cruisinon2

I think it's pretty cut and dry. If everything else is making noise with the modeling engaged, except that one string, then your diagnosis is a safe bet. I suppose you could check the string volumes in Workbench...if you happened to be mucking about in there recently, I suppose it's possible that the E strings volume was turned off inadvertently, though it seems rather unlikely. Also, the saddle's ground connection relies on simply being in contact with the bridge. Make sure there's no gunk/dust/other crap underneath the saddle itself. Anything is possible. I don't think that this is a particularly difficult fix though...the piezo leads are soldered to the small board fixed to the sustain block under the bridge. It's pretty straightforward. You'll save yourself days to weeks and a bunch of money if you just order a new saddle from Full Compass...

Ha! Beat me to it...I rethought that a minute later. ;)

I'd say that this is about it for "hard and fast rules"...and you could probably debate the delay and reverb, depending on the application.

Yup...all that. Getting stuck in the idea that there are "right" and "wrong" ways to configure things is unnecessarily self-limiting. Want to run a cab sim through an actual amp and cab? Go ahead...you might like what you get, you might not. Only one way to find out, and since nothing is gonna catch fire either way, what have you got to lose?

The Dark Terror is a great little amp. I did an entire recording project with it last year...13 or 14 tunes. I was very surprised at the sounds we got out of that thing. 7 of the biggest watts I've ever heard, lol.

No thanks...but to each their own! Rock on... ;)

I've never had 8 FX going at once in my life...or even a combo of 8 FX, toggled on/off within the same tune. I don't really understand the need or the desire to build patches that complicated. At some point it stops sounding like a guitar.

The guitar models are revised periodically...older versions have older models. They don't all sound the same. Older versions of the firmware also do not support the latest version of HD Workbench, which allows considerably more editing options, and control over the guitar. Eventually you're gonna need an interface...these guitars are weird, and can have issues that are often solved by re-flashing the firmware, similar to how you'd reboot a computer when it's acting funny. Even if you have no problems, you're gonna wanna tweak things here and there...string volumes, custom tunings, or creating your own custom guitar models. Bottom line...get an interface.

More, more, more. Faster, faster, faster. I'm me, I want X, Y, and Z...and it all should have been here yesterday. I've never purchased anything, expecting it to contain different $#*! 2 weeks later...entitlement baffles me.

Lmao...

And you wouldn't, as mag pickups generally don't suffer from these issues. Piezos are orders of magnitude more sensitive by comparison. As such, weirdness can ensue...any unwanted resonances if sufficiently amplified, become a nuisance. Some guitars have issues, some don't. No use wringing your hands over it. You can't predict a blessed thing until you play it.

L6 demo-ed Helix at NAMM through the Firehawk...it's a viable option. You would be using it for power only, the same way you would slave any other head or combo, because as you've said, daisy-chaining two modelers together is pointless, and almost guaranteed to be a mess. I suggested it because running stereo seems to a priority for you, and buying a pair of L2T's is gonna run you $1500+...whereas the Firehawk is $1K, smaller than your 2 4x12 cabs, and wired to run in stereo.

The Magic 8 Ball and Ouija board have not yet spoken...;)

That ain't me, lol ;)...I just found the videos. I suppose you could ask the guy in the comment section on YouTube. Maybe you'll get lucky.

Yeah, if you bend strings a lot, it's fantastic. They feel like glass. And yes, I was exaggerating a bit...but only a little. Nothing lasts forever, and they are a bit tougher on the strings. It's more apparent on the wound strings. You'll start to feel those flat spots right over the frets a little sooner...but I plow through strings quickly anyway, so it's made little difference for me. I think I sweat battery acid. ;)

Best part is, you'll take those frets to the grave with you. I'm slowly converting all my guitars to stainless frets. First one I did was almost 3 years ago now, on a guitar that gets played daily, sometimes 4-6 hours at a clip...there's not a mark on them. Things are damn near instructable. Should have done it years ago...would have saved me a small fortune in grind & polish jobs.

Just stumbled on these two videos: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OJrApKSebVY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aTNkiJa9cbQ First one is all acoustic tones, second one various electric models. Guy's name is Vinai Trinateepakdee...he's just demoing tones here, but he's a monster player. It's worth checking out his fully fleshed-out compositions if you've never heard him before.

