artdib2

Rocco I was able to load your bundle and it helps to minimize plink. Plink is still there but there's an improvement. To completely eliminate plink I have resorted to using an elixir.052 for the low E, but I hate the feel of a 52 and it sucks to have to break up a set of elixir strings. Big thanks to Rocco for sharing the bundle. You're the best brother!

I ripped all the modeling stuff out of my JTV59. It's a really nice guitar and deserves better than to be plagued by all the problems with Low E string plink for the modeling. When I removed the Piezo bridge, I noticed that the piezo saddles looked almost exactly like a crown for a tooth. I had a bad crown and decided to use the piezo saddle that I removed from my JTV59 in place of my worn out and cracked crown. The new crown is working GREAT!!! I am able to chew steak and it's even strong enough to open a beer bottle with. One problem though... every time I try to sing, I have this annoying plink sound coming out of my mouth. What do I do now?

Crickets chirping here... Very interested in finding out if MiroslavKloud had any further communication from Line6 as to why the replacement JTV59 they brought to him had the Plink problem similar to the one he shipped to them for service. Also what's the latest on finding a solution? Buehler? ...Buehler? Anyone home?

MiroslavKloud: That can not be the end of the story. The suspense is killing me. When Mr. M. from Yamaha realized that the guitar he brought to you had the same defect, what was his reaction? Did you try the guitar with multiple amps or make any other changes in an attempt to rectify the problem? Did he take both guitars back with him to have them repaired? Did he offer any other remedy? Details please.

snhirsch: Yes, I've dropped my E to a D for the demo. That's the way my guitar is tuned for about 1/4 of the material I play. You're right about the .052 Elixir. Plink is diminished greatly with the coated 52. Using the .052 coated string feels foreign to me though. It also makes it more difficult to get wide-vibrato pinch harmonics on the low E. I'm a big Zakk Wylde fan and "borrow" a lot of his technique and incorporate that into my playing. The .052 makes this guitar wholly unsuitable for that stuff. Really a drag. Thankfully, the JTV59 is a way cool axe even without the modeling, so when I really want to play in that Zakk style, the .052 comes off and I don't even bother with the modeling. I'm sure everyone will agree that there's not much point in having a modeling guitar if you rarely use the modeling though.

As promised, here are links to 2 videos on YouTube demonstrating plink. In one video I use a .052 Elixir Polyweb, which reduces plink substantially. The other video is using a .046 Ernie Ball Slinky and demonstrates the intolerable increase in plink. https://youtu.be/MjFzz8C6MXQ (Using .052 Elixir Polyweb) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDGgW_QfHZ0 (Using E.B. .046)

I can make a recording of the PLINK sound on my JTV59 as per Line6Tony's request. I think it's odd that customers should need to do this though. Don't retailers ship defective Variax with PLINK issues back to Line6 when customers return them with this problem? I guess they just knock the price down and try to resell it. You would think Line6 would want to autopsy these defective guitars and work hard on finding the root cause and then making sure quality control and testing is done to prevent any guitars from leaving the factory with this issue. Is any testing being done at the factory? It's really simple to weed out the bad ones. Plug that SOB into a highly overdriven amp and do some Djent style palm muting on the low E. Anyone with a halfway decent ear and minimal skill will be able to hear the Plink. If it Plinks, then don't let it leave the factory floor until it's fixed. Reputation is everything. I'll submit my recording soon.

Dartveiga: To say that the root cause of problem is the piezo's is not necessarily correct. You piezo's are very likely working as designed. Replacing the piezo for your low E string is not likely to solve the issue you are having. Changing the piezo might help, but there are many other, less invasive things you should probably try first. Check for improvement after trying each of these suggestions: -Raise the bridge on the low E side by about 1/2 rotation on the screw. (even very slight fret buzz can cause a PLINK sound from the piezo) -Try a heavier or lighter gauge string for your Low E. (I used a .052 Elixer Polyweb on my JTV-59 and that reduced the PLINK sound dramatically. I believe that the Polyweb coating on Elixer's also carry less harmonic overtones to the piezo's and deliver a cleaner fundamental note to the piezo's. Yes, it's a compromise for sure.) -Check neck relief. If you're neck has no relief at all and is very straight, you may have some string rattle or buzz which may be causing PLINK sound. If you've never adjusted a neck before, check out some instructions on the web and practice on a cheaper guitar first. -Adjust the string volume of the E, A, and D strings downward. I typically lower the volume on my Low E string to 85%, the A to 75% and the D to 75%. This also helped minimize PLINK sounds coming from my Low E when I was palm muting the Low E using heavy overdrive. I also recommend that you do an experiment in workbench. Turn your Low E strings' volume to zero in workbench. Now palm mute your E string and also pick it open. You'll notice that some or all of your other Piezo's can still translate vibration from (or "hear") your Low E string. This just shows how incredibly sensitive Piezo's are. As you may imagine, string buzz or vibration from any loose hardware is also heard by the piezos. The better skill you have at setting up your guitar to eliminate string buzz and provide the piezo's with the clearest, purist, fundamental note, the less likely you will be to have the PLINK sound. These suggestions don't work for everyone, but it is a good starting point, especially considering that Line6 service providers are more challenging to find or travel to in Brazil. You have come to the right place Dartveiga, the Line 6 community of users are a great resource to find tips, tricks and tweaks to get the most out of your Line 6 gear. I really hope this helps you.

