clay-man

I've been using a Variax 600. I know the Variax is virtually noiseless, but it's my interface's fault when it comes to noise. There is noise even with moderate levels of gain, so I usually always have a noise gate on my guitar channel. The noise floor is about -80db on my M-audio fast track pro, and it rises up pretty bad when I add gain effects. Even if I have absolutely nothing plugged in to that input, there will still be a noise floor of about -80. I want something quieter than that. One of the main reasons I got an interface in the first place is to try to lower the noise floor, but sadly I didn't do enough research before buying an M-Audio, and I'm sometimes disappointed with it. Nice features, bad noise/signal ratio. I was thinking of getting an HD 500 for Variax features and maybe as a better interface, knock 2 birds out with 1 stone I guess.

That's why I use amp modeling though. Present modeling technology sounds absolutely amazing. I love messing around in Guitar Rig and Amplitube. I literally can get amazing tones without spending thousands. I got a Variax because I couldn't decide which single coil instrument to get, a strat or a tele. I saw Dustin Kensrue of Thrice sporting a Variax transplant and instantly wanted one, I got just enough money to buy an old 600 and I've been satisfied since. The alternate tunings are amazing too, because I switch between a LOT of tunings constantly, so now I can do that without having to buy a bunch of guitars for thousands of dollars.

Good luck! They're amazing guitars when you don't stumble across a defunct one. Hopefully when people do buy a bad apple they can swap for another one with ease. The warranty comes with every guitar right?

Hi. I was wondering if anyone knows the signal-to-noise ratio of a POD HD unit. I have an M-Audio Fast Track Pro, and the signal-to-noise ratio isn't the best in the world, and requires use of noise gates when using high gain amp software. I was hoping the HD500 has a good signal-to-noise ratio for clean noiseless backgrounds when I'm using compressors or distortion.

They definitely look cool, but the HD seems like an upgrade from the M13 stuff.

Isn't the M series basically a POD HD minus the amp simulation?

I've had the same problem with my 600. I lowered the action on it and it seemed to fix the problem. Try to do adjustments to lessen the choke on the strings. If it's still breaking strings, you might have poor piezos that aren't smooth and cutting the strings over time.

It really wouldn't be so bad if it didn't have double atrocity with the atrocious price and atrocious lumpy finish. Maybe people want to be able to plug and play, but I still don't see why not just pick up a good guitar that's 1/4 the price and search the tone you're looking for on the internet and just get that equipment and dial it in.

Question. Does the JTV use the horrible contact-to-bridge grounding technique that the original variaxes did, or does it have it's own grounding wires?

But the thing is, finding the tone yourself is what most people do with regular equipment already. The Firebird/LP X stuff can pull some decent stuff, sure, but I think putting mediocre hardware into the guitar isn't going to satisfy anyone. The person shouldn't have to rely on these sub par analog solid state distortion to get their tone. I'm not a big fan of analog solid state distortion. It always sounds really weird. Sometimes it's nice for unique tones (Ex: Big Muff Pi is amazing) but sometimes it sounds like garbage (Ex: BOSS Metal Zone). It's never really the best with doing tube-sounding distortion.

Sorry about your frustration. They're good guitars if you don't get a defect.

I'd probably want a basic butterscotch tele with a maple neck: http://www.guitarsandeffects.com/guitarimages2006/fender_52tele_03/52telecasterri_003.jpg I don't know why they don't have a tele JTV, I've seen so many tele transplants it's not even funny.

Woah woah man. I know they have Piezos, but last I heard, they're only using the piezos to emulate the acoustic sound, now the guitar sound. I believe they're using the mini humbuckers for all electric sounds, they're just highly configurable, like splitting, series or parallel. The problem I have with the X series is that it costs way too much for what it is, and when it comes to a versatile guitar, I wanted a telecaster and strat sound at the same time, so the Variax was obviously what I needed to get. The LPX doesn't specifically replicate guitars.

I'd, KILLLLL for a tele variax.

