cruisinon2

The worst thing to do with modeling gear is to make assumptions about pairing this amp with that guitar model, or that amp with this mic/cab combination. Just because their real-world counterparts react a certain way, doesn't mean that their digital evil twins will yield the same results when similarly paired. Sometimes the last thing in the world that you'd think of, is what ends up being your "go-to". You just have to allow time to experiment with it all, and try combinations that might not seem to make sense...and trying to guess at it without gear in hand is a colossal waste of time.

The videos make it look easy...too easy sometimes. Add a steaming pile of Instant Gratification Syndrome, and you're guaranteed to get get a bunch of folks who's wallets are $1500 lighter, wondering why they don't magically sprout Slash-esque curly hair and top-hat, just by opening the box...

I dunno about "peacefully" ;), but neither one is going anywhere...

Ah! A fellow Legg-head, lol. Very unique player. See him live if you get the chance...he's hilarious. Half the show is a comedy routine.

They're also pimping the Standard now...trying to attract more customers with a lower price-point. If it works, the JTVs will eventually go the way of the dodo.

When in doubt, do a factory reset. Back up your patches first...

Ditch the neck. It's awful anyway. I'll bet you $100 the problem disappears, or at the very least, substantially improves. Go with an ebony board. Might sound a little darker, but you can tweak to compensate, and you'll get a bit more sustain.

Lol. There's never been much of a "demand" for these things. It's a VERY niche product, with a tiny market share of devoted users. 99.4% of guitarists don't know they exist.

Try it if you want, but there's no guarantee that what sounded "balanced" on this guy's JTV will sound balanced on yours. In fact, it's almost guaranteed to not be the case. Piezo outputs vary too much for this to be of much use to anyone but the guy who did the grunt work. Besides, unless you're the most well-rounded player in the universe, equally versed in every style of guitar playing since Django, you're gonna settle in on just a few of the models that fit your needs anyway. Who cares if the banjo model's volume is "balanced" if you're not using it?

Yeah, well my dad has a Cadillac....;)

Here's the rub, though...This is all subjective. You like what you like, and we all purchase and use accordingly. I wouldn't have the world any other way. But what would you have L6 (or any other company for that matter) do? "Fix" Helix, to satisfy the small % of customers who didn't like it, while simultaneously alienating the majority of happy customers who think it's great? Nobody does that...it's financial suicide. No one is gonna bond with every piece of gear they play, and that's fine...I've ditched so much stuff over the years, I've forgotten half of it. But not liking something doesn't imply that there's a defect in need of a "fix", either. It either works for you, or it doesn't...and both outcomes are OK. Sooner or later, we all find what we need.

You're gonna have to play with individual string volumes...almost everybody does. Piezo outputs vary, and you will most likely find that some strings (B and high E strings in particular) are a little quieter than others. It varies from model to model, and from JTV to JTV. But workbench allows you to adjust the output for each string separately, and then save it to the guitar. There are also global string volume controls, though I find these of little use. Because some models suffer from this more than others, one universal adjustment isn't gonna help you much...you just end up fixing one model, and ruining everything else. All the models default to 100% output across all the strings, so it's actually a case of lowering the volume of the strings that are drowning the others out (sometimes by a lot...I've got the low E and A strings at 50-60% on some of the Strat models). It can be a royal pain in the arse to get them all balanced, especially if you end up using lots of different models frequently, but you only have to do it once. Save, and done.

Nope....but there are people out there, who are driven to hysterics over too many footwear choices in the closet. I've met plenty of players who want to plug in, turn 2 or 3 knobs, and call it a day. Don't know if it's laziness, or if they're afraid to learn anything new, but they're out there...

I can't believe the degree of mental gymnastics that you're devoting to a set of strap locks. Why "assume" that the existing screws won't be compatible? Just buy the damn things. It will take all of 4.7 seconds to find out if they fit...then you can worry about drill bits, wood glue and toothpicks...IF you need to. FWIW, the Dunlops worked just fine with the OEM screws on my 69. In all likelihood, it's a non-issue.

Because no one ever does...they're never gonna bother contacting you just to say "pi$$ off". Send out 100 resumés. If you get 4 or 5 responses, consider yourself lucky. Don't care what field it is. That's just the way the world works.

You're right, and it's no surprise. If you hang a sign over any highway in this country that says: "Honk if you play guitar", every 3rd car is gonna honk at you...but how many of those people could fight their way through even the simplest of tunes without an embarrassing train wreck? I've been teaching lessons for 20+ years...no matter how many students I have at a given time, the "magic number" who are any good is about 10%. So the fact that most fiddlers out there have no idea what gear even exists, does not surprise me at all.

Them's fightin' words. ;) Lol. Let the ruckus commence!

Now you've done it. Here we go! Let the great D/A, A/D debate begin...again! ;)

How many busted strings do I have to put under my pillow to get the Variax Fairy to visit my house? ;)

I've never put a guitar into a case with a strap attached in my life.

It's a pair of screws. I'll say that again, because I think it bears repeating...a pair of screws...You could complete the "install" without help if you were missing an arm. "Trusting" anyone with it is comically unnecessary.

Well when the initial complaint is "my high gain tones are muddy and getting lost in the mix", which is basically what the OP said, then he's got nothing to lose by trying another recipe. Back in the good old days Maiden, Priest, etc, weren't playing with the super-saturated tones that you hear so often today. It's not any better or worse...just different. Don't think anyone is accusing those guys of not sounding "heavy" enough.

Dunlop

This is my favorite unanswerable question. Sound clips and advertising demos are a terrible way to judge anything, because you have no idea what actually went into producing the sounds you're hearing...regardless of whatever claims are made. They're nice guitars. Buy it. Experiment with it. The odds of being able to reproduce a given tone that you heard based on someone else's settings, is essentially zero. You have to do it yourself.

Not offhand...I know there are a couple of sizes, but the basic design is the same. They tell you how to figure it out. ...measuring across the widest part of the body, etc etc. The "economy" ones are not molded, form-fitting cases...they're pretty generic. It's essentially an empty box, with a fairly large flip-top crap compartment in the middle. But for under $100, that's pretty much all you're gonna get. If you want a more fitted case that supports the entire length of the neck, I believe they've those too, but you're probably gonna have to spend more than $100.