Serafimbob

Yes, let me respectfully say that I myself only tried 2 Korean-made JTV-69's, both in the same store and the only Tyler Variaxes in stock in my area. Both guitars had electronic problems and I didn't keep either one.. But I can honestly STILL say without reservation that the second JTV-69 played like butter, had an awesome fingerboard and trem system, and would ring like a bell when chords were played on it acoustically. But I also remember how many JTV owners on this forum seemed to say they own 2 JTV's in case one breaks down.

Well, life goes on. I'm getting to know this 19-year old F_____ Eric Clapton Strat I brought home in exchange for my ailing JTV-69, and am much more confident in this Clapton Strat's durability despite its age. I kinda hate to say this on a Line6 Variax community forum, and this may well be my last post here. But when I'm convinced of a guitar's quality and dependability, i'll stand up for it all day long. My second JTV had awesome action and acoustic response. The electronics, though.... :-(

Tomygun -- I took my second JTV-69 back to the store a couple days ago. Took it to the tech and asked his opinion on dead neck pickup. He pulled the pickguard loose and tested heck out of that pickup and its connections. Finally said, "The pickup itself seems defective. And that means you'll have to return it to the factory, since I'm not licensed by Line6 to do this kind of repair." I was REALLY bummed. A cold solder joint, a pickup selector switch in need of some contact cleaner, these would've been no problem. Even though I'd thought it would be no problem returning this guitar to Line6 and waiting for it to come back from factory....I looked around the store and found a Fender Artist model, for a bit more than the JTV was. They allowed me to exchange guitars. So I can't answer your question about how long it takes to do an instrument return to Line6. Sorry about that.

Well, for what it's worth, here's my experience with the JTV-69 Strat-style model: I'm currently on my second one. The first developed a problem in the modelling electronics and I went back to the store and exchanged it. BOTH guitars have played great and sounded great acoustically. And the heel joint is something you seldom see on Strat style axes. On my second JTV-69, I've had the passive neck pickup crap out but I think it may only take some contact cleaner to fix this. I love this guitar, the sound, the passive pickups, the tremolo, and the modelled sounds. If my favorite tech can't easily fix the dead-pickup glitch, I'll probably return the guitar to Line6 for warranty repair.

This is fascinating. The stock strings on my JTV-69 are way dead so think I'm gonna try a set of those Fender all-nickel 10's.

Awesome. Thank you, Stevekc.

Fellow JTV-69 owners: Sounds like a few of you have previously disassembled your guitar to replace magnetic pickups, do repairs, etc. Has anybody got color pix of the insides of this guitar (what's under the pickguard) you'd be willing to post?! Thanks much! Robert

Pierre, I tried this exact same thing with a Gretsch G6120 model. Results: It does sound somewhat like a bass on the lower strings, especially the low E and A. When playing chords, the normal top end response of that Gretsch model is way muted -- great for playing traditional jazz. OK, you can get a similar sound on the Telecaster Thinline (neck pickup) model. I've had the flu and haven't had the energy to try my octave-down Gretsch model thru my amp with the bass control boosted and treble rolled off. But one other thing if you weren't aware of it -- a traditional hollowbody guitar with a humbucker at the neck will produce some pretty deep lows, especially thru a bass amp.

Guys, I would absolutely LOVE to have a schematic diagram (or 2 or 3) of the JTV. Or even a picture of what's underneath the pickguard! It's obviously a heck of a complicated piece of musical technology, and these forums kinda give me the idea how prone these guitars are to technical glitches. My wife wants me to return my Variax to the factory for a complete going-over. ("Stop bitchin' about it, just send it back to the people that made it so it'll be 100%").

I only get the Middle Pickup (magnetic one) in the Neck/Middle position. The neck pickup is 100% silent -- no noise, hum, nothing. But with the Model Selector knob activated, ALL those position 5 voices work. Don't have any contact cleaner to spray into the blade switch right now. Was planning to take the axe to trusted guitar tech at Guitar Center for a setup anyway. Just not sure how willing he is to pull the guitar pick assembly off this guitar to check for cold solder joints.

I had a similar technical issue occur on my first JTV-69. All model voicings in Pickup Selector positions 2 and 4 disappeared and would only duplicate the model voicings at positions 1 and 5. Reflashing the guitar with Workbench didn't help at all. Line6 Tech Support told me the guitar was defective and advised sending it to a service facility or to the factory. I'd only had that guitar for 18 days so took it back to the store and they exchanged it. Now the SECOND Variax has a dead magnetic neck pickup. Ggggrrrr! Everything worked fine until yesterday morning. Am wondering whether to return this guitar, get my money back, and buy a "normal" guitar..... :-(

On these RJ-45 cables that plug into the JTV... My new JTV-69 has a metal push tab on the VDI jack. Line6 Customer Support said this metal push tab is meant to release the VDI cable from the VDI jack. But so far I find I have to push the metal tab in AND fiddle with the plastic release tab on the VDI plug to get the VDI cable disconnected. Have any of you had this experience?? Thanks much. Robert

I would welcome a nylon-string model on my JTV-69 if it sounded relatively decent!