Folks

I know this has been discussed here before, but in case anyone has a JTV-69, and you haven't done so already, I highly recommend dampening the 3 tremolo springs to reduce warbling and other artifacts, particularly noticable on pitch-shifting and acoustic 12-string modes.  I used 12mm heat shrink tubes, cut about two thirds of the length of each spring, positioned centrally, then shrunk with a hot soldering iron until they just grab the spring, and form a sleeve.  The sleeve should be flared at the ends, so they don't grab the spring, and the sleeve should be just movable, not tight, else you lose trem action.  The process takes minutes, costs cents, and makes a huge difference.  I think that the trem springs somehow vibrate, and transmit noise on the piezo pickups, or something.  Anyway, it works ...

The two-fer-one fix: this also helps (with other adjustments described elsewhere in these pages) with tremolo stabilization, especially if you combine the sleeve mod with detaching (i.e. cutting) the cable tie on the signal cable that anchors the grey piezo signal cable to the trem block - cut the tie, letting the cable float free, it cannot snag anywhere (at least, not on my JTV), and the tremolo moves slightly better.  The sleeve addition won't void warranty, the detached cable might, I guess.  Anyway, after I did this,I could dive-bomb drom E (6th string, open) down to low B (2 1/2 tones) and have every string return to pitch!  Magic.

I'll be curious if the Line6 gurus jump on this, especially the warranty aspect, but if you use your tremolo on the JTV-69, the pitch issue is maddening!

If anyone wants pictures after I did the mod, I'll post 'em.  Can't do "before & after", though!

Larry