cruisinon2

I tried, but the rest of the band refuses to do Tiny Tim covers...;)

Ugh.

I expect a tuna sandwich and a bag of chips...smart money says we're both gonna be disappointed. Either way, pleading for more/new/better stuff in here will result in a grand total of nothing. Ideascale is the official "suggestion box". Forum gripes go nowhere.

There might be some confusion with terminology here. Raising or lowering the "action" is completely independent of the size of the frets themselves. Action is the height of the strings above the tops of the frets. He seems to be telling you that he wants to grind and polish the frets. At least I'm assuming that's what "needing a very light touch on both the left and right hands" means, though it's a peculiar way to phrase it...when that's done, the action can still be adjusted to whatever height you're comfortable with, regardless of how much meat is left on the frets. There are a million different sizes of fret wire...each differing from the next a millimeter or less. It's mostly a personal preference. If you bend a lot, you'll probably prefer a wider and taller fret. Nothing is forever though...grind and re-crown frets enough, and they're toast and need to be replaced. As for the truss rod, sooner or later they all need adjusting. Not a big deal, provided that he knows what he's doing.

You don't need to be an engineer to know that there's more than one factor contributing to this problem. Otherwise, there wouldn't be 73 different home grown "fixes" yielding varying results. If there was one problem, there'd be one solution. "Life sucks...get a f#$!/!g helmet" -Dennis Leary ;)

Well then my plink's volume is zero. Am I special, or did I just get lucky and ended up with an instrument that works? We're all chasing or tails at this point. Easily solvable problems get fixed. Complicated problems are expensive, inconvenient, and get blamed on just about anything other than the actual cause...the weather, the dog, democrats, republicans, the hole in the ozone (that's still there, right?).

If there's ever a one-size-fits-all solution for this, I'll join a monestary. With such a wide variation in severity, and the various factors that likely contribute to it, which change from one instrument to the next, I think a universal fix is very unlikely...It's the same reason there's no cure for the common cold. It affects everybody differently, so what do you do? Treat the symptoms one by one...not much else you can do.

Yup. All of that...let's face it, the gear (baring a major malfunction) isn't gonna change from day to day. Pull up a saved patch, and it's exactly the same as it was the last time you loaded it up. Brains however, are weird...and famously unpredictable.

I've had 4 Warmoth necks over the years, the last 2 with stainless frets. Depending on the finish you choose, the frets may need a little polishing out of the box, but none of them required any leveling. My last one was a high-gloss finish over the entire neck, including the fretboard, so those were already polished nicely, and it didn't need a thing except the initial truss rod adjustment...they ship new necks with little or no tension on the rod. I've always been curious about it, but I've never "pleked" any of my guitars...don't know of anybody local who has one of those contraptions, and I'm not a fan of shipping guitars (I've seen that old Samsonite commercial with the gorilla to many times...;) ). I've got a really good fret guy anyway, never been a problem.

It's at the top...1st post.

The guy's letting it go for a song because the screw heads are a little mangled? In and of itself, that's really not much of an issue, unless he's just an idiot. I'd look that thing over very carefully if I were you, though. There's gotta be something else wrong with it...if he's removed those screws enough times to chew up the heads, he may have stripped the threads inside the holes too, which would be a bigger problem. Also fixable, but a problem nonetheless.

It does, but you can go ahead and count your blessings. They're all horrendous.

Guessing at intonation? Words fail me. So the laws of physics cease to exist when it's a Variax? What magical tools do the authorized shops have to tackle Variax intonation? Crystals, magnets, Druid robes, 17 secret herbs and spices? Tune in next week folks, and we'll discuss turning lead into gold. [Fun Fact #26: Guitars never play in tune at Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, or the Giza Plateau...nobody knows why. I blame Common Core standards. ;)] Intonation is adjusted in exactly the same manner on every guitar on earth. 12th fret, fretted notes compared to 12th fret harmonic. Fretted note sharp? Vibrating length of the string needs to be longer, adjust saddle away from nut. Fretted note flat? Shorten the string, saddle moves toward the nut. I don't care how fancy the electronics are. Physics is physics.

I quoted no one. I highlighted the underlying implication...but I'll play along and rephrase anyway. All unauthorized luthiers are awful and will butcher you're instrument. Better? Actually, it's the exact same sentence, just inverted...though I suppose it does flow a little better this way. Yeah, you see the worst case scenarios...great. But we all know that are plenty of folks out there, for whom there is no local "authorized" service center. Shipping it any distance can cost as much, if not more than the cost of a set-up. Continuing to preach that competent, yet "unauthorized" luthiers don't exist, is not "helping" those who find themselves in that situation. It just gives them something else, if you'll pardon the pun...to fret over.

There you have it folks...all luthiers are awful, and will butcher your instrument if not "authorized". How did guitars ever get fixed before the Variax?

Why wade into this cesspool again? The company line will never change...

Elixirs come in two flavors..."polyweb" and "nanoweb". Don't ask me what that actually means, but practically speaking the polyweb coating feels a bit more slick (slightly slimy, actually) to me, than the nanoweb ones, which I prefer. Also, the polyweb coating seems to "shed"...actually flakes off the strings where the pick strikes them. Didn't care much for that....nanowebs don't do that at all for me. As always, ymmv.

Or get a set of these, and shave even more time off the process...no more cutting, and no more puncturing yourself on sharp string ends. ;) http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Waves-Auto-Trim-Tuning-Machines/dp/B0002E2NBI

Unless you start to include the various noiseless options, or extreme high/vintage low output pickups...a single coil is a single coil.

As far as I know, control over the modeled mic position applies only to the acoustic models...for the others, the tone control behaves as it would on that particular guitar. So I'd expect the behavior of the tone control to be different for acoustic vs. electric models. Now whether the control of the mic position modeling is any good, or accurately reflects what moving an actual mic would do to the sound, is another discussion altogether...

You've just described every set of strings on earth. String life varies widely...mostly dependent on the player, and the environment the guitar lives in. A heavy handed player who bends a lot and sweats battery acid, will plow through strings quickly. Humidity doesn't help, either. Personally, a week for a set of non-coated strings is about the best I can expect...always been that way. I switched to Elixirs a while back, as the longevity is considerably longer...easily 4x as long. Yes, they feel a little different, but you get used to it like anything else. The longevity is worth it for me...ymmv.

Call me silly, but seems to me that if the problem only manifests itself when the battery is installed, then the battery must have something to do with it...however unlikely it might seem.

Welcome to the wonderful world of piezo "plink". Set aside some time...a month or so...and enjoy a nice long read. http://line6.com/support/topic/6764-do-you-have-the-same-problem-with-6th-string/?view=getnewpost

Well if it's really a major sticking point for you, then your only other option is to find an older, used Variax model without mag pickups...though it will be a hell of a lot easier to just not use the mags. Nobody's gonna force you to...

Just get a couple of balanced TRS 1/4" cables. I use them with the 5" JBL's. They work just fine. Don't buy into the hype about gold-plated, assembled by vestal virgins in a Cuban cigar factory, "high performance" cables. It's a farce. The signal either gets where is going, or it doesn't.