cruisinon2

Sure you did. And you're right. For Pete's sake, any two Strats you play won't sound identical...If they did nobody would ever bother owning more than one. So when someone gripes about the modeling not sounding "exactly" like a Strat, it's not unreasonable to reply "Which one doesn't it sound like"? That said, I'm in the camp of those who didn't particularly care for the latest Strat model. Just sounds anemic to me...so I made my own. Does it sound exactly like my "real" Strat? No, but it's damn close...and nearly indistinguishable from the JTV's single coils in positions 3,4, and 5, minus the noise. It's amazing that we can do that.

Well there are a few things relevant here. First, as has often been quoted around here, the JTV's $1400 MSRP is for a $700 guitar with $700 worth of fancy electronics. And frankly, for a sub-$1K guitar, fretwork tends to be lackluster. Just is. Yes, you might get lucky here and there, but by and large you get what you pay for. Don't care who's making them. I recently acquired a low-mid priced 7 string (just under $700)...needed fretwork right out of the box, and I knew it would. 2 high frets that you could eyeball. You could argue all day long that it shouldn't be that way, and you'd be right. But it is what it is. Mass-produced overseas guitars are exactly that. The guy on the assembly line is not a lifelong craftsman with meticulous attention to detail, no matter what the advertising blurbs say. He's got a production target of X # of necks to fret this week...because Monster Rifftorium, Inc. is waiting on a shipment. As for the opinions of the average gear jockey at your local MegaloMusic...it's really not even worth discussing. And set-ups? Please. I've yet to pull anything off the wall that was set up properly, no matter what the price point. Most guitars hang there for weeks or months before you get your hands on them. I've picked up guitars that have been there so long, the corrosion on the strings had effectively turned them into razor wire...you practically need a tetanus shot afterwards. These places would have to employ someone who actually knows what they are doing, to do nothing all day but set up their stock, working from one end of the store to the other. Lather, rinse, repeat. What actually happens is some high school kid pulls a guitar from a box it and hangs it on a wall. If you're lucky he tunes it. Once. No stretching of strings, no intonating, no action adjustments.

I heard the first 1000 units will come free with the purchase of a 2.5 hp Yamaha outboard motor...the guitar playing / shallow freshwater fishing demographic had been ignored for far too long.

OK...after this one I officially give up, because you're talking in circles. First it was a discussion about your Boss pedal still sounding the same after a million years, and your fear that Helix won't do the same after a firmware update. Now we've morphed into a debate about companies releasing unfinished products. And I hesitate to even mention how ridiculous it is that you would "accept" only minor fixes to a product, while major flaws are left to fester. How is that a better outcome? Never mind...you win. May your joy be at it's zenith with forever static tone.

A better analogy, yes. But then again, I thought the Casio keyboard I had in middle school (circa 1987?) was awesome...but was it? I'd likely laugh at it today...even if it functioned exactly as advertised. We change. Unless it's actually broken, the gear generally doesn't.

What you perceive as a lack of consistency is exactly that...perception. How something sounds is entirely about perception...Assuming no serious and glaring device malfunction, 98% of your tone happens between your ears. It's about as organic a process as there is, and therfore is largely subjective, not to mention being affected by a set of external variables of Biblical length. What sounds good to me, might be nails on a chalkboard to you...and what sounds good to me today might seem like a railroad spike going through my head 6 months from now. Dial up a patch that you haven't used in weeks or months, and tell me if you're still as happy with it as you were the last time you used it. Or pull out an old piece of gear that you used to use all the time, but now collects dust. I'll bet that your first reaction is not going to be : "Why did I ever stop using this thing?" Hell, even patches I use day-to-day get little tweaks here and there. Why? Because perception changes. Your Boss pedal might be DOING the same thing it always has, but it doesn't mean that you'll always hear it that way. We're not androids. Just my 2 cents.