I'm surprised GC is offering such generous trade terms. It's a fair deal so long as you play the JTV's and make sure they are AOK first. There is a topic on this site called, "Do You Have the Same problem with 6th String?" I wish I could figure out how to provide you with a link to that, but you can find it in a search. Some JTV's have this problem with the heavy E string (and sometimes E & A) where a PLINK sound is very audible when palm muting using moderate to heavy overdrive along with the modeled guitars. Do yourself a BIG favor and read at least the last few pages in that topic. You want to be 100% sure that problem doesn't exist on the JTV your considering. Many of us found a way to reduce or eliminate the PLINK sound, but some can't fix the problem even after warranty repairs. JTV's are really nice if you get a good one. Happy Hunting.

If you look at my post #498, you'll see I was going to experiment with different strings and gauges. I'm reporting back now that the only string that minimized Low E string PLINK (while palm muting with loads of overdrive) was the Elixir .052 Polyweb. YMMV. There are infinite variables in play. I should note that boosting any pickup above 0db in Workbench is a disaster for my setup. I struggle to balance out single coil models with the rest. I lowered the mags a bit and that helps both with balancing volume with the models and mitigating string pull. I also lowered the humbucker pickup volume levels for the louder models a bit below 0db in workbench. I turned down my low E to Zero to see how the Low E bleeds into the other piezo's and that was an eye opener. I adjusted string to string volume balance to compensate for that in some models with good results. If not for the tweaking I did within WB, the models would be useless to me as they were from the factory. I have tried string damping and many, many other suggestions. The best suggestions which worked for me are related to making sure my setup was very close to perfect for my style of playing. (I'm heavy handed with both my right and left hands) Getting the cleanest, purist, fundamental note delivered to the Piezo's is critical. If there's anything about the guitar's setup which causes buzzing, rattling, pinging or any extraneous vibration, then models and alt tuning will suffer greatly. Proper setup is no small feat for a beginner. I have some experience setting up various guitars and have done it part-time in shops to supplement my income, so I have the benefit of having learned from some very experienced luthiers over the years. I set up the guitar conservatively and avoided action that was too low or a neck which was too straight to avoid string to fret buzz and chatter. If I was only concerned with the performance of the magnetic pickups I could easily have gone for lower action or spent less time on de-burring nut slots or tightening and/or dampening every single piece of hardware. The guitar is still not performing perfectly for all models, but I have improved it as much as my patience can tolerate at this point, and my results have been pretty satisfying. I will replace these frets with stainless steel when the original frets start to wear and I start getting fret/string buzz due to groves wearing under the strings in my favorite positions. I don't want to waste time with an LCP (level, crown & polish). Once the frets wear to that point, stainless frets are going on this neck for sure. This guitar is tricky enough to dial in when the frets are perfect. I prefer not to keep tweaking as frets age and the setup becomes more time consuming to achieve. I highly recommend not trying to adjust intonation with models engaged. I don't even tune the guitar with models engaged. There's just too many harmonic anomalies and superfluous overtones freaking out my electronic tuner when any model is engaged. On a loud stage, there's no point trying to tune by ear. I always mute my outputs and use my rack tuner at shows. This guitar is not for the beginner who can't root out common setup issues and maintain the guitar at a high level. If you want to use the models, you'll need your setup and maintenance to be spot on. I know what it would cost if the guitar had to be brought to the shop to keep in in tip-top condition with heavy use and ever changing climate conditions on the road in the Northeast. I learned how to intonate, setup and maintain a guitar over the years, and it's paying off big-time now. I know some JTV's are nearly perfect out of the box, but that was definitely not the case for me. Thankfully my JTV59 was still far better than many who posted here. I'm glad I didn't swap this guitar out for another JTV59. I see now that I could've done far worse. Any remaining issues I have with extraneous noise causing models to sound strange are minimal and can't be noticed while playing in a full band scenario, but it still is somewhat disappointing when I'm playing the models alone. I've noticed many weird sonic issues which may be impossible to eliminate with the current technology and hardware limitations of Piezo pickups. I appreciate the guitar for all its strong points and I'm amazed at how far this technology has evolved. There's still much improvement to be had. R&D has always been Line 6's strong suit. I hope Yamaha fosters that culture. I will say that the guitar is easily worth the $850 price I paid for it. Even if the models are less than stellar, this guitar sounds and plays great with the magnetic pickups. I also feel the alternate tunings and acoustic models are good enough to fool the vast majority of folks in the audiences I perform for, even if I can detect the minimal weirdness of the models. For those reasons, I will be keeping this until the next technology advance comes around. Thanks to this thread, I have learned much. Without a community of other users sharing their experience, I would not have improved this guitar enough to hold onto it. So BIG thanks to all the contributors here. I hope you all find a way to make this guitar work well for your style of playing and setup. If I come across any other significant improvements via modification or other adjustments, I'll post it here.