"Special Junior" with bridge at .89" and neck at 4.85", in series, in phase. I modeled it after my Davison SG with A/B comparisons. Was pretty spot on. A Les Paul Jr is a bit thinner than a Les Paul, and the SG is around the same size, so it gets rid of the excess chunkiness of an LP and gives it more bite. Sounds really great with high gain stuff and palm muting sounds great on it. Really nice humbucker tone if an LP is a bit too fat and chunky sounding for you sometimes. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21663288/workbench/SGnew.zip

So ghost saddles definitely help improve old Variaxes. I did hear some differences here and there, but I think the piezo quality really does set aside the differences vastly. I'm sure there would be a even more of a difference with the original LR baggs piezos. LR baggs is cool and all, but their Variax 300/500/600/700 piezos were pretty badly done. The JTV piezos on the other hand are very well done and I applaud them for that, right up their with the graphtech ghost system. As much as I'd love a JTV, I'll stick to me recently purchased 600 for now. I actually love the quality of my 600, it's just the hardware is outdated, obviously, but the maple neck and body are pretty amazing. I'd kill for those new acoustics and standalone alt tuning knob. I got a lot of custom guitars that I use, like an SG, Jaguar, Bass, and Fat Strat model, but I use a lot of alternate tunings so I have to waste pickup selector banks for same models that just have alternate tunings. I end up having to think which models I really want to use at the moment, but hopefully I can get a JTV in the future one day.

It looks like you're using ghost pickups on your 500. Confirm/Deny?

Their approach is remarkable. They know what guitarists want, and the Variax was executed amazingly. I can't stop pointing out how smart it was of Line 6 to use piezos, since piezos have a massively broad, flat frequency response compared to mag pickups. Before a mag pickup, comes the exact sound of your strings without any pickups or anything else coloring the sound. You want to record exactly how your strings sound when they're being played. A piezo captures the string's nuances and natural sound the closest compared to any other pickups. You basically pretend that raw piezo input is exactly your strings, and that the processor is your pickups and body/guitar emulation. Everyone didn't like the Firebird X, so I don't understand why they're pushing for a rehash. They need to overhaul their guitar and take their heads out of the anti-digtal mindset. It's such a cliche thing to say analog is superior to digital. It all depends on the execution, not whether it's digital or analog. That guy running Gibson is pretty stubborn. I love their normal guitars, but that guy needs to stop forcing the company to do bad choices like this.

I thought the guitar models were pretty amazing already. Though the original pre 1.8 acoustics sounded nice, it didn't sound realistic to me. Those where the only real thing I thought struggled a bit to replicate the sound. It sounded to me like a very nicely done piezo acoustic, but definitely not a mic'd acoustic. The new acoustic models really help the mic sound, though it's not perfect, I thought it was amazingly improved. Anything that's off can be probably bettered by some EQ adjustments anyways.

Sorry to hear that. I think you basically bricked your JTV, which is pretty awful to do. If you're returning the guitar, return everything else as well. Get a nice Workbench interface that won't fail on you when you update.

Don't they come with graphtech tusq nuts?

Firebird X was a major flop. A LP version seems nicer, but it's probably the same awful price and electronics. When it comes to modeling, I believe modeling is getting a variety of features for a cheap price, an affordable alternative compared to buying all the real equipment that it represents. The Firebird X was like 4-5k new. That is atrocious. It is against what I believe modeling is to stand for. The tonality of it is pretty poor as well. The design is awful, and I believe the finish on the guitars is poorly done if I remember people complaining about it. The excessive amount of controls is protruding as well. Fender got it pretty right when they teamed up with Roland, but Gibson, needs to overhaul their idea.

I use the martin dreadnought a lot on my 600. I EQed it quiet a bit to give it an even more realistic sound, or at least to sound like my acoustic when I play it in front of my AT2020. It sounds really nice, really almost like the real thing, maybe a bit of nuances off here and there, but it's excellent. I'd love the JTV acoustic sounds though. They sound a lot more realistic in sounding like a mic'd up guitar. Maybe a little bit shallow in the trebles than I like, but that is easily fixable with an EQ boosting the trebles. Either way, that's what my Acoustic EQ settings make the acoustics sound like anyways, kinda like the new HD Acoustics on the JTV 1.8 and above firmware. I like to use the others a bit. Jumbo is really nice, and the 12 string martin is lovely.

I am all over the place. I use the tele LP and a custom model I made called a Davison SG. I replaced position 2 and 4 in the LP model with a bridge SG in 2 and neck SG in 4. It sounds crunchier and bitier and palm mutes sound nicer. Basically the LP junior body with LP humbuckers backed up towards the bridge a bit.

If you're altering the mags to be closer to be loader, you will need to adjust your presets accordingly as well. That grittiness you're getting is possibly signal clipping. You can drive the models to clip as well by boosting the levels in the presets. There's no other way to do this by that. I mean, pretend that each preset is each pickup on your guitar. You don't just raise 1 pickup, but you raise them all. I personally don't like that as I want a pure clean tone out of my guitar. I let any of the distortion come from the amp or effect, not the dry signal itself.