cruisinon2

Allow me to be the first to congratulate you on being the first user in modeling history for whom this has proven to be true by default, without actually having to make it happen. For proof I refer you to any of the other 7381 "Why isn't the volume the same on all my patches?!?!?!??!?!" threads that have been polluting this forum (and likely others) for years on end. Don't know how you did it, and perhaps it was just dumb luck...but whether by accident or design, it deserves a tip of the hat. ;) Can't argue with that...

How bout the Line 6 "Awesome"? I can see the brochure already, lol...;)

I sympathize with your plight, but don't be surprised when there isn't a stampede of folks volunteering to crack open their devices for a photo shoot. If I were you, I'd bite the bullet and open a service ticket before it ends up more f*cked up than it already is...

It'll "work good" with any quality output device(s)... headphones, studio, monitors, PA, etc etc. The magic bullet is not what you choose to monitor your sound with, but understanding what a modeler is and isn't, and learning how to use one properly, no matter who makes it.. A word to the wise, however... don't expect instant "plug and play" gratification. That's not gonna happen no matter what you buy.

Simply put, no. There is no audio device on earth "that good". Do battle with the Fletcher-Munson curve and the realities of the human perception of sound if you must, but you will loose 100% of the time.

There's really no magic formula that'll work equally well for everybody. Much of whether or not you'll take to the whole Variax thing, particularly with regard to success with the acoustic models, boils down to your mechanics... the dynamics (or lack thereof) in your playing, and how much you tend to "dig in" to the strings. I find that the acoustic models need a much lighter touch to be convincing. All of this is directly related to your comfort level with how the guitar is set up, which of course involves your personal preference for string gauge. I don't know about you, but when I pick up a guitar that isn't set up well, or even one that is properly set up, but with a string gauge that's out of my comfort zone, I can't play for sh*t. The action, proper intonation, neck relief, etc are all critical...more so when using piezo pickups than traditional mags. Proper intonation is especially important, as this will affect how well the alt tunings algorithms work. Action and relief, with an eye towards minimal to no string buzz is a close second.

Preheat oven to 350° and bake for 20 minutes, turning every 3-5 minutes, or until the fire department shows up...;)

I rest my case, lol...

Even if there is, it'll be easier to find a pearl in a pig's ear, than to get an official endorsement from the powers that be to do so...

Official recommendations notwithstanding, I seriously doubt you'll have issues with 9's. While 10's are usually touted as the most commonly used gauge, 9's are a very close second. So it's a virtual certainty that there are plenty of Variaxers out there using them... and if it were really causing widespread mechanical problems, believe me, we'd know by now... because legions of unhappy "9-ers" would have been screaming about it from the rooftops for years, especially around here. We'd be drowning in "I can't believe I spent $1K on a guitar that I can't put 9's on!" threads... but I digress. If you've been playing 9's forever and that's your comfort zone, it's far more likely that you'll have difficulty playing on a heavier gauge, than you are to have a problem with the function of the guitar. Maybe you'd get used to it, and maybe you wouldn't. Going down a gauge is easy... up, not so much, unless you've got young fingers. By the time I was 20, I was playing on 11's exclusively. Now with (nearly) 50 year old hands, bending on 11's ain't as easy as it used to be, so I'm back to 10's...c'est la vie. Bottom line is, use what's comfortable... either way, you have nothing to lose but 6 bucks on a set of strings... and that's if you actually experience a problem with 9's. Go back to 10's if you find it necessary, but there will be no permanent damage to the guitar.

I love a good old fashioned righteous indignation rage fit, don't you? ;) Especially on stage... it's good for knocking a few points of the diastolic. Of course, unless he's a platinum selling artist he most likely will not be invited back to play at Walt's Trout Hut again, but that's show business. Destroy on, friend! Lmao...

That'll shown 'em!

Try the new Oxidation Degrossifier from Turtle Wax...;) www.stuffthatdoesntexist.com

It's not likely a software problem, so resetting, and/ or reflashing the firmware probably won't help. You can try cleaning around/underneath each individual bridge saddle... the ground connection for the piezo saddles relies on solid contact with the bridge itself. If there's a bunch of accumulated dust and crud under there, then that connection can be interrupted. If that doesn't help, then that individual piezo is dead and will need to be replaced, and it's time for a service ticket.

Scroll up a bit... this guy is loooooooooooong gone, 6+ years ago.

Imho, it's been weird in here for years...;)

Can't give you numbers off the top of my head...but for the 69, the neck pocket dimensions are identical to a Strat... any Strat neck in the universe is a drop-in replacement. Done it myself. If you're still hell bent on finding the actual numbers, I'm sure Google can direct you to any of a thousand places online, as Fender hasn't changed them in 70 years, lol. The 700 is anybody's guess...

It's not that it's any better or worse, it just depends on what you want to accomplish, and how you like to get there. Depending on what you're doing, an expression pedal will sometimes be easier to manipulate than constantly going to the volume knob with your pinky... on some guitars the volume knob isn't in such a great spot for volume swells, or controlling noise between phrases. etc. I use a volume pedal for the latter all the time when recording leads, especially with any guitar that has single coils. Anytime I pause between phrases, I roll off with the pedal to shut the noise up, and back to 100% again as soon a I start the next phrase. It largely eliminates the need for a noise gate and all the unpleasant tone/sustain killing that goes along with their use. It takes some practice, but after a while it's second nature, and you won't think about it at all. Boils down to how you like to do things, and what you find easier. If your volume knob is "set it and forget it", and you never touch it again until you're packing it in for the night, then you probably won't find a volume pedal of much use. Different strokes...

