nonies

The Shuriken itself is a standalone product. I'm unsure about reliability on the road, but mine is often connected to a Helix via the cable (no battery), and hasn't given me an issue. The Workbench HD software has worked alright on mine, but took a few extra minutes to install (I forget the reasons, but it wasn't as simple). It does, however, work just fine for me on both Win10 and 11, also thru the Helix, so I don't mind. If you find one that functions normally, just get it and enjoy; even if the electronics fail (eventually), the guitar itself is quite good, plus the routed areas could be filled with other technological things. Regarding spare parts - I wonder if Line6 would sell to individual owners so they could perform their own work. One example is buying a replacement truss rod once for one of my guitars - not exactly a standard request, but even guitar manufacturers have been willing to send one to a "joe schmo" like me. I'd love to have a backup set of modules in the event one of mine fails and I'm unable to repair it. I expect battery packs to be the biggest issue unless new ones with decent cells are available. I get about 6-8 hours of use from the battery that came with my shuriken, so I stopped using it after about a month and bought a longer VDI cable so I could keep playing. The life is supposed to be ~12 hours, and a 2-3 year shelf life. I suspect that mine sat in stock for a while and the battery may have been low charge. Who knows. But it's something to consider down the road, unless one just uses the VDI cable, at which point batteries are a nonissue. Plug it in like a regular guitar. Buy one and see how you like it - even old Variax models are still kicking around reliably after ~20 years. That's saying something.

Impedance matching is often necessary in various circuits, and depending on how sensitive the Variax electronics are, a change in the impedance match will affect its performance I'd imagine. I'd thought about trying an Alumitone Deathbucker, but at 5.2K it's probably on the "thin" side, and those pickups are already trebly. 8K-ohm is pretty bog standard for "PAF" style pickups, and it will be fairly trebly as well. More winds = higher DCR and inductance, which decreases treble response. Since the spec is 6-8k, the nominal is probably 7k, which is what a hotter strat-style single coil can use, or a "PAF" style humbucker. Even a mini humbucker can work. Tons of options. This raises another question: has anyone tried wiring a resistor between hot and ground leads of a higher DCR pickup to mimic something within spec? It would load the pickup, which would decrease volume, and possibly treble response, but would be interesting to note the differences.

I would say the example I have is not standard, and I probably would like the pickup more if it wasn't anomalous. I'm not going to dissect the pickup, but with it reading a bit high (I don't know the standard DCR) my first guess is a break in a wind that happens to function, or perhaps it was left on the winding machine for a few extra turns. Ambient temp can have an effect, but the room was mid 60s, making it unlikely. I've designed and wound my own pickups before, so this is nothing new - but interesting given the spec. I'd considered sending the guitar in for troubleshooting, as it's only a couple months since purchase, but cost of shipping and time without were two additional issues I wanted to avoid. If you want to take a look at the stock one I have, and can spare a return label, I'll send it your way.

Thanks for the reply, psarkissian. I had looked up pickup height spec (some of your previous posts show it), and that didn't make a difference. The pickup DCR reads that, so I suspect the stock pickup is itself iffy or out of spec. I had a neck pickup sitting around (Carvin M22V) which reads around 7.02K. Treble response and harmonics are there in spades now, and the pickup itself sounds like it has greater output compared to stock. I can at least confirm that the 9K DCR is indeed "too dark" for me. Kind of a bummer it happened that way, but at least I had a spare pickup. Thanks again.

Hi there. I've looked around on here and noted a few people swapping pickups, and the notes to stay within spec of 6-8Kohms DCR. Has anyone measured the stock pickup that's included in the Shuriken? I thought mine sounded - not so great. So I measured it, and it reads 9.097k for DCR on my meter (which has been calibrated). Perhaps an iffy pickup, or do the stock pickups actually measure outside the necessary range? Thanks all!