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Do You Have The Same Problem With 6th String?


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You don't need to be an engineer to know that there's more than one factor contributing to this problem. Otherwise, there wouldn't be 73 different home grown "fixes" yielding varying results. If there was one problem, there'd be one solution.

 

"Life sucks...get a f#$!/!g helmet"

-Dennis Leary ;)

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Hi all!  

Has been quite some time since I last checked here. 

 

As far as I remember I already tried to lower the string volume without successfully muting the pling. 

But yesterday it was strange..... I was playing with Drop C tuning Special Bridge Pickup Model, Tone&Vol @ 100%  , no pling with high gain sound......

 

Last thingsI've changed were:

- Instrument cable (had the cable from rocksmith 2014, which is 6.3mm to usb with an intregrated audio interface in between. must be cheap stuff considering the game costs ~$40 including the cable 50+ songs that have been licensed, etc etc...

- Now a non expensive Fender Custom Shop Cable

- As audio interface : Laney IRT Pulse

 

At least the songs I played yesterday were pling free.....  don't know if this was "by accident" or has anything to do with that new setup. 

Will try again later today!

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  • 1 month later...

As this is a +700 posts thread, it would be really nice, if the op could declare the post with one of the helpful contents as "BEST ANSWER", so one could find the essence of the solution at the beginning of the thread :ph34r:

There's just one problem with that...there is no solution. That's why this thread had lasted 2 1/2 years.

 

There have been numerous jury-rigged "fixes" proposed...dampening the strings behind the nut and/or behind the bridge saddles, filing material off of the bridge saddles themselves, wrapping the ball end of the strings with one material or another. And my personal favorite from an "official" source: "raise the action by a few tenths of a millimeter". For the guitars that suffer from this the worst, "plink" isn't even a good enough description. It's a "screech"...and all of the above "fixes" accomplish little, or nothing in those cases. A mild example might be remedied by any or all of these, but unfortunately the end user is left to perform various different minor surgeries in an effort to find out what MIGHT work on that particular guitar. Sucks, but it is what it is...

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I don't understand what's so hard about using 2 Variaxes, one with the problem, and one without it, and then swapping in hardware from the new one to the old one until the problem goes away.

 

It'll narrow down everything and then they can work to eliminate or replace bad parts for people who send it into service centers.

It's not that lollipoping hard. Eventually you'll run into whatever the hell causes the problem.

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I don't understand what's so hard about using 2 Variaxes, one with the problem, and one without it, and then swapping in hardware from the new one to the old one until the problem goes away.

 

It'll narrow down everything and then they can work to eliminate or replace bad parts for people who send it into service centers.

It's not that lollipop hard. Eventually you'll run into whatever the hell causes the problem.

That assumes that there is one universal cause. The fact that different remedies work on some guitars and not others (or no relief at all in some cases), is pretty much all the evidence you need to determine that it's not one solitary "defect". If that were the case, it would have been solved a long time ago....if for no other reason than to shut us all up.

 

Easily solved problems get fixed, because it's cheap and easy. Complicated problems with numerous contributing factors that may or may not be relevant from one user to the next, tend not to get fixed. Why? Because it gets expensive, is invariably a pain in the a$$, and since any one "cure" is not going to help all the affected customers anyway...you do the math.

 

The epiphany that everyone is waiting for, ain't coming. No one is ever gonna be heard screaming: "Holy sh*t, Bob! It's part 312B! If we just color it blue the plink disappears!", from the bowels of their R&D department.

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Wow, I just ordered a JTV-69s. My first Variax and this thread makes me a bit nervous. I haven't read all of the thread (first few pages, last few), but I was wondering. Has anyone tried changing the tuning on the string digitally and checked to see if the pitch of the plink (plunk, thud, screech) changed? That could help determine at what point the noise is introduced to the signal. The problem seems to be mechanical for most people. Something is producing the undesired noise, then the pickup is sending it to the DSP where it is amplified. That would explain why dropping the gain down on the string helped. Since so many people have different levels of noise and I would assume type (plink vs plunk) it could be different pieces though. The best thing for L6 would be to trade a dozen or so people with this problem a new guitar with out the problem. Then they would have several different examples at hand. Listening to sound bytes only does so much. 

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The problem seems to be mechanical for most people.

That's debatable. You can move the plink from one string to another by swapping piezo wires. That argues against a mechanical source, despite "official" proclamations to the contrary.

 

I wouldn't bother worrying about it just yet. Not all JTV's suffer from this. Odds are yours will be fine.

