Question Questions about JP13

[TheGame]

Hi Everyone! I am a long time owner of a JP6 and always used .9 gauge Ernie Ball Super Slinky Strings. Since I purchased the JP6, I have never had to make any adjustments to it. I just bought an Ernie Ball JP13 about a month ago and I had a few questions I was hoping I could get some help with (I never really had to make any adjustments to my JP6 since I bought it back in 2000).

I decided I would try some .10 Gauge M-Steels on the JP13. I assume the JP13 was factory shipped with .9 gauge strings (I can't be 100% certain) however the spec sheet states that the strings are factory shipped with RPS 10 Slinkys #2240 with added P01156 - but when I tried using the M-Steel .10's I had to do some major adjustments to the bridge to make it flush with the body - which is to be expected since .10's are a higher gauge (assuming for some reason the JP13 was factory shipped with .9's). When adjusting the bridge, I ended up having to screw the Tremolo Spring Claw almost all the way back as far as it would go but I now have the bridge flush with the body with the .10 gauge strings.

My first question is, is it safe to have the tremolo spring claw that far back? When shipped from the factory, (and I assume .9 gauge strings were used), the guitar was perfectly setup and the tremolo spring claw was hardly back at all, I wanted to ask if it is safe to have the tremolo spring bar back as far as it is. I am still only using two springs, I thought I would try using 3 springs, but it seemed extremely difficult to get the bridge flush with the body. Should I be using 3 springs or does it matter?

My second question is - how tight should you secure the strings with the locking tuners? When re-stringing the JP13 with .10's I had 3 strings snap on me from the tuners themselves and the tension on the strings were not all that tight, I am thinking maybe I tightened the locks on the tuners too tightly causing them to snap the string. I have never had this happen on the JP6 so I am not sure exactly why it happened, the only thing I can guess is that I tightened the locking tuners too tight - but I usually have them pretty tight on the JP6 and I have never had strings snap at the tuning posts like that. Any advice? How tight should you lock the tuners?

Lastly, this is my first ever guitar that has a battery. Is that for the preamp? How do you know when you need to change the battery?

Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this and for any advice and answers you can provide, it is very much appreciated!

 

[QuietSpike]

1st: 9 gauge- 2 springs is fine....

10 gauge- 3 springs works better/best.

My JP12 has 9s and 2 springs, my BFR has 10 gauge (for the mix), and has 3 springs.


2nd: You shouldn't over-tighten the locking tuners... just "hand-tight" is fine, don't really hunker down on the thing. It will hold without over-tightening.


3rd: The battery is for the piezo system, and you there is no real warning for when you need to change the battery. When it doesn't work, change the battery.

 

[TheGame]

Thank you QuietSpike I really appreciate you taking the time to read and answer my questions! I'll try using a 3rd spring. I did try using 3 springs the other day when I was changing to .10 gauge strings, it just seemed like I couldn't get the bridge to be flush with the body. I'll try it again, I think 3 springs is the way to go as you have suggested. Thank you!

 

[QuietSpike]

Yeah... keep trying. 3 springs will work fine with 10s.


To echo what mods will tell you... if you are still having problems, call customer service.

 

[MajtasticVoyage]

A note about the battery; it's NOT just for the piezo. I was wondering why my clean mag sound sounded distorted, no matter what I did with the amp's settings - I took the battery out and licked it: nothing. I replaced the battery and the clean was crystal clear again and had tons of clean headroom. But this is the first or second time I've changed the battery in the year and a half I've had it; whereas the Majesty requires battery changes every month or two with average playing.

And even though the website says it ships with 10s, you may have one that shipped with 9s when JP was playing 9s. No biggie. All your other questions seem to have been answered fine.

 

[QuietSpike]

Which output jack were you using? The mono is buffered on JP (excluding majesty) models and should work fine with a dead battery.... ask me how I know

Nothing like playing a gig and switching jacks because you realize the next song you need your piezo, only to have nothing come out... "Honey, in my gig bag is some 9v batteries. Can you grab me one real quick?"

 

[MajtasticVoyage]

It's true; it does "work" with a dead battery, but you won't have the headroom - but you'll probably only notice on a clean channel.

 

[TheGame]

Thank you everyone for your awesome replies and helpful tips! I sincerely appreciate everyone! I used the 3 spring method and worked with the bridge to get it flush with 10's. All is good now!

