clay-man

Hello, I'd like to try to weigh in on your problem. So, when I was cleaning out the inside of my 600, I was fighting with having the power to go correctly (scared the living crap out of me) but it was mainly due to the coffin sitting incorrectly within the cavity and touching things and causing grounding problems. My power supply also did not turn green. Sometimes there was sound but it was faint and staticky. I pushed the coffin down and it became green again, then carefully screwed it back into place. I did a few tests and it seems good now (knock on wood). Anyways, that could be one of the reasons. There's a LOT of complaints about the 300/600 coffin. It causes grounding and short circuiting issues. If nothing works, and you know what you're doing, try to work with the inside of the guitar.

True. I still play my SG from time to time, I think the reason I don't play it as much is because the 3 way switch is really messed up. I love all my guitars, but I obviously got the Variax for a reason.

+1 for MIDI Guitar. It's pretty great technology, but still then I kind of want a MIDI pickup just to have the cleanest tracking possible. MIDI Guitar is amazing but it still has issues sometimes.

Thank. you. I realize that the strat sound isn't perfect, but it's close from what I've heard. There are times where I think it sounds off, specifically in some video demos, and then there's times where I think it sounds spot on, like in Phil's demo. Perhaps some of you have an issue with your guitar? Either way, we get that you got a strat, and that's awesome, I love the real deal guitars as well, but you don't need to shove it down our throats and claim how much better it is for you.

Nice thread. I wish there was a solid response by a professional to why this happens.

Only went up to 11's. Just make sure they can fit in the grooves of the piezo pickups. If they're not seated in, the strings that aren't will lose volume and tone.

With Phil's clips I'm convinced. Even with that, the Mesquite body adds more quack anyways from what I've heard. Plenty of Strat sound for me. Maybe not for every strat sound, but it's there, and besides, that's what Workbench is for. I didn't like how the Tele wasn't as twangy as I wanted and that it sounded a bit too close to the strat, so I backed up the pickups towards the bridge. Sounds great now.

Like I said, because all strats are the same? No. The Variax nails the general Strat sound as I'm concerned.

Wish I could find videos of Ed O'Brian using a 700 in Radiohead.

With a Variax or just the Kemper?

Like I said, not all the songs sound the same at any means. You might like their newer albums. Try these songs: Anyways, got any Variax live videos to share?

Hah, how so? The heavy songs or the more quiet ones? Their music is incredibly varying. The first few albums were more punk/post-hardcore. The later 2 albums before that concert are more very experimental ranging from experimental rock, indie, post rock, and even electronica, some progressive and math rock stuff as well.

Yes but the 1/4 is Digital to Analog on the Variax, so it doesn't matter. Unless I'm missing something, Doesn't Rocksmith use a 1/4 interface cable into a guitar? It should use the 1/4 on the Variax just fine. Piezo or Magnetic, it outputs the same. Wonderful! Thank you. I've thought about getting Rocksmith for fun jamming with songs.

Hey, just a fun topic for the regulars. I'm sure you guys know some videos of Variaxes being used in a gigging situation. Post them here! Here's one of my favorite from the band that introduced me to the Variax. This is Thrice with the singer Dustin Kensrue using a Telecaster with Variax guts. I believe he tunes to D standard and uses modeling for other tunings and probably the songs that require a humbucker sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrXUbuhTOA4 Thrice was a Post-Hardcore band that expanded into a more experimental indie rock sound the later half of their career. Suggested songs: Firebreather: 1:24 Burn The Fleet: 20:59 The Earth Isn't Humming: 29:25 The Artist In The Ambulance: 35:20 Cold Hearts and Colder Cash: 42:34 Daedalus: :10:55 The Earth Will Shake: 1:39:45 Post any gigging Variax videos you know of JTV or old Variaxes, actual Variaxes or transplants!

Reading piezo pickups? The Variax shouldn't sound like piezo pickups after the modeling. I get what you mean, but the question is if the modeling is strong enough to trick equipment into treating it like a normal electric guitar. My biggest concern was the alternate tunings, I thought the modeling is probably fine. I have used Variax with that new polyphonic Midi Guitar VST and it works pretty decently.

Just wondered if anyone has done this. Rocksmith is basically the plug and play real version of Guitar Hero. I wondered how well the alt tuning works with Rocksmith as well. Might be interesting.

Personally what I did for right now is put some material in the side of the VDI jack so that the VDI cable fits snug without moving easily. Works but you can still pull it far enough for it to disconnect, just is hard to do now. I suggest you send it in though, I just did what I did because I don't have money for repairs.

Could be a faulty cable. Worse case scenario is that it's a faulty jack. My Variax's VDI jack allows headroom to the point where I can pull out the VDI far enough even when it's locked in that it gets disconnected from workbench. I hope that's not the problem for you.Try to switch the cable ends and see if that helps.

True, though I have to argue: Do you HEAR a comb effect in blend mode? One of the most common things people do when doing a blend effect with the dry and wet signal when the wet signal has latency, is add latency to the dry signal as well for compensation so it's in sync, Are you sure the guitar doesn't do this?

It's not really that bad. I'll give you an example. I use delays to fake double tracking, and even quad tracking in live/jamming situations. Sounds fine. No comb effect.

Yeah really, just a few lines of code that they could have left to let it work? Why alienate Variax gen 1 users?

It will if you're adding other latencies to it from your audio interface buffer. I have an 11ms buffer on my DAW (can go down to 6, but I leave it at 11 for CPU headroom or else it may start buffering with a lot of intense plugins). 11+5 is 16, which is pushing it. Alt tuning adds more latency. It's noticeable when I pay attention, but doesn't hinder playability. Would introduce rhythm problems if any higher.

Opened it yesterday. cleaned some debris out. Working. Time to play the waiting game.

Should I switch my interface to Line in impedance than? If it has a different impedance than a normal guitar, wouldn't that be harmful to the thing you're plugging it into or not?

Make sure there's no debris in there short circuiting anything. I opened my 600 today and noticed that the model selection was going crazy until I cleaned out some stuff. Right now it seems to be working better. You could be short circuiting something in the electronics to make it read stuff incorrectly. Make sure grounding is correct as well. Good luck.