specracer986

Thanks, I'm not real familiar with the Standard. Nice looking overall, not just the finish.

Did anyone notice the email about this? It seems like an odd accumulation of features. It looks like an 89 body, but has three single coils and a 69 style tremolo. I wish they would have said which neck profile it has. If it's a 89 profile I'm interested. A 69 I'm not. Nice looking guitar though.

It sounds great and I want to mess around with what you guys are doing, for a recording patch. But I can't see me ever wanting to haul two monitors to achieve that live. Plus, no matter how good a particular sound is, I wouldn't want to use it all night. But I'm a tweaker, so I'm going to use some of your tips and see what I can come up with.

Truthfully, hearing how big of an update that we're looking at coming soon is both exciting and scary. This may be one that I hold off on loading until the dust settles. After all, I have no problem with my Helix that I'm hoping to rectify. I haven't even bought Native yet. I guess I'm turning into a ludite.

Do you guys use the two amp patches live or just for recording. I listened to the original video through headphones, so I really got the effect. It seems like you'd lose most of it live, unless you were going through FOH. Trying to hear it back on a monitor might change the playing dynamics.

Great use of all the technology. So have you uploaded this preset to customtone? I certainly would like to give it a test drive.

I'll try again tomorrow when I'm by the Helix. I doubt I held it for a full two seconds, so maybe it was operator error. I'm still dubious though. :)

I just renamed a set list on the Helix. I don't see any way of doing it in Helix editor. I'm on vrs. 2.21. Left clicking it just brings the drop down menu to choose a different set list. Right clicking does nothing. I'm using Win 7.

I don't mind tweaking to get what I want. I prefer Line 6 not do it for me.

Hey, they gave you custom wiring and didn't even charge extra for it. ;)

In hindsight, I wish I had ordered the vintage modern. I also have three Warmouth necks now, all modern. I had to pull the neck four times this weekend to get it set just right. It took me about 10 minutes each time. You concern about the screws eventually loosening seems very valid. The first time I took off the neck, the screws were really well seated. Not so much by the fourth time.

I had an interesting experience with one of my Warmouth necks this past weekend. This wasn't either of the JTV's, but was on a Strat that I have with a similar neck to the maple JTV, except it's full 25.5" scale. All three of my Warmouth necks have been ordered as "Modern", which has a two way truss rod adjustable at the heel and a fine adjusting spot on the lower edge of the neck near the 19th fret. This is my oldest Warmouth neck. The fine adjusting point is a box that is made by Gotoh. I've used it to make adjustments several times over the last two years. This weekend the Strat was buzzing a bit. The neck was too flat. I adjusted some bow into it, and let it sit a couple of hours. It still needed some more bow, I started to turn the fine adjuster counter clockwise, there was a small amount of pressure but pretty much the same as usual, and POP, the adjuster snapped and came out with the allen wrench. Now I need to pull the neck to make adjustments, just like a vintage Strat. Kind of a pain, but it does work. I just don't have the fine adjuster any longer. I never got any instructions with any of the three necks I've gotten from Warmouth, saying how to use this fine adjuster mechanism. I found a video that says, when the fine adjuster hits it's maximum point, you have to pull the neck, set the neck using the heel adjuster while setting the fine adjuster to it's mid point and then you're ready to start over. Unfortunately, the amount of back pressure I got from the fine adjuster wasn't enough to say it had max'd out. I'm not that strong, and it snapped pretty easily. Bottom line, if this had happened sooner, the necks on the two JTV's would have been ordered with the truss rod adjusted at the headstock. Live and learn I guess, but I'm a little afraid that it's going to happen again with one of the JTV's even though I know what to watch out for.

If you keep in mind all of the points that Silverhead outlined, you can still make good use of some custom patches as a base to work from. I have a bunch of patches from Freeman and Glenn DeLaune that I use and then tweak for my guitar, playback, song etc. Both of these guys do things with delays and other effects that I wouldn't normally think of. Some of the recent patches I got from Freeman, were outstanding, especially the one's related to Pink Floyd. He has that sound dialed in really well. But, if you think you're going to open a patch, hit a chord and instantly sound like your guitar hero, you'll probably be disappointed.

Glad you like it. It will grow on you as you get good at tweaking presets and creating the exact tone you have in your head. There's some things I find are actually easier to do on the unit than through the software.

No string buzz with either. Right now I have D'Addadario 9.5's on both, so I could get a good feel of the difference in the guitars. Both in string tension and sound. I'll probably move the 24.75" up to 10's when I change strings. I haven't had enough play time yet with the white 24.75", so I can't say that the scale length is making much difference to me yet. But sound wise, I really notice the difference between the two guitars. The mahogany / bubinga neck is much fuller and deeper sounding without being dull. The maple is much brighter and almost harsh. I'm having to work at taming the tone. But it's only been a week. Yes these necks are a bit expensive. But being able to order exactly what I want is worth it to me. Both of these necks had a lot of options like the Earvana nut, stainless steel fret wire, upgraded wood. The mahogany / bubinga neck came in at $550 and the maple at $450. But the mahogany neck guitar is my #1 and I'm into it for less than $1,200. So I don't consider that excessive in comparison to a good quality guitar that wouldn't be exactly as I want. I have no regrets. If I couldn't have changed necks on these, I probably wouldn't be playing a Variax at all.

Doesn't the gloss come back after you play it a lot? I know my one guitar that has a satin finish neck, is now completely gloss from playing.

I was a little surprised that I can hear a difference when using the guitar models. The mahogany neck is a little fuller and darker. Not a huge amount, but enough to hear for certain. They both have the same strings.

Here's a close up of the Birdseye Maple fret board:

Here's a closeup of the Bubinga fret board:

I just got my second Variax fitted with a Warmouth neck. I thought I'd show them both off since they're pretty different. The one on the left is a mahogany neck with Bubinga fretboard, SS6150 frets, Standard Thin profile, compound radius, Earvana nut, 25.5" scale length. The one on the right is Birdseye Maple neck and fretboard, SS6105 frets, Wizard profile, compound radius, Earvana nut, 24.75" conversion scale length.

If you leave the cap off, you can get rid of the fizz. ;)

This week I added my first external pedal to my Helix. An Electro-Harmonix C9 Organ Machine. This thing is so cool as a little extra spice for rhythm guitar. I doubt that Line 6 will ever emulate it. I wish they would and save me from buying the Key9. I'm tempted.

Nice unique demo Spikey. They sound very good, but truthfully a little dark on my playback system. They definitely have some warmth to them.

Crappy Spectrum connection. I have no problems here.

I rarely use the Tele model on my JTV69. It just never sounds quite right. The other night I was working on a Helix patch for the intro to Kryptonite and none of the Variax models were working until I tried the Tele, bingo perfect sound. I'm actually excited to get to rehearsal next week so I can show off how close I got with that intro tone.