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That assumes that there is one universal cause. The fact that different remedies work on some guitars and not others (or no relief at all in some cases), is pretty much all the evidence you need to determine that it's not one solitary "defect". If that were the case, it would have been solved a long time ago....if for no other reason than to shut us all up.

 

Easily solved problems get fixed, because it's cheap and easy. Complicated problems with numerous contributing factors that may or may not be relevant from one user to the next, tend not to get fixed. Why? Because it gets expensive, is invariably a pain in the a$$, and since any one "cure" is not going to help all the affected customers anyway...you do the math.

 

The epiphany that everyone is waiting for, ain't coming. No one is ever gonna be heard screaming: "Holy sh*t, Bob! It's part 312B! If we just color it blue the plink disappears!", from the bowels of their R&D department.

 

I think it would at least be worth a try to even do it in the first place. 

Let's be honest, there's different types of "weird sounds" that this guitar can make. Let's talk about them:

 

1) Plink noise, probably the biggest offender, a plinking noise when picking or palm muting the E string. This is the plink that is probably caused by some form of signal overload that causes the "piezo plink" crap to happen, something I honestly think they can reverse engineer to get rid of but no one is doing this.

 

2) The jangly E string. Probably closely related to the plink, but it gives this extremely overpowering jangly drone overtone when you hit the E string anywhere on the string. This could also be reverse engineered. This is the problem I have.

 

3) plinking noises on all strings because of sympathetic ringing on other places of the guitar where parts of the string hover that is behind the saddles, or behind the guitar nut. These are the ones you can absolutely fix by putting dampeners on the open parts of the strings on the saddles and nut.

 

1 & 2 are not related to 3, and the plink noise is caused by something else.

 

 

There has to be some reason why that crap is happening. Swapping parts between a good and bad guitar isn't going to hurt the research on this problem one bit.

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If people honestly have been participating in resolving this problem (unless the whole story was made up, though I'm sure Line 6 don't want to present this problem to the general public because it would hurt the Variax's reputation), why not reverse engineer 1 guitar, see if they fix it by swapping some hardware, and then have others send in their guitar and do the same?

 

I mean, if they don't have this much time on their hands, then they shouldn't be selling something that can be dysfunctional in the first place. We're not buying confetti poppers and guessing which will blow out confetti and which one will be a dud, these are 1k+ guitars each. Let's have a quality that reflects that please.

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Has anyone had this problem on the newer 69s or 59p? Also has anyone has the problem with the standard?

None of them are immune, but it's got nothing whatsoever to do with what kind of mag pickups the guitar has, which is the only difference between the 69/69S, and 59/59P. It's a piezo/modeling problem, and that's the same on all of 'em. Some suffer from it, some don't...it's the luck of the draw.

 

Anticipating a problem is pointless. You don't even have the thing yet...plenty of them work just fine.

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This isn't in anticipation. I'm wondering if the newer models are having problems. Mag's are the only difference, but the quality of manufacturing can change as builders become experienced. Also the Standard's bridge is different from the 69's. I just haven't seen any mention of 59p, 69s, or the standards. If it's affecting standards then it very well could be a software issue. But I haven't seen anyone mention them. But if it was software I would think downgrading and applying the latests firmware would eventually solve the problem. It would finally install correctly. So that would leave electrical or physical/mechanical. I'll try going through more pages, but there iss a lot to read. Have people tried changing bridges and therefor pickups? At almost $200 I would imagine most haven't. That also could be the reason L6 hasn't come up with a solution. They would rather you eq (free to them) it out than replace a bunch of expensive parts.

 

I've worked for manufacturing companies. The guys you are dealing with more than likely want to help you, want you to be happy. It's the people at the very top of the totem pole that stop them. They get so consumed with profit margins that they forget that making customers happy is important. 

 

This problem bothers me. Not because it's affect me, but because I'm a problem solver. It's what I do. 2 1/2 years is way too long. In fact it shouldn't have taken more than 6 months to know and understand the cause. Of course if you're in denial of a problem you can't even start to fix it. 

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I need a big favor from the JTV-89F owners. I have been trying to get a picture of the adapter PCB that converts the graph tech ghost pickups to the main PCB header interface. I have searched and searched the internets without success.

 

Can someone with a JTV-89F please send me a picture of the adapter PCB? Please post here or DM.

 

I want to see if there are capacitors on this PCB and what the values are. 