First line of defense for Variax weirdness...and make no mistake, these guitars can have odd issues...is to re-flash the firmware. For reasons unknown, sometimes it makes a difference. So try that first. Then there's the fact that piezos behave much differently than mag pickups. While a more common complaint is a thin/tinny sound initially, anything is possible, and you might have to mess around with your patches quite a bit, assuming that you dialed them in with "normal" guitars. I have a whole slew of patches specifically for the JTV.

None of the Stagesource speakers are stereo, so one unit will not give you any "stereo spread" at all. If you wanna go that route, you need 2 of 'em, no matter which model you choose. You might wanna look at the new Firehawk 1500 amp...it has some weight to it, but still less than what you're currently lugging around, and it is stereo. Ain't cheap either, but considerably less than a pair of L2T's.

Aesthetic/stylistic differences only...just depends on what style of guitar you prefer. The 69 is basically a Strat-style design, floating bridge, with HSS (JTV69) or SSS (JTV69S) mag pickup configurations. The neck is a baseball bat...narrow where it should be wide (at the nut), and wide where it should be narrow (profile)...but that's subjective of course. The 89 is a more typical "shredder" style instrument...flatter/wider neck, plus a Floyd. With the exception of some of the alt tunings (which can be customized anyway, so it really doesn't matter), the modeling is all the same no matter which JTV you choose.

I've got a theory about that... It seems that it used to happen much more frequently years ago when everything was still being recorded analog on big 2" reels. Since mastering was/is usually done somewhere other than the studio where the original tracks are recorded, those reels are ending up on different machines. If one wasn't calibrated quite right, and moved the tape just a little faster or slower than the other, then the finished mix would end up just a few cents sharp, or flat. Often entire albums suffer from this. VH's first record comes to mind...yes, Eddie was tuning down a half-step in those days, but that whole record is approximately 1/4 step flat. There's no sane reason that they would deliberately tune down less than 1 semi-tone, unless they were completely winging it, sans-tuners of any kind ...which seems unlikely. Producers and engineers are wildly OCD. ;)

Alrighty then. Sorry I tried to help.

Rather than trying to undo what's already been done, go to the source...the pick itself. Something with a more rounded tip will generally give a more muted attack. Experiment with different materials, thicknesses, etc...there are so many kinds of picks out there, it's almost comical. You can probably find one made from Dodo feathers and unicorn hide that will give you the softest pick attack known to man...;). Seriously though, I use polished stone picks, in a variety of thicknesses. Some with very rounded bevels, others thinner and sharper. The material is all the same, but the way they're shaped makes a huge difference in the attack. It's readily obvious, even playing un-amplified. Switching to a different pick might be all you need.

For the one it was created with...period. That's what a lot of folks don't seem to get. 1:1 continuity across multiple combinations of amp/cab, FRFR rigs, or headphones, using a different guitar than whomever sat down to create a particular preset, is simply impossible. Amp modelers are not Xerox machines. No preset...on any device on earth...is going to sound exactly the same under all possible scenarios, regardless of what final output device happens to be. Every box you plug an amp modeler into will color the tone in some fashion, and to a greater or lesser extent than the next one that you try. You could play the same Helix patch through two different FRFR speakers of the same make and model, with convective serial numbers, and still not end up with identical tones. Close? Probably...but there are no guarantees. There are a multitude of reasons for this...which at this point, could fill a doctoral thesis.

If both tuners indicate that the guitar is in tune, and they are both set to "A 440", but the software indicates otherwise, then it would seem that the software is at fault. The alternative is that you have two busted tuners, but that is rather unlikely. The only other explanation is that both tuners are set to a pitch other than "A 440"...which could easily be the case. On some tuners it's easier than it should be to change the setting inadvertently, so I'd check that first. As far as learning to tune...without knowing exactly what level you're at, it's hard to know where to start, but here's the Cliff Notes version: Use a tuner to tune the low E string to pitch, then tune the rest of the strings by ear, relative to the low E. When you're done, use the tuner again to see how close you got by ear. I'm assuming that the software covers the basic method to do this, detailing which fretted notes correspond to each open string pitch, etc etc. If not, it's easily Googled...just rather lengthy to try an explain in text.