PcMacsterRace Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Hello, I was thinking about buying a JTV69 one day and try and convert it to a Bass VI by replacing the stock neck with a Warmoth Baritone Conversion neck (28.625 scale length) and changing the strings to a much heavier gauge (19-82's. Maybe even heavier depending on preference). The question I'm wondering is it this possible or would I have to go through extensive modding or is it just not possible at all? I'm not worried about anything about the neck (including nut and tuners) since I already am gonna replace it. One thing I found might be an issue and am worried about is when looking up pictures online of the bridge assembly, I'm worried an 82 gauge string would sit ON TOP of the piezo pickup because of how thick the string is and how narrow of a spacing the piezo pickup/bridge gives, and thus wouldn't detect any movement of the string and not work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_m Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Yeah, I’m sure that wouldn’t work with the piezo saddles. I doubt they would even fit it the bridge assembly, really. It would also make it so the Variax modeling itself probably wouldn’t work right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psarkissian Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 What phil_m said. Going above 12 gauge on Hi-E and above 56 gauge on Lo-E will result in a number of problems regarding mechanical stresses. Neck pocket would have to be strengthened for that tension. It simply wasn't designed to handle that level of string tension. A 12 to 58 was as high as I've seen using Cobalts on a Variax for a guy here at Line 6, and it was it wasn't easy doing the set-up on that one, but I pulled it off. Ironically, three years later, I bought it for myself. Went back to the stock D'Addario XL-110 set. Still plays great. String hole mounts in the bridge are way too small to fit and the piezos would wear too quickly. The signal processing can't process those those tones from that gauge set of strings. Pitch tracking would be problem. Line 6 does not support modifications that alter the function of the instrument. Swapping brands of locking tuners or using a favorite pick-up set (within the 6k-8k Ohm DCR spec) is fine. Massive mod like that,... if something were to go wrong and it end up on my bench, I'd have to send it back untouched as it would be an unsupported mod. Though I would know how to deal with it and what to do with,... they would let me or pay me to, for something that modified because of it being an unsupported mod. Nice idea while it lasted though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PcMacsterRace Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 Damn, would it still be possible to do but instead I put 12’s on there and tune the Variax physically to B standard still using a baritone conversion neck (that way, I can still reach the low 5 string bass’s B by pitch shifting an octave down, and get a bass Vi tuning by pitch shifting it down a 7th)? I won’t have problems with fitting the strings through the bridge hopefully (cause like Psarkissian said, 12-58 is the heaviest he saw someone put on their Jtv69’s), but would the thing still track well because of this whole pitch tracking thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psarkissian Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 Physically tuning down more than a whole step and a half, you are skirting the edge of pitch tracking capabilities, after that frequency artifacts start to occur. Also the string tension get too low for good piezoelectric transfer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PcMacsterRace Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 If I may ask, what is this “pitch tracking” thing that is preventing me from making a Variax into a baritone? As far as I know, the modelling doesn’t revolve around a specific pitch like something like Rocksmith or a guitar synth would do; which is to detect a certain frequency and reproduce that same frequency as another source. I don’t think the Variax finds your playing an E on the low E string and then plays a sample of a strat playing that same low E modelled after the tone the piezo catches. Isn’t the modelling basically just a bunch of EQs and effects to make the guitar sound like another guitar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psarkissian Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 " As far as I know, the modelling doesn’t revolve around a specific pitch " --- Not a specific pitch, but a range of pitch. Processing is designed for the string range of a guitar, the Alt Tune pitch shifts from that. But there are limits. " I don’t think the Variax finds your playing an E on the low E string and then plays a sample of a strat playing that same low E modelled after the tone the piezo catches. " --- Piezo transfers the string energies, the program processes it with the model that is selected. Afraid that's as deep as I'm allowed to go into that. There are eleven (or twelve) different math equation forms used in modeling, so trying to guess how it's done would be fruitless, some people who do modeling use more than on math form within the same model, depending on the need. The sky is no limit. There is also limits on the memory space as well. After that, Workbench HD app comes in to go further, for custom patches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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