 

I'm trying to understand how the graph tech ghost saddles from the JTV-89F compare to the LR Baggs saddles of the 69 and 59. Ghost saddles have a much higher volume output that could contribute to this issue. Adding a capacitor in parallel for each pickup will lower the overall volume.

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None of them are immune, but it's got nothing whatsoever to do with what kind of mag pickups the guitar has, which is the only difference between the 69/69S, and 59/59P. It's a piezo/modeling problem, and that's the same on all of 'em. Some suffer from it, some don't...it's the luck of the draw.

 

Anticipating a problem is pointless. You don't even have the thing yet...plenty of them work just fine.

 

I agree, but then again, I swear to jumping jesus, the first guitar I got sounded perfect, but retardingly (I don't care if this isn't a real word) I sent it back because I thought a firmware bug was a hardware bug.

 

Second guitar came and I was like "woah wait, why is the E string more jangly than the rest". I sent that one back as well.

 

Then I got this one, which honestly, had the same problem and I kind of gave up when I shouldn't have. It sounds great sometimes, and then bad sometimes. I don't get what determines how bad it is. I mean, if I got an old E string, it dampens the jangliness a bit, but I swear, lately, it's been at it's worst. I don't get it.

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I need a big favor from the JTV-89F owners. I have been trying to get a picture of the adapter PCB that converts the graph tech ghost pickups to the main PCB header interface. I have searched and searched the internets without success.

 

Can someone with a JTV-89F please send me a picture of the adapter PCB? Please post here or DM.

 

I want to see if there are capacitors on this PCB and what the values are. 

 

I'm trying to understand how the graph tech ghost saddles from the JTV-89F compare to the LR Baggs saddles of the 69 and 59. Ghost saddles have a much higher volume output that could contribute to this issue. Adding a capacitor in parallel for each pickup will lower the overall volume.

 

post-1143921-0-24306300-1470617100_thumb.jpg

 

post-1143921-0-04692400-1470617134_thumb.jpg

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The only current solution I have is to add a negative (-3dB to -10dB) notch filter at 1600 Hz, but as someone said earlier this affects the whole tone. I was hoping that line 6 would release a firmware update that would make it possible to EQ each string individually (or at least the E string, which is the one that most people have a problem with) but they don't seem to be in a hurry to fix this problem, given the age of the thread :(

 

We know that would work, because on the JTV-89F if you swap the A and E string the problem goes away so it's clearly something that can fixed at the software level.

 

Has anyone with plinky guitar tried earlier firmware versions (1.7x) and if so does it fix anything?

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Thank you x 1000. I knew there were some caps on that board. I wonder what values they are and how many decibels Line 6 is trying to lower the signal. I am working on an experiment with my JTV-69. It is working fine with no plink, but I intend to replace the pickups with graph techs to see how they affect the tone and if they add any plink. If they cause plinking, I can add different capacitor values to see if it removes the plink.

 

I am frustrated at the lack of progress with this issue and intend to try this little experiment to see if I can learn something. Your photos go a long way to helping me understand the issue.

 

My hypothesis is that many (not all) of the plink issues are due to clipping that comes from the input signal amplitude. I think lowering the amplitude before it gets to the main PCB may help or eliminate the plink.

 

I could be totally wrong here, but with no input from Line 6, we are forced to use our own methods to find solutions to the issue.

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Still no one has answered my first question. Does the pitch of the noise change when you use alternate tunings. It should if it's being introduce before the dsp. If they are clipping and the spike is being translated as being part of the signal and shaped as such then it should change pitch. If there is some sending a vibration to the peizo it should also.

 

Another question is how are the leads connected to the bridge?

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The only current solution I have is to add a negative (-3dB to -10dB) notch filter at 1600 Hz, but as someone said earlier this affects the whole tone. I was hoping that line 6 would release a firmware update that would make it possible to EQ each string individually (or at least the E string, which is the one that most people have a problem with) but they don't seem to be in a hurry to fix this problem, given the age of the thread :(

 

We know that would work, because on the JTV-89F if you swap the A and E string the problem goes away so it's clearly something that can fixed at the software level.

 

Has anyone with plinky guitar tried earlier firmware versions (1.7x) and if so does it fix anything?

Swapping the leads doesn't get rid of the plink, it just relocates it to another string. If moving a couple of wires was the solution, this thread wouldn't be years old.

