I just purchased a JTV-69 and while exploring the mag pickups I noticed that the Single Coil Neck pickup is VERY noisy - a loud buzz/hum.  This occurs whether playing through the 1/4" output off of battery or the VDI cable into the HD500 - though through the VDI cable the mag pickups are much noisier and this may be expected as it's going through an additional A/D conversion.  To work around this I have to put a noise gate in front of the chain at 40% threshold for a simple Clean Amp rig (Fender or Vox) and this greatly affects the tone in the neck position.  It seems to me that this should not be the case.  Especially when the Humbucker bridge pickup has far less noise on it.  I am wondering if I have a defective pickup or wiring in the guitar and recommendations from Line6 on what to do.  I bought the guitar through Guitar Center and have the 3 year full replacement warranty through them. So my questions:

1) Is this normal behavior and the JTV-69 just has a bad neck pickup design?

2) Are any other people experiencing this as well?

3) If this is defective, should I go through Guitar Center or Line6 for a replacement guitar?

Thanks,

Scott

Update: I recorded 2 audio samples to illustrate the noise.  One is of the Bridge pickup with normal expected noise.  The other is the Neck pickup where the buzz/hum is very loud.  It really seems to me that the single coils might not be shielded properly (just a thought).

Message was edited by: Scott Carrera