Community: Message List - JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:33:16 GMT

I have both guitars and agree that the sounds out of the VAC 700 are superior all around. But remember this is exactly what the guitar was meant to do. It was designed to replicate Acoustic instruments only. The acoustic emulations were thrown in along with the other electric models for added draw and some versatility.

Mechanically there also has to be an effect of the strings. Also has anybody strung up their JTV with acoustic strings? (Someone who has tried can comment as I remember a lot of original vax owners did try this).

I understand the issues some of the other users have with the JTV especialy with the added "roominess" ion the acoustics and allowing a choice between the old JTV modeling and the new would be a nice compromise.

The JTV acoustics I feel are superior as with all of the modeling than the original VAX 700. The electric acoustic emulations seem to be more focused on the single string sound than say the strum (at least in my opinion)

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 18:16:52 GMT

You could transfer the settings for the models in Workbench, but the base models on the JTV are still different than what was on your 300.

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:52:50 GMT

I too prefer the acoustic sounds from my Variax 300 to the new JT ones. But it's possible, if you still have those old sounds in a pre-JT Variax or saved on your hard drive, to put them in the new JT Variax, via Workbench. JTV accepted the old patches just fine, so now I have my fave V300 acoustic sound in my new JTV.

My fave V300 acoustic sound, by the way, is the Guild 12-string with the 6 octave strings disabled. It was posted in one of the forums several years ago as "12not". I find it has more real-sounding acoustic "thunk" than any of their other acoustic models.

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 17:35:33 GMT

Sean

When I first got my JTV, and was less than happy with the acoustic sound, I did a lot of fiddling around, and ended up getting great results. The biggest improvement came with a good setup - higher action, most importanty - and the damping of the trem springs in my JTV69. But I got a lot of improvement in the acoustic settings by replacing the plain G string with a wound 18. I eventually went back to the plain 17, because the electric models suffered, but the wound string idea seems to agree with your statement earlier about the Variax 700. I played one of those recently, and I agree, it does do acoustic better, and not surprisingly.

Like Funky, I play my JTV through a Fishman Artist, and I get GREAT results. I have a bunch of acoustics - real ones - including a Taylor with their expression system, arguably the best pickup system for an acoustic guitar on the market. Well, the JTV, in acoustic mode, is significantly better than any of them. Zero "piezo quack", and capo stability. Does it sound like a mic'd real acoustic? Not exactly, but it sure blows away any pickup system. And with the convenience of zero stage mic "overhead", the JTV wins, in my book, hands down.

If I had one minor wish-list item, strangely enough, I would ask Line6 for a piezo simulation. That sound is desirable in some situations.

Cheers

Larry

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 16:05:39 GMT

Thank You Sean!

This is practically like Christmas- I could not have asked for more! Very kind of you to spend a little of your time on a "Tone-Thread" for us... I am really pleased with my electric sounds JTV> HD500> Line 6 link R to DT25 and L main out to Spider Valve Mk2,combo power amp in. But please anything you want to give us concerning electric tones and Dream Rig would be eaten up here. I am really impressed with your acoustic tone from the JTV. .Are you going direct to the mixing board with that? Were the earlier videos where you were demoing the the JTV acoustic sounds using that 2 volume pedal technique (2 separate amp/EFX chains)?

I find that to tame the acoustic sounds in JTV I was employing 2 sometimes 3 of the Line 6 Eq's in the Dream Rig. Are you using any of these? Well that was when I was making the programs sound close to decent coming from the Line 6 amps. Now going to the House PA or even to The Fishman Acoustic amp, I get a pretty transparent sound and don't need those EQs. Do you agree with me that the acoustic JTV models sound better out to a PA?

I like your 2 chain preset very much as I don' thave to go up to the amps to physically bring down their sound. All can be done from the 2 volume pedals. House PA up, Line 6 amps down. I am able to use this as a template for all my electric and acoustic sounds for a show. I am not limited to 4 effects for the electrics as I am using the programmable EFX loops to bring in some of my favorite pedals. So I don't feel limited at all. I do like to have some reverb,chorus and a touch of slap back echo on my acoustic sounds along with a little compressiion. The electrics can sound great with or without EFX but I like having the The EFX loops here for when I want to bring in additional distortions, mod and time EFx and not run out of EFX slots or DSP. Really man, your acoustic JTV tones sound as good or better than my real acoustic Martin. How are you doing that?

Sean, I rarely run out of DSP. When I am using the 2 chain presets and I get a DSP overload signal... I found that removing cabinet sims usually allows me to add the additional EFX(s) that I want. Then I find that I can put the cabinet Sims back in if that is what I want to do, and the DSP does not bark back at me. Usually for Dream Rig stuff I use Pre-amp models only with no cabinet Sims as my DT amp and The spider Valve are covering those bases physically anyway. Do you do that too?

I am sure many of us would be delighted with any suggestions you could throw out to us concerning tone from JTV guitars, HD 500, DT amps, Dream Rig integration, and the Acoustic situation. Set-ups, tone settings and tips would be greatly appreciated

One final request... Joost VerGoosen has some pretty helpful videos too. He even has some patches that he has offered that sound quite good, but on trying to get those, the address does not work. Can you get in touch with him to fix this?