 

I'll just keep saying it...there is no universal solution. People have offered everything from bubble-wrapping everything that could conceivably vibrate, to grinding metal from the saddles. It's a combination of factors, that aren't necessarily gonna be the same from one guitar to the next. If there were one thing, somebody would have figured it out already, we wouldn't have been having the same conversation for years on end.

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Swapping the leads does work for me (and another friend who has a 89F with the problem too). The downside is that the A string sounds a little "muffled" and that you've got to keep remembering to swap E & A whenever you change tunings - so I went back to the EQ filter instead as it seemed to be the best out of the not so great solutions I found in this thread so far.

 

A few pages ago it seems that Line 6 was working on a solution, is anyone from Line 6 able to comment on any progress?

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Swapping the leads does work for me (and another friend who has a 89F with the problem too).

Fair enough...and in this case I'm happy to be wrong, because it actually proves my point. This is yet more evidence that the "fix" is different from one intstrument to the next, as others have clearly expressed that swapping the leads only moves the problem to another string.

 

The idea that this is ever gonna be resolved via a firmware update is a fantasy as far as I'm concerned. It just ain't that simple.

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As it stands, we have yet to find a single root cause for this phenomenon. Due to a variety of reasons, we were unfortunately forced to deprioritize our research into this issue. We will report any pertinent findings at a later date. We encourage anyone experiencing trouble with their Line 6 gear to reach our support team at www.Line6.com/support/tickets.

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As it stands, we have yet to find a single root cause for this phenomenon. Due to a variety of reasons, we were unfortunately forced to deprioritize our research into this issue. We will report any pertinent findings at a later date. We encourage anyone experiencing trouble with their Line 6 gear to reach our support team at www.Line6.com/support/tickets.

 

Here's the problem Tony, the support ticket method of fixing this issue has not worked for anyone on this thread. My JTV-89F was sent in twice to headquarters with no resolution (I finally got rid of it).

 

For anyone reading this thread. My advice, play the guitar before you buy it if possible. Listen carefully, if there is any sign of plink or weird noises, send it back. Don't screw around with the support ticket, you won't get it fixed that way. What you will get is a 4-6 week turnaround time for them to say "no problem found".

 

Very disappointing. 

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psarkissian has just posted a reply to a topic that you have subscribed to titled "Do You Have The Same Problem With 6th String?".

"What you will get is a 4-6 week turnaround time for them to say "no problem found"---

Our records show the last time the guitar was here, was more like a 6-day turn around time,

not 4-6 weeks. Not sure which service center did 4-6 weeks.

 

And you did some mods to your guitar which complicated things,... but just smidge,

... and part of the reason for a couple of the failures.

 
Someone deleted your post, but I have it in my email.
 
I thought you were done with this thread.
 
You are not considering the time it spent at the dealer and yes it amounts to 4-6 weeks of my time without a guitar that I payed over $1k for.
 
The plink was present on that guitar from day 1 fresh out of the box. None of the mods (pickups and locking tuners) made any difference. Even when the guitar was returned to completely stock, the plink remained strong as ever. I even spent $200 for a professional setup to level several high frets that I thought might be the cause of the issue. It did not help with the plink, although as a regular guitar I liked it.
 
That guitar is gone now. It gave me a sick feeling every time I turned on the modeling . It should have never made it out of your QC department.
 
The JTVs and the lack of support are a constant source of frustration to me and many others on this thread.
 
I recommend you go over to the gear page for the helix and see how those customers are treated. Their problems are given priority and handled with professionalism. They have a direct connection to Frank Ritchotte and Digital Igloo at Line 6 who are incredibly helpful and solve problems. I love my Helix and they are a large part of why I enjoy it.
 
Here is the link:
 
With over 2 million views and 27,500 replies they must be doing something right.
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psarkissian has just posted a reply to a topic that you have subscribed to titled "Do You Have The Same Problem With 6th String?".

"What you will get is a 4-6 week turnaround time for them to say "no problem found"---

Our records show the last time the guitar was here, was more like a 6-day turn around time,

not 4-6 weeks. Not sure which service center did 4-6 weeks.

I just remind - my guitar spent in service center in Netherlands 11 weeks.

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As it stands, we have yet to find a single root cause for this phenomenon. Due to a variety of reasons, we were unfortunately forced to deprioritize our research into this issue. We will report any pertinent findings at a later date. We encourage anyone experiencing trouble with their Line 6 gear to reach our support team at www.Line6.com/support/tickets.

 

As a result of the above decision, the fact that there are folks who have sent their guitars in for service without resolution with apparently no hope of having the issue resolved, I will not make any future purchases from Line 6. 