Nothing is eternal, and there are no guarantees with anything, period...goes double for anything as subjective and affected by as many variables as one's guitar tone. As far as I'm concerned, you're asking for the impossible. It's no different than any other "real" amp rig. I've yet to meet the player who was so enthralled with the tone of his Marshall head one day, that he glued all the knobs in place so it would last forever.

Lol...fair enough. It was really just to illustrate the point...he is an fx-heavy guitarist. Actually, I like some of the older stuff (but I seriously hope Bono fired his hairdresser after the gig in that clip...), from the days before Bono decided it was possible to save the world from a tour bus.

+1...Now perhaps the OP is the exception to the rule, and if that's the case, my apologies...the world does have its prodigies. But as someone who has been teaching guitar lessons for the last 20+ years, I can say with 100% certainty that half the students with a year or less of playing experience couldn't tell a guitar from a tuba by ear, never mind being able to identify the subtle nuances that distinguish a Strat from a Tele. Too much gear early on is usually a hindrance...if for no other reason than the tendency is to become too dependant on gadgets and fx instead of actually learning to play the thing. I'm reasonably certain that if digital delays didn't exist, there would be no U2, and The Edge would be selling shoes for a living...;)

[quote name="TheRealZap" post="109723" there will not be an official sharing portal for variax tones.... Or go into Workbench and either tweak the models that aren't too your liking, or create your own, just like the rest of us.

That ain't it...whatever the blemish is, it's some minor cosmetic flaw somewhere. I couldn't find the "blemish" on my JTV either. Anyway, as was already said, you just need to have a 1/4" cable plugged in. That's the "on switch" for the guitar when not connected to a power source through the VDI. That said, you're probably better off connecting through the POD anyway. Those USB dongles are iffy at best. I've found the connection through the POD to be far more reliable. I had way too many drop-outs and failed flashes using that goofy looking thing.

Lol...no doubt! For that very reason, I've long advocated something analogous to the crash bars that protect the engine on some motorcycles, but that would still allow you to get your foot in there when you need to. Easier said than done, I suppose. :P

I could be wrong, but I think it's unlikely that a modification like that will be cost effective. I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up spending half the cost of the amp itself. If you really need an FX loop (I think it's borderline criminal that they're not included by default on everything but the tiniest of practice amps), you might wanna consider upgrading to different set-up.

+1...The best gear in the world won't make you a (better) musician. You'll have the same skill set the next morning, just with less money in the bank. SRV's famous "Number One" Strat came from a pawn shop for a couple hundred bucks.

Lesser know Talent Packs were released with the new amp models a few months ago...I returned mine, because when I woke up the next day I still wasn't Yngwie (Saints be praised)... :P

If you haven't already, try different amp models too...sometimes one that you never thought you'd like, might turn out to be your favorite. Happened to me with the Bogner Shiva when models packs were released a few months ago. You never know...

Like I said above, tunings that are dropping all the strings by the same interval are not going to have a crosstalk issue. I use 1/2 down all the time, and have used a whole step down occasionally with no problems. Why? Because even if one string's vibrations are picked up by an adjacent saddle, both notes will be detuned to the same pitch, so there is no dissonance. Such is not the case with the Drop D or Drop Db tunings, however. Problems arise when a given string produces an unaltered note through it's own piezo saddle, as well as through an adjacent saddle that is set to de-tune by a given interval. Drop D only alters the pitch of one string leaving the rest alone, and Drop Db alters 5 strings by a 1/2 step, and the low E by a step and a half. Might not seem significant at first glance, but it is, and this is where the problems start. For simplicity's sake, lets just take Drop D...so you're chugging away on the A string (NOT playing anything on the low E...keeping it muted). Resting your hand on the low E results in the propagation of vibrations from the A string reaching the low E piezo saddle, where it is detuned one whole step. The result? The A string producing tones through it's own piezo, and the low E string's piezo as well, where it's detuned...two tones are produced a whole step apart. Not a pleasant harmony. Proving it is dead simple. Go into Workbench and turn the A string's volume to zero, then select Drop D tuning. Palm mute anything you want on the A string. I bet you $100 that you'll hear those notes coming through (albeit at a lower volume, but still clearly audible), unless you're able to completely avoid touching the low E in the process...this is easier said than done. Damn near impossible actually. If the A's piezo output is set at zero, yet you're hearing (detuned) notes produced by that string, then where is it coming from? There's no other explanation than the low E saddle "hears" the A string with palm-muting. Your hand is the conduit...it creates a physical connection between the two strings, and piezos being the rather sensitive devices that they are, grabs enough vibrations to generate a signal. I can reproduce it at will, and have done it with more than one JTV. Granted, it's a specific set of circumstances...but one that happens to make certain tunes unplayable. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

