"People listen with their eyes" - Les Paul

[jetrier]

I found the story of Les Paul's log fascinating especially for Variax players or Line 6 fans in general. Here it is if you never heard of it. http://www.epiphone.com/News/Features/2017/The-Log-Heard-Round-the-World.aspx

 

He takes a 4x4 (honestly!) and builds a guitar with a spare neck at the Epi Factory. Crazy. But he learns "People listen with their eyes" so he bolts on Archtop halves. And people love what they may have only liked before. I know. Small sample size, but give the man some credit for innovation.

 

I've never gigged with a Variax, but I love the Archtop tones and variations that can be built. Do others find that "People listen with their eyes" when they gig with them? Would an audience buy the sound more if the picture matched what they're hearing? I'd have to guess, yes.

 

I've even thought, what if Variax had facades that you could just snap on a Variax "log"? It seems like another way to make money for Line 6, but what do I know? I'm no LP

[BillBee]

I want to say I saw the vid from NAMM 2017 but there was a modular guitar shown. You could go different styles, PUs etc. If a modular Variax was really wanted it could be transplanted to that. 

[jetrier]

BillBee - do you remember the name of that guitar?

[BillBee]

I will try and see if I can find it. I don't remember the name off hand but there can't be too many like it.

 

I'll be back!

 

Found it!!

 

https://www.gearnews.com/somnium-guitars-modular-guitar-design/

 

Hey copy & paste is working!! Woo Hooo

[cruisinon2]

I've never gigged with a Variax, but I love the Archtop tones and variations that can be built. Do others find that "People listen with their eyes" when they gig with them? Would an audience buy the sound more if the picture matched what they're hearing? I'd have to guess, yes.

 

I've even thought, what if Variax had facades that you could just snap on a Variax "log"? It seems like another way to make money for Line 6, but what do I know? I'm no LP

Two things:

 

1) The average listener is musically illiterate. They know what they like, but that's it. They don't dissect music the way we do as musicians, and most of them couldn't distinguish the sound of an electric guitar from that of a burlap sack full of angry feral cats...never mind being able to tell a Les Paul from a Strat by ear alone.

 

Now you could perform this little experiment with a room full of guitarists, and the results might be worth talking about from a philosophical standpoint...but at a gig? Forget it...you're trying to satisfy a desire in your audience that simply doesn't exist. There's a reason that beluga caviar is not found on the menu at Taco Bell....Friday night drunks are barely sentient as it is. They want Bud Lite, Green Day, and the cute blonde at the end of the bar (not necessarily in that order ;) ).

 

2) Many of us are attracted to the Variax in the first place because we're gigging musicians who are tired of lugging multiple guitars to gigs...so if I'm gonna drag around pieces of faux Variax snap-on furniture, and stop the show so my axe can look like one thing or another, I may as well just bring the genuine article and switch guitars. "Hold on, I have to switch to my Les Paul 'skin'. Where's the screwdriver?". No thanks.

[BillBee]

Its crazy but my Variax LP model sounds better than my LP.