Nov 24, 2011 9:38 AM
Variax models - a comprehensive group of presets
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Here is the gorup of 7 bundles I created.
I spent some quality time deep diving into each of these models, swapping out pickups and changing different parameters to come up with new sounds. The process was highly informative! I got to know Workbench and how each body and pickup type reacts together. By no means could I have covered the entire pallete of options but what I did do is come up with a working set of guitar models using all (electric) body types and pickups available. I did not include any of the acoustic, resonator or sitar models and I didn't use the "Sitar" pickup as I found it too unpredictable and difficult to work with. What IS included is everything else in various combinations that sounded best to me. One rule I followed was to avoid using the stock pickups that are included with each model.
For the most part, I stuck with standard pickup configurations and positioning (bridge, middle, neck). I did not bother with placing pickups out of range or experimenting with unorthodox angles. In fact, the only angle I used is the "8.8" bridge position for the strat style models. My logic here is that these models offer a starting place for further exploration. They give you a snapshot of how a particular combination of body and pickup sound together. As is the case with any guitar and amp setup, some match up better than others. Don't give up on a model if it sounds too muddy, sharp or indistinct before trying a different amp model or tone setting. All of these are usuable in different ways.
When I was testing these, I used lighter crunch settings, clean settings and very occassionaly a full gain setup. I excluded most effects so I could better focus on the tone. Ocassionaly, I would add some reverb and delay to get a feeling for how they worked in soloing situations. I mixed up different models with different amp setups so that I didn't become fixated on just one amp sound. Here are my findings:
1. The "Spank" pickups are the most versatile. They work nearly everywhere and almost always sounds great!
2. The DuoJet or "R-Billy Sparkletop" doesn't sound right to me with the "D'Almond" pickups. Slap on some "Tron" pickups and you'll hear how a DuoJet is meant to sound!
3. For my taste, the "Semi Pokerface" body with the "Semi Humbucker" pickups is a better ES-335 model than the included "Semi BluesKing" body.
4. For a biting humbucker sound in the bridge position, try matching up the "Tele Bridge" with a "Spank Middle" and run them in series either, stacked together or arranged like a double-coil humbucker.
5. The "R-Billy Tron" and "Chime Toaster" pickups have A LOT of character. They can sound amazing in the right context and like total crap in another context. Particularly, I like the "Tron" on Strat and Tele bodies. Your choice of amp and tone settings is crucial here!
6. The "R-Billy D'Almond" and "Lipgloss" pickups are my least favorite. They can be made to sound good with some work but they are less versatile. I managed to create some great models with both of these but it took the most work to get them right.
7. The P-90s are the least authentic sounding pickups to my ears. None of them quite nail the "soapbar" sound. However, the "Semi 90" on the right guitar body is a MEAN pup! To get closer to a soapbar tone, try adjusting the tone and volume resistance and capecitance. I found 500k and 1Meg to be the best with Capecitance set to taste (I prefer 47nf and 0.1uf in most cases). You can observe this in the presets I created though sometimes they sounded great in the stock configuration (depending on the body type) so I left them alone.
8. My 3 favorite pickup sets: Spank, Semi Humbucker and Custom Humbucker. My favorite body types: Spank, T-Model F-Hole and Special-Special.
I encourage you to run this expriment on your own. You will get to know these sounds very well and develop expectations for how certain combinations will work. There are true gems that are only available in Workbench by swapping out body and pickups types. Next, I am going to experiment with more unrealistic combinations to see what's possible outside the norm.
Here is the gorup of 7 bundles I created. Each bundle includes 12 different models with 5 pickup positions each. Please let me hear your feedback and if you are able to improve on any of these, do share your findings :-)
Enjoy!
Rich
Updated and re-uploaded zip file with new link
You are a champ for doing this! Thank you muchly.
I can't investigate your presets immediately, but I have downloaded the bundles and will go through them (with your notes as a guide) sometime soon. I'm sure I will find some new favorites.
If you do come up with some interesting things when you experiment with the "unrealistic combinations", by all means post those in this thread as well.
I'm gonna be trying all this on my Variax 600, but my understanding is that it is nearly identical to the results you are hearing on your JTV.
Great work. I'm excited to play with these new presets! ![]()
Thanks zeddd. I'm glad you find them useful. Please let me know what your own findings are? Also, if you can improve on anything, don't hesitate to share
i only sampled it... because there is much much good stuff! thanks for sharing...
so far i'm digging the ES335 stuff... sorry i don't have anything more specific to add...
just based on those alone though... i can't wait to dive in.
Rich, thank you for sharing all your work and your findings!
I'm away from my Variax guitar for another week or so but can't wait to browse through your bundles when I get back. Should be fun!
I learned a lot from the "Variax Editor Functions – Advanced" Manual. Here are some of the "Recipes for Success":
These examples use the Variax Spank model patch, for the neck position. Note that the available component values are not always exactly what you need, but the closest available values will work. Other models and pickups have different base values. For example, the Lester model starts off with 500k pots. These models will need to have their values recalculated accordingly.
