snhirsch

On my JTV-69, it's the high E that has clinky, pingy issues. The best way to describe it is that there's no real "body" to it. I think the characteristics of the LR Baggs transducers vary wildly from unit to unit. World Instruments (OEM) should select and/or grade them at production time to ensure a tone and gain match across all strings. I've thought about installing GraphTech pickups, but based on reports from another person on these forums it sounds like some moderately serious machine work would be required. At a minimum, the bridge plate would need to be milled down and reslotted for the height screws on the GT units. I don't know what material it's made out of, but this probably implies a need to replate it as well. Not a trivial undertaking.

I've never noticed any issue with the neck down by the pocket.

No, but you may have to drill holes IN the neck. The JTV-69 does not have a strat-standard bolt layout. Have a guitar tech do it if you're queasy about that. FYI: I'm sure Warmoth necks are worth every penny you pay for them, but I couldn't personally rationalize the investment. I ended up buying a Mighty-Mite with rosewood fingerboard and compound radius. It's worked out well. I'm curious: Does Warmoth true their necks on CNC machinery, or would they still require a Plek to get that last bit of flatness?

Unless you are enamored of the stock neck, take it to a competent technician and have a Strat neck put on it. You can easily transplant the tuners and save a few bucks there.

The white pickguard unit was probably a pre-production prototype.

Note the different string tree arrangements! I'm hoping they opted for the Graphtec lubricated trees like the second photo. A single stamped metal tree promises sharp B and High-E after dives.

As you have discovered, the JTV-69 has a conventional one-way truss rod. After loosening the nut, try tuning the strings up 1/2 step and let the guitar sit for 24 hours or so.

Just my $0.02, but Dan Erlewine's book "How to make your Electric Guitar Play Great" is a good resource. Comes with a DVD also.

Ack, sorry. Didn't register that the Strat nut was narrower on E-E spacing than the Line 6. Not what I'd have expected at all. Let us know how it works out for you?

I replaced the OEM neck on my JTV-69 with a Strat neck several years ago, so I cannot confirm your measurements. But, assuming you were accurate the problem with overall width and string spacing should be obvious.

Already have. With the exception of the global EQ on HD500 (available Real Soon Now) I have seen little sign that Line6 pays any particular attention to IdeaScale input. But, they could always surprise me.

As I mentioned on another thread, a nut intended for a traditional Strat neck is going to be (a) too wide for a JTV-69 and (b) have the strings too far apart. You can fix (a) with sanding, but not (b). At a minimum, you are likely to have issues with the high and low slipping off the frets when played near the nut.

The JTV-69 is narrower at the nut than a Strat, with correspondingly smaller string spacing. I don't think a pre-cut Fender nut will work out very well.

I've always been surprised that HD Workbench doesn't support "treble bleed" caps.

Unless something has changed, the JTV-69 tuner set has (3) different shaft heights. Low E and A are the tallest, followed by D and G, then B and High E (which are the shortest). If your instrument has a different arrangment then something is wrong.

It's possible that the writeups were talking about a different model. At the time I knew nothing about Line 6 other than the fact of their guitars having no mag pickups. I want to say it was one of the British magazines, since they are more likely to call a spade a spade than US guitar media where they tend to like everything (and reviews are about 1/4" deep).

It's sad that after so long in the market, Line6 is still plagued with quality control issues. I never even considered the pre-Tyler Variax guitars because of consistently negative comments about build quality.

Unfortunately, only Line6 batteries will work in a Line6 guitar. Several of us have tried this with no success. It might be possible to rewire the guitar so the battery ties to the same line as the ring of the 1/4" jack (not digital handshake on that AFAIK), but I've never been motivated enough to try it.

It sounds like one of the crimp-on pins wasn't full seated in the body of the connector. Good troubleshooting job and I'm sure you haven't voided your warranty! Not sure about the '59 bridge and pickup arrangement, but the '69 has a poor (IMHO) arrangement where they relay on mechanical contact between dissimilar metals to provide ground return from the pickups. This caused an apparent dead low-E on my guitar and has also bitten several others on this forum.

I replied to your PM. You're not setting the Maglok bracket correctly - sounds like you have it pushed towards the trem block. The bracket needs to be as far away from the trem block as possible without starting to pull the trem block sharp.

I don't believe that the HD500 workbench is intended to give you audio over the USB link.

Ok, you want to go in the direction where if you are pulling the bracket (piece that screws to the guitar) away from the tremolo block. In other words, if you pull too hard the guitar will go sharp.

Attaching a Maglok is not all that scary, considering that you are screwing into the inside of the spring compartment where no one will ever see it unless they go looking. Fret work? Now that I find scary.

Why not take the plunge and do it yourself? It's really important for a guitarist to have some hands-on familiarity with basic stuff like bridge adjustments and tremolo mechanisms. Plenty of great videos on YouTube to help you get your courage up :-).

Hasn't that unit been "available Real Soon Now.." for the past two or three years?