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DOESN'T COME WITH A VARIAX CABLE? WTF! LINE6


JimDiGritz
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Just ordered a Variax Standard, after receiving the dispatch confirmation I fired off a quick email to confirm that, of course, the Variax guitar does come with a Variax cable to connect to my Helix.

 

Response:

 

Nope.

 

£32.99+shipping.

 

No stock til August.

 

 

Wow. Cancelled order. 

 

 

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Not all Variax purchasers have (or want) a VDI-compatible Line 6 guitar multi-FX device like Helix. Why should they pay for a cable that they don't need and can't use? I expect Line 6 would have more orders cancelled from those folks than from those in your situation.

 

If you want to connect your Variax to Helix, buy the additional cable that you need and others don't. Of course, if you don't want a Variax at all, don't re-order.

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This really doesn't make any sense. 

 

Are you telling me that people are really buying what is essentially a £100 Pacifica for £500 and DON'T want to use the Variax capabilities? (don't get me wrong I've owned a couple of Pacificas and think they're great instruments, but they're no Fender Japanese Classic which are also £500)

 

It's a Line 6 Variax Guitar, with Line 6 Variax electronics, for use with Line 6 Variax compatible multi-effects units. It's also advertised as "also being able to be played as a normal electric guitar", which is fine. In fact the original Variax guitars didn't even have magnetic pickups. These came with VDI cables - or are you saying people wanted to play them acoustically, but some bought VDI cables??

 

As an example I recently bought a £500 monitor with GSync, it uses a special GSync cable. It also has HDMI. Guess which cable it was supplied with? You guessed it the special GSync cable. No one would buy a £500 GSync monitor and intentionally use it 'downgraded' with HDMI.

 

And no, it would be absurd to expect a Line 6 Variax guitar to be supplied with Vagisil, but thanks for your input.

 

This still baffles me. 

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You can still use all the Variax features without the VDI cable.  All the models and tunings work via a 1/4 guitar cable.  Your Helix or other VDI enabled device will not switch the Variax models (when changing patches) or power it but that is it.

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This really doesn't make any sense. 

 

Are you telling me that people are really buying what is essentially a £100 Pacifica for £500 and DON'T want to use the Variax capabilities? (don't get me wrong I've owned a couple of Pacificas and think they're great instruments, but they're no Fender Japanese Classic which are also £500)

 

It's a Line 6 Variax Guitar, with Line 6 Variax electronics, for use with Line 6 Variax compatible multi-effects units. It's also advertised as "also being able to be played as a normal electric guitar", which is fine. In fact the original Variax guitars didn't even have magnetic pickups. These came with VDI cables - or are you saying people wanted to play them acoustically, but some bought VDI cables??

 

As an example I recently bought a £500 monitor with GSync, it uses a special GSync cable. It also has HDMI. Guess which cable it was supplied with? You guessed it the special GSync cable. No one would buy a £500 GSync monitor and intentionally use it 'downgraded' with HDMI.

 

And no, it would be absurd to expect a Line 6 Variax guitar to be supplied with Vagisil, but thanks for your input.

 

This still baffles me.

 

The original Variax guitars didn't come with a VDI cable either. And even though they didn't have pickups, they could still be used like a regular guitar with the 1/4" output and batteries. The newer Variax guitars do come with a Workbench interface and data cable (not a full-blown VDI cable). Technically, you could use that cable with the Helix's VDI port, but you would need to be really careful. The cable that comes with the guitar lacks the ethercon ends that the VDI cable has, so you could damage the jack of you put too much tension on it.

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If I thought a Variax was just a Â£100 Pacifica for £500 I wouldn't buy it even if they threw in a free Â£30 cable.

 

Lots of people use the Variax with the rechargable battery and a 1/4 cable or wireless.  I use it with VDI sometimes and 1/4" others.

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Okay looks like I got my wires crossed (see what I did there!). Apologies for the attitude!

 

I wrongly assumed that without the VDI cable you could only use the standard 1/4" jack which meant that you wouldn't be able to use the Piezo/Variax features such as detuning and modelling - ie you'd have a normal, passive electric guitar. 

 

So if I've got it right, just using the 1/4 jack I'd still be able to select models and tunings. But the VDI cable is for.. updating the software/importing custom models/tunings?

 

Is that right?

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Okay looks like I got my wires crossed (see what I did there!). Apologies for the attitude!

 

I wrongly assumed that without the VDI cable you could only use the standard 1/4" jack which meant that you wouldn't be able to use the Piezo/Variax features such as detuning and modelling - ie you'd have a normal, passive electric guitar. 

 

So if I've got it right, just using the 1/4 jack I'd still be able to select models and tunings. But the VDI cable is for.. updating the software/importing custom models/tunings?

 

Is that right?

You can use all those features with the 1/4" cable, that's correct. The VDI cable gives you more than the ability to just update and use Workbench, though. It also lets you recall Variax models and custom tunings per preset and/or snapshot with the Helix. And it allows the Helix to power the guitar so you don't need to rely on the battery.

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You can use all those features with the 1/4" cable, that's correct. The VDI cable gives you more than the ability to just update and use Workbench, though. It also lets you recall Variax models and custom tunings per preset and/or snapshot with the Helix. And it allows the Helix to power the guitar so you don't need to rely on the battery.

 

Thanks, this was my mis-understanding. I thought that without the VDI cable, I just had a regular guitar.

 

I appreciate the clarification.

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Thanks, this was my mis-understanding. I thought that without the VDI cable, I just had a regular guitar.

 

I appreciate the clarification.

 

No worries.  I'd have been upset too if I thought the modeling features were useless without the VDI cable and they didn't included one.  Reminds me of an instance a long time ago when I bought a printer and it didn't come with a cable.  Of course, it actually was worthless without one.

 

BTW, I believe you can use a standard Ethernet cable but you would want to be very careful, since it doesn't have the protective ends, to not move around much.

 

Enjoy your Variax!!!  Lately I've been having a blast with mine set up to open C for some Devin Townsend stuff.

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  • 2 months later...

Hello just wondering if anyone can help please !looking to record my variax into logic. is it possible just to use 1-4inch jack straight into input channel on my interface

And still be able to record say the accoustic guitar sounds from the variax.or do you need to use a different set up.thank you...

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Hello just wondering if anyone can help please !looking to record my variax into logic. is it possible just to use 1-4inch jack straight into input channel on my interface

And still be able to record say the accoustic guitar sounds from the variax.or do you need to use a different set up.thank you...

 

Yes, you can access all of the modeled sounds with the 1/4" jack.

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