andymguitar

I'm buying a powered speaker for my variax. Looking at the behringer eurolive range, either the 10 inch or 12 inch speaker. Anyone have any advice or alternative suggestions?

That makes sense. There's a noticeable drop in volume from les paul to tele for example, which you'd expect but isn't very helpful when changing quickly! My bass strings are all pretty much too loud especially on the acoustics.

It's sounding ok as it's going straight into a PA, but i definitely need to get on to workbench to look at some things. When you say matching the piezo volumes do you mean model to model or individual string outputs for some? Haven't got round to frankenguitars yet..!

So I had slight breakthrough tonight, put the Variax and XT live through the house PA (doing a theatre show this week.) and it worked really well. Acoustic sounds were much better and the soundman was very happy to have a direct feed rather than a mic on my amp. There's barely enough space for one guitar in the pit so brining an acoustic and electric is not possible..

Yeah, agree.. I'm mainly a classical player, but do quite a few musicals, and the appeal of the variax (with my XT live) is to be able to get a wide variety of controllable sounds that I can change quickly. For a gig that's all acoustic or all electric I would leave it at home for sure..!

I think I may try and borrow a powered speaker and see if that's any good, otherwise I may as well sell and buy a decent acoustic!

I've tried it through an acoustic amp and into the fx loop on my amp, but neither is great really. Maybe I need to invest in a powered speaker then!

So I've been working with the Variax for half a year now. Still not entirely convinced by many of the models, but most concerned about the acoustics as that is what I need more than anything else. I find that there is too much boom, you can strike a chord at a relatively low velocity and some undertones jump out alarmingly! There are also some odd harmonic things going on, it just doesn't sounds as nice as an actual acoustic really… Any one have any suggestions?

I'm doing a show this week that needs acoustic, electric (lead and in theory a 335 style sound.) I'm having one last go with the Variax, but think there may be too many inherent flaws for me to work with..

So I have been working with my xt live and variax standard trying to get some decent sounds. When I have any driven sounds I frequently get some strange overtones on the bass strings. When comparing to my Tele there is no problem! I would also say that my tele sounds generally better than all of the variax models I have tried with the different patches I've set up. I haven't really messed with any settings on workbench to be fair, any tips gratefully taken!

I've been editing a few different sounds on my XT live. ALways been very happy with delays, mods etc through a couple of different amps, but never entirely happy with distorted sounds. I love the sound of my tele clean through my fender deville 112, but am not convinced by some of the stomp box distortions on XTL! Having tried a few of the amp simulators I think they sound better, through headphones but I wasn't particularly pleased with the sound through a PA! If I use my beloved guitar amp am I best just sticking it through the power amp in and using simulators? Anyone have any experience with a similar set up?

Thank you, I haven't got round to workbench yet, will have a look!

How do you turn the octave strings down?

Well I had a go at setting mine up last week and it now plays brilliantly.. There are a few good guides to setting up online, as has been stressed above go easy on the truss rod and let it settle. Changing the action and intonation is much simpler.

I've been comparing my XT live through a couple of guitar amps (plugged straight into the front with no amp simulation) and a fishman acoustic amp (through aux in and trying out a few of the amp simulators on the XT.) I much prefer the guitar amps, through the acoustic amp it all sounds a bit thin to me.. The acoustic amp has a smallish speaker (8 inch) and I wonder if this is the problem? I really like the idea of running it through a powered speaker but as I said too me it's a bit thin, especially anything with gain on. Maybe I just need to fiddle with the amp simulators a bit more? Any advice gratefully received!

I have adjusted a neck before, and agree with the small increments above. Looking at the variax manual they explain how to adjust the rod anyway which I was quite surprised at! But disappointed with the set up from the factory really, but maybe to be expected.

Just had a new Standard, love it and enjoying getting to grips with all of the different models! There's a bit of buzz on the neck, which I think needs a bit of relief. Anyone have any experience of doing this themselves, and any tips if so?

I've been using my XT live with a fender deville as a 'traditional' effects unit and am pretty happy with the results. Juts bought a variax standard and am experimenting with running the xt live through the aux in of a fishman loudbox 100, as I'm guessing I will get a wider frequency range with this than the fender. All of the acoustic models and clean patches are great. I'm having a bit of ugly distortion when using some of the more gainy amps and stomp boxes, compared to how they sound with my fender. Anyone have any tips how to get a good driven sound but without the (bad!) distortion?