Cruisinon2: I use Elixir's on my Blackbird Super OM carbon fiber acoustic. I use the guitar outdoors a lot on the beachfront. Salty air kills ordinary strings in a few days. I also like how Elixir's cut some of the top end from my already too bright carbon fiber acoustic. This is the reason why I thought the coated strings might minimize unwanted treble artifacts or PLINK for my JTV. Do you notice a reduction in PLINK using the Elixir's? (P.S. 500th post now?)

MiroslavKloud: The .052 I put on the Low E was from a set of Elixer, Polyweb acoustic strings I had on hand. Plink is completely gone since putting the 52 on my low E. (You'll see a set of 10 - 52's electric strings below... so they do exist.) My next step is to try several different brands and gauges of both coated and non-coated strings. Here's what I have on order to experiment with: -Clear tone 10 - 46 - I'm going to try these to see if the coated strings work well enough to get rid of plink without using a heavier low E (2 sets $12.99 each) -Elixir Nanoweb Light top Heavy Bottom set- 10, 13, 17, 32, 42, 52. If all else fails, I have an electric set of coated strings with a .052 low E in the set. I already know that an Elixir Polyweb, .052 low E solves the PLINK, but it will take some practice before I feel comfortable with the heavier gauges in this set. Plus this set is Nanoweb NOT Polyweb, so who knows if they'll kill PLINK. (2 sets $10.99 each) -Dunlop Heavy Core NPS 10 - 48 light heavy - These stings also use a proprietary core wire and wrapping system which may resolve plink. (3 sets at $4.50 each) -GHS David Gilmour 10 - 48 Light Heavy - I've always wanted to try these strings, even before getting a JTV-59. I'm hoping the .048 may minimize plink. If not, I'll still use these on my other guitars. (3 sets at $5.19 each) At the heart of the issue with PLINK is the fact that piezo's "hear" better than mags. having the pickup built into the saddle also over-accentuates high frequency content. PLINK gets worse as overdrive is increased. Extraneous vibration which magnetic pickups don't typically reproduce or "hear" is causing the PLINK sound. The PLINK sound being heard/reproduced by the Piezo's might be minimized by coated strings or a more accurate wrap of wound strings or by the ratio of wraps around the strings' core. It's possible that a coating, like that on Elixir's or Cleartone strings, may saturate through the winding and prevent the core wire from causing micro vibrations (perhaps eddy currents is the correct term?) inside the windings... We'll see if this theory is valid. It's worth a try. A side benefit of coated strings is that they'll last longer and mellow out the top end, high frequencies which the models seem to have too much of IMO. I have a love/hate relationship with coated strings and know that they're not for everyone. If they solve PLINK, I'll can live with that. I'll report back once I receive the stings. If these don't work, I'll try other types of strings. Finding the best strings to use to avoid PLINK is a far less complicated and expensive solution than changing the bridge to the Ghost bridge as at least one member of the community has done. We just need to determine which strings will resolve or minimize PLINK. I hope others here will try different strings and gauges and report back. Knowing ahead of time which types of strings minimize or eliminate PLINK would save JTV users the time and expense of experimenting from scratch. Once we have a running list, perhaps that list can be pinned on the home page with the help of a moderator.