and they did it while he waited.

impmann

ICBM said:

impmann said:

Yes - I do. 

Variax is one of my roles. :-)

Repair manager is another. :-)

So do you have accurate failure figures (at least of the warranty failures, since it would be hard to be sure about any others unless parts were ordered), and if so are you allowed to say what they are?

Yes.

And.

No.

:-)

Sorry.

joeyowen

How did we get onto comparing Fractal to Line6? £500 compared to £2000. We could spend our time faulting mannnnyy companies, 

Why has it taken MXR so long to sort out the fucking bypass on a phase90?

Why don't tubescreamers contain tubes?

Why doesn't a Klon klon like a klon is supposed to klon?

all jokes aside, I'm not a line6 fanboi by any stretch but people appear to be judging a bit too much on hearsay.

Even if the DL4 was perfect, with boss like reliability, people would have still sold it because the next big thing came out. Take the Empress SuperDelay, that was adored by soooo many, but still hit the can because of Strymon.

I can see why line6 haven't sorted the issues (not that I agree) because their products will sell anyway, and people will buy others anyway.  If anything, it has helped them, more people will buy new instead of used because of these issues. Well played Line6.

Sorry for the long post, and again, these are only my opinions

joeyowen

And as for breaking 3 DD20s? What are you stomping them with? Dark Matter? ha

Heartfeltdawn

joeyowen said:

And as for breaking 3 DD20s? What are you stomping them with? Dark Matter? ha

All three burnt out. Within a week. Seriously! No problems with the RE-20, no problems with any other pedals. 

Drew_TNBD

What's wrong with the bypass on the phase 90?

Unorthodox

impmann said:

Rugby, mate. We were in Daventry, Northants.

Fred's no longer with us - but he's a good friend of mine (I built his guitar, if you know *it*). He is a top fella.

All product development is done in the US.

Don't suppose I could get your input on my Variax interference issue could I?

not_the_dj

Drew_fx said:

What's wrong with the bypass on the phase 90?

Isn't it the half arsed bypass as @ICBM puts it.

impmann

@Unorthadox - I am not here in any official capacity for Line6 and as such, I really shouldn't get involved in issues like you have here. I am merely a bloke who is on a forum... nothing more.

I'd suggest getting in touch with the guys in Customer Service to see if they can replicate the issue - then they can try to determine the root cause. FWIW, the JTV isn't meant to be used with both the 1/4in and the VDi connector simultaneously. Its really meant to be a case of either/or - I'm wondering if by using both, the processor in the guitar is getting confused... but that is just a guess right now.

Give them a call on 01788 566566.

ICBM

Yes, and sucks tone badly unless there's a buffer in front of it.

It has another problem too, which is very low headroom in the effect circuit - low enough that it's unsuitable for most FX loops, and even some loud humbuckers will overdrive it.