I have a variax 700 modelling acoustic guitar, On occations it just dies ie,no power or sound. I disconnect everything plug it all back up and still nothing. If I leave disconected for an hour or so everything is back to normal, Stan

I assume you have put fresh batteries in these... ONLY use good quality Alkaline batteries. The Re-chargeables will not work.

Here is a link that might help:http://line6.com/community/community/support/instruments/variax?view=documents&markAsQuestion=1

Check your battery. A weak battery will recover a bit when you power down for a brief period. Strumming hard will overcome the weak amplification when battery is down. Check that your battery is at LEAST 8 volts.

Also verify your plug into the guitar is clean. The barrel of the plug shorts to the ring contact to connect the internal battery. Do NOT use a balanced TRS cable for your intrument as this will lead to a marginal condition.

The variax models the sound of the pickups or microphone sound of various instruments. You should be able to hear the sound changing as you rotate the model knob. To get the best out of it you should try it with a line 6 floor unit which matches the pickup sounds with the right amp sounds. I think it could be quite subtle, but have a listen to the acoustic guitar sound then compare with the strat sound and the banjo sound and you should be able to hear the difference. I would love to have one of these guitars by the way!!! I have worked in the studio with a Danish pro guitarist who now only takes this on a session.

If your strings are old try replacing them, or cleaning them. You can clean them by boiling them or soaking them in denatured alchahol.

The frequency of the A string when in tune is 110Hz.

What you are hearing is actually 120Hz which is the second harmonic of the 60Hz power frequency. It would be hard for you to distinguish between 110 an 120.

Try this test: Bring something that produces a reasonable magnetic field such as a wall wart power adapter that is powered near your pickup... Then you will be able to see that you are picking up stray magnetic fields from your environment.

Humbucker pickups attempt to quash such pickup by winding the pickup so stray magnetic fields cancel in adjacent coils.

Some pickup CAN occur on your cord and also in an amp.

If you leave your cable unplugged from teh guitar you are LIKELY to pick up some of this hum... The second harmonic pickup is COMMON when devces like full wave rectifiers are driven by transformers in the area.

The hissing is caused by a bad connection, most likely at the cable jack. Try replacing it and while you're doing that check the rest of the components - especially the potentiometers, used ones generate a lot of static.

Your answer looks like it can be found here:http://line6.com/community/community/support/instruments/variax Hope this helps. There are similar problems to yours listed and also factory reset procedures under Variax Troubleshooting Tips.

Go to the Line 6 website <line6.com> and go to support, downloads. The manual is available in pdf format there.