cruisinon2

It's got nothing to do with the strings themselves. Piezo outputs vary, sometimes by a lot. The model in question will play a part also. The Strat model will often suffer from this, simply because it's modeling a type of guitar that often suffers from the same issue. String volumes are easily adjusted in Workbench, however. It's an easy fix.

Lol...round and round we go. Thankfully, despite all the speculation and wild guessing, there is one thing that's crystal clear. NOBODY KNOWS when it's coming. Dirty little secret time: salesmen lie. A lot. It's protocol. They want to keep you happy, and they want your money. Thus, they will continue to dangle whatever carrots they think are necessary to get/keep an order. When it shows up on your porch, it's been released. There, all settled.

Ok, I'll bite. Why on earth would this ever be necessary or desirable?

I know nothing about the Helix, so perhaps I'm wrong, but I'm not sure how any device would be able "know" when to switch from one harmony to another. Seems to me that you would have to be in control of that one way or another. What you could do (with the 500X anyway), is have 2 pitch shifters in the chain...one set for 3rds and the other for 4ths, and use a foot switch to toggle between them.

Clearly the universe does not want you to own a JTV...by the time you get one that satisfies you, you might be too old to remember where the notes are. ;)

Generally, I consider it a win if I can call up and get the correct closing time...

F$!#/!&@ Quintana...that creep can roll, man...;)

Worms, anyone? Faisal has just opened a fresh can. ;) They fixed my rattling L2T. Took 2 tries. The first attempt was done at a local "authorized service center", which imho is roughly analogous to having your bowel resection done by Sal, the neighborhood butcher, but I digress...L6 paid the shipping the next time, and the 2nd repair seems to be holding up so far. 6 or 7 months now, and no more problems.

As always, anything is possible, but the two most likely explanations are: 1) The piezo is dead, or 2) There's a connection problem somewhere, perhaps where the wire from the piezo connects to the small circuit board attached to the sustain block, underneath the bridge. They are very thin leads. Wouldn't take much for a poorly done solder joint to break loose. Could also be that the G string's volume was turned to zero in Workbench...though that seems rather unlikely unless you were messing around with that.

It's on the Interwebs, so it must be true. Everyone rejoice!!!! ;)

Don't know if it would make any difference, but perhaps Elixirs, or another brand of coated string might help...most manufacturers seem to have their own version of Elixirs' concept now.

Extended warranties are the biggest scam in the world. All they're doing is monetizing "peace of mind", and playing on the fear that your shiny new toy might get a boo-boo. I've been gigging for 20+ years...never had anything destroyed by a spectator, let alone by a few ounces of beer. Yet people line up to pay an extra 10,15, or 20% more for an item just in case they happen to get struck by lightning on the way back to their car.

I know it's off topic, but to anyone who hasn't played a guitar with stainless frets, give it a go. Fret-wear with standard nickel strings is basically non-existent. I'm about 2 years in on a set of stainless frets on a guitar that sees daily use (couple hours playing at least), and there's not a mark on them (and I'm using fairly heavy gauge .11-.50 strings). Not even below the 5th fret under the lower strings, where you tend to see the worst gouging. I'll end up wearing out before they do, lol.

You're unlikely to find any that aren't made by L6. Most places aren't gonna bother mass-producing pick guards for such a niche guitar.

Actually it is. I gave it a whirl after reading a previous debate on the subject on a here a while back. I felt that it didn't track quite as well as the Variax, but in a pinch, it does work. But drop tunings are a no-go, as you said. It's gonna de-tune every note it "hears" by the same interval, so there's no way to alter one string and not others.

That's what they're hoping, lol. Our entire economy is based on this now... Will Helix be better, more versatile, etc? I'm sure it will, and I'd grab one if money were no object. But the world didn't go straight from the telegraph to smartphones, and I can't imagine that this is gonna be anywhere near that kind of technological leap, either. I can get great tones from my 500X today, and I'll still be able to do it tomorrow...

Just seems to be the luck of the draw ...I never had the 6th string issue. Just wasn't my turn to crap out, I guess.

I'd expect to have to intonate any guitar that gets a new neck...something is bound to be a little out of whack. Also, a brand new neck that's never had tension on it is gonna move, and will take a little while to settle in. Couple of days later, and you'll probably be adjusting things again. And it's a floating bridge, which makes things even goofier. Hell, changing nothing but the string gauge and action will generally require minor adjustments...

Neck pocket specs are identical. Only difference is that slightly rounded outer corner (it's squared off on a Strat)...but it makes no difference in playability for me, I'm used to a Strat's dimensions at the heel anyway. Mine fit like a glove...needed nothing but the holes drilled. I have two other Warmoth necks. Before I ordered this one, I pulled one off one of my Strats to see if it would work. That one dropped right in as well, and that neck is about 15 years old, so I'd say their stuff is quite consistent.

Lol...as long as we're asking, can we get it mow the lawn and take out the garbage too?

That's just it...nobody makes them because nobody buys them. Most right handed guitar players have no idea that the Variax concept exists, so L6 is pushing uphill already. Catering to the 17 lefties who might actually want to buy one would be pi$$ing into the wind...just my 2 cents.

Short of buying a JTV to canibalize, and transplanting the guts into a lefty guitar, no. I sympathize with your plight, but I seriously doubt they're ever gonna make one. These guitars are a niche product as it is, and lefty guitars are a miniscule market share. It's never gonna be cost effective for them to go to the expense of producing one for the tiny handful that they'd sell...they'd never get their money back.

I love my 500X...I'm the happiest I've been with a rig in years. It'll give you just about any tone you want...just don't expect to get there on day one (or week one, or month one for that matter). Right out of the box I was less than thrilled. If your looking for a plug-and-play unit, this ain't it. There tends to be a fairly steep learning curve, even for veteran players. The factory patches are mostly useless, and laughably awful in some cases...though to be fair, some have said the latest firmware update came with some new pre-sets that are somewhat better, though I haven't tried them. Either way, you WILL be tweaking patches, whether you start from scratch, or use a stock one as a starting point...I promise you there is no way around that. As long as you give it some time, learn how the unit works, and you'll eventually find that you'll be able to dial in a tone pretty quickly. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best bang for the buck out there.

You're all torturing yourselves. Even an ironclad guarantee for the first units' shipping date conveys little or nothing as to when a particular retailer will actually get them. There's even less of a guarantee for the turn around time to get them shipped out again to customers. Retail is a black hole...

Well..."better than something that's an order of magnitude uglier" is not exactly what I'd call a ringing endorsement, lol. And I've looked at his site...at least some of those models have essentially the same graphic with his name 19 times, just minus the "Variax". But I agree, those other headstocks are god-awful. 8th grade woodshop project awful...