Thanks again! Looking forward to your thread. Your contributions are really appreciated and are directly beneficial to musicians playing Line 6 gear. Really a good job on those videos!

Funky

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 01:11:52 GMT

Brand new JTV-69 owner. Digging the guitar so far.

One of the deciding factors for me in purchasing the JTV was the fact that the message board is not flooded with problems, and there are great threads like the one on the tremolo setup. I would also say plus 1 for a thread on getting the most out of the instument with useful tones/settings.

Thanks for listening.

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 21:40:05 GMT

Sean, I would love to see your suggested thread on getting good tones/sounds. I can't imagine how you will find the time to do it but if you are able I would welcome anything you can find time for.

I have really enjoyed and learned a lot from your Live Audio videos. I have watched them all, more than once, and they are a big part of the reason that I am ordering an M20d, 2xL3t, and an L3s next week.

Thanks.

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 21:26:41 GMT

You are very welcome - apologies on not participating more here! I have a number of different roles inside Line 6 (the videos are only one part), so I'm slammed enough usually, and on top of that I run a department at a music school and spend too much time in dark studios as well :-)

In any case, in your opinion, would it be a good idea for me to start a general thread here on getting sounds? Maybe a "best practices" kind of thing, or "Sean says he does it this way because he's lazy" sort of a thing? :-)

If so, maybe that would be the most beneficial situation for everyone, so that they didn't have to sift through additional threads to find the info.

If that sounds good to you and other folks, reply back here and I'll start a thread in the next week or so.

Thanks a bunch for your kind words on the videos, by the way. It's nice to see that you guys are digging them, because once I send em' out I have no real idea :-) :-)

Cheers,

S..

P.S. regarding the 700 acoustic sounds - remember that the Variax isn't triggering samples or anything like that. I'm sure you've all seen that the sounds change when you put on new strings, just as you'd expect - which means that there is a bunch of interaction between the actual strings and the resulting sounds. The same goes for string gauge and string type. The acoustic 700 used bronze acoustic strings - which sound considerably different than the 10-gauge electric strings that come stock on a JTV.

More on that in the thread I'll start - in the meantime, play the JTV acoustic sounds LIGHTLY until you learn how to control em' fully. That's really the trick. More in a bit! :-)

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 03:18:39 GMT

Hi Sean,

Thanks for the info! Great opportunity for me to thank you for the really terrific videos. The guitar playing is of course inspiring,

but the information is really useful especially the "Dream Rig" stuff. Do you know about Craig Anderton's "Dream Rig" thread

in Pro Reviews on harmonycentral.com? I think you might get a kick out of perusing that.

I had a Variax 700 and the Acoustic Variax 700. I liked the acoustic sounds in both. I thought the Acoustic Variax was better.

I am now getting pretty decent acoustic sound from my JTV 69. I either send the output to the house PA or to a Fishman Loudbox Artist if I am in a small club. Nothing that I do with the JTV sounds nearly as good as what I hear you getting tonewise in those videos. I am sure I speak for many of us when I ask you...How did you achieve that tone? what was the set up?

I don't recall you ever answering any of these threads before. Really good to have you participate with us. Please feel free to add your 2 cents to anything that goes on here. It will be much appreciated. Please keep those "Dream Rig" tips coming.

Re: JTV acoustic sounds versus Variax Acoustic 700

support@line6.com — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:23:18 GMT

Here's the REAL answer for the "issue being closed". Line 6 no longer has ANYONE from the original Variax development team working for Line 6 and hasn't for a very long time working on the guts. No one outside of the HQ walls for certain and probably inside Line 6 HQ is doing any Beta testing any new modeling upgrades for the JTV guitars. I was one of those outside HQ Beta team people for the transition from the original Vax to the JTV working under Rich Renken who no longer works @ L6.

A GUESS on my part is that Line 6 might be deciding, or have decided that the JTV or ANY new or software improvements to the Variax line is not worh the investment and will just let the production run finish, and we'll perhaps never see another new modeling guitar from Line 6.

Thanks for all of your work on the forum! This post is supposed to be a clarification, not a slap, so please don't take it as such :-)

I wish I had seen this sooner. Your source of information seems to have fed you poor intel, and I can only guess at where it came from (but I have a pretty good idea). I realize that being on a beta team can feel like you've got an inside line on things, but that does NOT mean that you have internal knowledge of our current product roadmap - to the contrary, you have been grossly misinformed. Engineers inside Line 6 move from project-to-project as a matter of course, so "original" engineering team members matter less than "super big brain surfer engineers who can rock guitar code" do. :-)

The truth is that JTV development continues (as evidenced by the recent 1.9 update to address palm muting - code does not exist without engineers), and there will be more surprises to come! It's pretty exciting, actually.

Stay tuned - Oliver Stone doesn't work at Line 6 :-) :-) :-)