Is there anything unusual about the jack or jack plate on the PRS? The transmitter has a small detent that must be fully depressed in order for it to "turn on". A sufficiently recessed or concave jack plate might not make enough contact to press it down far enough.... that's the only thing I can think of.

It's the Fetzer valve... you'll also need a set of 30 weight ball bearings and a quart of Pennzoil to replace it. ;)

I ordered a sandwich from the local deli yesterday, and I didn't like it... caveat emptor! ;)

Yes it does take a while... but there really is no other option. On the bright side, you only have to do it once. Live straight to the PA is one purpose. Playing at home through studio monitors or headphones is another, etc etc. Different scenarios, different volumes, different monitoring equipment. You can't expect a patch that's dialed in one way to translate to another situation with 1:1 tonal continuity when other variables, independent of the patch itself, keep changing. You'll save yourself a ton of grief if you keep different sets of patches for their intended use. Yes, it's more tedious grunt work up front... but as I said before, you only have to do it once. Yes... that's always the case, and is due mostly to the large volume discrepancy between the two scenarios... unless you're trying to rattle the windows at home and pi$$ off the neighbors. That's not how it works at all... at least not if it's done properly. You should have the full mix from the board in your IEM's... the whole point of using in-ears is to have controlled, individual mixes tailored to everybody's needs so you can all hear exactly what you want to hear...and a lower, if not completely absent stage volume because everybody's running direct. My band has been doing the "silent stage" thing for 3 or 4 years, now... it's so much easier. No amps or monitors on stage at all, no more whining that you can't hear yourself or anybody else, and less hearing damage because there's no volume creep as the night goes on. We even have one recurring gig in a small restaurant/bar where we can't crank it that loud, so my drummer brings an electric kit... if we didn't have him in the IEM's, everyone would be lost because the stage volume is totally non-existent, save for the dull thud of rubber drum pads. Anyway, the point is you still have to dial in a tone that sits well in a mix, because that's what you're getting in your ears. You can bump your own guitar's volume up to whatever level suits you if you like... most probably do... but you still have to hear the rest of the band or it'll be a train wreck. Most IEM's isolate pretty well. If you're only piping yourself in there, you won't be able to hear a damn thing that anybody else is doing... trust me, it won't end well. Unfortunately, that's how you'll get into trouble. Any patch played at low volume at home, through different monitors, outside of a mix, will never sound the same when cranked to stage volume with a full band. The perception of loudness of different frequencies varies tremendously with volume. It's a limitation of human hearing that we all suffer from (see Fletcher-Munson curve if you really want to go down the rabbit hole). So unless you're playing at stage volume in the living room, when you take a patch that sounded spectacular at home and crank it to stage volume, 9 times out of 10 it's gonna be a complete mess...so tell your cranky band members to bear with you one night while you get your levels set, and after that you don't have to think about it anymore. ;)

Yes... and that will always be the case. Large differences in volume, and evaluating any given tone in a mix vs hearing it solo will always present a problem... but that's true no matter what you're playing through. You could go 100% old school and play bone dry into a Marshall head and 4x12, and you'll still have the same sonic issues to deal with. The bottom line is this: you need to dial in sounds for a specific purpose, and at (or reasonably close) to the volume at which you intend to use them. Live is live, and jamming on the couch is jamming on the couch... a patch that works for the former will almost always be utterly useless for the latter...and unless you plan for both and create patches specifically for their intended use, you'll constantly be tweaking back and forth, and you'll end up spending more time fiddling with knobs than with your hands on the strings. You'll never escape this entirely... it's impossible, because you are not the only variable in a live situation. Sooner or later you'll have to turn your master volume up or down, or tweak a little EQ. That's why there's a global EQ - fine tuning for the room you're standing in at the time... with special emphasis on "fine". Don't dial in your patches with the global EQ on, or you'll torpedo all the work you've done on every other patch you've already created without it. The best you can hope for is to have all your patches leveled well enough that a slight volume bump or cut won't send everything straight to hell... it's not hard to do, just time consuming and boring as f*ck... It's often assumed that certain monitoring methods have some sort of baked-in magic that'll automatically compensate for all the variables discussed herein, and somehow make everything sound exactly the same all the time, independent of volume or context (live vs home, etc etc)... but that simply isn't the case. A mix is a mix... the same variables are always at play, doesn't matter how you're hearing it. Adjustments are inevitable... that's what sound check is for. And next week, next month, and next year, too... some things don't have a shortcut.

There is but one suggestion: Level everything once, and be done with it... and your ears are the only reliable option. Yes, it's tedious and nobody else wants to do it, either... but you have precious few options if you want everything to sound as it should. You can wave meters around all day long if you like, but in the end it's the perception of loudness that matters. All other things being equal, a high gain tone at 90 dB will always seem louder than a clean tone at 90dB... likewise for the mid-heavy lead patch vs. the scooped rhythm tone... making the number a meter spits out of little to no utility. If two patches sound even in volume, then they are... don't care if some gadget is telling me otherwise.

Yup...FRFR just provides a blank canvas for a modeler. But as you've seen, it's not immune to the effects of volume because the Fletcher-Munson curve really has nothing to do with speakers... it's a limitation of our ability to perceive the volume of different frequencies accurately... a permanent EQ filter that's inside your head, if you will. You can't get rid of it no matter what you're playing through...