clay-man

Sweetwater is a must when getting a Variax.

It's just a lot of swapping and trial and error. Think of the tone you want, and think of what combinations would sound most like those. It's how I did my patches. When I thought about what the old Jaguar patches were missing, I thought it needed more bottom end while having the highs pronounced, so I swapped a Les Paul body, and it worked great.

Check in workbench to make sure you don't have parallel pitch on. That can detune your guitar strings. Make sure there's no warble either. That can give the illusion of it being out of tune. Make sure you're not getting any ghost notes when playing a note. This is when string vibrations bleed into another piezo pickup that is alternate tuned differently than the string the vibration is coming from. Basically it's having 1 sound pitched differently and the other pitched differently from that, so it sounds like 2 notes. Make sure you're not hearing the actual strings while you play. Turn up your amp or use headphones if you can hear your physical strings, like when it's unplugged. And the obvious: make sure your guitar is actually in tune.

True. Like I said though, the biggest problem is the noise floor. Once the note gets low enough you'll start to hear the background noise of the guitar. The Variax is an extremely quiet guitar when you're not playing anything, but even that has it's noise floor. Another thing I did, was back my magnetic pickups off a bit when I got my Variax. They were too high for my taste, and notes were dying off like crazy, only lasting 1-2 seconds even with distortion on the unwound strings high on the fretboard.

Yeah, I think the main problem is trying to use the Strat model with that guitar. I mainly would restrict myself to one guitar model per song, but I donno. Could always use the Custom banks for the old fashion intention of placing favorite presets close to eachother as well.

Probably because it might be more difficult to satisfyingly model a nylon guitar. Making a steel string instrument emulate a steel string instrument is easy, making a steel string instrument emulate a nylon string instrument is more difficult. We'd either be happy to have a nylon-esque sound, or be complaining about why it doesn't sound better. Personally I'd like to hear them try, at least give us another tonal palette for an acoustic guitar.

string volume inconsistency is something that has been complained about with the HD firmware for a while. You have to level out the strings either globally or by a patch-by-patch basis. If you think the signal is too low after you balance them out, then boost the patch level up.

Use compressors. They will push the volume up without allowing it to clip, making quiet instances of volumes be louder and give the illusion of more sustain. Once the volume goes below the noise floor, or the actual time the vibrations of your strings stop, you're out of luck. Sustain ultimately depends on your guitar's setup.

It is a problem with the 69 JTVs, not the old Variaxes. The Old Variax is a through-body system with the trem block, just like other Strats, but the JTV strings from the front with holes in the bridge, and the cavity the bridge floats over has a route to the Variax guts, so the ball ends could essentially break into the cavity, then find it's way into the route and into the guts cavity. Very bad design choice. Next time I string up my guitar, I might just tie the ball ends to the saddles with thread because of this.

I'd love to get a 59, it's just the way you change modeled pickups seems frustrating.

Actually, suggesting Line 6 to fix things that they have the power to fix does do something. We have the right to complain about getting an inadequate guitar.

That doesn't mean that problems like the piezos sounding off, the knob coming off, and string resonance issues can't be fixed. These are so easy to resolve and yet they don't do Quality Control over it? You realize I'm not trying to bash Line 6, I'm saying they should fix what they can obviously fix to lower the failure rate, and a lot of them are from that piezo issue.

Yes it does? I just said that having a guitar failing so soon is ridiculous and that the failure rate should be minimum, virtually non existent. Just because the failure rate may not be high, doesn't mean it's also not low enough than it could be. I'm saying the guitar should have the same failure rate as any good high end computer products should. I don't hear much about other products crapping the bed, but maybe that's because I'm on these forums? Either way, there's still a lot of Quality Control issues that could EASILY be addressed and fixed, and they're not.

Because I never said the failure rate was high, it should just be virtually non existent with this type of product. Why buy a car when you'll have to repair it later on? Why get a computer when it'll get dusty inside and slow down the hardware overtime?

Well, the problem is quality control. It's not just Line 6, but the entire consumer product world. It could be the components that Line 6 uses, like you said, just "not made like they used to make them". The thing is, spending 1k on something new you'll have for only a few years is asinine and ridiculous. If it can't last that long, then it shouldn't cost that much.

Yeah, they're the same saddles as the string savers.

Being cased inside the saddle might help reduce the plinking sound I guess. I might install these on my 600 one day, but first thing I need to do is try to get the 1/4 fixed on mine. Strings have been breaking a lot on the saddles, and I've tried to sand them to get rid of burrs, but it's just not working out. I'd like to have my 600 as a backup to my JTV.

I use Elixirs. Maybe that's why I didn't notice it at first, because I left the D'addarios on for a bit. I prefer to use Elixirs so the modeling quality doesn't die off, because we all know dead strings on a Variax sound awful.

Anything that'll touch that part of the string to prevent it from ringing will fix the problem if you have it on your guitar. At first I thought it was the headstock area, but I put a pick holder on the strings there and it was still doing it. I thought it was the whole bad piezo thing, but it was actually that small space of string hanging between the saddle and the bridge that can make an unpleasant sound via sympathetic resonance. I was really happy to find that out honestly because it means I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Yes. It works wonders. The plinking noise was worst on spank, and was louder the lower the alternate tuning was. I put the tape on the string there and I hear absolutely no plink in spank baritone, which would be the worst I hear it.

These parts can make a noise if you pick it with your pick. The G string on mine was pronounced when I picked it, and it sounded exactly like the sound that the G string was making when I picked the string normally. Putting a piece of masking tape around that part of the string made the noise go away.

Yeah. There's Levels for the presets, and there's levels for the individual modeled pickups.

the space that slopes from the back of the saddle down to the bridge plate where the ball ends are latched to. if you pluck it with your pick, it will make a sound. If you have the problem I did, that sound will be pronounced. Plucking the G string made that part of the string resonate, giving it a plink sound in the attack. I could also hear it resonate when I slid across the frets on that string. Putting tape on that part of the string completely eliminated the problem, just like in one of the pictures of the guy putting velcro on his 59.

You can adjust levels with workbench, yes. Another thing to consider is your pickup height of the magnetics.

Hello, so, I've had a problem with my Variax that I haven't told yet and kept low, and that's a ringing noise on the G string. I thought the piezo was oversensitive, but that's not the problem at all! It's the space between the saddle and the bridge, and the string that's left open makes a high pinking sound. Wrapping tape on that part of the string killed the pinking noise completely!! Maybe this is also related to the E plinking noise. I highly suggest if anyone has plinking noises on a string, try plucking the string behind the saddle and see if it makes a similar sound. I hope this info helps!