dspellman

No, they don't. My JTV-89Fs are jumbo frets; the rest are medium or medium-jumbo. Any good tech can adjust the string height and other parameters for you, just as they would a normal guitar. I anticipated having to run my 89's through Gary Brawer's PLEK, but when they arrived, the string action was low enough and the frets were level. I have a feeling that Line 6 may have spec'd the various guitars to be close to their non-Variax counterparts in initial setup. Traditionally, Gibsons have arrived with (for my playing) too-high nut slots and if you lower the bridge, you'll get fret buzz above the 12th-15th frets. On those guitars I've almost always had to have the nut slots redone. And a lot of Gibsons come with the Gibson Hump, so I've often just had them PLEK'd. Since the 89 seems to be aimed at the shredder/metal crowd, perhaps the action was configured lower than you'd expect on the 59 and 69 variants. In any case, I was a very happy camper, because it's right where I would have put it.

You can currently load an IR into the Helix and change the way your guitar sounds. Google Peter Thorn and sift through his Wednesday "blogs" (recent) and you'll find one where he's loaded a (free) IR into the Helix, plugged his Takamine piezo-equipped guitar into the Helix and had it sound completely different on the other end. I think the IR might have been of an expensive Taylor, miked in a room. And the sound that came out was exactly that, rather than the sound of a Takamine with your basic piezo setup. Had my head spinning...

Not a JTV series. Series 500 transplant. New guitar construction (hand built):

Worth noting that Gibson itself has not pioneered these systems, but that Henry J has glommed onto this kind of system as developed by others a couple of times over the past 20+ years. One such is the Transperformance bridge (and the Gibson Transperformance guitar featuring this system). The basic idea is the same, with a pickup "listening" for the correct tuning as motors tighten or loosen strings. In this case, however, the motors are in the bridge, the system costs about $3500 (in 1995) not including the guitar, and there's a huge rout chewing about half the wood out of a Les Paul body for installation. The routs happening below are for the control touchpad and monitor. In addition, most of the rear bottom of the guitar is routed out to accommodate the various electronics and motors. None other than Jimmy Page was paid to promote it, and for a while he used it onstage to play a song that involved him strumming a chord and then changing the tuning as the chord rang out. The top on this guitar is a photo top. In about 2005 (I believe -- maybe 2007?), Tronical (then called PowerTune) showed up at NAMM with a self-tuning system for both 3+3 and inline (Fender) tuners. This so excited Henry and Gibson execs that they executed an exclusive agreement with PowerTune before the show opened and made the announcement when the show DID open that Gibson (and only Gibson) would be featuring this technology on upcoming guitars. This led to the Robot guitars and the Dark Star (whatever it was called) guitar that arrived with a bleached-white case and later to the Dust Tiger and Firebird X introductions.

Suggest you search at My Les Paul (dot com). First-hand accounts (actual owners) involving 2014 and 2015 models as supplied on new Les Pauls (MinETune and G-Force searches will find them for you). If I can dredge them up this evening or tomorrow, I'll post them for you. I have no axe to grind and don't own any of the units; most of my working guitars, including a pair of JTV-89Fs have Floyd Rose' on them, and I imagine it would be a bit disastrous to have the thing accidentally activated while the locking nut is clamped down <G>. Alternate tunings can be handled with much greater range (and without producing some too-tight strings and some too-loose strings) with the Variax electronics. so the Tronical gizmo wouldn't be particularly useful for me.

I feel your pain. I don't think any of the other knobs fit the 89, and I sorta wish that Line 6 had made less of an effort to force this guitar into the hands of metallistas. The good news is that we can retune the guitar however we like. The bad knews is we have to remember what goes where. What works is to tuck the tunings and the model changes into a Pod floor or rack model and then hook it up with a VDI cable. That way we really don't have to dink with the knob at all.

I picked up one about two years ago. Picked up my second in January of this year. My checkbook vote says "Yes, they're worth it." However. I would be much happier if Line 6 had more than just the two "colors." I have way too many black guitars and since "blood red" is the only other option, I have two of them.

