cruisinon2

Death to All But Metal!!! Steel Panther rocks!!! ;)

If an HD500X "metals" in a forest, do the squirrels bang their heads? ;)

Piezo outputs vary. On some of the models (Strat and Tele, especially), I've got the wound strings set considerably lower than the rest, particularly the low E and A strings...depending on the model, sometimes as low as 50-60%, with the treble strings at or near 100%. Now you may have a malfunctioning piezo if it's just the one string, but it's not at all unusual to have to adjust them. That's why Workbench is there.

Not for me. They're as noisy as any other single coil I've ever played. Some of that of course can be the room you're in and other sources of 60 cycle hum in the vicinity (ceiling fans, dimmer switches, etc) but silent? Not even close. Now the modeling....THAT'S silent.

Yeah...it would also be a great way to get people to stop buying Helix. Might as well ask L6 to start mailing you $100 bills once a month.

You might get lucky as you're still under warranty...but you never know. In this case you might have a tough time proving that it's "defective", as opposed to "I just don't like it and I want the newer version". That might be a tough sell to the Warranty Gods...who's First Commandment is always "Thou shalt blame user error". ;)

Lol...it's a guitar, not a .357 ;) I think everyone will escape unscathed....

Unless it's a sticker, anything you try is likely to deface the headstock to a greater or lesser degree...if it is a sticker, Goo-Gone or a similar product would probably loosen the adhesive enough for you to get a razor blade under it.

Sorry, but merely avoiding additional EQ by leaving the typical bass and treble controls (which are often the only two adjustable parameters on many sound bars) at "zero" does not magically transform a unit into FRFR. If it did, everything would be FRFR, and a Marshall 4x12 could be made to respond exactly as an L2T, and there'd be no need for the latter to even exist. Clearly, this isn't the case. Leaving the available EQ flat ONLY means that you are neither boosting nor cutting anything beyond whatever the unit's baseline frequency response happens to be...and I'll bet the farm that a consumer-level TV sound bar's inherent frequency response isn't anything close to flat. Yes, you could probably get it functional with the right Rube Goldberg-esque combination of wires, adapters and happy thoughts...perhaps even sounding okay, IF you never intend to run the POD through anything else. But the OP wants to tweak patches through this thing, then use those same patches cranked at stage volume through an honest-to-God PA system. That being the case, the sound bar is simply the wrong tool for the job...comically so. It would be like a plastic surgeon doing a nose job with a chainsaw. There will be lots of screaming, and it won't end well...;)

You sure it's a blown speaker? I ask because there was/is a known issue with the fan assembly on these things rattling when cranked loud enough...usually at certain lower frequencies...well, low for a guitar, anyway. Mine sounded like a jack-hammer with F# on the low E string. It's a horrible sound, might be mistaken for a blown speaker. A different fan assembly was eventually designed, and usually takes care of the problem...though mine had to be replaced twice.

Who makes the best cole slaw? Theres no way to answer either question. Everyone's needs/tastes are different...are you putting it on the floor in front of you, or in the backline on a stand? Are you playing acoustic, electric, both? Running a vocal through it? When it sounds the way you want it to, those are the best settings...

Because someone else created them. With their guitar, their combo amp, or guitar cabinet, or FRFR speaker, or headphones, or studio monitors, etc etc etc. Maybe they did it at 110 dB, or maybe it was whisper-quiet bedroom volume. Maybe it's a patch built by a 15 yr old kid who's been playing for 3 months and has no idea what "tone" is. Maybe it was done by a guy who's been playing for 30 years...but he's tone-deaf, still trying to master "Smoke On The Water", and he has no idea what "tone" is. There's no way to verify any of it, and no way to tell what it actually sounded like on their end. We can sit here all day listing one variable after another. What other pieces are there in the rig? Other external FX pedals, outboard EQ...the list is of Biblical length. And even if you had the info, the odds that you'll just happen to own the exact same stuff that the guy has in his rig, is basically zero. In fact, its very likely that the ONLY thing the 2 rigs will have in common is the POD. There's not much anyone can do with only one piece to a very large puzzle. That being the case, the fact that the tone sounds as awful as the smell of a boiled jock-strap, is not at all surprising. Customtone is largely a waste of time...you might occasionally get lucky, but on average, I'd say less than 1% of the stuff you download will turn out to be usable.

Most PAs approach FRFR. That's what they're designed for. It's extraordinarily unlikely that the house sound guy (if there even is one) is "configuring" anything when he fires up the jukebox in between sets. Because he'd then have to "un-configure" it 20 minutes later when you go back on stage. When you stop playing, he's presses "play", and wanders off in search of beer. If you're not Van Halen, and you call this place up and ask them to acquire expensive equipment that they don't already have...just for you...you'll get laughed at. It's also very likely that whomever answers the phone will have no idea what FRFR means. They'll think you're nuts, and you'll think they're stupid. It will be an awkward, and ultimately pointless conversation...but probably funny as hell for anyone listening. ;) Yes, you are over-thinking it...it ain't rocket science. No, you can't plan ahead for every possible contingency...though you can't go wrong with a roll of duct tape, crazy glue, extra cables, and a Leatherman. Gear differs, rooms differ, and sound differs accordingly. You will not find a solution which yields 100% continuity of tone in every conceivable scenario. That's never been possible, and it never will be. We're musicians...sometimes you gotta improvise. Good headphones will get you close to what you'll hear from a PA. Close does not mean "identical". No, I can't tell you "how close"...that will depend on the gear in question and your ears and abilities. What I can tell you is this: I've done it, it works, and I'll do it again. Tweak to taste at sound check. That's what the global EQ is for. Or let the sound guy do it, assuming that its not the same dude in charge of refilling buckets of ice behind the bar (yes, that happens). Just like the good old days with an amp and a few stomp boxes... And if you're still worrying about it, consider this: without visual cues, the average drunk in the audience couldn't reliably tell the difference between a guitar, hedge clippers, or a screech owl.

