well phil    opinions  are .... well a  smart  person  like yourself  knows  . everyone  has  there  own  opinion..   and  ive  always  said  they  make  a decent  product .   any  BUSINESS  person  knows  theres  always room for improvement   and  any BUSINESS   man   will tell you  there  only going to go    far enough  and  no further. wht  phil. because    its  about  profits.     BUSINESS   men phil also  take  into   there  plans   how much   of   a product  they  can put   on the  market  that will sell within a  price  range    that the  general public   will be able to afford

  this  is an example  of  what  i mean

  a diamond  encrusted  soper  variax  with  a solid  gold  neck.  1,000 ,000 . how many are  you gonna sell phil........

so  they will improve     to a point  where.  they casn sell the latest  one  make  some  money  as you say  and   wait till    the   excitement  dies  out    and  make  the  next   planned  improvement   so    they  can go another  round  of  sales.

take  microsoft  phil  as an  example  every  couple  of years   the newest  version of  windows  comes  out.

   how much more  do you get  for your  money.    while  your  ruching  to the  store   there    working on the nexxt  version  htere  gonna sell to you.

  thats    a  hort  and simple version version  of   how  business  works  phil

  as to why i personlly  arent  in business  phil

   finances    phil

tellya  what  though

  let  me  know  when  you  want  to back a  project  or  two  and  well go  partners    .  i got  some ideas  and    amnufacturing  experience.   i need  some  backing.      what do you say..........

when they   start  with   oh yeah....

  well you know the  rest 

Well, phil, I honestly did take your first two paragraphs in the post to which I responded as being rather presumptuous, but that's water over the dam.

I don't think that anyone (myself included), who would like to be able to buy a RackVax type of rig directly from Line 6, wants to start up a business to fill this void. Line 6 offers their POD products in several different physical configurations, ranging from the beloved bean, to floor units, to sophisticated rack units. I presume they can realize a profit from all of them, and that the products compliment, and not cannibalize, one another.

What causes you to assume that offering the same choice of configurations to Variax afficioados will inescapably extinguish Variax guitar sales? I think this is a weak link in your argument. A second weak link is that Variaxes are well-made guitars. I have owned 3 of them, and NONE of them was anything to write home about. The variax 700 made by Fuji-gen-Gakki that I owned for a number of years was by far the best-made, but - for the $1,750 I paid - it didn't deliver the playability I expect from an electric guitar in the $1,000-$1,200 price range (discounting the cost of the electronics). Others who now own JTV Variaxes have posted comments that echo these sentiments in great enough numbers to lend credibility to the observation.

I no longer own any Variaxes, since the advantages of the modeling technology TO ME are not worth the trade-off of having to play a second- or third-rate instrument in order to access it. I would, however, be prepared to either fit a hexophonic bridge to one of my Les Pauls, or to buy a Roland-ready Stratocaster that I could plug into a Variax rack unit. The way, if the Variax rack unit is superseded by newer technology, I don't have to contemplate ditching one of my cherished instruments, to which I have become accustomed, in order to keep current.

I would imagine that others who don't have as extensive high-end guitar stable as I am privileged to own might want to but a JTV Variax and be done with it, so a Line 6 guitar would, indeed, serve the hobbyist or "weekend warrior" market niche (which is large enough to merit its own product offering). Why Line 6 is so resistant to even discussing a varaint of their current marketing vector is beyond me. I can only surmise that they don't want companies like Behringer to knock off pirated copies of their Variax box, and feel that encapsulating the technology in a crappy, proprietary guitar will afford at least some protection, however transitory, from this threat.

It's all conjecture on my part, of course. What remains is that I can think of no good reason why any innovative, market-oriented company would refuse to dialogue with its prospective customers except, of course, unless the principal shareholder was Steve Jobs. Line 6 cannot aspire to the type of autocratic marketing success that has accrued to Apple, however, because in my opinion, their vision of the end-user's experience is incomplete and therefore flawed.

[Here endeth the lesson, let us sing Hymn #342...]

JellyWheat

phil_m wrote:

 

Puerile?  OK...

 

I was actually being serious.  I'm not trying to just denigrate his idea.  I happen to agree that if there were something that could match the modeling capabilities of the Variax in pedal form it probably would sell very well, and it would probably actually make the Variax itself obsolete.  I just don't see anything in the market coming close to that capability, though. Even solutions that use MIDI pickups suffer from tracking problems, and they still require some modification of the guitar itself.  So I think if there are people who insist on using their top-of-the-line guitars in a modeling situation, it means they have to do some sort of after-market modification still.

 

While it's not in pedal format, RackVax is the closest thing to a Variax pedal available. It does not suffer from "tracking problems" and plays just like a Variax. No modification to your guitar is required. A Roland GK-3 external pickup can be attached without any modification whatsoever.

jason367 wrote:

 

rackvax wrote:

 

RackVax is MIDI controllable / switchable and integrates into MIDI rigs perfectly.

So if I want to integrate with a G system, I can program patch 30 of the TC electronic G-system to use 50% telecaster sound coming from the piezo/modeling and 50% electric pickups of my guitar then footswitch to patch 31 for a guild 12 string model with completely different effects and amp routing with no electric pickup mix?  That's the type of midi control/integration I'm looking for.

 

 

With RackVax, you can switch between the Variax modeled sounds and your magnetic pickups using MIDI program change or CCs. Our switching circuit maintains the purity of your tone in both cases.

We decided against a blend circuit just as Line 6 did with the James Tyler Variax and opted for a true bypass because the purity of the tone was more of an importance than being able to mix the sounds.

     amen to that I LOVE my black on black Variax 300. It sounds absolutly incredible paired with my PODHD500. I just got it used a week ago for 275.00.

     Anyone thinking about buying an orginal used variax now is the time. There are not many left in the 2-300 price range. I searched ebay for days finally found the used one I wanted at a guitar center in New Jersey ( I live in Florida )

there is a guy in pennsylvania that does the variax transplants for a living.

Warmoth.com has an entire section of their site dedicated to building a custom guitar with your own Variax guts.