There is a Tronical version that will fit the guitar, I believe, but you may be a bit disappointed with it. Check the Gibson forums at MLP (MyLesPaul) before buying one. I don't have an issue with standard tuners recognizing what note is being struck (and this includes the one on the HD500). However, users have reported that the Tronical is easily confused in a noisy (as in gigging) environment, and in several cases they've been unable to tune at all under those circumstances. The unit can also be a bit delicate, especially if you try to use it manually under the wrong conditions.

Far as I know, the 89 is still around and hasn't been replaced. Actually, the Floyd model has better tuning stability than the hard tail bridge, and I sorta like the Graphtech piezos better than the LR Baggs piezos in the rest of the line, I'm not at all sure that a JTV-69 is an upgrade; I much prefer the flatter radius and neck profile, the jumbo frets, the 24-fret neck and the control placement of the 89 series.

I just bought a second JTV-89F as a backup. Not because I'm worried about the modeling, but because anything can happen, and if you're relying on any guitar (particularly if you're making money with it), you want a backup. I have a Variax500 that's been unflappable roughly forever (it was my old backup), and a Variax 700 Acoustic that's also doing just fine. Ditto a string of XTs, FBVs, HDs, etc. I can see selling a guitar because something chronically failed on it. Not so much because I was worried that it might. Otherwise I might stay indoors to avoid lightning (though I might want to be outdoors in an earthquake), off the road to avoid a car accident, out of the air to avoid an airplane crash, out of Oklahoma (and *definitely* out of a trailer park) in case of a tornado.

I'm not sure why you'd want to upgrade the Floyd on the 89F; near as I can tell it's the Schaller OFR with the Graphtech piezos, and that's about as good as it gets. I've had the 89f since last October, and I'm thinking it may actually be the best of the JTV bunch (though I didn't feel that way at first). My initial inclination, when I first got a chance to play with the JTVs, was that the 59 would be my guitar (I mostly play LP-style guitars, but with Floyds). I'm not a bolt-neck fan. But I also prefer larger frets, flatter fretboards, and I've been leaning toward a longer scale of late. The 89F's Floyd is top notch. The fretboard is a 16" radius, it has jumbo frets, and the 25.5" scale, as well as 24 reachable frets (the only Variax neck to have many of these features). The pickups are a hotter variation (compared to the 59's). I much prefer having the volume knob closer to the bridge/bridge pickup (easier for pinky swells) than where it's positioned in the usual LP-style quad, and that's where the 89F has it. I have the older Variax 500, and it's pretty obvious that the Variax firmware is designed around a five-way, and that's what's on the 89F (the 59, sadly, has a kludged 3-way setup). The superstrat body means that the neck strap button is located way up by the 12th fret, which means there's no way the guitar will be neck-heavy. The body is substantial (solid mahogany), which produces decent sustain. And the back of the neck is satin-finished, which means it's fast. Not so on the 59. What I don't like. As the guitar hangs in the strap, the fretboard is moved to the right compared to a strat or LP. That means that if you're going to be playing in the upper frets, your hand will be more across your body than with either of the other two guitars. Something to get used to. And there are TWO lousy colors (Line 6 decided this was going to be the "metal" guitar but didn't leave any other options open); black and blood (dark) red. I have WAY too many black guitars. The rosewood fretboard on my guitar is very very smooth, but I still would have preferred ebony, even the streaky look. Since this is a Korean guitar, ebony is a lot easier to come by. Oh, and the PWB at Line 6 decided that this guitar needed more drop tunings, so they left out some nice Blues G and other alternate tunings from the factory preset knob. Ack. Ptui. I got the guitar brand new in the box; opened it at GC in front of everyone to make sure it was in good nick. Frets were level, action was low -- I was NOT expecting a setup this good on a new guitar, and was fully prepared to haul it to a PLEK machine. Would I buy another? Well, the truth is, I'm picking up a backup JTV-89F in a few days, taking advantage of the reduced price and rebate and a 20% discount by the manager of the local GC. Haven't decided on black or red yet (already have the red). Probably doesn't matter.

