Is variax dead?

[cruisinon2]

7 hours ago, magforce68 said:

Any news on delivery of Variax JTV-69? I ordered one at Andertons a month back but no joy yet :-(

BR

Magnus

 

The only reply you'll get is that there was a "bottleneck in shipping".... feel free to interpret that any way you like, as it could mean just about anything from "the trucking company is on strike" to "the machine that prints the shipping labels ran out of ink, Bob is the only guy who knows how to fix it, and he's in Vegas for 2 weeks". In terms of translating that into "when will I get my guitar?"...good luck. Solutions to ill-defined supply problems take indeterminate periods of time to filter their way down to the end user.... and since we have no idea what the problem actually was, trying to estimate a time frame for a resolution is rather pointless.

[psarkissian]

Add to that the slow down the US/China Tariff tiff.

The normal flow is returning. Don't know how up to speed it is yet in each region.

 

[eray]

I just heard from my rep at Sweetwater that there will be another month's delay sometime in Dec. 2019. Musician's Friend lists a Dec. availability too. I guess it will make a swell Christmas self-gift. I've paid for mine, so I have no choice but to wait - I hope it's worth it! Now what am I gonna get my wife? Hi Ho!

[psarkissian]

:(

[pvandorp]

Andertons now indicates 31 January 2020 :(

 

 

Don't know if this means all previous orders will be delivered then too or only the new ones, but this sucks! Not even a nice Christmas present then :-((

[eray]

On 11/4/2019 at 10:38 AM, psarkissian said:

Well I just heard from my Sweetwater rep that my Line 6 Variax won't be available until late January - that's 7 months after I purchased it. I think the folks at Line 6 could tell us what the problem is; is it a production snafu, lack of materials, switching guitar makers, tariffs, sunken ship, or have they lost interest in manufacturing these guitars, or turned over that role to Yamaha? Seems like we deserve some answers.

 

[psarkissian]

See my prior post.

[pvandorp]

On 11/4/2019 at 6:58 PM, psarkissian said:

Add to that the slow down the US/China Tariff tiff.

The normal flow is returning. Don't know how up to speed it is yet in each region.

 

I thought these JTVs where manufactured in Korea? Can't remember where I read that, though...

My rep at Andertons now tells me they estimate April 2020, but nothing is confirmed yet.  I don't understand, when the normal flow is returning, this still takes over 5 months. 

[psarkissian]

Assembled in Korea, some components are made in China.

The flow to the UK and EU,... not certain what the hold up is there.

[eray]

Latest word from Sweetwater: their Variax guitar shipment, according to Line6, is being held up at Customs - whatever that means / maybe a Trumpster Custom Agent won't allow a guitar with Chinese made parts into the country; next improbable date of arrival is early February 2020. I'm wondering if the wait is gonna be worth it?

 

[pvandorp]

On 1/16/2020 at 5:41 AM, eray said:

Latest word from Sweetwater: their Variax guitar shipment, according to Line6, is being held up at Customs - whatever that means / maybe a Trumpster Custom Agent won't allow a guitar with Chinese made parts into the country; next improbable date of arrival is early February 2020. I'm wondering if the wait is gonna be worth it?

 

 

Yes, I'm still waiting too. My next buy would be the PowerCab 212 Plus, but I'm kind of afraid because of the wait times...

[eray]

It's finally arrived! A long wait; hope it's worth it. First glitch: I've charged up the battery, but it won't slip into the battery compartment. It there a trick to getting it to work?

[devgop]

I had the same issue.  Just align the battery and use a bit of force, and it does go in.  It gets easier after a few times.  Is there any changes in the design or function from previous models?

[thecuriousorange]

I want to buy a JTV-89F. any idea when they'll be hitting the uk shops again? or at least a variax with a similar feature set...?

[DavidWS]

On 2/22/2020 at 3:33 PM, thecuriousorange said:

I want to buy a JTV-89F. any idea when they'll be hitting the uk shops again? or at least a variax with a similar feature set...?

I'm in the UK & I ordered a JTV-59 back in November 2019 . I gave the supplier a call earlier this week and was told they'd been advised of a probable delivery date and that I might receive my  order around the end of March. :)

[Lone_Poor_Boy]

IT'S VERY MUCH ALIVE TO ME!

