Waiting mine also, I'll edit this post when I'll be very happy or disapointed

You're welcome Denis.  I know I find it helpful when others chime in with their thoughts, so I'm glad my thoughts are helpful to you.  These guitars aren't cheap, so being on the bleeding edge for a new model can be risky.  But I'm game - obviously!

To answer your question about the 12-string.  Yes, I did try it on the JTV-89 I played in the store.  However, I didn't really scrutinize that aspect because I was just playing it through an amp (i.e. no compressor like I would normally push an electric 12-string through).  And anyway, I was mostly trying to test the playability (i.e. make sure it wasn't hard or foreign for me to play it like I'm used to playing my current guitars).  But from what little I heard, it sounded reasonable enough to do a song or two in a particular set and not be disappointed - at least to my ears.  If I was still donig an entire Beatles act though, I think I'd still want the real thing.  But a part of that is the looks aspect - never saw George Harrison playing a JTV-89F! 

Seriously, though, I'll admit, I don't have a lot of first-hand experience with how good the 12-string emulation sounds on the Variax.  But I have read a lot about it - it sounds like many variax owners find the 12-string emulation to be a bit disappointing relatively speaking.  If I understood things correctly, it sounds like the default settings for it makes the "extra" strings just a little too out-of-pitch.  As a woarkaround, some users seem to have improved on that by adjusting the tuning of each string using the software program that comes.  So maybe with a few tweaks to "true-up" the tunings it will sound closer to actual.  I have hopes that doing that will make it sound a lot better.  In context of a full-band setup, I'm assuming it will get me by - but only when it arrives will I know.

I do not know what to expect on the Graphtech/Floyd floating tremelo system.  I'm hoping it will work well.  If you've never used a locking system with a floating tremelo, it can feel like a whole new world (good and bad).  The good (for me anyway - if you get one that works well) it stays in tune really well.  I mean REALLY well.  Some of my Ibanez guitars seem to only rarely even need to be tuned from week to week.  they hold a tune through thick and think, dive-bombs, pull-ups, weeks in a case or hanging on the wall.  So, that's the good part. 

Conversely, there are several aspects that can be tough to get used to though.  For one, if you break a string on a floating tremlo system, everything goes out of tune.  That sucks - you seriously have trouble even finishing the song without sounding horrible!  And breaking in a new string seems to be tougher.  As it stretches, you have to make adjustments and that is a bit more involved than if it was not a locking system.  Once it is broken in, all is back to good.  But during that adjustment period (takes me about an hour or so of playing before I feel like it is done stretching) it can keep you from sounding good.  For that reason, I bring a backup guitar and will just switch to it to complete a gig - I don't even bother replacing a broken string during a gig on a floating system.

Another issue is altered tunings.  I play in A=440 and using standard tuning on all of my current floating trem guitars.  It is just too much of a hassle to try to change it on the fly (in my opinion).  That is one thing I'm looking forward to with the variax - the ability to use drop-d, half-step down, full-step down, etc.. with the flip of a switch.  Yes, there are mechanical products out there that can do some of that (i.e. the D-Tuna and such).  But all have a big gotcha for me and/or my guitars that I don't want to deal with.  So, the variax seems promising - maybe it will give me that ability and work well - we'll see.  I was just working on a new cover song today that our group will be doing - and it was all Drop-D tuning.  I don't want to bring even more guitars to the gig, so for now, I'm playing it in a compromised fashion.  Once I get the variax, I'll be able to play it "correctly" - can't wait to try it!

And you even have more challenges for changing string gauges and such.  Plus, on a floating system, when you bend the strings, you'll actually see the bridge responding to your bend.  So you end up having to bend a note even further to attain the pitch you were arming for.  On a fixed bridge system you don't have that problem - bends are a lot easier.  It can be a subtle thing to some, but it actually can be an extra challenge and anyone that's never experienced before might find it very undesireable.