Lol...wasn't me, but I suspected as much! I can always spot my own kind. ;)

Well, with HSS you'll miss the lone bridge single coil, and bridge/middle combo...but you can get those tones from the models. As the whole gestalt with these guitars is versatility, I went with the HSS specifically to have the humbucker option. If I want SSS mag pickups, I have 4 "real" Strats to choose from. But I also happen to think that the mag pickups sound pretty good...if the modeling suddenly takes a dump on stage, I've still got a prefectly functional guitar with enough tonal options to get through the night.

Nah...they're trying to sell stuff to the whole guitar playing world. And guitarists are mostly crazy, anal, and addicted to their own personal preferences for instruments. And most (myself included) tend to play mostly one style of music. The country and blues guys will never give up their Teles and Strats, nor the classic rock guys their Les Pauls, jazz dudes their hollow/semi-hollow bodies, or the metal heads their Ibanez (or insert other "pointy" guitar manufacturer here________;) ). Might as well ask them all to give up air for a week. That's why I don't see the Variax as ever having a huge audience...but don't get me wrong, I like my JTV.

Simple. One is designed to amplify the myriad musical instruments that get used in a live performance setting, and the other one is for sitting around in your underwear watching "Orange Is The New Black"...that's how you know. ;) A sh*tty $150 sound bar from Stuff Emporium is not musical equipment. If you show up at the Indy 500 in a golf cart, you'll finish the race 2 days after everyone else has gone home. As for the headphones...like I said before, you need to create your tones using something with a frequency response as close as reasonably achievable to that of a PA's. A good pair of headphones is as close as you're gonna get without investing significant $$ in a true FRFR speaker. Will they sound identical? No...but nothing you buy will, no matter how much money you spend. The completely flat frequency response doesn't exist. No two PA's are gonna sound identical either. You have to expect some degree of tweaking from PA to PA and room to room. That's what sound check is for. Even if you owned your own PA and used it for every gig, the dive bar with the hard wood floors and bare brick walls isn't gonna sound the same as the hipster-ish lounge with the carpet and puffy leather couches.

If you're never gonna play outside the house, stick to the software. Gigging with a computer, however, is not exactly what I'd call "practical"...though it can be done. Either way, you're gonna spend time creating tones...I doubt either option will be much of a time-saver.

I guess it's just me, then. Oh well...

First of all, I didn't suggest that this exercise was "musical", and for the record, I don't sit around "banging" on a single note for hours at a time to test the instrument, nor did I discover the problem that way. But if you need to feel more "musical", fine. You win. I have no need, nor enough free time to go looking for barely detectable problems. This artifact was clearly present while playing "actual music" from day one, making its use rather limited. Thus, I did some troubleshooting in an attempt to diagnose the problem. My suggestion was merely an easy way to demonstrate it. Try it out, or don't. Either way, I'll sleep just fine tonight. And if mine is defective, so be it. I'm long out of warranty at this point, and have little faith in "authorized service centers", so it is what it is.

Wow....OK, see the little winking smiley face means "I'm kidding". But just for the sake of completeness, if you've ever seen raw lead, it's an INCREDIBLY soft metal. You can scratch it with a fingernail. As fret material, you'd be lucky if they lasted through a single song...that's what makes it a joke. So for the record, no lead frets and no pesticide nut lubricant. I now return everyone to your regularly scheduled wild speculation...where's my aspirin?😩

I hear there was one early production run, but it turns out that lead frets aren't such a swell idea, and the pesticide they used to lubricate the nut slots was giving people asthma attacks...;)

I'd be willing to bet that yours does it too...it all depends on what you're playing and how you play it. Play any riff with moderate to high gain and lots of palm-muted notes, but only on the A string...keep the low E muted. Single note lines and/or 5th string root bar chords...doesn't matter. Listen close, and toggle back and forth between drop D and standard tuning, just chugging on the open A string (muting the 6th string) and I'll bet you hear it. You won't notice it if your chugging along on the E string itself, as that will drown out any crosstalk from the A string. Certain tunes, it's OK. Others are a muddled disaster. If you happen to be a King's X fan (as any guitar player should ;) ), tunes like "It's Love" and "Lost In Germany" are showcases for this problem. Main riffs in both tunes have open A string palm-muted pedal tones throughout. Other times in Drop D, if you're living primarily on the low E string, you won't notice a thing. It's only when the low E string is muted, and all the busy-work is happening on the 5th string.

Most other issues you hear about are cheap plastic knobs that don't work (modeling won't engage, etc), shoddy fretwork, or the occasional failed firmware update that results in a "bricked" guitar...though that seems rare. I kept mine because I feel the alt tuning issue(s) are more a limitation of the technology than anything that can blamed on a defective unit. I seriously doubt Drop D would work any better for me on any of the other JTVs out there.

Bingo. Jury is out on that one for me too. I've played exactly one JTV. It's easier to find a pearl in a pig's ear than a store that stocks them. However, from the experimenting/troubleshooting I've done on the Drop D issue...the most convincing part was turning the A string's volume completely off in Workbench and still hearing palm-muted notes on that string sounding a whole tone lower...I have no reason to suspect another unit would behave differently. The issue is mechanical, the result of being in direct contact with both strings whilst palm-muting, vibrations propagating all over the place. Arguing with physics is usually fruitless...might as well try to disprove gravity.