dwd1953

You're not alone, others including myself have also noticed this sort of banjo tone on all the Variax Standard models. I suspect its a resonance resulting from how Line6 captured and combined the impulse responses of the Variax piezo pickups, the modeled guitar's magnetic pickups and the models of the guitar bodies. This tends to sound exaggerated  after listening to a model that actually has those resonances. There are however a few things you can do about it.

 

1. Using Workbench and your DAW as a metering system, level the volume of the modeled pickups for each string. You will likely find a huge variation in string volume for every pickup of every model. These all have to be adjusted as the typical setup for magnetic pickups should give pretty uniform volume on all strings and all pickup setting. The reason for this variation is likely variation in the piezo pickups, and variation caused by the different pressures from the heavy wound vs. light plain strings. So your guitar might be quite different than anyone else's. You'll find that once you do a few pickups, there'll be a volume pattern on the strings that will be pretty consistent across all the pickup models. Write these numbers down and apply them to all the other models. Leveling the pickup volumes will make a huge difference in the tone of the guitar, providing more balance and allowing the higher harmonics to come through.

 

2. Try experimenting with different guitar bodies. Experience from my old Variax 300 seemed to apply equally to the Variax Standard models. The Masonic Plank body sounds a lot better to me on most guitar models. Its brighter, richer, has more sustain and sounds more natural, with less banjo resonance. I use it on the Tele, Strat and Les Paul models. To me it really made my Variax Standard a lot more useful.

 

3. Try different picks. I found that heavier picks seem to have more impact on the pressure sensitive piezo pickups, causing that odd banjo sound as well as a somewhat unnatural fast decay of the pick attack tone. Lighter, softer, rounder picks sound better to me. I prefer VPick Tradition picks, they're thick, hard, and easy to control. But these picks don't work well at all on acoustic guitars, or the Variax Standard and those piezo pickups. However the VPick Euro sounds fantastic. Picking a little lighter can help too.

 

4. Of course how you set the tone and EQ on your amp can also make a difference. It can't get rid of the banjo tone as that sounds like a 2nd order resonance. But certain mid boosts can accentuate it and make it worse. Use a 9dB boost at high-Q and sweep around to find the bad banjo frequency. Then cut a little there with a wider Q.

 

5. Use heavier strings, or the heaviest strings you can get away with and still play the way you want to play. Heavier strings will sound better, last longer, have better sustain, and are less prone to being over bent causing notes to go sharp or out of tune on chords. Heavier strings will couple better with pressure sensitive piezo pickups.

do you know how to move the 335 simi setting from my 300 variax to a JTV 89F?

Workbench HD,... is for JTV's with Firmware v2.00 or higher, and the new Variax Standards

which already come with the current v2.21 Firmware.

 

Any JTV's with Firmware before v2.00, uses the older Workbench.

 

 

amsdenj,... btw, a set-up was done to the Variax Standard, done to spec then adjusted for your

geographical location. Sorry it wasn't to your liking. If someone sends a guitar back and  they let me

know about some thing special like that beyond the normal set-up, I make a point to accommodate

where I can. 

 

Thanks for feedback, it's helpful, thanks.

how do I install my variax 300 models in to a jtv 89F? I really like the strat and 335 in the 300. the one in the 89 are thin

thank you for the help on this. so I need to go on the monkey and pull up the 1.9 firmware and install it? then the JT-89 will work on the old workbench? I could not get it to work on the old workbench  when I got it  and had to install the HD workbench.

i bought a variax 300 in 2006 and the guitar models are spot on. i know this because i own some of the modeling guitars such as a 61 Gibson 335, 59 Strat & les paul. i run  through a vetta 2 with the Marshall 45 set up.

i just bought a JTV 89F blood red. plays nice and stays in tune well. i bought it for the drop down tuning. problem is the guitars i use on my 300 sound way better, fatter and the 89f sounds are thin compared through the same amp and settings. i set the 89 up through the workbench with all the same set up as the 300 hoping this would solve the issue still thin.tried every pickup avalible on the hd workbench and still not close.

anyone have these issues? maybe a factory issue?

Just got the one in blood red for Christmas.

has anyone had a problem with the locking nut cutting into their finger when playing in the E chord position?

does anyone one know what the difference is in the variax 700 japan fujigen and the variax 700 japan C E?

the main display on my vetta II starts going dim after about 30 minutes. is this something that can be fixed or a line 6 part?

I just replaced my battery today. took the old one to Batteries plus and they took the point connectors off the old one and attached them on the new one.

didn't use soldier. then I just re-soldiered it back to the board. all up and running.

thank you. i'll check that out.

I got my Vetta II around 2003. it's been a great amp but I stored it in the road case for two months during Christmas and just turned it on. now it does not store my user favorite setting anymore. every time I turn it off and on it goes back to factory settings. also the LED read out gets dim after about 30 minutes of playing. anyone have these kind of issues?