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.

Mitigating the problem through narrow-band EQ patch and making that available to users who have this problem seems like a decent work-around until a more comprehensive fix can be arrived at. Loads of good information in this thread. I'll be trying many of the suggestions found here. **UPDATE** I just got home from work and threw an ELIXER POLYWEB .052 on the low E and PLINK IS GONE! ON ALL MODELS... Yes with insane overdrive. (Cleaner tones were never and issue with PLINK for me.) I'm using my Splawn Quickrod in 3rd gear and gain is dimed. I've experimented with extreme EQ and more normal EQ settings on the amp at various volumes all the way to "it hurts, I gotta turn down" volumes. NO PLINK. I'll order up some ELIXER strings in 10 - 46 and try that soon. I'd prefer to be able to get wide vibrato and easier pinch harmonics from a .046 on the low E. Hopefully the ELIXER polyweb coating is the trick and not just the heavier guage .052. Whatever the case may be this is a RADICAL improvement. For reference, I was playing with loads of palm muting on songs like "Slither" by Velvet Revolver and "Perry Mason" by Ozzy/Zack Wylde. (tuned to standard/440 and using the drop D alt tuning mode) Before switching the string to a .052 Elixer Polyweb, I couldn't tolerate the plink sound on these songs and would have to switch to the mag p'ups and drop my E to a D... which totally defeats the purpose of modeling and alt tuning. Now I'm a happy camper and wail on without cringing at the plink! Still nothing beats the mag pickups for palm muting. Mags are still smoother and beefier, but this is a giant improvement. Whatever gripe remains for palm-muting (for me) is likely more a function of Piezo/bridge pickup saddles and the physics which may never be overcome completely at this level of technology and hardware, but I'm very pleased by the current improvement. BIG thanks to the Line6 community and to "Crocco?" who all made great suggestions. I will continue to tinker and report back, as I'm sure many of you will as well. I really hope this helps for other people having this issue. Rock On!

Thanks for the replies Cruisinon2 and Clay-man. I'm still within the return time. I'm hesitant to go the route of replacement. My top on the JTV-59 is bananas and I'd doubt I'd get another as much to my liking. Not to beat a dead horse here, but I'm curious about Cruisinon2's equipment and music style. Reason being, that I don't have the low E plink when I palm mute at moderate gain settings. The problem rears its ugly head when I'm in the metal zone of overdriven tones only. I have a Splawn Quickrod amp, which is essentially a hot-rodded Marshall JCM800 with a lot more gain on tap and slightly scooped sound. (4 EL34's and 4 12AX7's) I usually set everything around noon for EQ and master, but gain dial is often dimed. (at least when plink is present) If I dial the treble and presence way down, then plink is minimized, but EQ is now not to my preference. I have a few other tube amps, but they don't get into high gain territory. I currently have zero modeling amps. The digital gear I do own, does time based effects only. (no digital preamp stuff) I'm going to reach out to a friend that now owns my old POD (2.0 or 3,0 ??) and see if he'll loan it to me for some testing, but that red kidney bean is about 20 years old by now and may not be best thing to test with. I wonder if Cruisinon2 already uses high gain tube amps and has checked for Low E plink with a highly overdriven tube amp. (no pedals... we're talking tube saturation/overdrive and not diode clipping types or digital. Not trying to be a tube snob here, just trying to compare apples to apples.) I see Cruisinon2 has 5 registered Line6 products, so I suppose it's possible that you may have gone head-long into modeling and this might account for the better experience you're having. I also see you have over 2000 posts so I'm hoping you'll see this soon. It wouldn't surprise me if the proprietary nature of the way Line6 designs their gear might account for why a Variax could work/sound/perform in a superior fashion when used with their proprietary amps, FX pedal-boards and connectors. Right now I have one foot in the digital world of 0's and 1's and the other firmly planted in the rich heritage of heavy iron transformers and tube goodness which is 100 year old technology. (Objects in rearview mirror may be less compatible than they appear.) I'd hate to return this guitar just to find out that the problem will remain due to the type of gear I use. Thanks again gents!

I had to buy some small diameter heat shrink online, so it took me a while to try this out. I got some heat shrink that barely encapsulated the low E string and slid it down the length of the string so that the heat shrink would lie directly on the piezo saddle pickup. It yielded a small improvement with no loss of volume, but not a big enough difference to get rid of the plink sound to my satisfaction. This is really annoying me now as I can't palm mute and get a nice tone from the low E. I find it really strange that palm muting is fine on all the other strings. I might go down to a .038 for the low E just to test. Not ideal, but if Billy Gibbons can use 8's or even 7's and still sounds great, then it's worth a try. I'm also finding all the models to lack warmth and depth, but I still use them so I can get to the alternate tunings. I'll tweak some more and report back. I wish like hell this worked. Has anyone else found a solution short of swapping out to the Ghost bridge?