8 is all you get with the on-board FX. I suppose you could use the FX loop and daisy chain a bunch of pedals together that way if you really need access to more, although I'm not sure how that would pan out. Would probably depend on what you stick in there. As for the buttons, it's either 1-8 in stomp box mode, or A-D for patch selection, and then 5-8 for toggling whatever is in your signal chain for a given patch. No need to switch banks to go from clean to dirty.

Unfortunately, a drag-and-drop solution for your difficulties does not exist. We've all been there...well, most of us anyway (though some Tone Masters will deny it). What works for me won't necessarily work for you, as you've already found out from trying a bunch of stuff from Customtone. You're not likely to have any better results by directly soliciting patches that someone else created with their guitar, their rig, etc etc. Too many variables. You just have to poke at everything until you find the right settings that work for you. Maybe the DT just isn't for you, it happens. The one thing I can suggest is to try out the full amp models with mic and cab sims, in Studio Direct mode...there are those who will tell you that this is the "wrong" way to set things up when using the DT amps, but if the tones you are currently getting are not to your liking, then you have nothing to lose. Before I went FRFR, I ran into a Carvin TS100 tube power amp and a Marshall 4x12. Using only pre-amp models with no mic or cab sims did not work for me. I got nothing but buzz-saw harshness, no matter what sound I was looking for. After much frustration and assorted profanity, I tried the full models in studio direct mode. Problem solved. There is no "wrong way". If it sounds good, it is good. Who cares how you get there?

I would argue that nothing is ever going to sound identical 3 years later, or even 3 weeks for that matter. Hell, your perception of how a patch sounds can change from one day to the next, even if no actual parameter changes have been made...tone is all preception, really. It's an evolving thing...what sounds good today might make you cringe tomorrow...for any one of a thousand reasons. Good mood, bad mood, new strings, old strings, don't have my chops today, the bass player is too loud, keyboard player thinks he has 20 fingers ;)...etc, etc.

I think there are a lot of factors that will determine how much of a problem crosstalk will be. Amount of gain, playing technique, and the individual tune in question top the list. 1) That is certainly possible. But I stumbled on a used JTV in a store recently, and was able to produce the same problem in seconds. I have no reason to expect that it would be different with another one. 2) What you're describing here is not quite the problem I experience, but it's a similar scenario, and would produce the same mud. Mine is related almost exclusively to palm-muting anything on the A string. Admittedly, this doesn't come up all the time...some songs I can make it work. 3) There's nothing outrageous technique-wise, but it's almost impossible to palm-mute anything without resting on the low E. Everybody in my band is a somewhat loony King's X fan...we'll often mess around with a bunch of their tunes when we're avoiding learning new stuff for our set list, lol. Lots of drop D and drop Db, and there are a lot of palm-muted pedal tones on the A string in the rhythm parts. Totally unusable for this kind of stuff...but like I said, sometimes I can make it work. Just depends on the tune.

