clay-man

The HD acoustics worked with the old modeling engine but I still don't bank on them putting in the old models. It's a waste of space, honestly. I get that some people like 1.9 more, but I think it was time for Line 6 to move on. Having that much more horsepower and no real overhaul of the modeling is just a slap in the face to Variax users, so I'm glad they finally got around to making new gen modeling. It's been 10 years, there's been massive improvements in technology. I frankly like how more crisp the new modeling is, probably more accurate too. It's what gives the JTV the edge over the other modelers out there. I really am happy Line 6 keeps pushing itself further despite people being fine with what they had before. Can you imagine what it'd be like if they didn't? Look at BOSS, all their stuff sounds embarassingly outdated, their modeling sounds tinny and thin, sounds like it's uses the same technology it has 10 years ago. They had that much time and yet they refuse to upgrade their equipment to utilize better more realistic technology.

For sure. I think the technology is good, I just think it's probably some of the guitars they're modeling. I know the guitars they used aren't the ones from the original modeling, so it's obviously going to be different from the old firmware. They could model some other versions of those guitar models and maybe add in completely new guitars. Still waiting for a Jaguar and Jazzmaster. As for whoever stated the 300 and the JTV sound the same, the modeling is the same. MAYBE tweaked, but it's the same. The different is because of the piezos in the JTV being higher quality than the old Variaxes.

Still, it would hold back any future progress of the JTV. I'm sure it they can't afford to have 2 sets of modeling in 1 firmware. Besides, I would prefer they include more models that you can add via Workbench. I would suggest them to add another strat to the mix, instead of add the old one back. Maybe a more modern strat?

Can't please everyone. It 's like asking them to make a POD X3 have the features of a POD HD. It's not going to happen.

By not being so rude and entitled.

Are you tuning down by the tuning feature or by physically retuning the strings? It shouldn't do that. You might have the half step down tuning have parallel pitch on. As for physically tuning, there is a limit of how low you can detune the strings until there's not enough tension for the piezo to pick up the vibrations properly, so if you're tuning down and it sounds weird you would need heavier gauged strings.

Congrats. If you can't use the forums constructively I'm reporting you.

They should change the default string volumes to be more balanced so maybe people will stop complaining.

Kinda wish it was vintage tint on the JTV69. Looks great on my 600.

Looks like someone forgot they're on a 12 string model haha

I don't know how different each string is modeled from one another, but if it's a lot, then it would be a big deal. Even for me it's a big deal regardless.

Really. I agree. Don't post a misleading title then put what you really mean cryptically in the post. They don't have lefties no, I'm sorry about that, but do you really need make a title like that as some type of way to state your self importance?

Very weird. If they were wired in reverse that means the modelling is off too. I strongly believe each string is modeled differently than the other, especially since we can do angled pickups.

It might be a problem sadly.

The Variax HD firmware is supposed to sound crisp, yeah. How is that a bad thing though? It captured the high frequencies of the guitars it's modeling more better than the old Variax, which people say sounds like "taking a blanket off the speaker".

Glad to see someone understands what I'm going through. The old variaxes are awful with pull offs on alternate tunings so I have to adjust my playing a bit to compensate which sucks. I still really really love the guitar, but this is yet another reason I want to upgrade to a JTV. I'll still love my 600, the look and feel, but the electronics are outdated and I'm a person who sees the newer features as a must, in fact I got the 600 more or less because I can't afford a JTV and to test it out. I knew I'd like it enough to get it without try-before-buying, but like I said, I mainly wanted the JTV originally, and I still do.

