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Dagnabbit I tried a variax guitar today


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Be honest with me guys I have very expensive taste and guitars my main guitar is an ESP with Seymour Duncan pick ups. My second guitar is an Epiphone ES 339with built-in acoustic pick ups.

My third guitar of the many is a G and L blues boy

I tried the Variax 69

There is also a 59

I was impressed because it did pinch harmonic very well. The sounds out of that were incredible. What is the quality of this guitar

What is the true quality of this guitar will it hold up to being my main guitar.

How good are the electronics will they last being used constantly . What is the warranty like .

I play a lot of heavy metal I love leads with harmonic pinches. I am basically a van Halen 80s rocker that also plays classic blues, southern and new metal...

Can these hold up?

I'm gonna trade my Epiphone and G&L for it.

Versatility, the 69 or 59....

Please answer me as soon as possible guys I could only get this for a short time for $699 new

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Be honest with me guys I have very expensive taste and guitars my main guitar is an ESP with Seymour Duncan pick ups. My second guitar is an Epiphone ES 339with built-in acoustic pick ups.

My third guitar of the many is a G and L blues boy

I tried the Variax 69

There is also a 59

I was impressed because it did pinch harmonic very well. The sounds out of that were incredible. What is the quality of this guitar

What is the true quality of this guitar will it hold up to being my main guitar.

How good are the electronics will they last being used constantly . What is the warranty like .

I play a lot of heavy metal I love leads with harmonic pinches. I am basically a van Halen 80s rocker that also plays classic blues, southern and new metal...

Can these hold up?

I'm gonna trade my Epiphone and G&L for it.

Versatility, the 69 or 59....

Please answer me as soon as possible guys I could only get this for a short time for $699 new

The honest truth? It should hold up fine...***provided that you get a good one***. Love my 69, mine is fine almost 2 years in, but they're not without their issues. Model selector knob is cheap plastic crap, known issues with that knob not engaging properly. It'll either work or it won't, and you'll know on Day 1. Piezo "plink" issues are not uncommon either. Again, if it's gonna be an issue, it's likely to be present from the get-go.

 

The 69's neck is a gross miscarriage of justice, but that's easily remedied by the fine folks over at Warmoth...though this is a personal preference thing, you might love the stock neck.

 

I've had no issues with the electronics, other than some of the inherent limitations with altered tunings and wackiness that accompanies piezo pickups (ie crosstalk), but there's nothing to be done about that...the technology is what it is, and it has certain limitations.

 

Overall it's a nice axe...gets a ton of use. The complete lack of pickup hum alone is worth the price of admission.

 

Buy from somewhere with a good return policy just in case you get a junker.

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I have the Korean made JTV69.

 

The quality is excellent.

I love the neck (and I usually play thinner necks)

My Variax 500 has never had a glitch since I bought it in 2004.  I've had the JTV for close to 2 years now with no problems.

There's a standard 1 year warranty but I bought mine from Sweetwater and they always add another year.

 

I have some really nice guitars too but my JTV69 gets played 75% of the time.

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I have had no reliability issues with my JTV69S (2 years) or my 500 (over 10 years).  I personally like the 69S neck.  I have small hands and it fits me nicely.  Build quality is fine.  I play my JTV 90% of the time.  Modeling is dead silent.  I don't use alt tunings much.  The 12 string models don't cut it IMO.  The mag pickups are very good also.

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Thank you guys.... Talking to guitar center about trading in my G&L Semi hollow blues boy and my Epiphone ES339 Ultra for it

If you don't like 'em/don't want 'em/don't need 'em...it's up to you, but I think GC is getting the better end of that deal. The JTV'S are a lot cheaper than they used to be.

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I have not bought a Variax. And I will tell you why.... 

 

 

I would want to buy a guitar because it is a guitar. I do not want to buy a guitar because it has a piece of technology in it. 

If L6 released the technology (pickups, wiring, etc) so that I could install it on my guitars, then I would consider it. 

 

But I am not about to give up my Glow In The Dark Frankenstein, my Silver Glitter - or any of the 100 guitars I have, so that I can have a piece of technology that is only available in 2 guitars. 

 

 

I can put 3 single coils on a Gibson Les Paul to make it sound like a Fender Stratocaster. That doesn't make it feel like one. Just sound like one. I can play my GLP without any pickups at all, it doesn't make it an acoustic guitar. 

Buy a guitar because you like the guitar. 

 

 

The other thing to consider is: 

Once you integrate a Variax into your patches, will you ever be able to use a standard guitar again? 