I learned how to do much of the work on my own because I like to challenge myself and maintain my gear personally whenever I can. I'd rather buy a book and some basic tools than continue paying someone else. I know it's not for everyone. If guy just starting out wants some advice on how to get his guitar to play better, I'll try to explain how it's done and let them decide if it's over their head or not. I always suggest working on a cheapo guitar to develop the skills before working on one of the better guitars in the stable. I've buried my head in books and manuals to learn about guitars, amps and related gear. It took years to learn all this stuff, but doing so has saved me a lot of money in the long run. All the mistakes I made along the way were learning experiences. Very rarely do I bring a guitar or amp to get work done anymore. My opinion is that it's never to early to start learning this stuff. When I set up a guitar (to my personal preferences), I know it will play, sound and feel right. Everyone plays better when they're not distracted by a poor setup or playability issues. All that being said, it's probably wise not to bring up fret hammers at such an early stage. Point well taken. Happy New Year

Old strings are a drag and contribute to all sorts of problems. Ask Santa for a 10 pack of 10's. Leave some cookies out for him and perhaps he'll provide you a few, loose .052's for your heavy E string so you can see if a thicker string helps for the Low E buzz. He can find 10 pack boxes of Ernie Ball Slinky's on Musician's Friend for dirt cheap during holiday sales. (Free shipping on both Musiciansfriend.com and Sweetwater.com) If you're anything like me, when I was starting out on guitar, you'll be playing a minimum of 25 hours per week and will blow through strings like flying Reindeer go through hay (or whatever them there critters eat). Change your strings whenever they start feeling cruddy. If you run your finger under the length of the D string and it feels ragged from frets wearing and grinding against them, then it's time to change them. Or if you run your finger under the length of the G string and pick up a mess of black muck (dead skin, dirt, oil and oxidation), then congrats... you just practiced your butt off the last few weeks and need to change your strings again. If you strings aren't dead by the end of two weeks of practice, then make every attempt to practice more. Nothing makes a cheapo guitar sound better than Tons of practice. You may also find that a new set of strings does SO much to improve playability (after breaking them in a few hours) that any remaining buzz or rattle is minimal and you can live with it. Look on YouTube for how to change and break in strings with a stretching routine. The wrap around bend & lock method is also great for electric guitars when changing strings... you'll find your way. Strings stay in tune a lot better if you use the wrap-around, bend & lock method and then stretch the strings a bit when doing a string change. Rock On and Happy FESTIVUS!

Checking for high frets is best done with a tool called "fret rocker" You can buy one at bitterrootguitars.com for $13. It's a very short, stainless steel, 4 sided straight edge which will span 3 frets and reveal the high one. As your frets get closer together as you go up the neck, you use a shorter edge of the fret rocker to span 3 frets at a time. Once you identify high frets, you may need a fret hammer if the fret is not fully seated to knock it back into the slot. If the fret already looks like it's well seated, there are files sold at bitterroot, or stewmac.com or other suppliers that are specially designed to file down frets and leave a nice, rounded crown. Stewmac.com also has nice how to videos. Unless you own a lot of guitars or REALLY have a burning desire to work on them at this level, then it's not worth buying files. (Luthier tools are pricey.) You need to practice these technique on the cheapo guitar you just upgraded from before wrecking your new Fender. The next likely culprit for strings buzzing between the 1st to 7th frets would be a nut slot that has been filed to deep/wide or a nut that is not high enough. Sometimes you can just move up to a heavier gauge string and the buzzing will go away or be reduced to a point you can live with it. If you're using 9's, then try 10's, or try a .048 gauge string (or fatter) for the low E. If you are handy and VERY careful you can look up how to shim a nut online to raise the nut a hair for the low E string. It's not an ideal solution, but for a cheap guitar, it's a quick, DIY solution if the nut is too low and strings are buzzing. White nut slots can be filled and then re-slotted. This sounds crazy, but if you fill the nut slot with a tiny bit of baking soda and then put one drop of crazy glue on it, it will harden like steel. (mask the nut on both sides to avoid spilling onto the guitar) Cutting and filing nut slots is very tricky, precise work though, and requires multiple tools, know-how and lots of practice, so if the nut is the problem, you either live with it, or take it to a luthier to get fixed. Instead of having a new nut fabricated, you can save a few bucks if the luthier is willing to try the crazy glue & baking soda trick. I've had that repair hold up for years and years on a couple of guitars. (Again, practice on the cheapo guitar you just upgraded from) From frets 5 to 7, I doubt the buzz is being caused by lack of neck relief. From fret 8 to 13 or so is where strings will buzz if there's not enough neck relief. Loosening the truss rod one half to one full rotation, and then using a LITTLE pushing and pulling on the neck to help put some bow in the mid section of the neck would work. Fender necks are strong enough to man-handle like this. You can check neck relief without any fancy tools using the capo method. Put a capo on the first fret. A capo is optional really. You might be able to just use your hands, but you need to be able to fret the 1st and 17th frets together and still be able to reach and fret the other frets as indicated. Lay guitar on a table. Fret the 17th fret with one hand and the 1st fret with the other hand (and keep 'em fretted for the WHOLE test). Get your eyes level with the guitar neck. Look at the 8th to 12th frets and gently press down on the low E string with a free finger while eyeballing fret 8, then 9, then 10, and finally 11. You should have a thin guitar picks' worth of space (or slightly less really) between the bottom of the string and the top of the fret. If not, then you need to loosen the truss rod a bit. If the gap is larger than that, then the truss rod needs a bit of tightening. Google "adjusting neck relief for dummies" It lays this procedure out very well. If the guitar you bought was heavily used, then you could have excessive fret-wear. Pull each string to the side and look at each fret. If there is a groove worn down into the fret, directly under where the string lies, then that dent or groove is causing the string to buzz and rattle. A luthier can do a level crown and polish (LCP) for you for about $120 with a complete setup included. If your guitar has this problem and was priced lower than this repair would cost, then you'll have to decide if this repair is worth it. I also don't think your problem is a low bridge or bridge saddle. If it was, then buzzing would get worse as to work your way up to the higher frets. It can't hurt to try adjusting the low E bridge saddle up a mm or 2. There are many different Fender bridges. Saddle height is usually adjusted with a tiny allen wrench though. Look it up online. Very easy to do. Lastly, I've seen some mind-blowing, excellent, guitarists who play some of the crappiest guitars ever and still sound impressive. Nothing makes a guitar sound better than tons of practice... but learning how to do basic guitar setup is absolutely worth your time. A properly setup, cheap guitar, can easily play better than a neglected, high dollar guitar.

