grimm26 wrote:

 

My only concern for switching pikcups is because I'd probably get the JTV-89 except that having the JTV-69 would give me a trem if I ever need it.  I have Wilde (Bill LWarence) L-500's on all of my other guitars, so I'd want a higher output bridge pickup, but the one on the JTV-69 sounds like it will be more PAF-like.  The JTV-89 at least says they are high-output pickups.  I also like to use a 250K volume pot with the L-500's.

@Grimm - if I read your wishes correctly, you are not concerned with being able to recreate a close approximation with Workbench in the modeling aspects of the guitar.  Instead you wish to have the output you have grown accustomed to with your other guitars with that L-500 mag pup w/ the 250K volume pot.

I'm fairly certain that since Rich R. said it is "easy" to swap mag pups, you should not have any difficulty in getting your 3rd party pup in the bridge position.  However, just for my personal bit of curiosity, why not create a (or several) models of guitars with a higher than normal gain pup with the easy to change volume or tone pot capacitance and keep the pups that are stock in the guitar?  Is it because you might be using the JTV in it's mag pup function on a regular basis instead of as a back-up as Line 6 intended the mag pups to be?  Of course, Line 6 also put functional mag pups there due to players with whom they respect would not "take the guitar seriously" without any mag pups on it.

I, and many others here who comment on these forums, like the no mag pup concept of the original Variax series.  And as someone already posted on one of these threads..."I will miss being asked - where are the pick-ups on your guitar?"  I will miss that as well since - for me - it was a discussion point at many of the gigs I've done and am still doing 3-4 times per week.  I found that many of the problems others had/have been having with their various models of Vax were not problems I had with mine.  What I believe will happen now with the added mag pups, the typical listener will assume I'm using some sort of MIDI set up or perhaps not even notice that I'm switching between guitars between and even during many songs I perform live.  If they are really listening with their ears instead of their eyes, all of those things I do now should be just as obvious.  Sadly, most typical listeners listen more with their "eyes" than with their ears.

I only ask out of curiosity in how you see yourself using whatever model JTV you choose to purchase.