enghell666

All good, mate. :) Oh, and I was going to add that I bought my JTV purely for recording with and adding a different tone palette, so I will probably never use the pickups in mine, since I've got other guitars with better pickups for what I'm doing, so for myself I could definitely go without having any pickups at all.

I get what you're saying but I still don't get why you're saying it. I didn't buy a JTV because of the pickups in it, but as a backup if the battery fails (not everybody is using a HD500 either) (or if the electronics fail) while you're on stage and instead of standing there with a piece of silent wood, you've still got a guitar to finish the gig with minus some options of course. I've seen this comment before about how useless the pickups are, see them as a backup instead of some sort of main feature. And to be honest, I thought all the pre-JTV Variaxes just looked weird and kinda ugly because of the lack of pickups. :P

I just bought my Variax yesterday and I actually made the Firmware update as soon as the battery was charged, so I didn't even try any other Firmware, but regarding to that Youtube clip the new Firmware sounds much less muffled and more clear and real to me than the 1.9 version.

Just got my first Variax yesterday and while it's really too early to actually say anything about, I still want to. It's a black JTV-89, Korea made and since it's so ridiclously cheap (5799 Skr= $890) and it was so easy to install the USB thing, the new v2.0 Firmware, adjusting the bridge for a little lower action AND the sound, I still have to give it a 4,5/5. It's an amazing piece of technology. It's not a metal axe, but I've got other guitars for that, and it's not a top notch premium guitar when it comes to details and so, still the neck is really nice (bought this one without trying it, tried the 69, but hated the neck), and for the tone palette, it's just awesome. :)

While it's not my style at all, what you did is very creative and cool. :)