Another plink thread... this time my '59 is 100% fixed - guaranteed- I think

[Rocco_Crocco]

I am not taking credit for this... I think I read it on the forum here somewhere and finally just got around to trying it.

 

I went into Workbench and changed all of my "plinky" models body styles to "neutral". Plink is gone. Zero point zero plink.

 

For the Lester model, I had to change the preset volume to -6dB to get the volume to match the magnetic pickups, but all other models (all incarnations of strats and teles) I was  able to keep a 0 dB preset volume.

 

 

[cruisinon2]

If it works, it works.

 

Problem is, everybody's "fix" is different...which suggests a variety of causes/contributing factors. Imho, the universal fix that some think is "in the works", ain't coming. You can only have a universal fix when there's a universal cause...the evidence suggests otherwise.

[clay-man]

I am not taking credit for this... I think I read it on the forum here somewhere and finally just got around to trying it.

 

I went into Workbench and changed all of my "plinky" models body styles to "neutral". Plink is gone. Zero point zero plink.

 

For the Lester model, I had to change the preset volume to -6dB to get the volume to match the magnetic pickups, but all other models (all incarnations of strats and teles) I was  able to keep a 0 dB preset volume.

 

I've noticed the neutral + 89 pickups has less E string jangle (Not plink, though most likely related) than the Les Paul, so yes, you're right.

 

It's annoying though.

Another guitar body that muffles the E is the Firebird. I've noticed that the E string has a significant high end cut compared to the rest of the string on the Firebird body, especially noticeable when using other pickups besides the mini humbuckers.

 

Chime also has no issue with the jangly sound on E. Telecaster isn't bad either, but the hugest offenders are the Les Paul and Strat models.

[Rocco_Crocco]

^^^ I agree with you 100%. The Lester and Strat are the worse. My Tele was borderline, so I changed that to a neutral body as well. 

 

The '72 Tele with humbuckers was really bad on mine, too. Just as bad as the Lester.

 

 

 

** as a side note, I tried reducing the string volumes to 75% in Workbench as was suggested on the forum, but it didn't help the plinking at all.

[cruisinon2]

^^^ I agree with you 100%. The Lester and Strat are the worse. My Tele was borderline, so I changed that to a neutral body as well.

 

The '72 Tele with humbuckers was really bad on mine, too. Just as bad as the Lester.

 

 

 

** as a side note, I tried reducing the string volumes to 75% in Workbench as was suggested on the forum, but it didn't help the plinking at all.

Do the models still sound like what they're supposed to be, having changed the body?

[Rocco_Crocco]

Do the models still sound like what they're supposed to be, having changed the body?

 

They sound very close to me.

[leemh]

are plink and warbling different?? I have alt tune warbling sound problem, but making body-style neutral doesnt work to me.

[clay-man]

are plink and warbling different?? I have alt tune warbling sound problem, but making body-style neutral doesnt work to me.

Absolutely different, and I've told you before, you don't have any real warble. You either have to get used to it, or send the guitar back and get something else. I've told you that all forms of pitch shifting are going to have some sort of artifacts within it.

[leemh]

Absolutely different, and I've told you before, you don't have any real warble. You either have to get used to it, or send the guitar back and get something else. I've told you that all forms of pitch shifting are going to have some sort of artifacts within it.

thank you always. I orderd new PC board to replace and am waiting for it. But keep finding solution by myself, by getting some help from forum.

[clay-man]

thank you always. I orderd new PC board to replace and am waiting for it. But keep finding solution by myself, by getting some help from forum.

Have you posted a clip of your warble? Warble is just that, the pitch warbling back and forth like some strange vibrato sound instead of sounding out the correct note. It happens because some pitch shifters can't hear the signal correctly to interpret how to rebuild the signal to sound decent.

 

I think there is a difference between warble and pitch shift artifacts though. Pitch shift artifacts basically means the pitch shifting is working correctly, but the unnatural tonalities of the pitch shifted signal vs the normal signal is what we call artifacts.

 

Pitch shifting basically works in 2 ways: if you shift the pitch upwards, it's basically stretching the signal to play faster and then resetting the time point of the signal back every few milliseconds so that the signal is always in time. This is why some cheaper pitch shifters get a stuttering effect when you pitch up.

 

Pitch shifting down does the opposite and stretches the signal's waveform out to lower the pitch, but resets the time forward every few milliseconds to keep the signal from falling behind, and in some cheap pitch shifters, this is what causes some points in the signal to sound like it was skipped if it was a short burst of sound.

 

Now, some pitch shifters need to listen to the signal more than others depending on how it reconstructs the sound. Some actually require tracking because the function of pitch shifting is different from others.

 

Variax uses tracking for it's pitch shifting. Luckily since it's 6 channels, 1 per string, it can listen to each string individually, but stuff like fret buzz, or cross talk can throw the pitch shifter off and make it spit out the wrong sound. THIS is warbling.

[theKennyG]

thank you always. I orderd new PC board to replace and am waiting for it. But keep finding solution by myself, by getting some help from forum.

 

Have you checked the intonation? I found that to be the biggest issue on both my 59 & 69. When I set the intonation, the warble almost* completely vanished.

 

I say almost because, as it has been said, pitch shifting comes with some artifacts however, they've been hardly noticeable to me since setting the intonation correctly.

[seanmalthouse]

I am not taking credit for this... I think I read it on the forum here somewhere and finally just got around to trying it.

 

I went into Workbench and changed all of my "plinky" models body styles to "neutral". Plink is gone. Zero point zero plink.

 

For the Lester model, I had to change the preset volume to -6dB to get the volume to match the magnetic pickups, but all other models (all incarnations of strats and teles) I was  able to keep a 0 dB preset volume.

I have to agree with Rocco_Crocco, partially. The neutral body makes it better. I have also found that changing the tone control resistance to 25k ohm improves it even more.

[Rocco_Crocco]

I have to agree with Rocco_Crocco, partially. The neutral body makes it better. I have also found that changing the tone control resistance to 25k ohm improves it even more.

This is illustrative of just how differently this plink issue is manifesting itself. I tried changing the tone control resistance to 25k as well, but it had no effect. This was before changing to the neutral body, but there was no need to mess around with the tone resistance after that because the plink is gone, 100%.

[cruisinon2]

This is illustrative of just how differently this plink issue is manifesting itself.

Yup. It also explains why the folks who designed the damn thing ran up the white flag and surrendered. Seems nobody knows what's going on...

[seanmalthouse]

This is illustrative of just how differently this plink issue is manifesting itself. I tried changing the tone control resistance to 25k as well, but it had no effect. This was before changing to the neutral body, but there was no need to mess around with the tone resistance after that because the plink is gone, 100%.

Admittedly I didn't try it without changing the body type first. I would expect just dropping the tone resistance and nothing else would just darken your tone overall. Haven't tried it through my MarkV yet but on my little Express 25, it sounds great with no plinky sound at all. 

 

Thanks Rocco_Crocco, you have provided the fix that the entire Line6 technical team could not fix. I'm still confused as to why this seems to affect only the 6th string. That implies a hardware issue with the piezo saddle. I wasn't brave enough to swap them around but that was the next logical step.

[MiroslavKloud]

The cause is known. Unknown is only the solution - software or hardware - both variants are possible. I think it is a mistake that we have the new thread related to "plink".