snhirsch

Do you hear excessive fret buzz when playing the guitar unamplified? Piezo transducers (and the Variax modeling electronics) are more sensitive to buzz than conventional mag pickups. Another possibility: From time to time I've noticed a bit of mechanical "sizzle" resulting from the upper strings bouncing in the transducer saddles on my '69. It seems worse with brand new strings and fades away after a bit of breaking in.

High-E and B strings have always been a little anemic on my JTV-69. Try rolling back the gain on the other four using Workbench and pick a bit softer on the upper two.

Strings are always a tradeoff. In my experience D'Addario strings tend to lose a little brightness after initial stretch-in, but not to an excessive degree. I use D'Addario on all my guitars and tend to get two or three gigs plus a rehearsal or two out them. If you want to see a string with a rapid decline, switch to Ernie Ball for comparison. On the other extreme I've found Fender Super Bullet strings to be the most stable, although they start off duller than the D'Addarios and have a slightly different tactile feel to them. Peavey stainless steel strings decay very slowly, but chew the living hell out of conventional frets (be warned). All this being said, I am an R&B and vintage rock oriented player with all my impressions filtered through that lens. If your musical style differs substantially from mine please take my input with a grain of salt.

<shudder...> Better you than me :-). Just the thought of it makes me want to hug my Custom 24 tightly.

Many others have reported problems with the JTV-59 pickup selector switch. Good news is that it's field replaceable. Full Compass Systems sells parts and any competent guitar tech should be able to replace it.

Which JTV model? All three (59, 69, 89) have different bridge setups.

+1 on the string yank :D Someone even makes a little widget to help with this operation, although I'm not sure why the hands mother nature provides aren't sufficient.

The person who did the Plek leveling on my JTV-69 Strat neck installed a bone nut. Unfortunately, I had tuning stability issues even with shallow tremolo dives, thus the Graphtec replacement. Probably just me since everyone else seems to love them.

I'm partial to the Graphtec self-lubricated nuts. I had one put on my JTV-69 last year and it significantly improved tuning stability. Pricing will vary, but should be vicinity of $40-60 + parts.

I cannot tell you how many times I've been burned by leakage of the unaltered string sound. At gigs, my IEM cuts down outside sound levels and I can sometimes hear the natural pitch by bone conduction if the guitar is touching a rib :-).

That is the most backwards logic I've ever heard in my life. You realize, of course, that those inclined to get in over their heads are going to do so with or without guidance from Line6. All you are accomplishing with this inane policy is to punish everyone else by ensuring that they're flying blind.

Line6 is virtually alone among guitar makers in holding basic setup information as a deep, dark proprietary secret. They could give you the recommended string height, relief, pickup clearance and trem adjustment specifics but then they'd have to kill you...

You are on the right track: Hit Wikipedia for a discussion of "Fletcher-Munson Curves".

Technically, I agree. Business-wise, why would you expect Line6 to help a competitor?

It would obviously be helpful if Line6 provided specs for nominal string height and neck relief. You know, like absolutely every single other vendor known to Western Civilization does? But, enough dreaming. In any event, I highly recommend that you navigate over to the Stewart-McDonald web site and pickup a copy of Dan Erlewine's "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great". While you're there, poke around the tool pages and request a print catalog. If StewMac doesn't carry the tool you think you need, then you don't need it :-).

We can't get a completely straight answer on date coding, but I rather suspect that's "44th instrument built during week 11 of 2013". Either way, a long time for strings to sit.

Probably a directive from the bean-counters to save $0.05 per transducer. There's a tiny piezo element with two contacts potted in those bridge pieces. It doesn't seem like rocket science to have brought out the second wire instead of bonding it to the shell. The good news is that it's possible (if a bit tedious) to add a ground wire. Several of us have done it. But, in deference to Mr. Sarkissian's workload, don't even think about tackling this unless you have solid electronics bench skills. It's not the worst challenge I've ever faced, but it's also not a good candidate for "My First Soldering Experience".

Actually, it is just as simple as anyone with electronics design and technical experience would think. Relying on all the dissimilar metal-to-metal contacts to create a ground return is plain and simply a poor practice. I solved a number of subtle issues on my JTV-69 by adding ground wires to all piezo elements. For the love-of-Mike, Line6 has dedicated solder pads on the PCB expressly for ground return!

I have a feeling that opinions on this will be all over the map, but personally I always keep the bridge pieces stepped and parallel to the top of the guitar. My reasoning is that you will be picking more or less parallel to the guitar, so why would you want the bridge piece angled with respect to the initial movement of the string?

Great! Based on Charlie's post it would be a good idea to take a close look at the RJ-45 (plastic plug in the connector that was trapped). If the release tab is still there, consider disassembling the connector and breaking it off. The release tab is needed only when the RJ connector is alone on the end of the cable.

I've seen problems of this sort occur when a cord-mounted connector is stepped on and bent slightly out of round. Have you tried sitting the guitar on a table where you can hold in the release tab and wiggle the connector back and forth as you try to pull it out? Unless the release clamp is outright broken it should move.

This issue still isn't fixed in production instruments?? Words fail me...

More likely the QC area at Line6 in the US.

At $999? Not a chance.

I'm going to guess that 1202 == Week 2 of 2012. Similar to date code frequently found on older TTL ICs.