 

I just got a great deal on a dent and scratch Lake Placid Blue JTV-69 from Sweetwater. It has a very minor discoloration between the zero and first fret. Very minor.

 

I'm already loving this thing.  One of my most exciting guitar purchases in a long time.

 

 

 

 

[DavidWS]

On 3/12/2020 at 11:52 AM, DavidWS said:

I'm in the UK & I ordered a JTV-59 back in November 2019 . I gave the supplier a call earlier this week and was told they'd been advised of a probable delivery date and that I might receive my  order around the end of March. :)

That has now become 'around the end of April'. So still essentially a case of "It'll be here when it's here".

[Lone_Poor_Boy]

Well that's not good at all.

[katesmith1304]

please inform about the status of variax. i want to gift it to my brother Can li mac izle   VidmateApp.win   

[pvandorp]

9 hours ago, katesmith1304 said:

please inform about the status of variax. i want to gift it to my brother

Depends on what the occasion will be. If it's next year's birthday, than you'll probably be fine if you can find a retailer that still sells it ;-). That is the 'older' models. I think the Shuriken and Standard are still very much available. Don;t know about delivery times of those models.

 

I ordered my JTV-89F early September 2019 and they can still not give me an estimate, which annoys me a lot. If it takes a long time, it takes a long time. But please be honest and give me an acceptable reason. Last time it was US Tariffs (I ordered mine in the UK!?). This time the excuse will probably be Corona virus (even Ali Express still delivers faster ;-)). 

[cruisinon2]

9 hours ago, pvandorp said:

If it takes a long time, it takes a long time. But please be honest and give me an acceptable reason.

 

You're not likely to get a satisfying answer no matter whom you ask, because there probably isn't just one reason, any one person won't know every piece to the puzzle.... nothing is ever that simple.

 

9 hours ago, pvandorp said:

Last time it was US Tariffs (I ordered mine in the UK!?).

 

Wouldn't matter if you had ordered it in Madagascar... the tariff beef is between the US and China, which is where most of not all the Variax's fancy electronic guts are coming from. Where you're standing when you place the order doesn't make those tariff issues any less real or relevant.

 

Quote

 

This time the excuse will probably be Corona virus (even Ali Express still delivers faster ;-)). 

 

This you can bet money on. Half the world is still on lockdown... even Amazon is shipping slower than usual, whereas before the world ended they would routinely deliver almost anything you ordered by the next day.

[DavidWS]

On 3/23/2020 at 10:48 AM, DavidWS said:

That has now become 'around the end of April'. So still essentially a case of "It'll be here when it's here".

As it's now May 1st, I checked on the situation and have just been told "I'm afraid our suppliers have pushed this back indefinitely, we checked this Wednesday and that's the latest information from them.".

 

:(

[pvandorp]

7 minutes ago, DavidWS said:

As it's now May 1st, I checked on the situation and have just been told "I'm afraid our suppliers have pushed this back indefinitely, we checked this Wednesday and that's the latest information from them."

 

What does that mean, ‘indefinitely’? I paid my guitar in full (over a €1000,-) September 4 2019. I understand that many things can go wrong, but I have never encountered a supplier that could not give a delivery estimate to their paying customer. Like I mentioned before, even Ali Express (notorious for slow deliveries and bad estimates) does deliver within an estimated period of time. Even while facing Corona and other crises.

 

I ordered the guitar in good faith, trusting Line 6 to deliver. But the lack of insight in their production/delivery process starts to worry me now. I will contact support again and Anderson’s as well. If support cannot give me a reasonable explanation or estimate for delivery, I even consider exploring the options to cancel my order with Anderson’s.

 

I hope you understand my frustration.

[cruisinon2]

19 minutes ago, DavidWS said:

As it's now May 1st, I checked on the situation and have just been told "I'm afraid our suppliers have pushed this back indefinitely, we checked this Wednesday and that's the latest information from them.".

 

:(

 

Retailers never know anything. Half the time they have difficulty figuring out if a given product is already in the building, never mind determining when something might show up in the future... and now with the world collapsing in on itself, all bets are off.

