Tragic accident

Nyj

Anyone out there know what to do about this?   My Line 6 Variax Acoustic has blown something and is now dead.   I was connecting it for recording, and suddenly there was no signal to the DAW ... I check everything, the cables, the power supply, and eventually I notice the green 'power' light has gone.   Then I notice the smell of fried electronics coming out of the guitar.    This is the reason we stick with guitars that don't have computers in them.    But I love that guitar and I was wondering if anyone out there knows who might be able to repair it.     Or maybe has the relevant circuits for sale?

SteveRobinson

@impmann ?

maltingsaudio

Sounds like the magic smoke has been released! From your description I would assume the onboard electrics have fried due to the wrong power supply being used (centre plus as opposed to centre negative). Two options now: 1, get a donor guitar for the boards, 2, speak to Yamaha and hope they are available  @rossyamaha ;

impmann

Very unusual for a magic smoke situation from a V700 acoustic.

When Line6 UK shut down nearly five years ago, the acoustic boards were running low - they hadn’t been made for a few years and there was no plan to spin any more. The unused boards were sent to the US but there were some salvage parts that I rescued from a Skip. 

I donated those later to a friend and ex colleague who has a repair business. I can’t remember if there were any acoustic boards. 

I doubt there’s any new boards left - and the price would probably outstrip the value of the instrument, knowing how these things work.

However, I can ask Mark if he has anything left or if he can take a look to see if it could be repaired to component level. I seem to remember there being an inductor on the power input side that could be blown off the board in certain circumstances. (It was there as a sacrificial component if the battery pack was installed back to front).

A big help here could be a picture - remove the four screws that hold the square backplate onto the guitar. This should reveal the board - it’s been a while since I took one apart so I can’t remember the orientation but I seem to remember it’s bottom right, where the red and black battery wires clip in. I have a sneaking suspicion the board has its back to you there, though...

If you’d like me to put you in touch with Mark - he’s one of my ex ex Line6 repair techs, I’m sure he could have a go at repairing it. Drop me a pm.

Henrytwang

Always sad when I hear this sort of thing, I’m sure that there’ll be a lot more stories about failing modern electronics in guitars and solid state amps. Old technology is simple a pretty easy to fix, I have several amplifiers that were built in the 1950/1960s and it’s still relatively easy to fix them when they go wrong as most components are still being made or can be rewound or substituted with modern equivalents. Passive guitar electronics are also easy to repair, pots, switches and jack sockets still being available and there lots of people who are able to rewind pickups.

Nyj

Thanks to all for the comments and insight.    I don't think it could be a back-to-front power supply.    I seem to think it happened when I saw the battery was getting weak and used the Line 6 power supply switch-box.   Could be wrong about that.