BillyQuan

Hey thanks, I will definitely look around from now on. I have learned to do a basic set up, but doing intonations on FR still seems like a big pain.

As for Variax roadmap, thought this press release from March was interesting, also might explain why there has been no release activity on Variax, looks like Yamahaa and Line6 have been busy integrating they Guitar divisions into one. Sounds to me like they are doubling down and investing, should be exciting to see what comes out of that?

I should point out that is Canadian, including HST tax. So closer to $300 USD. A typical setup by the same shop is $95 CAD ($70 USD), but for a Floyd Rose set up they typically charge around $300 CAD ($230 USD), because FR is very time consuming. What's market for an FR setup where you live?

Great list, but for me the priority would be improved tone modelling, particularly when playing through Helix/Headphones. I notice when playing my JTV-89F through Helix/Stagesource it sounds really good, although for some sounds the magnetic pickups sound a bit better then the piezo. But when playing through Helix/Headphones (Senheizer HD600), I find the piezo sounds terrible, whereas the magnetics sound fine. Not sure if anyone else has noticed that. By terrible, I mean artificial/digital/not warm. Also I found when I bought my JTV-89F brand new, and went to get it set up, the tech needed to shim my nut because the action was too low, cost me $400 for the first setup. So I think there are some build quality issues, would love to see Yamaha made guitars with Variax electronics, as they have a better reputation for build quality. And finally, the dream would be if Yamaha licensed the Variax electronics to other guitar manufacturers so one could get any guitar with the modelling capabilities.

HI All, I know this thread is a little dated, but I think one important aspect of getting good sound out of the Variax got overlooked. I recently purchased a JTV-89F (upgraded to latest firmware 2.22), I plugged it into a Blackstar practice amp, as well as a Mesa Mini Rectifier / Mesa V30 1x12 cab. I got the exact same poor results as the OP, the JTF-89F using mag pickups sounded great and the models sounded like crap, I also compared to a Strat and LesPaul, and both those sounded way better on both amps than the JTV models. Then, 1) I got a Helix (still did not sound great out of the box), I was using headphones as output initially 2) I upgraded the Helix firmware to latest (Nov 2017) and stock presets - big improvement in sound 3) Then I got some of the really good custom presets from CustomTone - massive improvement in sound 4) Then I got a Line6 StageSource L3T FRFR speaker, and the result is now my JTV-89F models (Spank/Lester) sound way better than my Strat, LesPaul or the JTV in Mag mode. I still use JTV in Mag mode for some metal songs, but generally use the models most of the time. I was always after the Hendrix/Marshall/Strat sound, and the above setup with the RHCP Frusciante patch from Custom Tone sounds awesome to me At one point I considered getting a Marshall DSL5C for home just to dial in that tone when I needed, but after getting the Line6 setup right, I don't think I need to do that any more. I am also not playing my strat any more at all, just going to the JTV-89F. The big takeaways are 1) Update Firmware 2) Get good custom patches for Helix 3) Get a really good FRFR output from the Helix (StageSource, Atomic CLR, etc...) there are other forums on that. There are many other forums pointing to the issue of using a modelled guitar through a regular guitar amp, and poor results. I think once you go modelled, you gotta go with a good FRFR. And there are lots of other forums on this, but Atomic gets you an FRFR that has the character of a guitar cab, whereas the Line6 speaker is just a really true and powerful FRFR. The interesting thing is it has a 2x12 guitar cab model mode, and that also sounds like crap, and what sounds good is putting in in Reference Monitor or PA mode. Hope that helps.