Wish list

[jetrier]

Ive never understood how a nylon string acoustic didn't make the cut for models, and how something like a banjo or sitar did. A nylon string tone would have been so much more useful.

 

And while I'm on my wish list, why didn't they offer a semi hollow or hollow body for the physical JTV bodies? Variax could have expanded beyond the strat/LP rocker guitars.

 

Is that so unreasonable?

 

What's on everyone else's wish list?

[clay-man]

I've always said that the reason they keep a nylon string out is because they don't think it's possible to get a convincing nylon sound out of a steel string instrument.

The thing about all the other models that the Variax models, is that it's all steel string instruments, so the base sound it needs to work off of is a steel string input, which is EXACTLY what the Variax works with to get it's sounds.

 

I'm sure they could throw out something that's the closest steel string can sound as nylons, but they probably think it's still not good enough.

[cruisinon2]

Ive never understood how a nylon string acoustic didn't make the cut for models, and how something like a banjo or sitar did. A nylon string tone would have been so much more useful.

 

And while I'm on my wish list, why didn't they offer a semi hollow or hollow body for the physical JTV bodies? Variax could have expanded beyond the strat/LP rocker guitars.

 

Is that so unreasonable?

 

What's on everyone else's wish list?

Unreasonable? Frankly, yes...a bit. Most guitar players don't know that theses things even exist. They sit around for years sometimes...guys are still buying "new" guitars with production dates from 3 or 4 years ago. They've already got 3 JTV models, plus the Standard. Tooling up production for a model of every body style out there makes no financial sense for such a niche product. They'd sit around forever. For every guy out there playing a 335 every day, there are a thousand with Strats and LP's...

 

As for the the guitar playing world at large getting more mileage out of a nylon string model than the banjo...a ton of country players would likely disagree. Good or bad, there are more weekend warriors out there churning out bad renditions of Brad Paisley tunes to drunken Friday night revelers, than there are guys looking to sound like Andrés Segovia.

[Palico]

Wish list:

No piezos (no ping)

Alt Tunings that worked fully with any technique (again back to No Piezos)

 

No I have no idea how this could be done, it's a wish list not a practical plan.

[arislaf]

A flying V body is my only wish.

[Charlie_Watt]

I want a guitar that plays itself since I suck as a player. :-)  The Variax models have been basically the same from the get go. (500, 600, 300, 700, JTV's)  I don't think Line6 has any development going on them.  It's not one of their money making products IMO.

[cruisinon2]

I want a guitar that plays itself since I suck as a player. :-) The Variax models have been basically the same from the get go. (500, 600, 300, 700, JTV's) I don't think Line6 has any development going on them. It's not one of their money making products IMO.

Yup...and I don't see that changing much, either. Most players (even good ones) have a very narrow focus in terms of genre, and the typical tone(s) associated with that style. There are precious few players who can capably transition from country to funk to death metal, and have a gig that actually requires it. Thus, there will always be a limited audience for these guitars.

[DarrellM5]

I'm totally satisfied with mine but, if I could add one cool feature, I think it would be awesome to have the ability to load alt tunings and additional models from my smartphone; kind of like TC Electronic's TonePrint feature.

[clay-man]

Wish list:

No piezos (no ping)

Alt Tunings that worked fully with any technique (again back to No Piezos)

 

No I have no idea how this could be done, it's a wish list not a practical plan.

 

Lol no piezos. Say goodbye to the modeling then.

[clay-man]

No but seriously, the piezos are probably a large part of the models sounding as close as possible. If we are going to switch to magnetics like a Roland guitar, the quality would dip a bit, especially on the acoustics.

 

Now, maybe Line 6 could model better than Roland on the magnetics and get a better sound, but if we ever go with magnetics, obviously they'd need to make magnetics for the sake of modeling.

 

The whole point of them using piezos is to get as raw of a string sound as possible without any coloring from the pickup, but like you said, it has it's problems. Piezos don't act like magnetics, and they sit at a different position than a mag pickup, so we get some strange problems.

 

It's why I laughed at Bias trying to make a "guitar modeling" app with just a regular guitar, because using a guitar's regular pickups to model is an absolute joke and is extremely limited.

The same applies to Peavey Revalver's ACT module, which can pull off slight ballpark estimations of sounds, but you really have to kind of select the best pickup on your guitar to match the sound, plus, it doesn't sound good across the whole fretboard. Acoustic simulations sound lacking, like any other acoustic sim for an electric, hence why I said using magnetics might make acoustics suffer the most, depending on the quality of the magnetic pickups.

[Palico]

Lol no piezos. Say goodbye to the modeling then.

 

Many years ago there was no digital, there was no Piezos. If you were to write a idea of guitar that could model other guitars man would said you lost your mind. It's a wish for a better solution in the future. No I don't know what that solution would be or how it would work, if I did I would be in development to profit from it. But for now that is my wish list, even it doesn't seem possible today.

[clay-man]

Many years ago there was no digital, there was no Piezos. If you were to write a idea of guitar that could model other guitars man would said you lost your mind. It's a wish for a better solution in the future. No I don't know what that solution would be or how it would work, if I did I would be in development to profit from it. But for now that is my wish list, even it doesn't seem possible today.

 

Like I said, it's sacrifice. Piezos = closer approximation to tones with weird hiccups because a piezo doesn't work like a magnetic pickup.

Magnetic pickup = Loses some frequencies that could be useful for modeling. It really depends on how they make the magnetic pickup. Obviously there are great magnetic pickups for acoustic guitars, but magnetic pickups were never good on a broad frequency range. 

I honestly think the Roland guitar, which uses a magnetic GK pickup, has kinda meh sounding acoustic models. Electrics are probably a bit easier to pull off since making a magnetic pickup sound like a magnetic pickup is easier than making a magnetic pickup sound like the raw sound of an acoustic guitar.

 

 

I personally wish that there was some way to get more consistent piezo hardware on the Variax guitars. No one in the world wants to hear a clank noise when they're picking the E string, it defeats the purpose of the guitar altogether.