variaxlover wrote:

 

You could always get that American Deluxe Strat, mount a GK pickup on it and use it with a RackVax.  There's one for sale on eBay right now.

Definitely worth considering when the new RackVax becomes available with the JTV guts. It would be hard to invest serious dollars into the previous generation Variax models when there have been some significant improvements in some of the models.

I'm surprised that Line 6 themselves are not making a product like RackVax so that this is an option for all those who want to play Variax emulations on their favorite GK-equpped guitars. They could get the price down much lower than RackVax, as well, since we wouldn't have to pay the price for the harvested guitar.

Aha. I getcha. It is definitely off. I wonder what percentage of guitars are actually delivered like that.

I'd still like to know what the "S" in JTV-69S stands for. Those images are in the colours of some of the US custom models, but I couldn't see that detail specified on the page.

Since the new JTV-59 in gold is actually called a JTV-59P, I wonder if these JTV-69S guitars are actually new colour schemes available for the Korean models? That would be awesome!

My experience with GC is mixed. The one near me has never carried the JTV's. I took a leap of faith and ordered my JTV-59 online from Sweetwater in Oct 2010 -- waited & waited (& waited) and got it in May 2011. It had switch problems (see my post above) and later that summer piezo problems (also see above), but since they fixed the problems, the guitar has been very reliable. I put it up to the roll out of a new product from a new factory. I'm thinking now they've learned from their problems and are finally at the point of thinking creatively again, which is why I'm starting to get interested in the 69 sss's.

I would love to find one in a store I could put my hands on before I plunk down the $$$, but with the spotty coverage at the GC's I've seen in my area, it's not too likely. Next week, I am going to be in an area that the L6 locator says they do have some(?) in stock. The likelihood that they have one, and it's the configuration and color, etc, I specifically want is low. The store is not a GC, by the way. Even if they do have a 69 at that store, it's not likely to be the one I want specifically, so in all probability I will end up getting it online, unless what I see totally scares me off probably at Sweetwater. They seem to have more available in all the different flavors (if not in stock, at least rolling through inventory). I will prepare myself and expect some kind of wait, but doubt it will be as bad as the initial rollout, because they had some very real issues pop up during the initial product run, that had to shut it down and fix enmasse...

GC's are more likely to physically have 'em in major metro areas than in smaller markets where I am. But that is not always true, because I just read a post over at the JTV Support Forum where a guy was looking to find one in the San Francisco Bay area. The GC he went acted like they didn't know what he was talking about. I mean that's in Line 6's back yard.... They're typically the Best Buy of the instrument scene. "Don't have it, but we can order it for ya" -- Duh -- so can I... They do have a lot of selection, but it's pretty mainstream, which this guitar is not. Would like to see it go that direction, but it's not there yet...

The thing that would wave me off will not likely be the modeling, but the physical guitar and pickups -- feel in the hands, etc. I know what to expect with the modeling sounds. I love the 59's set neck and 2 humbuckers, and I use the mags a ton, while I use the models for special sounds and tunings. Up until about 7 years ago, I'd been a life long Fender guy, so the LP style was a departure for me, but I do love it. The strat-style with SSS is what I've used for a long time prior to my first Variax 300 in 2005. I want to try one before buying, but it probably won't be "the one" I end up with,. If I can't try one, I will probably swallow hard and get one sight unseen on line. If I really hate it, send it back, get my $$$ back and chalk it up to experience.

Dave

I looked and the wire mounts are the old way on mine, but It seems to work fine. Sweetwater said my guitar was stocked this Summer so you would think it would have had these fixes. On a positive note...I played it ( with my HD500/DT50) for about 20 minutes this morning and used 4 different guitars and three different amps. It sounds fantastic and is quite a technical achievement. I hooked it up through my interface and recorded a bit of the acoustics in Sonar X2 and they are very good. If only they could get their quality control issues fixed.