Beagle1

+1 on this. I found on my JTV59 that the mag pickups were very hot compared to the other guitars I use regularly. It took some experimentation, but by dialing the mags back a bit, and then boosting the volume a bit on the models, I found a happy medium with the volume levels between models and mags, and also the levels with my other guitars. To get back to the OP, I totally understand why L6 would not give any detailed info about forthcoming updates to their product line. However, given that the last major update for JTV Variax (the 2.0 HD update) was in mid-2013 (nearly 3 years ago!), it would be nice to hear something from L6 about the state of Variax development. Even a "yes we're working on something cool and will release it when it's ready" would give some hope to our faithful user base. I still feel like the JTV line has a lot of untapped potential so it would be a shame if what we've got now is basically the end of the line.

Thanks for doing that video! I agree with much of what you are saying and have reverted many, many times to 1.71 myself. In particular, I too find that the HD acoustics have far too much ambience built in to the raw tone. Sometimes this works OK, especially in very exposed sections of a song when there is not much else in the mix. But a lot of times I find that the drier sound of the 1.71 acoustics works better. I wish Line6 could give us a way to control the amount of ambient vs direct tone for the acoustics. In addition, I prefer the raw tone of most of the 1.71 electric guitars over the HD guitars. Yes, MAMBOJV, I really like the jazz bank in 1.71 -- it is almost useless to me in 2.21. Same thing with the 335 models. I almost feel that Line6 tried to model vintage instruments for the HD release and may have in the process captured all the idiosyncracies of these instruments. I'd rather have the basic tone of an off-the-shelf modern Strat, Tele, LP, 335, etc -- to me that's what the 1.71 models sound like. However, the tuning stability and palm muting on 2.21 are so much better that I have stuck with HD. In addition, being a Mac user, if I want to do any editing I am stuck using HD because the non-HD Workbench doesn't run on current versions of Mac OS. Here's to hoping that Line6 is hard at work on a big Variax update for 2016 -- it's been a long wait!

+1 on this! I may be wrong, but how hard would it be to just provide a "piezo only" model. Seems like it has been forever since L6 released the 2.0 "HD" Variax software -- August 2013 IIRC. There have been a couple minor updates since then but does anyone know if L6 is still actively developing the software? Wonder if there will be any Variax-related news coming out of NAMM this week.

+1 my JTV came with .10's. I would highly recommend trying .11's on it -- made a big difference on my guitar.

I've had a Korean JTV-59 for a little over 2 years now. Overall, I've been happy with the guitar itself. Like most Asian-made guitars, it can benefit greatly from a decent setup, some fretwork, and new tuning machines (I put in some locking ones and that really helped the tuning stability). With these enhancements, it is a really nice guitar. I like to take it to practice sessions, or to gigs where I might not want to take my expensive guitars (custom Strats, 335, etc), or gigs where I really need to do everything on one guitar (e.g. switch between acoustic and electric). My biggest disappointment with the Variax has been with how the modeling/software have been evolving. I thought it was decent enough when I purchased the guitar and it came with version 1.71. Since then, I feel like the 2.x HD models have taken a few steps forward (overall tuning stability and palm muting), but I agree with what RobDog03 said above that the modelled tones seem to have taken a step back in 2.x. I too find them compressed, and in particular some of the 2.x models like the 335 don't sound much like the real thing even with a lot of tinkering in the Workbench software. Yes, I could go back to the old 1.x models and I have done this on occasion. But then I can't use Workbench on my Mac running Yosemite. And I lose the enhancements with tuning stability and palm muting that came with 2.x. In addition, I'd really like to see more choices of models available in Workbench. For example, a couple different models of Strat would be helpful - a 50's model and a 60's model with beefier sounding pickups. I'd also love to see a nylon model, a ukulele, a bouzouki, and a Selmer Maccafferi (gypsy) model. I only hope that L6/Yamaha is continuing to work on improvements to the Variax models and Workbench software as the concept has so much potential. I think we are coming up on almost a year since the last Variax update. I know a new Yamaha Variax guitar was introduced at NAMM. Was there any talk at NAMM about future development of the Variax software?

Yes, definitely a +1 on both of those suggestions! :) Would be great to have more models that can be added via workbench, and I think in particular having 2 Strats (50's and 60's versions) to choose from would go a long way towards keeping people happy.

Not a good comparison - POD X3 and POD HD are entirely different hardware platforms so yeah of course they are going to be different. AFAIK, all JTV's are using pretty much the same processor and electronics. I do realize L6 can't please everyone but it seems like there is a pretty high percentage of users who don't like the 2.0 models. Maybe future JTV updates could try to address that in some way is all I'm saying.

I've tried both the 2.0 and 2.1 updates several times. I just can't force myself to like any of the HD models, with the exception of the bridge position Tele and Lester models. Everything else sounds thin or too hyped in the highs, with some sort of slight ambience in the tone which I really dislike. I keep finding myself going back to 1.71 as I prefer the non-HD acoustics as well. Would be nice if Line6 could give us the option of using the non-HD models but with all the other improvements that came with the 2.0 firmware.

I'm so glad someone else noticed this about the HD 2.0 models! I'm not sure if I'd call it reverb - more like some sort of very light room ambience, not unlike what you would hear running your guitar through a DTAR MamaBear or Fishman Aura acoustic processor. I have a 59 as well BTW, so maybe it is something related to that model rather than the entire Variax line. Whatever it is, I definitely hear it in the samples you posted. There is something just too crisp and sterile about the HD models. I really prefer all the 1.0 non-HD models and actually went back to 1.71 for a while because I prefer the older acoustic models as well. I wish there were a way that Line6 could give us all the original (non-HD) guitar models, but with the tuning stability, palm muting, and other enhancements introduced in 2.0 :-(