I did have a question - Should I be using the mono or stereo jack? I have a pretty simple setup, I am just plugging the JP13 into the EB MVP pedal then into a POD 500X using an effects loop to my distortion pedal (a Wampler Triple Wreck, and a John Petrucci "The Dreamscape" Pedal). But I am getting noise and I cannot understand why, even when I use an 2 noise gates in the effects chain (one first in the chain, the second after the distortion and Dreamscape effects loop. At first, I discovered the battery was low on the Dreamscape pedal and then seemed to temporarily solve the noise problem, but now it is back. For the life of me I cannot figure out what is causing this noise. And this occurs with headphones so there is no influence from an amp.

I know this is mostly a Ernie Ball guitar thread, but could the battery in the JP13 be causing the noise? I can try to change that to see if it is causing the noise - or it could be my Triple Wreck Distortion pedal's battery is getting drained. I bought the proper power adapters for both pedals so I am going to see if that solves the issue.

Can anyone give me advice on how I should have my effects chain properly setup or direct me to a site that can give me some tips? It is a fairly simple chain. I have it setup like the following:

JP13 -> Ernie Ball MVP Volume Pedal -> Line 6 POD 500X -> Effects Loop going to the Wampler Distortion first, then to The JP Dreamscape Pedal -> then the FX return to the POD 500X -> EQ -> Tube Delay -> Reverb -> Output

I tried the POD 500X alone and it is quiet as a mouse, even with the built-in heavy distortions so I have ruled that out as the cause. I think it is either with the pedals I have in my effects loop, or I have the effects loop or effects chain in the wrong order. And like I said, I am just playing through some Sennheiser HD650 Headphones that are plugged into the Line 6 Pod 500X, so there is no amp involved that could be generating the noise.

Can anyone give me some advice as to what could be causing this noise and why it would go away for a while and now it has returned? I know it is difficult to diagnose over the net, but there could be a simple solution that someone here could advise me of. Any help would be appreciated, or even a link to a site that helps you with correct effects order.

Thank you all again for your replies and thank you for any further advice on the JP13 and any you could give on what may be causing the noise.

Thanks!

 

[MajtasticVoyage]

It's highly unlikely that a battery would cause noise.

I would think it's a power issue; are any of your pedals plugged in? Are they plugged into a different outlet than your Pod? I've found the Pod's FX loop to be a little weird (one of the reasons I got rid of it, actually). I was using a Blackstar HT-Dual pedal as my "amp" (in the loop) and you could hear it hissing/buzzing even if the loop was 'off.'

Anyway, regardless of what is actually causing the buzz (60hz hum?), I can almost guarantee it's not your JP (or its battery).

Also, since the Pod has a volume pedal, why do you have an external one before the Pod? You don't seem to have your pedals in a bad order either, so you can rule that out.

I might also suggest that the Pod's FX loop is primarily for using the Pod with the 4CM method with a tube amp with an effects loop as opposed to interjecting your own pedals in the chain (this is JUST my opinion; not fact).

Finally, I recommend plugging your Pod into the same power strip that you plug your other pedals into and use something like a One Spot power adapter that you can power multiple pedals with one wall wart.

Good luck, fellow JP13-ian!

 

[beej]

The noise sounds like a ground loop. (Normally a problem you'd get with two amplifiers sharing the same path to ground, but it can certainly happen with effects.) Try removing effects from your chain one by one until you find the culprit.

The way to solve it is to use a power supply with isolated outputs (E.g. Voodoo Labs Pedal Power). Individual wall warts or something like a One-Spot share the same path to ground.

 

[Lou]

Ditto. Noise from a ground loop would occur if you are splitting piezo/mags to go to two diff amps.

Noise can occur from lots of places: cell phones, tv, lights, computers, house wiring, etc. Try moving location if troubleshooting mentioned above doesn't work.

 

[MajtasticVoyage]

Sometimes it can cause the noise if you have the USB cable hooked up too - EVEN IF the computer and Pod are plugged into the same power conditioner.

 

[TheGame]

Thank you all for the wonderful replies and for all of the suggestions. Currently, I am only using headphones with the headphone out of the POD HD500x so I have no amplifier connected that could be causing any noise. I did try your suggestions on isolating the pedals, I found the culprit to be a bad battery in the Distortion pedal - which is kinda weird since it is a newer battery - however once I removed the battery and use the correct power supply a lot of the noise was gone. There is still a lot of noise and no sustain, but I don't think it has anything to do with the JP13, I think it is a POD/Effects Loop issue. I sent a support ticket to Line 6. I shouldn't have to use 2 noise gates and have my compressor's sustain set at 100% and still have a lot of noise and no sustain. I won't go into further detail since this is the Ernie Ball MusicMan Guitars forum, not really meant for problems with noise unless it is from the guitar itself, and like MajtasticVoyage mentioned, I seriously doubt the JP13 is the issue of the noise.