Hi. I'm bumping this because I have an interesting concept I'd like to share on the whole palm muting issue. I'm not sure exactly how much palm muting has been resolved, if whether they only fixed the dynamics, or the frequency response. On the topic of frequency response. Do you know why palm muting sounds the way it does on the Variax? I think I personally figured out why. You see, when we palm mute on a regular guitar, where do the pickups sit? In front of the palm: Now, on a Variax, where are the pickups for the modeling? In the bridge. Where is the bridge when you palm mute? Behind your hand. What does this mean? Well, a regular guitar's magnetics can hear the strings better than a piezo on the Variax. Basically I think what's happening is that our hands are muffling the strings from the pickup being able to hear it correctly when we palm mute, which kills a lot of the high end from palm muting, which is why it sounds so smooth and compressed on a Variax. I have a demonstration I want to show, when I am essentially palm muting regularly, and then palm muting at the nut with my fingers. Notice how when I use my fingers, the high end and clarity is there, almost like the palm muting problem is completely gone now! This is impractical to do though, as it's very difficult to palm mute with your left hand when playing on something other than an open string. In this demo, everytime you hear an unmuted chord or note, it means I switched palm muting techniques. First starts out with regular at the bridge, next is at the nut, and back and forth. You can hear the clarity when I do it at the nut. http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21663288/Music/variaxpalmmuting.mp3 So how can we resolve this? Well notice, at the very end, it sounds clear when palm muting. Am I muting at the nut? No. I switched from Les Paul to a Tele sound. So what does this mean? I think if Line 6 could detect when a note is a palm mute, they could add some type of compensation filter to raise the highs when you palm mute, giving it a more natural sound. EQ all the frequencies that get mangled when passing through your palm to the piezo. I'm not sure how much Line 6 has already applied this since the palm muting update, but I think it's a very good idea. It's a very practical solution. What do you guys think?

It's possibile the organ sound is just the guitar pitch shifted and put through some type of frequency change.

Which is what makes me question what would interrupt the signal like that. The coffin problem was from short circuiting things right?

Well, I'm sure the JTVs aren't assembled like my 600, but mine has a coffin, and when that is grounding incorrectly, it would override the model knob and be stuck on 1 model bank.

When I opened up my Variax to fix something, it was having problems with the model select knob and essentially reading 1 bank permanently due to a grounding problem with the coffin. I fixed this by cleaning some stuff up. I assume something in the electronics is having a signal or grounding issue with the tuning knob like my case. I'm not really sure about a solution though. Have you tried going into workbench and changing the drop D slot to a different tuning?

You'll still get feedback from resonance sympathy. It will still vibrate your strings regardless of what pitch they are.

Forums will accept mp3s and post them in a player. Use dropbox if you have it. If not, get a soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/ upload the audio and then share the links. For pics, upload a picture a site that can host them, then when you're posting, click the photo icon with the tree in the top area where you're posting, put the url of the image in and it should show up. Hope this helps.

Of course it cares. The audio you hear out of the guitar is 100% the audio you hear for your strings. It is 100% signal based audio, and the way it emulates bodies and pickups is by putting the incoming audio processed by convolution captures of the actual pickups and bodies. It's why they use piezos, because it's the closest thing to the sound of your strings raw without the pickups coloring the tone. In a sense, the Variax is extremely reliant on the sound of your strings. Without the piezo pickups, it cannot make the guitar sound like a humbucker, a single coil, or any of the other nuances it needs. I actually tried acoustic strings on the Variax once, and since it's piezo and not magnetic, it will pick up the sound. The sound ended up very different. Electrics were unusable. Acoustics actually sounded better though, because, it's acoustic strings. I actually made an audio sample demonstrating the difference between Modeling (Variax) and MIDI (synth or sampling). A MIDI guitar is what doesn't need to know the sound of the strings, but the pitch and velocity. https://soundcloud.com/clay-man-2/guitar-modelling-vs-guitar-midisynthsampling First clip is the Variax, second is the same clip going into Audio-to-MIDI. Third is Variax on the left speaker, and MIDI on the right. You will hear why the Variax is not a synth guitar, midi guitar, or anything like such.

Yeah. But like I've said, I wouldn't think using standard reverb is appropriate for emulating the guitar vibrating. They might of just used the same convolution stuff for it. It would be more appropriate anyways, to be using an impulse response. Either way, I think this reverb is more of a problem with the guitar, not the modeling, or else we'd have a lot more people complaining about it. In his samples I couldn't hear any reverb. Do take note though, that any ringing could be sympathetic resonance in the physical guitar itself, which many people have complained about, which is due to a possible bad setup. Speaking of sympathetic resonance, like I've said, they also emulated the strat springs and bigsby ringing thing. I'm not sure if that's still there in the HD firmware, but it was in the old Variax. I can understand the bigsby, but emulating the strat springs is just ridiculous in my opinion. They should have put dampeners on the springs of the guitar they're modeling. No one likes ringing tremolo springs on a strat.