Wouldn't that just suck - needing a set of patches just for the Variax, and a set for standard guitars. 

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.they are good instruments, deserve to be used professionally, and make your life much easier if you need a great versatility

This.  Are you gigging regularly in a situation where being able to switch from acoustic to electric, and call special tunings quickly matters?  If so then the variax is hard to beat - where I used to carry 4 to 6 guitars to a gig I now carry 2, a JTV and a Steinberger GM Pro. FWIW I swapped the stock neck on my 69 for a Fender Strat neck from a John Mayer model - night and day for me, made the instrument a "go to" for me....

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I have not bought a Variax. And I will tell you why.... 

 

 

I would want to buy a guitar because it is a guitar. I do not want to buy a guitar because it has a piece of technology in it. 

If L6 released the technology (pickups, wiring, etc) so that I could install it on my guitars, then I would consider it. 

 

But I am not about to give up my Glow In The Dark Frankenstein, my Silver Glitter - or any of the 100 guitars I have, so that I can have a piece of technology that is only available in 2 guitars. 

 

 

I can put 3 single coils on a Gibson Les Paul to make it sound like a Fender Stratocaster. That doesn't make it feel like one. Just sound like one. I can play my GLP without any pickups at all, it doesn't make it an acoustic guitar. 

Buy a guitar because you like the guitar. 

 

 

The other thing to consider is: 

Once you integrate a Variax into your patches, will you ever be able to use a standard guitar again? 

Wouldn't that just suck - needing a set of patches just for the Variax, and a set for standard guitars.

 

 

 

 

Thanks bro I totally understand

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True. You won't have to tweak any patches tuned to a Variax Les Paul model if you want to use a 'real' Les Paul. Same for any Variax Strat (or Tele, or whatever) patches if you want to use a real Strat (or Tele, or whatever). Of course if you switch to a Strat guitar for a patch tuned to a Variax Les Paul, then you'll have to tweak it. But what would you expect?

 

What do you mean by not being able to switch to a standard guitar?

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Great point about not being able to switch back to my main guitars made my decision

This is nonsense. You're not switching back and forth between a guitar and a bassoon. I bounce between my JTV and other guitars daily. They're the same species. No different than going from LP to Strat, or Strat to Tele...take a few minutes, get your bearings and play.

 

No two guitars are gonna sound identical through the same amp/patch/etc...that's why we all own a bunch of them. It's the whole point, actually. I have lots of patches set up for one guitar or another. Not a big deal.

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Ok, so question, lets say I set up a patch that I love, designed around the Variax with the "smart" cable.... If I needed to, could I use my Esp on that same patch later with the guitar jack....

 

I don't agree with his statement about preferring "regular guitars" because aren't all of our guitars electrically advanced? Through pickups and electronics?

 

The sunburst 69 is what I tried... The guitar was beautiful, the neck I hated but could live with...

How easy is it to replace with one from Warmouth, and no intonation issues?

 

Sorry for all of the questions guys... Now that I have kids a purchase like this is a big deal

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Honestly I've never seen very much posts about electronics literally failing, especially not after they find out the guitar they got is good and continues to be good after a few years.

 

Most failures are of physical stuff being off, or if it IS because of the electronics, it was flashed improperly and they needed to flash it again.

 

Electronic failure is extremely rare and guitars that appear to be good in the first year end up being good for the rest of the time.

 

Get a new one with Sweetwater and get a 2 year warranty and you'll be good. If you get a bad guitar, you will be able to swap it for a proper working one.

 

Good luck.

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I think it is obvious you can unplug your Variax and plug in a guitar (although there are many patches that are don't play unless you adjust the input settings). 

 

 

I am referring to the programming. Using the programmability of the unit to help make your sound. 

Some of you look at it as using the various pickup configurations to get a sound you want. I am looking at it as just another setting that can be tweaked to get your sound. You lose that setting when you goto a standard guitar. 

 

I guess, what I am trying to say would be the equivalent of using a model pack to make your sound and giving the patch to someone that doesn't have the model pack. 

The sound just is not going to be there. 

 

But sure, you guys that think - I made a patch that used 3 single coils I can make it sound the same by using a Strat, or I made an acoustic patch I can use an standard acoustic guitar if I am ever without my Variax... that is different scenario. 