 

The guitars with this problem should have never left the factory. The ones that did should have been fixed or replaced, period. 

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Though far from surprising...

 

Obviously there aren't enough units affected to bother devoting resources to the problem.

 

"Money, it's a crime..."

 

I highly doubt that. I got 2 units with the same problem back to back. I think it's probably bigger than people think, but it's just on different levels, and some people accept certain levels of it, and some don't.

 

Like I said, I accepted mine, at least for a good while, but now, I swear it's gotten worse somehow, and it's starting to really bother me.

 

I sent my guitar in for them to check on it, and they checked my new guitar, and sweetwater said to both "Oh we don't hear any problems". You have to realize some people might not run the guitar into certain amp settings that display the problem very well, or maybe they just think it's the settings being too bright, so they tweak it out.

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I highly doubt that. I got 2 units with the same problem back to back. I think it's probably bigger than people think, but it's just on different levels, and some people accept certain levels of it, and some don't.

 

Like I said, I accepted mine, at least for a good while, but now, I swear it's gotten worse somehow, and it's starting to really bother me.

 

I sent my guitar in for them to check on it, and they checked my new guitar, and sweetwater said to both "Oh we don't hear any problems". You have to realize some people might not run the guitar into certain amp settings that display the problem very well, or maybe they just think it's the settings being too bright, so they tweak it out.

I have to realize?!?!?!?! Are you serious?

 

I've been saying the same friggin' thing...repeatedly...since the discussion began:

 

#1: Variety of causes

#2: Varying degrees of severity

#3: User-specific tone/technique/etc that either amplifies OR masks, a problem guitar. And in the case of the latter, it's a "problem" unit that will never be identified as such, because the owner won't hear anything amiss. If you're a jazz guy, playing with a crystal clean and somewhat "dead" tone all day, you'll probably never hear the plink.

 

In the end though, not enough people b1tching = no action. That's how the warranty/recall/redesign business works. Only when the cost of NOT doing anything eclipses the cost of addressing the problem, will something actually get done. A small percentage of lemons (and the forever alienated owners thereof) is just "the cost of doing business".

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I have to realize?!?!?!?! Are you serious?

 

I've been saying the same friggin' thing...repeatedly...since the discussion began:

 

#1: Variety of causes

#2: Varying degrees of severity

#3: User-specific tone/technique/etc that either amplifies OR masks, a problem guitar. And in the case of the latter, it's a "problem" unit that will never be identified as such, because the owner won't hear anything amiss. If you're a jazz guy, playing with a crystal clean and somewhat "dead" tone all day, you'll probably never hear the plink.

 

In the end though, not enough people b1tching = no action. That's how the warranty/recall/redesign business works. Only when the cost of NOT doing anything eclipses the cost of addressing the problem, will something actually get done. A small percentage of lemons (and the forever alienated owners thereof) is just "the cost of doing business".

 

Then maybe it's time for us to move forward from Variax.

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I have to realize?!?!?!?! Are you serious?

 

I've been saying the same friggin' thing...repeatedly...since the discussion began:

 

#1: Variety of causes

#2: Varying degrees of severity

#3: User-specific tone/technique/etc that either amplifies OR masks, a problem guitar. ...

#1: Not variety of causes, but various factors that affect the single cause. This cause is known.

#2: Yes.

#3: Yes.

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There's no way in hell that there's multiple ways to recreate the problem specifically unless the problem strictly applies to the signal being overloaded.

 

Again, I've said, the sympathetic string plinking sound and the plinking sound on the E string are 2 separate problems, nonrelated. 

 

One is the power of your picking causing the strings behind the saddle and behind the nut to be jolted with enough energy to vibrate loud enough to make a ping noise.

The whole reason it's a "ping" noise is because of how short the strings are will obviously cause a high note to resonate from the string sympathy. If you pluck those areas of the string, it'll make the EXACT same sound that the ping makes in your guitar.

 

The problem most people talk about with the E string is a hardware issue that noone can find the solution for because no one has the resources to fix it theirselves. Only Line 6 can fix it, because only Line 6 have the ability to swap broken hardware without spending a pointless fortune on the guitar.

This is why no one can find a fix by theirselves.

 

I believe Line 6 is skimping hard on the solution, and that it's out there and not as arbitrary as we think.

It's obviously related to the piezos and hardware that lead up to the DSP. Hell, maybe it's also the bridge, but other than that, I highly doubt it's anything else.

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