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2011 Views 7 Replies Latest reply: Jan 27, 2013 3:58 PM by DadoSimic RSS
Mandorallen Just Startin'
Mandorallen
1 posts since
Jun 8, 2006
Currently Being Moderated

Jul 8, 2011 6:48 AM

Metal-usability of the JTV 89

Hi everybody,

 

I'm pretty new to the community and hope to have a nice time here. I am German, so my English won't be flawless, however I hope to be able to participate in discussions and to be able to communicate my questions :-)

The very question that led me here is the following one: How usable is the Variax JTV 89 for music that is a little bit on the harder and heavier side?

 

Three years ago I thought about gettin a Variax 500 as main instrument for one of my bands, but read a lot about issues with "muffled" (is that the right term?) notes, which were reported to sometimes cause trouble because of the piezo-system (don't know what the exact problem would be, I'm sorry). I wasn't aware of a community like this back then, so I didn't ask but however trusted those rumors and decided to equip my old Ibanez with new EMG-Pickups.

 

With the new JTV Models in the stores I realized, that I simply postponed the decision whether to buy a Variax or not.

 

So: Has anybody any experience with the JTV Models in Heavy Metal? Where are the problems? How do the dropped tunings work out and, most important: Can a Variax JTV be a substitution for a Ibanez/LTD/Gibson Les Paul?

 

To give some additional  information on why I consider buying a Variax: I play in to different bands, one has only songs written in Standard E-Tuning, the other one exclussively uses the Dropped-C Tuning. So I mostly cannot use the same guitar for both bands. Additionally, one of these two bands very often uses accoustic guitars on stage and I do not have time to change guitars. Here a Variax could come in handy.


I usually use a Line 6 PODxt Live and a Line 6 SpiderValve MkI ... these should work well with an JTV.

 

Ok, I'm looking forward to your comments, thanks in anticipation,

 

Sebastian

Tags: metal, jtv, 89
  • philGre Just Startin'
    philGre
    35 posts since
    May 9, 2010
    Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 12, 2011 9:42 AM (in response to Mandorallen)
    Re: Metal-usability of the JTV 89

    Hi Sebastian,

     

    you may check out these good videos on JTV89 :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7U9dAHUZcc&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlTwEhTbMEE&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwS5cnVziIY&feature=related

     

    and also in this forum an interesting discussion on finding "snarl" on the JTV89, might answer your questions from a real user you might ask directly his feedback

    http://line6.com/community/thread/61712?tstart=0

    I can't help much as I am still waiting for my JTV (a 59 besides) but hope it can help you

    Cheers

    Philippe

  • Steve-o-rockman Just Startin'
    Steve-o-rockman
    2 posts since
    May 10, 2011
    Currently Being Moderated
    Aug 8, 2011 7:32 PM (in response to Mandorallen)
    Re: Metal-usability of the JTV 89

    Drop C , Lester , gold, all you need to know

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuTGxbA9rEU

  • Nick_Mattocks Best of the Best
    Nick_Mattocks
    9,065 posts since
    Mar 26, 2007
    Currently Being Moderated
    Aug 9, 2011 12:34 PM (in response to Mandorallen)
    Re: Metal-usability of the JTV 89

    Hi Sebastian

     

    I just bought a JTV-89 last week to augment my JTV-59.  It is a different animal to the 59 which is more of a classic guitar in terms of the magnetic pickups, general styling and playability

     

    I haven't yet experimented with the different Alt Tuning modes the 89 has too much, but I have used the guitar exclisively in rehearsal the other day.  I took two other 'normal' guitars and they stayed in their cases the whole four hours.

     

    I really like Ibanez RG series guitars, the necks especially, the Floyd-Rose locking trem and the sound of the pickups through a Marshall crunch channel as well as the ability of the guitar to 'sing' and sustain when you need it to.

     

    I used my HD500 with my Marshall JVM205H 50w head and two 2x12 cabs and spent quite bit of time using a couple of patches based on the Mesa Dual Rectifier Pre model.

     

    I thought I would miss the Ibanez RG's Floyd-Rose on a guitar like this more than I actually do, but if a Floyd-Rose variant becomes available at some point I will still be very interested :-)

     

    The neck when compared to an Ibanez RG 1570 Prestige's Wizard neck is very similar and I think I like the JTV-89's neck slightly better, but there's not much in it.  I have a 1570 and an old 550 here as well as a 370 so plenty to compare with.

     

    Model-wise I actually used the 12 string acoustic models, the strat models and the LesPaul models on Sunday - they sounded very good and caused the other band members to take a lot of interest in what was producing such a good 12 string emulation and how I could cross fade between acoustic models and the magnetic pickups.

     

    There is a definite growl and snarl there with the Lester models and although of course these sound a bit different to the real magnetic pickups because they are supposed to, you shouldn't have any issues getting a decent bit of bite from the models as I did.  In fact I accidentally played a couple of songs using the Lester models when I thought I was using the magnetic pickups and I can assure you there's plenty of bite there.

     

    I did use drop D and half down and full down and the sound was good.  I didn't go as far as drop C, but feel it should be fine based on what I have done so far

     

    The 89's magnetic pickups are very impressive and have lots of bite so no issues there for me at all.

     

    I don't play metal with the band I'm with as such but more classic high gain heavy rock so the drop tuning thing for me has only limited use which is why I haven't yet gone to town on all the available Alt Tunings

     

    Nick

  • DadoSimic Just Startin'
    DadoSimic
    42 posts since
    Jan 17, 43484
    Currently Being Moderated
    May 6, 2012 4:40 PM (in response to Mandorallen)
    Re: Metal-usability of the JTV 89

    I`m afraid of that too,I`m a metal musician and for that money I could buy a decent metal guitar but due to the fact I`m not only strictly into metal I am getting attract of getting this one..And the other thing that hurting me is there is no even tremolo,and flyod rose would be much better solution for shredding guitar...What were they thinking?

    • TheRealZap Expert Line 6 User
      TheRealZap
      11,829 posts since
      Dec 22, 2006
      Currently Being Moderated
      May 7, 2012 6:05 AM (in response to DadoSimic)
      Re: Metal-usability of the JTV 89

      they were thinking that you have to have a pretty good design for the piezo pickups if you're going to have a floyd rose type tremolo....

      they had stated in the past that they intend to release a FR version when/if they get the design right....

      i suspect we'll see alot of 89 hardtails on ebay right after release

      • DadoSimic Just Startin'
        DadoSimic
        42 posts since
        Jan 17, 43484
        Currently Being Moderated
        May 7, 2012 8:12 AM (in response to TheRealZap)
        Re: Metal-usability of the JTV 89

        I hope they gonna make it right in a distant future,and also to think of possibillity to make everything sounds great with palm muting technic which shredders use a quite often then others...Then it could be a first guitar soultion for metal guitarists...And maybe even to think of possibillity of 7 string version,or to make extended tunnings even at Ais and A,and that way it don`t need additional string.Maybe it will just stay in my head,but I think that thing would be an ultimate metal machine.Hell yeah!

  • DadoSimic Just Startin'
    DadoSimic
    42 posts since
    Jan 17, 43484
    Currently Being Moderated
    Jan 27, 2013 3:58 PM (in response to Mandorallen)
    Re: Metal-usability of the JTV 89

    Dreams becomes reallity,behold the JTV-89F

     

    http://line6.com/jtv-89f/

     

    Looks just great!They bought me with this improvment ,but it will be good if they in future updates make even lower tunings A/D/Fis for modern metal music who using 7/8 String guitars...Just a thought.

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