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I found it for 699 at guitar center... A lot of online places have them going for almost a grand... He says they can't move them and they might quit carrying them or only at the "premium" stores

 

That's because they have unmotivated and untrained sales personnel who don't take time to learn about the product in any depth.  I found one store within a 250 mile radius who carried Line 6 guitars: Boston GC.  They had a 69 and 59 hanging in a corner with dead batteries, corroded strings and a sprinkling of dust.  Good thing I had read up on them the night before, because no one in the store had any idea how to even turn on the modeling!  I was also interested in picking up an HD500, but there was similarly no one there who had any idea how to demo its Variax interface features.  So, they threw away an additional $500 sale.

 

GC and their ilk are their own worst enemies.  Line6 would be better off selling factory direct than relying on them for marketing.

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Ok, so question, lets say I set up a patch that I love, designed around the Variax with the "smart" cable.... If I needed to, could I use my Esp on that same patch later with the guitar jack....

 

I don't agree with his statement about preferring "regular guitars" because aren't all of our guitars electrically advanced? Through pickups and electronics?

 

The sunburst 69 is what I tried... The guitar was beautiful, the neck I hated but could live with...

How easy is it to replace with one from Warmouth, and no intonation issues?

 

Sorry for all of the questions guys... Now that I have kids a purchase like this is a big deal

POD patches don't care what kind of guitar you're plugging in, any patch will work with any guitar you feed it, assuming that you have the inputs set properly. So yes, any given patch will work just fine with multiple guitars. Will they sound identical with a JTV and your ESP? No, of course not. No two guitars sound exactly the same. If they did, we'd all just own one, and be done with it. So expect to do some fine tuning with any instrument you plug in...but that will be the case with our without the fancy JTV electronics.

 

As for the neck, Warmoth Strat necks are a drop in replacement. Other Strat replacement necks will work too...Mighty Mite makes a much cheaper one if $ is an issue. A few guys on here have gone that route with no complaints, so you're not stuck with Warmoth, though imho they do make a much better product. Either way, you're not gonna be able to "live with it" if you hate it. You'll never get comfortable, you won't play well on it, and the guitar will eventually end up collecting dust. Whether or not you will find it difficult to replace it depends on how comfortable you are working on guitars. Yes the intonation will need adjusting...then again, your shiny new JTV is likely to need that right out of the box anyway, regardless of whatever promises you get from the salesman over at GigantoMusic. A new neck will need to have the nut slots properly cut as well. Even pre-cut nuts are slotted deliberately high and generally need to be lowered a bit. Tuners will also need to be installed...though you may be able to get Warmoth to do that for you if you buy the tuners from them also. Not sure about that...

 

If you're not comfortable doing it yourself, take it to any decent luthier you trust, and everything should be just fine...the work has nothing to do with the electronics. Most stuff (excluding fretwork) I do myself, but I chickened out on installing the neck, as the holes we not pre-drilled due to the offset spacing on the JTV. So I had an excellent repair guy I know do it for me. He had never seen a JTV before, yet no harm done. Same guy just did a grind and polish on it a month ago. Again, issue-free.

 

If however, something else craps out down the road and you do need a warranty repair, you may have issues if the work was done somewhere else. Some guys choose to wait till the warranty runs out, and then do it. Up to you...I lasted about a month with the stock neck before replacing it, warranty be damned...haven't had any problems. Ymmv.

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Saying the Variax is not a good choice because it is too versatile is pretty silly.  If you like playing it and you like how it sounds go for it.  I suggest you buy it online from a place like Sweetwater that gives you an extra year of warrantee and also will take it back if there is anything at all wrong with it.  Yes you might pay more than the best deal you can find but I think it's worth it.  I never set foot in Guitar Center myself.

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I wish I could Avoid guitar center too, they ran every mom and pop store that I liked out of Pheonix, now up here in GR they are the only ones that carry what I want to try....

I have a good sales rep I work with, but overall they suck and don't know the basic details about some of the equipment that they sell.

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I have had a Variax 500 since 2004.  I use it like any of my other guitars.  I plug it in and play.  If I change models on the Variax I might need to turn a knob or two on the amp just like I would with my real guitars.  I would be all over a $700 JTV if they made a lefty.  The Variax is dead quiet, the electric models sound good.  I don't use the acoustic models much. They aren't bad, but not like an acoustic in a room, more like a recording of one.

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Ok, let's say it NGOs with a used older Variax, ( I actually like the no pickup look ) do they sound good compared to the newer versions like the jtv 69 with pickups? And they are increadable quiet

Just buy the guitar....nobody can tell you if you're going to prefer one model over another. If don't like it, you won't have any problem unloading it, and you probably won't take much of a loss.

