Future Variax basses?

[taowin]

Hi,

I've owned custom $4000 bases. Years ago I had a Variax briefly. I returned to them recently, actually pretty floored by what they can do. A brilliant design with surprisingly reliably great tones. I'm buying used ones where I can find them. 

 

I realize that the market was small and insufficiently responsive to them. I understand why Line 6 dropped the line. Still, I hope you or someone continues the innovation and I wonder what you would do differently if you were making one now. Specifically, would an updated model have a higher bit rate for higher fidelity? I don't find the fidelity low. I just wonder if the technology has moved forward. 

[Ed_Saxman]

An updated DSP would have less latency (although currently it's only a issue with the synths models)

 

I think the "fidelity" improvement may be achiveved with better converters (not a concern if you're using VDI, becouse in this way the conversion is made on the POD or Helix), with better saddles/piezos (actually seems impossible to find any saddle replacement for the Variax Bass), or with a entirely different modeling engine (as the "HD" firmware was to the Variax guitars. This was not a great improvement per se, imho)

 

I would happy to see a new line of Variax-Yamaha basses. Something in the 1000$ range, 4/5 strings, modern look and light weight (kinda Yamaha RBX A2), and of course with full Helix support... would be awesome.