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Body Styles and Tone


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I currently own a standard. Other than build quality and playability, do all of the Variax guitars respond exactly the same way sonically with the HD software?
Meaning, are the high-end James Tyler's better sounding guitar's using the HD modeling versus the less expensive standards. I would not think so as the gutter the same.

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I currently own a standard. Other than build quality and playability, do all of the Variax guitars respond exactly the same way sonically with the HD software?

Meaning, are the high-end James Tyler's better sounding guitar's using the HD modeling versus the less expensive standards. I would not think so as the gutter the same.

Time and time again it has been demonstrated that people will give glowing praise to expensive stuff over their cheaper counterparts...it's Psych 101. Pricey things are supposed to be "better". Why else would anyone in their right mind ever spend more than they have to on anything? The entire advertising industry is based on this premise.

 

Now I've never played a US version, and I have no idea if the fit, finish, materials, etc are really so much "better" that it justifies a price tag almost 4x that of the Korean versions...I suspect the answer is "no", but that's really not the point. What I do know is that an instrument is generally easier to play if you're not fighting issues like lousy tuning stability and/or intonation, poorly dressed frets, noisy pickups, etc...and when something is easier to play, you're gonna play better. If you've spent the extra coin and you're comfortable playing it, you'll play better, and your perception of the tone will likewise be favorable. Will it actually sound any different? Who knows, there's nothing to measure...but you'll probably think it does. It's all perception, and you'll never "prove" anything one way or the other.

 

SRV's "No. 1" Strat was a $100 pawn shop guitar....but now Fender will be happy to sell you a copy for $2K. Nothing is what is seems...

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Time and time again it has been demonstrated that people will give glowing praise to expensive stuff over their cheaper counterparts...it's Psych 101. Pricey things are supposed to be "better". Why else would anyone in their right mind ever spend more than they have to on anything? The entire advertising industry is based on this premise.

 

Now I've never played a US version, and I have no idea if the fit, finish, materials, etc are really so much "better" that it justifies a price tag almost 4x that of the Korean versions...I suspect the answer is "no", but that's really not the point. What I do know is that an instrument is generally easier to play if you're not fighting issues like lousy tuning stability and/or intonation, poorly dressed frets, noisy pickups, etc...and when something is easier to play, you're gonna play better. If you've spent the extra coin and you're comfortable playing it, you'll play better, and your perception of the tone will likewise be favorable. Will it actually sound any different? Who knows, there's nothing to measure...but you'll probably think it does. It's all perception, and you'll never "prove" anything one way or the other.

 

SRV's "No. 1" Strat was a $100 pawn shop guitar....but now Fender will be happy to sell you a copy for $2K. Nothing is what is seems...

Sorry to upset you. I was merely asking, as my post suggests, whether the higher end guitars equipped with the line 6 technology will sound "better" - brighter, cleaner, more responsive - to the HD hardware. I did not mention their performance playing through and amp using the stock pickups. 

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Sorry to upset you. I was merely asking, as my post suggests, whether the higher end guitars equipped with the line 6 technology will sound "better" - brighter, cleaner, more responsive - to the HD hardware. I did not mention their performance playing through and amp using the stock pickups.

I'm not upset, and I know exactly what you were asking. The problem is, it's an unanswerable question. "Better, brighter, cleaner, and more responsive" are not tangible things one can measure. They are amorphous, entirely subjective terms that get thrown around as if they had concrete, universal definitions. It's ad copy...as the saying goes, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh*t".

 

And for the various reasons listed above, those who've dropped nearly $4K on the US versions will be predisposed to thinking that they're awesome, because the alternative is admitting that you've made a four thousand dollar mistake...it's just how our brains work. It's nobody's fault, it just is. We all do it.

 

They may very well be worth every penny...as I said, I've never seen one, so I have no idea. It's something you would really have to decide for yourself, however.

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Regarding the original question - is there a difference in the sound of a Variax Standard vs. a JVT Variax? I have both, a Variax Standard and a JVT-69S. They are both setup similarly, including doing the proper string balancing in Workbench HD, and putting a wider nut on the Variax Standard.

 

They do certainly play different - the JVT-69S is physically a much nicer instrument. That quality translates to a feel that makes the guitar nicer to play and therefore you play just a bit better. They also sound different. The magnet pickups are different, so that's an expected source of different tone. Every guitar neck/body is different, even with the same woods. Playing them without an amp sounds a little different because of variation in wood and construction. The pickups see that difference too, including the piezo pickups that feed the model - perhaps especially these pickups.

 

Even the models are a little different. I think that possibly because of variation in the piezo pickups and perhaps more importantly, how they seat into the bridge pieces. This is a case where the better JVT-69S design and construction could contribute to better inputs into the models. The piezo pickups are very sensitive to even small differences and this translates into different inputs into the models.

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Maybe I should sell my '59 'Paul - 56 Tele while I'm at it. Just not sure the 59 sounds "better" than a Norlin LP or my 56 Tele sounds "better" than a 73. Decisions - decisions.

Exactly. You've made my point for me. The vintage guitar market baffles me. Vintage anything for that matter. Absurd values are placed on old things for stupid reasons...and it's all arbitrary. The only thing dumber are the "relic-ed" guitars. Build a perfectly good instrument, then pound on it with brass knuckles and drag it behind a truck for a mile or two, all so the buyer can PRETEND that he has an old guitar with "character". That'll be $2800, please...

 

We play this game with everything from cars to kids toys. Hell, you could probably find a vintage lava lamp convention to attend if you look hard enough. All because humans are intrigued by old stuff.

 

Why is a '59 LP valued so much? Because some famous players had one? This makes all of them worth the 4 or 5-figure sums they command? Based on what? It's nuts.

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Regarding the original question - is there a difference in the sound of a Variax Standard vs. a JVT Variax? I have both, a Variax Standard and a JVT-69S. They are both setup similarly, including doing the proper string balancing in Workbench HD, and putting a wider nut on the Variax Standard.

They do certainly play different - the JVT-69S is physically a much nicer instrument. That quality translates to a feel that makes the guitar nicer to play and therefore you play just a bit better. They also sound different. The magnet pickups are different, so that's an expected source of different tone. Every guitar neck/body is different, even with the same woods. Playing them without an amp sounds a little different because of variation in wood and construction. The pickups see that difference too, including the piezo pickups that feed the model - perhaps especially these pickups.

Even the models are a little different. I think that possibly because of variation in the piezo pickups and perhaps more importantly, how they seat into the bridge pieces. This is a case where the better JVT-69S design and construction could contribute to better inputs into the models. The piezo pickups are very sensitive to even small differences and this translates into different inputs into the models.

Thank you, informative and on topic reply which I can use.

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