 

The JTVs are soon to be discontinued in favor of the new Variax Standard, if they haven't already....and Strat replacement necks won't fit the new ones. So if you want options, buy the JTV. $699 is a steal. Bought mine when they were still $1K+.

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Where did that info come from?

Someone had posted recently that he had one on order from a Labor Day sale...retailer canceled the order with the excuse that no more are coming from L6. So yes, it's hearsay...but it's also common sense. It is a VERY niche product. Most guitar players don't even know they exist. It's not cost effective for them to keep that many irons in the fire. They're already producing the Standard at a much lower MSRP, which means it's costing less to produce...so they can continue to supply the same tiny market share with a less costly item, tool the factory for one design instead of three, and call it a day. Money decides everything...if you want one, I'd grab it while you can. I suspect supplies will start drying up soon.

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Well, I haven't seen any JTVs in the store that are past 2013, so it's possible.

 

I think it's bullcrap that they'd do that though. I really don't want to have an option of only having a Strat style Variax again.

 

One of the key complaints in the first Generation Variaxes was to have higher quality guitars, and more options. I know the Yamaha is probably great and all, but they're stepping backwards if they discontinue the JTV line up.

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Well, I haven't seen any JTVs in the store that are past 2013, so it's possible.

 

I think it's bullcrap that they'd do that though. I really don't want to have an option of only having a Strat style Variax again.

 

One of the key complaints in the first Generation Variaxes was to have higher quality guitars, and more options. I know the Yamaha is probably great and all, but they're stepping backwards if they discontinue the JTV line up.

Well who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. The evidence thus far is anecdotal, so we shall see. You say you haven't seen any newer than 2013 in a store...I'm still waiting for my first public Variax sighting...and I'm within 10 miles of a GC and 2 Sam Ash locations. There's never gonna be a huge market for these things. I just don't see enough of a demand to justify 4 different models, plus the absurdly priced US JTVs.

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Someone had posted recently that he had one on order from a Labor Day sale...retailer canceled the order with the excuse that no more are coming from L6. So yes, it's hearsay...but it's also common sense. It is a VERY niche product. Most guitar players don't even know they exist. It's not cost effective for them to keep that many irons in the fire. They're already producing the Standard at a much lower MSRP, which means it's costing less to produce...so they can continue to supply the same tiny market share with a less costly item, tool the factory for one design instead of three, and call it a day. Money decides everything...if you want one, I'd grab it while you can. I suspect supplies will start drying up soon.

 

It's possible I guess.  I have a JTV69 but wouldn't mind adding an 89 to the collection.  If they do discontinue the line, I wonder if there would be some killer clearance sales?

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It would be really disappointing to me, but at least they still have the Variax going with the Variax Standard guitars.

 

Maybe Yamaha can do a better job putting them in stores than Line 6. Line 6 is known for gear, not guitars.

You have to hear of it by word of mouth really. It's how I got to find out about it. 

 

I knew of Line 6 for a while, but not the Variax guitars, because if I did, it would of been something I got waaay earlier.

 

I hope they can do variations of the Standard guitars if they do continue the route of offing the JTV line.

 

I really don't think James Tyler has THAT amazing guitars. I mean, they're great, but not great towards my preference, as in I'd prefer other guitar designs over his. I did grow on my JTV69, but I still ultimately want something more of a Telecaster than a Strat.

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If my experiences years ago in the pro-audio retail business are still relevant, Yamaha will not give stocking dealers any choice in the matter.  Their approach was along the lines of "..you will take it and you will like it!".  If you didn't or wouldn't, then you'd lose your franchise to the guy down the street.  Big difference in marketing clout between Yamaha and little, old Line6.

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If my experiences years ago in the pro-audio retail business are still relevant, Yamaha will not give stocking dealers any choice in the matter. Their approach was along the lines of "..you will take it and you will like it!". If you didn't or wouldn't, then you'd lose your franchise to the guy down the street. Big difference in marketing clout between Yamaha and little, old Line6.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit...we should all just get used to the idea of the JTVs going the way of the dodo. Nothing lasts forever...and tech-heavy products have a REALLY short half-life.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My only complaint was the neck.... And while I have replaced pickups, replacing a neck from Warmouth scares me a little.... other than that I do like the JTV69. But then I really want it more for a studio guitar than a live one....

And it's the sitar sound that impresses me the most....

Despite reviews I read, I plugged it into a Mesa boogie and the stock pickups did pinch harmonic scream and holds sustain, even on the other tunings.

ARGGH

I do like the look of the older 700 blacks....

Do the jtvs sound better, is having the option of real pickups better?

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