scottjennings

The US ones are much more expensive, so typically custom ordered, and rarely on the resale market. The quality of the Variax Standard is a little iffy, but the other import models are really well made. Particularly the JTV-59. I was really impressed by its fit and finish.

I am currently transplanting and converting both a Variax Standard and a JTV-59 to lefty. The ridiculous thing is that the lefty recipient of the JTV-59 electronics was built in the same Korean factory as the JTV-59. My longer term goal is to do a short production run of left handed Standard bodies, so it will be a reasonably inexpensive conversion. We’re probably 3 months out on that project.

The Standard is based on the Yamaha Pacifica models. A Pacifica neck will fit on the Standard, but since they are basically the same neck that doesn’t solve the problem if you don’t like the neck’s feel. A Fender neck won’t work on the Standard body. The scale length is the biggest issue, but they also have different neck screw spacing/neck plate sizes. No one makes replacement Variax Standard/Pacifica necks. I looked into it while researching the lefty transplants I’m building for myself and a few lefty customers. Your best bet at this time is to have someone dress the frets and the fret ends, and set up the guitar to get a more pro feel out of the neck and guitar in general. You’d be amazed at what a difference this can make.