Bottom line:  a floating system is simply more complicated to deal with.  I personally think its all worth it, but I thought maybe me mentioning that to you would be helpful.

Finally, since posting above, I found a different store in my area that had a JTV-69 (with tremelo).  I played it and LOVED it.  I almost thought to just buy it instead of the JTV-89F I've ordered - I liked it that much.  But, I kept trying to remember why I wanted a floating tremelo system.  I also like the more modern neck (the 69 has a lot thicker neck, like a 69 strat - thus the name).  And I really wanted 24 frets - just like that extra reach for a few things I play.  Or maybe even the idea of it!  But this JTV-69 played REALLY well.  Lots of sustain.  The non-locking tremelo stayed in good tune.  It was intonated perfectly (to my ears anyway) and chords just rang out even without plugging it in.  And it was gorgeous (tobacco sunburst paint job).  Thought that might help for you to know.  It gave me hopes that when my 89f finally arrives, that it will be in that same category for me (plays great, sounds great, looks great).

Update as promised...THIS IS LONG.  So skip over it i if you don't like long! 

As I continued to wait on the availability to order the JTV-89F, I went back and forth between choosing between the blood red color and the black one.  So, I did what anybody would want to do if given the resources - I decided to order one of each! I figured I could justify it since I sold off several guitars to raise more than enough funds to afford these 2 new ones.  Plus, I really like having a backup that is functionally identical, so I splurged.

They arrived in the mail from Sweetwater last Thursday (4/11/2013) and I've now had a few days to toy around with them.  So, I thought I'd share my impressions at this point.

The short verdict is... I love them.  They are gorgeous to look at.  The red one is admittedly a bit more stunning than the black (since black is black).  But both are as nice as I hoped. I've already grown to even like the headstock logo and literally everything about them.  Very happy!

I had Sweetwater change the strings to Elixer 9's when they did their setup.  Seems to have been a good choice and intonation appears really nice.

Other than the color, the guitars are 100% indistinguishable from each other to me (seriously).  So that is at least a good indicator of some semblance of quality control I suppose. They both play really nicely and stay in tune.  I could not find any manufacturing flaws with either of them.  The Floyd rose is as good as any I've ever owned (at least at this point and as far as this brief time has allowed to prove).  As expected, the whammy bar doesn't stay "in place" (it hangs down like many players prefer and that is normal). But I put a little bit of cotton in the mount and that gave it just enough friction to stay parallel to my strings like I prefer.

So far, I've only had 2 surprises:

1)  The action as delivered is just a bit higher than what I anticipated.  Not a lot - and it is still lower than average - but just not ultra-low like I'm used to.  The neck appears straight as can be on each, so I'm assuming I'll have no problem lowering it just a tad later when I get around to it.  For now though, I'm just using them as-delivered since it is still low enough to be enjoyable for me.  I might just learn to like it as-is - who knows.

2)  The magnetic pickups sound GREAT!  In fact, so nice that I've used them much more by far than any of the modeling at this point.  Not to say the modeling is an issue (its not), I just haven't really had the need to dig deep into it yet.  Even if I end up using the Magnetic pickups 90% of the time and use the modeling here and there for need, I will remain quite pleased.  I love the idea of having a great playing passive guitar that also has the versatility to do the modeling and alt tunings when desired.  And if I can make good use of the magnetic pickups, that can save battery life for when I do need the modeling or the alt tuning.

They both were delivered with the latest version of the Variax firmware.  Each connected fine to my PC via my HD500.  And I was able to experiment a little in Workbench with tweaking some of the model patches (an example, I prefer to tone down the Electric 12-string model so the sympathetic strings are a little bit more subtle than on the factory patch as-delivered).  And I also backed-up the entire set just to prove I could.  Easy enough!