PLINK sound from low E whilst palm muting using Lester and single coil models happens for me too. It's not horrible, but I noticed it before reading about it here. I'm going to try sliding a short piece of heat shrink tubing over a new low E string so that it surrounds the string at the saddle. I don't have the Ghost bridge by Graph-Tech, but I do have the Graph Tech ResoMax Bridge on an LP. My ResoMax has the black saddles, (not chrome or nickel). I noticed right away that the guitar sounds different and better IMO. There is less emphasis for the frequencies from about 1K - 5K. I use a Bill Lawrence L600 pickup in my bridge position. Great pickup, similar to the L500 that was used by Dimbag and others. Very quiet pickup, but it was a little too bight. The ResoMax bridge mellowed out the sound a bit. My theory is that metallic strings sitting on a metallic piezo bridge saddle/pickup is a recipe for this plinking sound. I'm on the road for a few days without my JTV-59, so I can't try it until I get home. I wonder if someone else here might try the heat shrink tubing on the Low E and report back. If this works, it would be a much cheaper/quicker solution than swapping out the entire bridge.

I've had my new JTV59 for just a couple of days and it has this problem with low volume from the low E. I think that the theory of palm muting focusing on the low E saddle has merit and that dirt, dead skin and somewhat corrosive sweat may be the culprit. I also know that some piezo pickups can have less sensitivity than others and this contributes to poor string balance. Here's the work-around which I had a good result with: - I took a can of de-oxit and sprayed some into a shot glass. I pushed the red, straw-like, nozzle through a paper towel, placed the paper towel over the shot glass and very gently sprayed about 1/2 a thimble worth of de-oxit into the shot glass. -I then used a "whip tip" from StewMac guitar supply (wooden toothpick would also work) and drew some de-oxit out of the shot glass. -I then placed a couple of VERY small drops of de-oxit directly onto the bridge saddle. FIRST, I loosened the E string and moved it to the side. I put a couple paper towels on the guitar body to surround the bridge to avoid getting de-oxit on the body. -I wiped the saddle clean with paper towel and then reapplied de-oxit, let it soak in for a minute and wiped clean again. -I repeated these steps several times and then tested the guitar. There was a very noticeable improvement. At that point I adjusted string balance in workbench so that the other 5 strings were set to 65% or 60%. It is now one day later (my birthday) and my fix seems to have held up well. I think the low E string is even louder than last night when I tried this fix. Perhaps the de-oxit took a little time to fully dissolve the oxidation, or perhaps my very dry basement dissolved whatever moisture built up on or under the saddle while the guitar sat in warehouses and delivery trucks in this cold season. I un-boxed the guitar when it was still cold, so when it was exposed to my warm, dry basement, some condensation may have formed near the saddle. Whatever the reason, I'm just very relieved that the low E is working much better. Hope this helps.