cruisinon2

No offense intended...it's the Hipsters driving the "faux-vintage is trendy" movement...champions of the "if you like something that's un-cool, it is thereby anointed with 'coolness' " philosophy, lol. Very odd... I grew up with CDs and cassettes...still have mountains of both, although I can't remember the last time I reached for one. And somewhere I've got a handful of vinyl, maybe a dozen or so...I distinctly remember having Men At Work's "Business As Usual" on the turntable when I was a kid, lol. All I meant was that as a whole, each generation tends to regard their stuff, and their time as the "best". Human nature...stick with the devil you know. Except for the Hipsters, who seem to be interested in co-opting someone else's "devil"...weird times we're living. ;)

Nor would I want a Model T Ford...as for the recent vinyl "resurgence", most who are caught up in it are doing it because it's "cute". Conversation fodder for a Hipster cocktail party. Nobody is going back. At least not in any numbers that would matter to those who peddle MP3s at $0.99/each. Yeah, companies like Macintosh and Krell will survive on the spending habits of rich folks who think nothing of spending six-figure sums on a home stereo. But Apple and Amazon are getting rich off an entirely different demographic. Every generations laments the things from their youth that get lost to time, or replaced with something faster, cheaper, and more convenient, etc. As for "better"...what's better? Yesterday's poison is today's superfood. I leave it to the philosophers...

It's interesting...but I'll pass. At the end of the day, it's just another electronic doo-dad that can fail at the least oportune moment. I've got enough DSP going on as it is...and most stuff that promises "perfect" x, y, or z, turns out to be somewhat less than perfect. A properly set-up and intonated guitar won't have tuning issues, assuming that the strings aren't old enough to vote...

The same thing that everybody thought was wonderful about the original GameBoy...there wasn't anything else to buy that could do the same thing. "Good" due to lack of competition, lol. First generation anything is "impressive"...fast forward 20+ years, and it's "quaint".

Yep...they're all gonna do it. I'm no "expert", and I might not be able to devise a solution to every problem, but I can troubleshoot with the best of 'em. Once you really look at it, it's super easy to see what's causing this. Fixing it, on the other hand is easier said than done. Contorting my picking hand isn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but for the most part I can work around it, and nothing terrible happens. I went back and forth too...return it, keep it. Concluded that I would likely encounter the exact same thing with a different axe. Some of the "magic" that these guitars are supposed to be able to pull off just ain't quite there yet. But it does a lot of things really well. If I have to pick up another axe for drop D stuff...so be it. It's still a solid guitar, dead silent when I'm not touching the strings, and capable of more tones than the other 6 guitars I have sitting here, combined. I can live with that.

I wouldn't have expected changing the strings to make any difference...unfortunately, you can play the "maybe it's this" game all day, and get nowhere. Been there done that. Unless you can keep the E saddle from "hearing" the A string, the problem will persist. If it's gonna drive you nuts, and Sweetwater wants to be accomodating, then get another one. But I really think that most, if not all of them will do this, unless you lean towards cleaner tones and don't palm-mute much. Then you might get away with it. Unless you really played in drop D with that first JTV for a while, you may have missed it...I know you didn't have it very long.

On a long enough timeline, everything breaks. If I were to sit around worrying about what's gonna $%&! the bed next, I'd never get anything done. Every guitar I've ever had has eventually had some electronic issue...dead toggle switches and input jacks, crackling volume pots that no amount of cleaning will fix, etc.etc. Play it till it dies. Fix and/or replace. Repeat.

