Sumatra_Gold

Very helpful thread. I experimented with the OP's settings this morning and got promising results. So thank you! In the interest of adding more constructive info to this thread, I'll throw in some of my own insights. One of the biggest helps to the overall tone of the Variax and control of palm muting was given to me by Stevic Mackay. He suggested using a string wrap or mute above the nut (so between the nut and the tuning machines). Really helps quiet sympathetic vibration and tighten things up. Another big help comes by way of my own experimentation with the work bench. I found that both modeled body types and pickup types can have more or less of that wonky, over-compressed, plinky sound you hear primarily on pick attack. Of the models I sampled, the strat (Spank) model was by far the worst ofFENDER;) What to do? I ended up using a neutral body for that model. I also found that the Gibby (Lester) body and bridge humbucker sounded the most natural to me. Since the issues with over-compression of tone and plinky pick attack occurs independently (with either pups and/or body types), combining a body type and pickup type suffering from this malady creates a perfect storm. My suggestion is to experiment with different body types and pickups to find the most natural (or even neutral) sounding combination, given your specific needs. Good luck and thanks again to the OP for this thread! I've been looking for a Variax optimization guide for a while. This is a good start. I look forward to hearing more suggestions from other Variax users.

You asked for a luthier's opinion so... Yes. A maple board can make a significant audible difference, especially compared to a rosewood board. There are at least a few people who I greatly respect that disagree with me on this. So take my advice with a grain of salt. Rosewood tends to sound darker with more sustain. Maple tends to sound brighter and snappier. Of note, neck stiffness = tone. Also it is true that the "heart" of the solid body is the neck/slab connection. If the neck and slab aren't properly coupled, (which means a wood to wood, friction press fit that is bolted securely) your overall tone and sustain will suffer. My JTV 69 sounded quite dark. The stock neck had a rosewood board. Was going to replace it anyway, so I installed one of my custom necks which is maple on both the shaft wood and the board. When I removed the stock neck, I discovered that the neck pocket on the slab was completely finished over. There was a thick layer of paint and clear over it, which had to be removed prior to installing my new neck. Removing all that crap from the pocket and installing the neck which is all maple construction really brightened it up, but not enough for me. I'll be putting in a new bridge pup to further enhance the high and high mid, while minimizing the lows on the guitar. Bottom line as it pertains to tone: Neck stiffness matters. Wood type matters. Hope that helps. Good luck to you.

You're probably right. But I'm not giving up yet. I'll just continue to wait for that email from support for the time being and use the noise gate as my "solution." Thanks for responding back with your test conclusions. I appreciate it.

There are others in the forums who have had this issue. But I didn't see any fix applicable to my situation. You might be interested in knowing that I did find a work-around in lieu of getting a response from L6. I use the Helix LT for all my guitar and bass needs. It has a noise gate that works very well. I went ahead and dropped that in at the beginning of my signal chains and that seems to have nixed the noise for now. Good luck to you and please respond back if and when you get a resolution on this issue.

This is not a piezo equipped guitar. It's all magnetics and no preamps or other active type electronics. I shared my issue with the admin at the L6 facebook page, since I was unable to open a support ticket, he asked for my email and said he'd have support reach out to me. That was yesterday. Documentation says it can take up to 3 days to get a response via support. So I'll wait for now.

Hi guys, Before getting into the problem I've encountered, I want to say that I love this little unit. I can't detect any tone coloration when the unit is active. It's super easy to use and portable enough I can fit it in my gig bag. However, last night I used it in rehearsal with live volume, of course, and noticed a very annoying continuous high frequency ringing. You do not notice this during songs...or I haven't yet. But between songs it's very noticeable and like I said, just super annoying. I tried to open a support ticket, but got stuck in a closed loop on the website and couldn't figure out how to open one. Every time I try, it just takes me back to the create a support ticket page with the search function. So now I'm doubly annoyed lol. I did go ahead and check the firmware. It is up-to-date. So I've pretty much hit a wall here. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Any splittable pu should do the trick. So think 4 wire pups here. Then you can utilize the switching array for magnetics in the same way L6 does with the stock P.U.s in your JTV. You'll want to research pups which not only allow you to split the coils, but sound good in that configuration. Not all split coil pups are created equal. Some sound terrible when split, either sounding to thin and/or sounding too shrill. So you'll want humbuckers with a good track record utilizing split coils. Good luck to you!