As for "interest" -- I'd draw your attention to the current prices for a 705; if you can find one in good shape, the cost is going to be healthy. Far better than, say, that for a used 500 guitar. I wouldn't object to the electronics finding their way into a neck-through Carvin or something of the ilk as well as into the usual PJ type bass. Several things have changed since the 700 bass series was introduced. Bass players are more open to flat response-full range speaker systems (fEARful/fEARless/BarefacedBass, etc.) -- new LF driver designs have something to do with that. And modeling has become ever more accepted than when the 700 basses were pushed out into a hostile world.

All the guitars are upside down, of course. This is what you get when you employ a graphic designer who doesn't play guitar.

Given the existing functionality of the Amplifi, why in the world did Line 6 not toss in a medium-range Bluetooth 4 guitar-to-amp wireless capability? This seems like an absolutely natural feature given the other capabilities (and the vision) of the amp.

You can simply buy the case (or a "custom case" that happens to be identical and that fits the guitar perfectly) from G&G. They're just around the corner from my old studio in downtown LA. Contact them, tell them what you need and go from there. They do excellent real custom work by the way -- I've got a couple of guitars that have odd shapes and dimensions, and a '67 Gibson ES-335-12 that Gibson won't sell me a case for (*******s), so they get the call.

Geez -- after a read of this thread, I'm almost afraid to post. I've got a JTV 89F. Picked it up in early November. Special ordered, had to wait for it, probably because most of the local GCs don't carry the 89 OR the 89F (this seems to be the red-haired stepchild of the bunch) and likely because the new batch of 89Fs hadn't yet been infused with version 2.0 yet. I got the guitar new in the box (opened it right there at GC) in tune and with a great low-action setup. I'd originally assumed I'd get the 59 (since I have a lot of LP-style guitars), but it didn't come with a Floyd. I assumed that the 89 was just there for the metal folks, so I'd ignored it. But when the 89F arrived, I realized that it did a LOT of things the 59 didn't. Access to upper frets (and 24 of them), check. Jumbo frets and a 16" radius -- awesome. NON-baseball-bat neck, just slightly wider than normal (by feel, not by measurement), perfect. Five way (like it better than the hashed-up three-way on the 59), slightly hot pickups, satin finished neck, mahogany body, 25.5" scale. All good. And the Graphtech Floyd. On the money. And they flipped the headstock right side up. The cons? Metal colors -- black and reddish-black ("blood red" -- cheesy). The alternate tunings lost some of the good ones and subbed in extra down-tunings. Ack. The Line 6 assumption is that this guitar is ONLY good for metal. Stupid assumption. All those models of other guitars vs. narrow-minded (I'm sorry -- "focused?") marketing people. Stupid stupid stupid. Guitar is flawless. No fret issues (usually the first thing I find), no finish issues. no electronic issues. Obviously they're setting me up for the neck to pop off the body on a gig. Honestly, I've played all of the others (from the time when Rich Renken was showing me the production prototypes of the original JTVs way back when). Good guitars. But this may be the best of the bunch.

Yeah, definitely. I'm on the hunt for a 705 at the moment, but I'd appreciate something that was actually supported.

Two Words: Back Up

Wireless replacement for the VDI cable.

I've got a Floyd on mine. My tuning is fine. As for slightly out of tune recordings, I have a slower-downer speeder upper and a pitch change (with no speed change) on the computer already. Why would I NOT want to change the recording on the computer rather than running the guitar out of rig?

I'm *really* good with the JTV-89F I have at the moment. I have no idea what "Better, more consistent wood. More attention to detail. A little less 'mass produced'" really means. The wood on mine is very consistent, attention to detail looks fine, and I think that every guitar on the planet has a certain number of actions that have to be done by hand anyway. I know there are different tuners on the US version. What I would want wouldn't be available anyway. I could dig neck-through construction for a bit less clunky (though it's not bad at all) neck/body transition. I could like an ebony fretboard, though this particularly one has the smoothest rosewood I've ever tried. I wouldn't mind an alternate inlay style. Wouldn't mind an optional top wood or a different finish color. Wouldn't mind stainless frets. Wouldn't mind if they'd loaded in the standard set of alt tunings instead of the "Drop Deathmetal" list. But honestly, I'd rather be able to buy another two or three of these than to have "better, more consistent wood. More attention to detail. A little less mass produced" anyway. Whatever that is, it probably can't make it play or sound better than it does now.