#1 – Fat Spank [Make my guitar sound fatter]
1. Place two identical pickups in the exact same.
2. Wire them in series.
3. Double the tone and volume pot values (500k).
4. Cut the tone capacitor value in half (22nF).
5. Reduce the volume by 6db (6db).
#2 – Funky Rhythm Spank [Make my guitar sound thinner]
1. Place two identical pickups in the same exact position.
2. Wire them in parallel.
3. Cut the tone and volume pot values in half (100k).
4. Double the tone capacitor value (0.1uF).
#3 – Spank Lead Solo [Make my guitar sound more edgy, crunchier; make it have more
“spank”]
Increase tone and volume pot values (500k, or 1M).
#4 – Jazzy Rhythm Spank [Make my guitar sound smoother]
Decrease tone and volume pot values (100k, or lower).
#5 – Hot Rhythm Spank [Make my guitar sound fatter AND have more “character”]
1. Place two identical pickups in the same exact position.
2. Wire them in series.
3. Quadruple the tone and volume pot values (1M).
4. Cut the tone capacitor value in half (22nF).
5. Reduce the volume by 6db (6db).
#6 – Edgy Spank [Make my guitar sound have more “character”]
1. Place two identical pickups in the exact same position.
2. Wire them in parallel.
3. Double the tone capacitor value (0.1uF).
4. To make the sound even edgier, increase tone and volume pot
values (500k, or higher).
#7 – Smooth Spank [Make my guitar sound “smoother”]
1. Place two identical pickups in the exact same position.
2. Wire them in series.
3. Cut the tone capacitor value in half (22nF).
4. Reduce the volume by 6db (6db).
5. To make the sound even smoother, reduce tone and volume pot
values (100k, or lower).
#8 Super Smooth Spank [Make my guitar sound even more “smoother”]
1. Place two identical pickups in the same exact position.
2. Wire them in parallel.
3. Double the tone capacitor value (0.1uF).
4. Cut the tone and volume pot values to ¼ value, or less (50k, or
lower).
guitar4u wrote:
I learned a lot from the "Variax Editor Functions – Advanced" Manual. Here are some of the "Recipes for Success":
Wow guitar4u. You are on a roll with being helpful!
I was not aware of the existence of that "Advanced" manual. I spent a lot of time trying to gather resources many months ago and never came across it.
I just downloaded and read through it. With the graphs and explanations it really helps to make things more clear with what is happening "under the hood", and gives you good information to have before you delve into model experimentation. I love that someone took the time to create that document. I strongly recommend that everyone download a copy while the link is active and on this page before you!
Do you think Line 6 created this document, or a Variax fan? Excellent work.
zeddd wrote:
I was not aware of the existence of that "Advanced" manual. I spent a lot of time trying to gather resources many months ago and never came across it.
Do you think Line 6 created this document, or a Variax fan? Excellent work.
Tadd King – General Author, Compilation & Design
Yorkville, Illinois USA
Zeddd, there are more resources including some tricks for alt tunings in Variax. Check out the lot here.
I believe the manual came from here:
That's correct ![]()
I have not yet been able to simulate an EMG active pickup or, a DiMarzio or Seymour Duncan type of pickup which is considered "hot" and is typically, overwound. These pickup types are what you would associate with 80's style hair metal and "shred" styles. The Variax pickup models are very much in the vintage category so there are some inherent limitations. That said, the "Custom Humbucker" comes closest to this sound and can certainly be loud enough to overload the input.
The Variax Editor Functions – Advanced" Manual explains:
"The so called 'hot humbucker' available from third party pickup manufacturers, typically has a high resonance peak and a low resonance frequency."
So, theoritically you could use some combination of the formulas above to simulate a high resonance peak/low resonance frequency pickup. I need to experiment more to see what's possible....
I made some progress on creating the "Super Strat" sound with overwound pickups. I updated and re-uploaded the zip file (first post above). The sound has a bit more lower mid-range and better simulates extra windings. It's not quite exact but it's an imporvement
Here are the settings I changed:
Volume Knob Pot Resistance: 100k
Tone Knob Pot Resistance: 100k
Capacitance: 47 nF
If this setting is too beefy and you want to open it up more, try these settings:
Volume Knob Pot Resistance: 100k
Tone Knob Pot Resistance: 1M
Capacitance: 0.1 uF
I love this thread - Never occured to me to put pickups on top of each other. I put a custom humbucker on top of the standard and I think that is definitely a hot humbucker - like a super distortion etc - Perfect for my Vernon Reid moments
Indeed, you can combine two humbuckers in series and get massive output but things can get muddy and weird sounding pretty quick. I'm going to have to experiment with that more. I suspect that the right gain balance and volume/tone resistance could sort things out. I'll try your "custom" and "lester" combo and see what happens.
This Workbench software can become a rabbit hole the further ya get down into it ![]()
I made some progress on creating the "soapbar" sound and so far, I'm really liking the 335 or "BluesKing" using Semi 90, Special 90 and Jazz 90 Neck pups. Adjustments to resistance and capacetence go a long way here. The object is to get that quacky, open sound that P-90s are known for. I've also discovered a nice in-between setting where the volume knob resistance is set lower than the tone knob. For example, if 250k isn't sounding right together but dropping down to 100k is too much, then this setting would be the in-between of the two: Volume at 100k and Tone at 250k (see photo).
Here is the collection (set of 5 presets).
I'm liking it! Thanks for sharing guitar4u!
Thanks for posting these guitar4u. I have been working my way through them and there are some great sounds here.
I have nevery really had time to get into workbench over the years but I have learned alot from you posts and patches.
Keep them coming!
Cheers,
Jason.
Check out this thread for my alternative tunings presets ![]()
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