Does anyone know how I can find the OP's fix or another workaround? His original thread is now gone...replaced by L6 promo stuff on their site. So I'm dead in the water here. I would love to know how to optimize my JTV models for best tone. I have the JTV 89F. I used to have the 89 hardtail. Maybe it's my imagination, but I swear the models sounded better on it than on my 89F, which seems to have an overly compressed sound on pretty much every model. They do not sound punchy to me at all either. I am running the latest and greatest 2.0 + (2.22 I believe) on this guitar. If anyone has tips, tricks, whatever to make the most of the modeled sounds, please do share. In the meantime, I'll be experimenting with the HD Variax Workbench and turning over rocks on YouTube to see what I might come up with. Thanks in advance!

I did find the replacement from Full Compass. I do appreciate your responses. Thank you!!!

Hi guys, I am looking for a set of JTV 89 pups. I thought since at least a few of you have swapped them out, maybe you've got a set laying in a shoe box collecting dust, that you'd like to be rid of. If you do, please gimme a yell. Thanks so much!

Hi all, As my post title states, I'm trying to find out the pickup specs in the JTV 89 F, the reason being I have another guitar that truly love just as much as the JTV, but I hate the bridge pup on it. I'm looking to either buy an actual JTV bridge pup, or find a replacement that is a close match specwise. Specifically, I'd like to know what Alnico magnet type is used in that pup along with the DCR if anyone knows. Allegedly this pup is a high output PAF style pup, but a lot of different alnico magnet types have been used in the PAF family and I want to make sure I get an exact match if possible. In researching this I looked at the Seymour Duncan 59 and Little 59 for possible replacements, as this guitar is an SSS pu configuration. The regular 59 boasts an alnico 5, but the Little 59 is ceramic. This worries me as ceramic pickups tend to sound to brittle to my ear. And as for the Alnico 5, I have no idea if that is the magnet used in the JTV 89 pickup set. Any help is, of course, appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks! Does drag and drop feature work for you? Is there some trick to that?

Hi Guys, I'm having a number of issues with the latest reboot of Mobile Pod on my iPAD Air. I actually quit using it because of the pop and click issue. But when this update was announced, I thought what the hell. I'll give it another try. By way of observation, while I don't hate the new look, I like the old look with real amps better. Drag and drop doesn't work. I wish it did because that is a much needed improvement. I can no longer toggle FX as before The noise gate is gone. I looked high and low but couldn't find it, so if someone knows where it is, please do tell. If it really has been deprecated, then L6 needs to bring it back. I can no longer find custom tone. Someone on another thread in this forum said it's gone as well. Is this true? I'm a pro user, meaning I paid for this app. The last thing I want is to loose features and with this supposed update, it looks like I'm losing a few and there are some which simply don't work, like the drag and drop. BTW, the new buffer feature is also a much needed improvement. So far the app isn't popping or clicking. Thank you for that. Any assistance is appreciated. Thank you!

Hi all, I purchased the Mobile POD software to run with my Focusrite iTrack Dock. It is displaying some annoying audio pops and clicks and problems saving my custom tones. When you go to save it will turn certain effects off. In my case, I added a noise gate to the effects chain. Every time I tried to save, it would turn the effect off. Exiting the user tone and then going back to it doesn't resolve the issue. Sometimes rebooting the app will correct this, but the darned thing is so flaky, I never know what it's going to do. The pops and clicks issue is a big problem as well. Sometimes killing the app and restarting will resolve this. Often it doesn't. I sure would like to get some help on this, as apparently, there's no way to contact support about this issue. I'm concerned that Line 6 isn't even developing this app any more in which case, I paid for a broken app and I want my freaking money back. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi. Can you use a microphone with Sonic Port. I read on another thread that you could, indeed, plug a mic into either the quarter inch jack or the 3.5mm input and it would work. Is this accurate? Thanks.