chainsawdave

Hi Lophin Good for you for having a go. As is mentioned, it's a warranty buster and if you fry the MB you will struggle to find spares. How do you find life with the controls on the top and the lead in the wrong place? I'm working on making a lefty JTV-59. Which I think might be less hassle than the JTV-89 or the standard. I have already done a Standard which plays beautifully.

Yes, a year down the line still loving it. Had a couple of issues, battery drain, turned out to be the switch that tells it there is no jack plug inserted, the other issue was a dry joint... My bad. I'm playing with a 59. I've had a few ideas for modification. :)

Nothing is impossible:) I love my lefty Variax standard. It's now my main guitar (LP Gold Top, Fender Stat, Fender Tele, Resonator and Aria acoustic all in the cupboard). I also bought a right handed JT 59 which sounds great. I plan to make it lefty. I think it will be easier than the standard. However, it depends how handy you are and how much you will cry if it all goes wrong. As you will see in the post its not as easy as you might think and there is a risk you will break it (or it will sound crap) and Line 6 will not fix it for you. However, for me it was worth it and thanks to some of the folks here and in other places I have a blueprint for what to do and what not to do. I'm not in a place yet to industrialize the process. I have also got my hands on a Fender VG which plays well but I'm not sure the models are as good. That one I plan to convert to lefty too. The routing is way easier and I plan to get rid of the piezo bar in favor of a similar set up on the Variax. As I say, I learned much and nothing is impossible.

I voted:)

Hi Thanks for the props:) I have some pictures. The Standard seems to be more spread out than the 300-700s. There is a GUI wiring harness, the digital and analogue socket and a motherboard all in separate pockets in the guitar. I've not played with a JTV. Would like to get my hands on one to compare the differences.

Glad you said that the pictures were not JTV. I thought I didn't recognize them. That's a lot of wood to remove.

Nice job welcome to the club:) I'm loving my Lefty Variax.

Hi Endury101 Charlie is right. You can't just turn them upside down. But it is possible if you want to take a risk and void the warranty. You can see a few pictures of mine on twitter. @nofretlefty or search on the hashtag #leftyvariax. It was worth the effort I love the guitar. Happy to help if you want to give it a go. I've created a pattern for the pickguard and am working on the routing patterns so any reasonable woodshop could make a body. Also, I have another project up my sleeve for us lefty's. Out of respect for Line 6 you will have to PM off line.

Hi I'm a Variax newbie. Your post is really helpful. I have a buddy with an older Variax and he told me the same about upgrading the firmware. The newer stuff tracks better. I haven't done it yet because mine is only a couple of years old and I love it the way it is, but as I get more confident I will play with the setting some more. Enjoy one of the greatest guitars ever

Hi I have done it. It's possible. However, the Variax is a bit thicker than a cheap strat. Now I know why. Not much wood left after you route out the space for the electronics. Have a look at my other posts. Also, you need a new pick guard, a modified left handed bridge tray and if you try it with a strat you will need to modify the battery box as the body contour means that area is too thin. That all said. I LOVE my Variax. I use it with a VoxVT 20 into the PA between the two I have most everything I need to gig. I'm getting on in years and I'm done with lugging heavy equipment and lots of guitars.

Hi Blobbragg Not sure if I can post here. I have a couple of pictures on my Twitter account. @nofretlefty Ping me there and if you want more I'll post some more. Thanks for your interest:)

Thanks psarkissian. Much appreciated. I'll reinforce your point about the warranty. I've hacked a few things in my time with the knowledge I could not go wah-wah wah back to the manufacturer if it went wrong. I think my learning is it may be better to build a bespoke body from the start rather than retro fitting into another guitar. The Strat was a good choice for a proof of concept but mine was a tad too thin which contributed to much of the headaches. Not much wood left in the guitar When I have time I'm going to try making a body and then transfer the guts. This will make the routing easier plus this will avoid the modification I had to do on the battery box. That all said, I jut love playing this guitar. The ability to flick between standard tuning to open G is great especially for Stones covers:)

Yes it can be done, but not for the feint hearted. However, I got mine going today and I love it:)

Dear all I know I have been posting and promising a lefty Variax... well today the beast lives! Pretty much everything psarkissian says was true especially if you line up all his posts. I will try and document what I did. In case anyone wants to do the same. Have a lot of things I learned. In my case the strategy for the electronics was dead straight forward. Only swap the piezos to make sure they go to the right pin. I had to extend the wires which are very fine and if you screw up, you are done. Also, you just have to put up with the fact the selector switch will be back to front if you don't want to get into reprograming the guitar.What tripped me up was the routing of a squire strat I bought to drop the electronics into. It was way too much for my wood working skills and I took it to an amazing Luthier. (who told me never again would do one of these :D) If I were to do it again, I'd custom make the body in two halves and cut holes for the electronics and then glue a back to it and shape the back afterwards, save trying to route anything. The Variax is everything I hoped it would be. I'm happier than a porcine in excrement :D

I had not seen this forum before as I have posted on the Line 6 ideas forum. I'm a left player and would LOVE a lefty variax. I'm also in business and can agree with all the posts that say the demand will drive the wiliness to make a left handed version. I've researched the demand and found out a few interesting facts. Handedness is on a spectrum which is why the numbers in the literature vary from 4% to about 30% (from memory). The most widely quoted range in the general population is 10-15%. However, left handedness is over expressed in people who gravitate towards the arts, math and architecture where the figures are in the 20-22% range. So lefty musicians you are not alone:) But there is more. On average, lefties make more money, oh so now maybe there is more interest. Appling these numbers to publically available data from NAMM on number of guitar players and purchase patterns of electric guitars there is a sizable market. I have modeled it! On the technical side of things. Those who say there is more to making a lefty Variax are correct. However, it's not impossible and I'm working on it. Yes the piezos have to be routed to the correct pins which requires swapping them around. I just extended the wires coming from the piezo and soldered them to the correct point on the board. If I was to industrialize this the easiest thing would be to make up a new connecting cable. The bridge needs to have a left handed plate if you want to keep the tremolo and so holes need to be drilled for the wires. Mounting the controls etc, does require the production of a dedicated scratch plate. Right now mine is a piece of cardboard. I choose to use a Squire Strat as a donor guitar as my wood working skill are not good enough, plus I wanted to get as close to the Variax Standard as I could just in case the wood effects the tone. My next challenge is the routing out of the body to accommodate the additional electronics and battery. I need help with that or a nice person with a drill mill in the NJ area:) I think one of the challenges we have is to speak with a single voice. Across the line 6 message boards there are multiple threads calling for a left handed Variax. All charged with different levels of emotion and passion. It would be great if everyone who is interested post o the ideas forum as this will give Line 6 am idea of demand. The project has been slow as I don't get much time but I hope to make some progress over the holidays between recording, family and the usual chores. Peace