cruisinon2

All drummers are deaf...I consider it one of their best assets. :D

Yup. There is no free lunch.

That's an upcharge of $75...$85 if you want it spelled correctly. :P

I don't doubt it. I'm now running FRFR with an L2T, but for the better part of a year I was running into a Carving TS100 power amp, and Marshall 4x12. I kept the POD'S output on studio/direct for everything...mic and cab sims and all. I tried using pre-amp only models with the "correct" output mode for my rig, and was greeted with chainsaw-esque tones that I found unworkable, no matter how much tweaking I did. So I stuck with what worked. Required little more than dialing back the low end a bit.

You ever hear a 4th grade orchestra play? It'll make your hair fall out... ;)

The pedal will alter the tone of the amp, but it's not a channel switcher. In other words, you can add gain/distortion via the pedal to a clean amp tone, but if the amp is set to a super-saturated high gain tone, the pedal can't turn that off because it's not generating it in the first place.

I would only add that if your combos don't have fx loops and you're stuck going straight into the front of the amp, then you should probably set the amp's tone controls at 12 o'clock, and then experiment with the POD's various output modes to see what works best for you. It will be a trickier to get the sound you're looking for that way, as the amps tone stacks will change how your patches sound, but it's not impossible.

The Guitar Squeegee...also convenient for cleaning the grime from the fretboard. :P

It is narrower than your Strat...it's narrower than just about anything else you'll find in production today. Not saying that's good or bad...it just is. When I hear "classical", I think Andrés Segovia, and the like...those necks tend to be super-wide with flat as a pancake radius. If that's what you're used to, I'm surprised you can navigate the 69 at all...but this is all relative anyway. To me the 69's neck is like a baseball bat. Took me all of 2 months to replace it, but as always, your mileage may vary.

So you think they knew slippage was gonna be a problem, and just hoped nobody would notice? It's was a bad design, plain and simple. The slippage is from a neck that's too narrow at the nut and string spacing that was not sufficiently adjusted to compensate, and/or poorly dressed frets. If they left enough room at the edges, the remaining strings would be forced even closer together than they are, making open position chords even more of a nightmare, except for the smallest of hands. As for the motivation behind the design, that's anybody's guess...but someone would have to have been out of their mind to base it on either of the assumptions you suggest. Why would anyone assume that a Strat fan would only want a narrow nut? Where is that written? And what playing style would one have to have for it not to be a problem? Buddy Holly, Clapton, Eric Johnson, Ritchie Blackmore, and Yngwie all played Strats...more styles than you can shake a stick at. Strats make regular appearances in just about every genre that exists. Were they hoping that the one guy on earth who never, ever does any pull-offs on the high E string would buy all the 69's?

Don't recall hearing any complaints about the 59 as far as slippage is concerned. But any glaring neck issues, you're stuck with...

I'd keep those amps if I were you...or sell them privately if you want, you'll do better on price. You can get a pretty damn convincing sounds out of just about any FRFR speaker(s). And it won't cost you your first-born, plus cash to do it. There are more modestly priced options out there that will sound quite good.

The Beam seems to be Blackstar's version of the Amplifi, albeit more limited in what it can do. The Fly 3 is a tiny little mini amp...and from it's description, seems to have limited use. In fact, I don't see why it exists at all...but that's just me. Either way, neither of these amps are likely to give you anything that approaches decent results, as niether of them have an FX loop, which means that you'll be running the POD into another pre-amp (and with the Beam, a whole bunch of onboard fx), which is going to seriously alter the way your patches sound. Both of those amps are intended to be stand alone units, near as I can tell. The POD really needs a bigger amp...something more suited to live use, whether it's a larger combo, or a power amp + cabinet rig, etc.

Probably found another pallet of boxes in a corner...

That's not entirely true, unless you've already used up all 8 FX blocks for a given patch. Otherwise, you could easily have two different delays in the chain, and assign them both to the same footswitch. Save the patch with one delay turned on and the other off...then when you hit the assigned footswitch, it will toggle between them.

I have found over the years that you tend not to need as much gain as you think...old habits die hard, though. The end result is all that matters...if it sounds good to you, then it is good. Doesn't much matter how you get there.

You know I was just goofin', right? ;)

THWACK! The proverbial gauntlet has been thrown down once again....if ANY of us spent as much time playing as we do debating this crap, we'd all be on the cover of guitar magazines. It really is kinda pathetic, lol...and we're all guilty. :P

They will answer the phone...got an actual human several times during my L2T repair saga.

Ya never know til you ask...got nothing to lose.

I surrender...If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I've seen the light! Pay heed, my 6-string comrades, for there are but a tiny handful of humans capable of tackling the awesome technological behemoth that is the Variax...the most unfathomable device created since the Manhattan Project. Listen not to tales of replaced piezos, saddles swapped for ones from Graphtech, or entire transplants into Lesser Instruments....for these are but the deceptive and empty works of The Desolate One, meant to lead us astray. For the righteous, all roads lead to an "authorized service center" and the wisdom that lay therein, and only therein. Follow other paths at risk to your mortal soul...or an input jack, whichever is cheaper. Play on...(cue Twilight Zone theme)

What was that you were saying about having the wind taken out of your sails? Nice of him to provide a fresh gust, lol. It's a hot wind, though. ;)

I would have thought it would be less of a problem on the 89f...after clipping off the ball end, there's less string to vibrate back there. Who knows? These guitars are weird.

And it did indeed elicit a better reaction, didn't it? What more proof does anyone need? Gazza...good luck in your tone quest. Guitar players are mostly loony, OCD types. The next piece of gear is always just around the corner.... "But that will be the last thing I need...honest, honey!"...I don't think my wife believes that anymore... ;)

That wouldn't be nearly as satisfying though. Taking the moral high ground is a wonderful way of patting yourself on the back without actually having to do anything. Just ask a politician...