I shouldn't have to do it either, and I wish I didn't. I'd love a solution too...but that doesn't mean that a viable one exists. Sometimes thats just how the universe works. I fully understand your problem...it's exactly the same as mine. 2 notes simultaneously... "A" and a de-tuned "G" from the A string ringing through the low E saddle (or whatever fretted note you might be playing on the A string, and it's whole step down, detuned counterpart). If you can manage to figure out how to stop your hand from conducting vibrations into an adjacent string and saddle, then by all means let the me know...because that's what's going on. No palm-muting, no problem...open, unmuted A string will ring all day long with no extra notes coming through other piezos...it's all about what other strings you're touching. What is L6 supposed to do about that? Other than less sensitive piezos (probably much less sensitive ones would be necessary...which would do God-knows-what to the modeling) what other solution could there be? I want a nice, tidy solution too...but I'm not holding my breath. All the other stuff on the guitar that everyone likes to dampen, I suspect contributes very little (if anything at all) to this problem. I tried all that too...behind the nut, trem springs, behind the saddles themselves, etc, etc. Never thought any of those were the primary concern, but I gave it the old college try anyway...didn't help. I'm not convinced that a fix is coming from L6 anytime soon either...not sure there's anything to be done. Flawless alternate tunings may arrive one day...and I'll rejoice with everybody else. But it's gonna take another tech leap to get there.

The whole point I was trying to make is that I perosnally don't think that it is fixable. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know, and I have no other JTVs with which to compare mine...but based on all the troubleshooting I've done, ruling out one thing at a time, it does not seem like there is anything to "fix". When I say the problem is mechanical, that doesn't mean that some physical piece of hardware is broken. The problem is stopping vibrations from reaching other piezo saddles, which are transferred via your hand laying across other strings...thats where most, if not all of the problem lies. IMHO, this is nearly impossible to do, other than adjusting one's technique to compensate. A perfect solution? Certainly not...but until the technology improves, this is what we've got. Its also entirely possible that the issue may be worse on some guitars, as other variables may contribute to the problem. No two guitars ever resonate the same. It will also very likely vary with one's playing technique...thats why a universal, one size fits all "fix" probably doesn't exist. Either accept it as a limitation of the technology and be satisfied with all the other things that these guitars do very well, or keep swapping instruments endlessly until...maybe...you find one that doesn't have this problem. I don't have the time or the energy for that. YMMV...

Why gamble with creating a problem that doesn't exist? Its a lot easier to level the models to the mags in Workbench.

It ain't a software issue. Its mechanical.

I know exactly what you're describing. I've lived it. And I can reproduce it at will if I want. Try what I suggested and see if it helps. You may not want to continue that way, but at least you'll have a diagnosis instead of just a guess as to whats going on.

Lol...figures. Thanks.

I suspect that there's nothing you can do about this. You're gonna find piezo crosstalk on all of them. Mine does it with any of the drop D tunings too. High gain makes it worse, and is barely noticeable with clean tones and no palm muting. Any of the alt tunings where some strings are having their pitch altered, and others remain the same are all gonna have this problem. The only scenario where it won't matter is if all the strings are being altered by the same interval...then bleed-through doesn't matter, as the same amount of de-tuning is being applied to everything, no matter which piezo is "hearing" the original note(s). I use 1/2 step down quite a lot, with no strange anomalies. When I do use ths drop D tuning and I'm palm muting notes on the A string, I have to fiddle with my playing technique a bit so I'm not hardly touching the E string at all. That will likely eliminate most of your problem...believe it or not, if your hand is resting on both E and A strings, some of the A strings' vibrations that the low E piezo is picking up are coming through your hand. To prove it to yourself, angle your picking hand so its not resting on the low E string, play some palm-muted stuff on the A string, and I'll bet you $20 that the bleed through disappears. Tricky, but it can be done. Took me a while to convince myself that this is what was happening, but I cant argue with the results. If you need more proof, go into Workbench and turn the A string piezo all the way down to zero. Then play some palm-muted notes on that A string with you palm resting across the low E string. You're gonna hear that A string coming through, despite it essentially being turned "off". Then do the same without resting on the E string, and you'll hear nothing. Did a whole thread on this a while back...its in here somewhere. Some vibrations may or may not be transmitted from an adjacent saddle, or through the bridge as well...hard to say. Theres a lot going on at once... Until somebody figures out a way to better isolate the piezos from picking up vibrations from other strings, this is gonna be a problem. I'm not sure it CAN be fixed, and I suspect that some of it boils down to playing technique, as I have been able to work around it. We don't all approach hand positioning the same way. As such, this is likely to affect some of us more than others. Point is, I dont think there's anything "wrong" with your guitar. Some DSP manipulation just isn't ready for prime-time, and won't be able to be applied successfully across different tones and playing styles. Its simply a limitation of the technology...and its also why I didnt return mine at the beginning. I had no intention of getting on the return/replace merry-go-round multiple times. I'll bet money that anybody who claims their guitar doesn't do this, probably doesn't play with a lot of gain, or doesn't do any palm-muted chugging with their style of playing. I can play in drop D with a crystal clean tone all day long and not hear anything weird. You can keep swapping guitars until Doomsday and not find one that does everything perfectly, because perfection ain't here yet.