Thank you all once again for all of your input, suggestions and tips, I very much appreciate all of your responses, they helped greatly!

 

[dannymusic]

the 13 is a BEAST! you will love it.

 

[TheGame]

I had another question about the JP13. This is the first guitar I have ever owned that has both a mono and stereo output jack and I am not quite sure how to utilize the stereo output jacks on the guitar (as shown in the pic below:



Up until now I have been only using the mono output and everything works fine, but I have been curious as to how to utilize the stereo output jack.

My effects board (A Pod HD500x) has 2 guitar inputs - a main guitar-in and an 1/4" Aux-in, which in the manual states you can run two guitars on the board at the same time. Would I be able to use two standard 1/4" Guitar Instrument cables (one from the mono output jack of the JP13 and one from the Stereo output Jack of the JP13, to the Guitar-in and 1/4" Aux in of my effects board to run the guitar in stereo? Or is the stereo jack meant to have a stereo 1/4" cable running to a 1/4" stereo input?

The JP13 came with a wiring diagram sheet, but to be honest I do not understand it all that well.

If someone can explain to me how to utilize the mono and stereo output jacks as far as how they work and how to use them effectively and the correct way, I would really appreciate it. Like I was saying, I have never owned a guitar with both mono and stereo outputs and the wiring/schematics diagram is very confusing to me.

Again I want to thank all who have helped me so far with learning as much as I can about the JP13, your answers, tips, suggestions and knowledge have really helped me out a lot and I sincerely appreciate it!

If anyone can explain to me how the stereo output jack works and how it is supposed to be utilized I would sincerely appreciate it! Thank you my fellow EB MusicMan friends!

 

[dannymusic]

yes, you can use the upper jack directly to the aux in (if using 2 seperate cABLEs)
or, you can use a TRS split cable (like a insert cable for a PA or dedicate stereo cable) and run tip to HD500x mags input and ring to aux in)
Then you can toggle between acoustic/mags or both. HUGE sound

 

[TheGame]

Hi dannymusic,

Thank you very much for the reply and answer! Can you elaborate a little further as to what is "tip", "mags" and "ring"? Would it be possible for you to post me a link to a TRS split cable you're referring to? (If you cannot post the link on the forums, would you mind PM'ing me a link?) If I use 2 separate guitar cables will it achieve the same result or is the TRS split cable the better choice?

I am not sure what the "mags" input is and the difference between the "Tip" and "Ring" you are referring to.

Also, you said you can toggle between acoustic/mags or both. How would I achieve that?

Again thank you for the reply and your answers!

 

[TheGame]

I finally received the TRS split cable but I am not sure if I have it connected correctly. As instructed in your post on my thread, I connected the stereo end of the TRS cable to the Stereo output on the JP 13 and connected the mono "Tip" to the Guitar-in of the Pod HD500x and the mono "Ring" to the Aux input of the Pod HD500x and have the HD500x's inputs set to Guitar in and Aux.

When playing with the regular pickups the sound is amazing - just like you said it would be, however when I switch to Piezo only, the Piezo sounds funny - I am not sur\e how else to explain it. It's not really distorted, it just does not sound very good. If I just connect a regular mono guitar cable from the guitar to the guitar-in of the POD HD500x, the Piezo sounds great, however I do not get the great sound from the regular pickups as I do when I use the TRS cable.

Is there something I am doing wrong? I think the cable works fine as I do get sound out of both the stereo and Ring and Tip parts of the cable, however like stated above, when I try to switch tp Piezo only, the Piezo does not sound good, it is difficult to explain the exact sound it gives, but it isn't very good -that's the best way to explain it.

Should I try switching the Ring" to the Guitar-in of the POD "Tip" to the Aux? I am also sure the battery is fine in the JP13 as the Piezo sounds great when just running a single mono guitar cable to the Guitar-in of the Pod.

Do you or anyone else have any suggestions/ideas and or troubleshooting steps I can try? I really want the huge, great sound I get from my pickups when using the TRS cable, it's only when I switch to Piezo only that the Piezo sounds bad.

Thank you everyone again for all of your help I sincerely appreciate it!