I have the 69, so they're definitely not immune. It wouldn't surprise me if some individual instruments are better than others...lots of things contribute to how a guitar resonates. The various JTV bridge designs may be more or less prone to it as well. I couldn't say, as I've only had the one 69. The amount of gain is definitely a factor also, as is your playing style. The more gain the worse it gets...the guys who swear that they don't have this issue I suspect don't play with much gain. I can use the drop D tuning with a clean tone, no palm-muted chugging, and arpeggiate chords all day long without hearing anything funky. For the heavy stuff, if you can manage to avoid the low E string, the dissonance will go away. Trouble is that's easier said than done, at least for me. Bear in mind, this is only going to occur with alt. tunings that are altering some strings and leaving others alone, or in some open tunings where different strings are being altered by different intervals. I use the 1/2 step down tuning all the time with no problems...as long as each string is being de-tuned by the same interval, any mechanical coupling that's going on won't matter because even if one string's vibrations are reaching more than piezo saddle, they're both being changed to the same pitch, so it's a non-issue. I find that the Eb tuning tracks quite well, and I use it a lot, even live...if I were constantly getting simultaneous pitches a 1/2 step apart, I think the guys in the band would have said something by now. There's no way that kind of dissonance would go unnoticed. Anyway, the point is that some of the alt. tunings are pretty good...others not so much. There are a bunch of factors, and the problems really aren't "bugs" or "defects"...just the inevitable consequence of piezo pickups. When somebody designs a pickup that can isolate each string, but doesn't rely on physical contact with the pickup, then the alt. tunings should be as close to flawless as anything ever gets. Is it possible? Who knows...

Lol...I totally agree, but from a marketing perspective, they are just following a proven model. It simply depends on your target audience. If you're after the guy who thinks that going to a restaurant without valet parking is "uncivilized", then the whole "invitation" thing makes perfect sense. There are legions of people out there who define themselves by the things they own. They get off on the exclusivity, and for the most part, they've got money. Sending them an invitation to purchase the product that you're hawking at 3800% above the manufacturing cost makes them feel "special".

Well that's just it...the drop D problem is not a "bug". Nobody screwed anything up. It's physics. Until a pickup is designed that is capable of completely isolating each string AND most importantly does NOT rely on physical contact with a vibrating string, the problem of crosstalk will persist. Whether or not that's possible is anybody's guess...I have no idea.

I'd love it if everything I own functioned better. Am I happy with my JTV? Yes. Is it perfect? No. But show me something that is. The alt.tunings have limitations, and the issue is mechanical. Crosstalk is the inevitable consequence of how piezo pickups function. There will always be issues with any tuning that alters the pitch of some strings but not others, or those that alter different strings by different intervals (ie the various "drop D" and open tunings). Those that are altering all the strings by the same interval (1/2 step down) will suffer fewer if any problems, as any mechanical coupling that results in one string's vibrations being picked up by an adjacent saddle(s) will be de-tuned by the same interval both times, so no harm no foul. I use the 1/2 step down tuning frequently (including live) with no problems, but the drop D tunings I find basically unusable. But it's not a "defect"...just a limitation of the technology. Can't blame L6 for the laws of physics. Might improve one day, might not...we'll see. Till then, I have other guitars when I need drop D. Other instances of "Ghost notes" (other than the drop tunings mentioned above)...you got me. The only time I've heard dissonance with the 1/2 step down tuning, it has been due to hearing the guitar acoustically. I suspect this is probably the cause 99% of the time, yet it seems difficult to convince some that this is what's happening. Hearing the raw guitar is lot easier than you think. When not at rehearsal or a gig, I play seated in the "classical" position...neck is not far from my ears. Even in a less exaggerated seated position your head still isn't far away. Unless you're cranked to stage volume (or sufficiently deaf ;) ) you WILL hear those strings. You'll hear them on other guitars too, but since the notes coming from the amp are not being altered, there's no dissonance, and it's easier to ignore anything you're hearing acoustically. Headphones and/or sufficient volume solve the problem. As for the necks, that's largely a personal preference issue. I loathed the stock neck on the 69,but not because there was anything "wrong" with it...other than the fact that it's built for tiny hands. Easily remedied, and the result is a better instrument. So overall, I quite like my JTV. It does things that no other axe I own can do. Like all fancy gadgets heavily dependent on electronic wizardry, some things leave a bit to be desired. Over time, I suspect they'll get better.