thorneven

I haven't tried your patches, but thank you for sharing your hard work.

I hooked up my JTV59 to Workbench HD and an amp, adjusted the piezo pickup volumes trying to get unity gain (same volume on all strings) and then played out last night.  What I found is that it is useless to adjust the individual volumes, trying to get unity gain, for 2 reasons... 1) When I adjust volumes for one model, the "unity gain" adjustments don't hold for other models.  2) The tone difference resulting from the pickup selector on one setting versus another (which actually is selecting different models but a bridge pickup setting versus a neck pickup setting) affects the volume of each string. For example, if I balance the volumes while on a clean, trebly acoustic setting, when I change the pickup selector so that I have a bassier tone, the bassier sound causes the low e string to be much louder.  So ideally I would want to adjust the piezo volumes for each model and pickup combination.  Oh well.

I would think that if you pay for it, Full Compass would ship it overnight.  Worth a phone call to ask.

In Workbench HD, pulldown menu Edit > Global String Levels.  AS has been said previously, that adjustment is for models (string saddle piezo pickups), not the magnetic pickups.

I use a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI pedal to control both amp (Line6 Vetta 2) and JTV59 presets.  I have my amp programmed so that it forwards MIDI messages to the guitar.  This way a MIDI pedal preset can change guitar settings too (e.g. a preset tells the guitar to select an acoustic guitar).  IIRC, the amp can select presets only from the Custom 1 and Custom 2 banks in the guitar though.

Muchos Gracias to all responders. I "upped" your responses.

Hmm, I see that each piezo has its own wire (of course). I wonder what the wiring looks like.  Anyone have any pictures of the piezo wiring?

I assume the piezo elements are inside each string saddle.  A Google search turned up no place where I can buy individual saddles for a JTV59. I assume the saddles can be easily replaced.  Hopefully Line6 personnel will chime in.

I have a JTV-59 probably JUST out of warranty.  As the subject says, the maximum volume of the low E string piezo pickup is significantly lower than all the other piezo pickups.  I looked in the Workbench and all the volumes are the same and at the max.  Obviously I need to balance the volumes, but I'm thinking I first need to replace the low E piezo.  Is there somewhere I can order one and is the replacement procedure relatively easy for a guy who does his own guitar work?  I would hope the procedure is pop the old one out, drop the new one in.

And once that's done, is there an easy way to balance the piezo pickups without having to do it blindly in Workbench and then connect the guitar to an amp to see how close I got?  In other words can I adjust and test volume balance while connected to the Workbench?

If you instruct me on how to post pics and sound clips, I'll see what I can do.

I always liked the sound of EMG's, especially the active ones.  I'm happy I put these H4's (yes, two H4's, not an H4A in the neck position - I wanted a consistent sound on both pickups) in my JTV59.  Nice, even response across the pickup, nice sustain.  One problem... and maybe this is because I installed H4's...  the neck pickup is too deep and bumps up against the guitar's cavity.  As a result the pickup is not parallel to the strings but higher on the neck side.  Minor problem and doesn't affect the sound nor playability.  I suppose I could "dig out" the cavity but opted not to.

The install was fairly easy (but I should mention I do all my own guitar work so easy to me might be a challenge for someone else).  On a JTV59 one is dealing only with 2 wires to the circuit board for each pickup so it was just a matter of figuring out which 2 pickup wires should be soldered to the board. I tried a couple of different combinations and once I settled on the configuration I liked best (there really wasn't much difference between the only 2 possibilities), I soldered them in.  Voila !

Wondering if anyone has put EMG HZ (model H4) passive pickups in a JTV59. I tried a pair of Seymour Duncan's and am not happy with the results.  I had a Pensa Suhr with active EMGs and their sound has always been my favorite.  Don't know if it's possible to put active pickups in a JTV59.

I want a little more crunch with my pickups so I installed the subject pickups (spent some time listening at Duncan's web site to see which sound I prefer).  The APH-1n is in the neck position and the Custom Custom is at the bridge.  I haven't played out with them yet, but in my studio I like the sound.  Installation was easy.  I didn't unsolder and resolder the circuit board because I didn't want to risk overheating the circuit board.  Instead I cut the old pickup wires and soldered the new pickup wires to the old wires, and taped up everything so no bare wires are exposed.  I soldered the red and white wires together, attached the green and black wires to the board, and left the ground wire (and red and white wires) unattached.  Response is smooth across the pickups.  The Duncans are slightly smaller than the stock pickups, but everything fits and I don't mind the additional space between the pickups and the pickup rings.

You say you can't get the guitar to turn on.  What are you looking for to indicate the guitar is turned on and what makes you think the guitar isn't turning on?  I doubt if the flash failed that any of the top knobs will operate so don't look there.  The only indicator I can think of is the battery indicator on the back of the guitar.  If that isn't going on then your battery is bad or not fully charged.

Be careful with 009's.  I used to use them on my Fender FMT Tele and found that because of the medium-sized frets, I would cause my guitar to go out of tune when I pressed down too hard on the fretboard (you know, in the heat of the moment).  Since the frets on the JTV59 are similar, I go with 010's.

Factory specs will not necessarily help since all guitars are different.  There are several ways to remove fret buzz.  File down frets, adjust truss rod, adjust bridge height.  Which method you choose depends on the root of the problem.  Raising the bridge is the easiest solution though it alters the action for the entire fretboard.  Since you claim the buzz is limited to a small part of the neck, I have to go with a fret job though I'd check the neck for straightness first.

scottgmusic - I can certainly understand why you'd feel that way when you got 2 defective guitars.  There is a LOT that can go wrong with guitars such as the JTV series where there is so much circuitry and hardware built into the guitar, and software which can be glitchy just because it is programmed by humans.  I've been gigging consistently for 42 years, played many guitars, and I love the versatility of my JTV59.  If you're willing to try again, definitely buy a JTV with a full-refund policy so if you get another defective one, you can return it.  For every person on this forum who gets a defective one, I would bet there are 10 who don't.  Forums always are populated by people with problems (and questions).  Wishing you better luck in the future.

Your question is too vague.  What bugs?  What version of workbench?

I just got the SKB-56 case for my JTV59 Korean and it's a mighty tight fit.  Hope it doesn't damage anything.

Edit: After a few days, no damage at all.  And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the high-tech latches !  So easy to close and open.

I have a new model wish.  I haven't read all the pages to see if it was already requested.  Mandolin !

Are you not aware that I get farty and bloated with a foamy latte?

I am not, but it's hard for me to resist a joke about grammar being that my mother was an English major and god forbid I spoke incorrectly.  But since you asked, do you get fartier and bloatier?  :D

"Worser"?  I think they are betterer.  :P

+1 for a classical guitar model.  Maybe call it "Segovia".

When my JTV59 arrived, I was concerned at the fatness of the neck.  I have small hands so I like a narrow and thin neck.  However, I was surprised at how easy it is to play with the neck and I like it very much.  I think the lack of a binding somehow adds to the appeal and also the shorter neck length which means less space between frets.

For me the real problem with altering the volume levels in a firmware update is that, since in 1.9 they were all set at max levels by default (don't know if this is true with 2.0), it means we who have customized presets, either in the guitar or the amp (Vetta 2 in my case) now have to go back and redo all the presets to ensure the volumes are at the same levels as before the update.  Since tweaking volumes for me is a lengthy process that occurs while playing at gigs (studio adjustments always require testing at gigs as that's where I want my best sound), it means again more hours on the road to go through this process.

But hey, this is what we programming geeks do !  So bring it on Line6 !  :)