Same here -- if I take this thing to church, I get to play with the acoustic group (all of whom are plugged into the mixer and are not particularly acoustic at that point, either). If I pull out an electric, I get shooed away. What's really cute, of course, is that this is a solid-body mahogany electric guitar hiding under the spruce top. Every now and then people sort of glance around to see who's playing the 12-string when there isn't one on stage, and the best part was when I used the bottom two strings tuned down an octave with the upper four tuned normally, and it was *really* interesting to see them glancing offstage to see who was sitting in with a bass.

Sure -- I'll sell you one of mine and give you a good deal on it. I've pretty much retired my 4x12s, and I really don't see myself bringing them out of storage except to sell them. Here's my view. I long ago noticed that 4x12s beam treble. If I'm standing off to the side (and my ears are noticeably above the axis of the speaker), I hear what I think is dulcet guitar tone. My audience walks in front of the thing and their heads explode from the ice-pick treble I've dialed in to make my off-axis response sound good. Others have noticed it as well, and there are beam blockers, foam rings, CDs taped to the front of the speaker cloth and every other manner of gizmo used to try to spread the sound, but the bottom line is that a 4x12 sucks for treble disperson. Strike one They weigh a ton. Seriously, a hundred pounds, some of them. They're bulky. They don't reproduce bottom end at volume. Most of them produce mud and mush; they pretty much drop off below 110Hz and the 100W amps that most folks use to power them don't provide enough power to move enough air to reproduce those frequencies even if the speakers were capable. Okay, so I've found substitutes and now I'm so over them. As for "which one do I pick," know this: look on the inside, not the outside, to evaluate what you're looking at. The brand name is pretty much irrelevant. They're mostly 30 x 30 x 14", made of birch ply (don't even bother with the ones that aren't) and they have some kind of brace, usually a 2x2, 2x4 or even a 4x4, that runs between the center of the front baffle to the back panel. So you find them with list prices from $300 to $1200 and they sound pretty much all depends on what the speakers are inside. Your opinion, of course, may vary. But I think I've found other options that work better, especially since you've already got a modeler that will simulate the sound of a 4x12, but *without* the beaming and the mush and the weight and the bulk.

The idea of the Atomics was to reproduce the Pod bean (and two or three other similarly sized modelers) as agnostically and in as uncolored a manner as possible while using a tube power amp and a 12" speaker while still looking pretty much like a standard combo amp. Thus the 18W version sports a 200W fairly-flat-response speaker in a large closed-back cabinet (larger than my 2x12 Carvin Belair). The 50W 1x12 is ported, and the 2x12 is closed-back, ported, and only about 4" shorter than a 4x12. What the Atomics are not (leastways these versions) is an FRFR unit. I've actually added a piezo-based tweeter to one of them to stretch the top end a bit, and I don't know that I'd call them completely flat. They DO do a nice job of presenting the Pods as they are, and I like the idea of having a hot-swappable bay so that you can exchange the various Pods. At first, I thought it was pretty much a waste; I figured it was highly unlikely that I'd be purchasing and using an M-Audio, Behringer or Vox modeler because of something special they offered. Since then, however, I've found myself owning a Pod XT, a Pod X3, a Pod HD and a Bass Pod XT (works really well with the 2x12 for practice), and there are reasons for all four of those to go in at one time or another, and I don't have to bother re-wiring everything to do so. In terms of an FRFR unit, a pair of Rokit 8's works better for nearfield practicing and a pair of fEARless F115s works better for noisy gigs (I run them with a 1500W power amp). The DT25/50 series have an entirely different mission. They *add* guitar-based amp sounds to what you get with the Pod. BTW, the Atomic isn't something you'd choose first for the acoustic models; the one thing missing from these is the high end. Add the tweeter and it does work for those. But honestly an FRFR speaker works far better. I dunno about the DT25.