Cool thanks...hopefully it won't be necessary, but I'm prepared to give it a shot if need be. I've managed to successfully replace fried motorcycle clutch plates (and I'm no mechanic), so I figure I can probably accomplish this if I had to...just a little easier with a map. Thanks again.

BUMP Anybody know what the order process is?

1) L2T 2) mono 3) I wanted the flexibility of the various modes (specifically the acoustic guitar mode). I play in an acoustic duo occasionally, and it's small and works nicely for that. For full band gigs I intend to use it mostly as a monitor and run the POD out to FOH. The onboard accelerometer knows when it's sitting on its side an can compensate for low-end coupling when it's sitting on the floor. BUT...there are still L2T's out there with the older fan assembly that rattles at higher volumes. I've had mine repaired once already, and it still had the problem. It's currently back at L6, being repaired a second time. I'm hoping that this will take care of it, as I absolutely love how this thing sounds...except when I get loud. It's an obnoxious rattle... However, there are plenty out there that have not suffered from this problem, so as long as you don't get a lemon, you will likely be thrilled at how it sounds.

I'm an apartment dweller, so aside from gigs and rehearsals, almost all of my playing is with headphones...never had a grounding issue.

Yeah, I've seen those...shop near me has had a couple of them. Played one briefly...Not great, not awful as far as the guitar itself. Didn't really play around with it enough to determine whether or not the electronics are susceptible to any of the digital oddities that the Variax alt tunings can have.

I'm curious how the tech opened it up to get to the spot that you're describing. Already had the fan replaced once, and the rattle was still there. Not quite as loud, but definitely not gone. It's currently on it's way back to L6 for Repair 2.0 (first time being done at an "authorized service center"). I shall reserve judgement until I get it back...but if it's still a problem, I might consider trying what you described myself, as I'm currently underwhelmed with the official "fix".

Not even close...Variax needs to be in tune, with spot-on intonation for the alt tuning algorithms to work (and even then, they're not perfect). Otherwise, it can be quite the mess...

I'm sure it's in the pipeline...we've already got auto-tune for pop-stars who can't actually sing, and "bands" who mime most, if not all their "performance" to pre-recorded tracks. Why wouldn't there eventually be software that will fix all your duffed notes and sloppy playing? Somebody will develop an algorithm that guesses what notes should have been in the lick you tried to play...similar to the predictive text on your phone. 3 cheers for the "future of music", lol. :P

If you never intend to use the amp or cab models in the POD, then you could just run straight into the Blackstar, then place the POD in the amp's FX loop, and skip the 4CM. That's really only useful if you want the ability to switch back and forth between using the POD's amp models, vs. having the Blackstar's pre-amp in the POD's signal chain. Maybe that will get you the sound you're looking for.

Always was, and always shall be 100% subjective. I can't stand anything with a shorter scale...feels like trying to stuff myself into shoes that are 2 sizes too small. But that's just me.