They each came with:

• Gig bag - beige-ish in color - actually much nicer than I was expecting (generously padded).  But I have hard-shell cases for these new guitars, so the included gig bag will be put to use to maybe for some other guitars that need them.
• Set of Allen wrenches.
• Paperwork (manual, warranty card, inspected by card, etc.)
• USB interface and cable
• VDI cable (metal cannon type on one end, unprotected ethernet RJ-45 on the other).
• Battery with charger.
• Whammy bar

They sound really good to me. Again, at this point, I've by far relied on the magnetic pickups.  For any naysayers that claim doing so defeats the purpose of the Variax, I say: to each his own.  These guitars have to play great to be my primary guitars - and they do.  So, since the magnetic pickups sound excellent to me, they are ready to replace my old reliable Ibanez RG set of guitars that I've preferred for the past few decades - even if no modeling was included.  And as mentioned, the modeling and tuning functions are just the icing on the cake (albeit a FANTASTIC icing that has so much potential use for me).

Regarding the modeling...as I expected, the acoustic guitar models don't get enough justice being played through my electric guitar rig.  That is to be expected.  But they sound GREAT when played through a full-range system though.  I prefer to roll off the volume just a bit to tame a bit brightness and that makes them VERY convincing to my ears.  In my opinion, the Les Paul sounds are so convincing, I really have trouble thinking anyone could distinguish them from an actual Les Paul in a blind listening test.  Sure, they may sound a bit different from any single Les Paul (because those don't all sound identical either).  But the Les Paul models completely capture the nuances that I hear coming from a great sounding Les Paul.  I'm very, very impressed with that set of models.  And I love several of the other ones - some are more fun (banjo, resonator, sitar, etc..) while others will be practical for me to put into use (Electric 12-string).  What great versatility!

For anyone claiming there is no lag when using the modeling/tuning functions…I will say there definitely can be.  It is not really noticeable to me when using standard tuning.  But when tuning down, it gets a bit more noticeable. And the lower the tuning, the more noticeable the lag is.  I don’t think anyone else can perceive it, but the person playing can tell there is just a slight delay when the modeling plus the tuning functions are used.  It’s not enough to stop me from using it at all. But for some, it could be a deal-breaker.  I mostly would just be using either drop-d or 1/2 step down tunings, so the extreme down tuning would not likely be something I will need or use.  But to be clear – having played an older version of the Variax before, I kind of anticipated that comes with the turf.  There can be a lag.  Each person would need to determine if it is acceptable or not based on their needs.

One thing I was a bit worried about from reading other posts and prior to receiving these was how far the E string was to the edge of the fret bar (i.e. falling off as some reported - mostly with their JTV-69s it seems).  That does not appear to be an issue for me at all, so "all clear" there too.

It is still admittedly early and we'll have to see how things develop to make sure there are no surprises. But at this point, I'm very, very pleased.  And honestly, I'm ready to put even more of my guitars up for sale now knowing how much I'm digging these new JTV-89Fs.  The Epiphone Casino models allowed me to sell that guitar it sounds literally 100% identical to my ears and I just didn't play it enough to keep it having an option that sounds exactly like it (and stays in tune better anyway).  Similar story for the Rickenbacker sounds - while the 12-string may not be 100% identical, it is plenty close enough to fool me - especially in a full band setting which is the only place I'd use it.  And since these 89Fs are easier to play, easier to keep in tune, etc.., I could let go of my trusty Rick 360/12.  I thought I'd be sad about letting that old friend go.  But so far, I'm not (surprisingly!).  It mostly collected dust because I didn't use it enough.  And when I would use it, I'd have to fight to get it into tune, worry about gigging with it and it all just wasn't worth it for one or two songs a night.  Selling it alone paid for more than one of the 2 89Fs, so I'm pleased about it.  True, my 89Fs wouldn't look great trying to be a substitute in a Beatles tribute band, but I'm not doing that anyway, so I'm fine with it.

Bottom line - very happy and highly recommended!

Hope that helps someone out there!

Randy