[fairleas]

Wow. I managed to find a new JTV59 on Reverb a couple of weeks back. I didn't know they were so hard to find...

Maybe in retrospect I'd have worried and thought "is support going to vanish for this...?".

[psarkissian]

Sorry about that. Shipping issues, new RoHS-3 standards implementation, tariff tiffs, and now CoVid-19 lock-down.

Being that we're not considered essential infrastructure, we're doing what we can virtually. Doing what I can for you all

by grabbing WiFi in the parking lot of a coffee shop 'round the corner. Hoping to be back in the building, working as soon

as it is safe.

[edstar1960]

On the Line6.com home page it says take advantage of special pricing on JTV guitars until May 10th but when you click on the link you get a 404 error.

 

Furthermore, when I search for JTV guitars in the UK most of the hits I get back for the main guitar stores all say "product discontinued".

 

SO - what is this special pricing and are JTVs now only available in the USA  ??

[pvandorp]

On 5/2/2020 at 11:43 PM, psarkissian said:

Sorry about that. Shipping issues, new RoHS-3 standards implementation, tariff tiffs, and now CoVid-19 lock-down.

Being that we're not considered essential infrastructure, we're doing what we can virtually. Doing what I can for you all

by grabbing WiFi in the parking lot of a coffee shop 'round the corner. Hoping to be back in the building, working as soon

as it is safe.

 

Please don't take this personally. In fact, I value your responses in these forums highly and I appreciate the time and effort you put into keeping us informed. I also realize that this forum is probably not the right place to vent my frustrations.

 

I have every bit of sympathy for delays due to factory strikes, lockdowns, trade wars, standards, etc. (even human errors). The thing that is bothering me is the lack of formal communication and transparency needed to keep the trust of the customer (me). I realize that my retailer (Andertons) has an important role to play in this as well, but they tell me that they get the same answers that I get and that there is no estimated delivery date. I have never received an estimated delivery date and I don't receive updated delivery dates or updates about delays. If you were in my shoes, you would get worried after 8 months too, wouldn't you? How many consumers would buy a product (whatever it may be), pay over 1000 EUR for it while not knowing when they will receive their purchase? In this case, I didn't even get to try it out! That shows the level of trust, people put in your company, but it also demands a great deal of responsibility.

 

Line 6 has got a really unique product with the Variax and I think the JTV's are a lot better looking and of higher quality even than the Standard ones. Personally, the Variax technology is part of my buying decision. Playability and the Floyd Rose tremolo was also an important other factor. There are other brands of guitars out there that offer the last two factors as well and, in my opinion, look even better than the JTV-89f, but I chose the JTV-89F because of the added value of the Variax technology. So yes, I'd be willing to wait. But not 'indefinitely' and after 8 months patiently waiting, I would like to have an answer as to when my guitar is expected to be delivered. It will shape my decision, whether to continue to wait for this awesome technology, or let go of that dream and go for the other specs that are also important to me and more realistic. 

 

I realize that you probably don't have any influence on production/delivery process. That is why I also created a support ticket. But I'm a bit concerned that this is only technical support and that they cannot help me with this either. That is why I vent my frustration here on the forum too, hoping that someone within Line 6 can reach out to the people responsible for production/delivery or communications/customer satisfaction and pass on this feedback.

 

After I talk to support I will contact my retailer as well and I will discuss this with them too. If I don't have a reasonably satisfying answer by then, I will also go over my options for cancelling this order all together. (which I really don't want to do).

 

Please stay safe.

[pvandorp]

1 hour ago, edstar1960 said:

On the Line6.com home page it says take advantage of special pricing on JTV guitars until May 10th but when you click on the link you get a 404 error.

 

Furthermore, when I search for JTV guitars in the UK most of the hits I get back for the main guitar stores all say "product discontinued".

 

SO - what is this special pricing and are JTVs now only available in the USA  ??

 

I didn't see the special price notification anymore just now. Maybe it was a glitch in the website. I did see that Sweetwater still has them in stock, but is US. In the EU (and UK) I can't find them anymore either. 

[DavidWS]

One thing that puzzles me is, if the Variax guitars are still in production, what's happening to them? Is there a slowly growing 'Variax Mountain' somewhere?

 

How are these things shipped around the world? I'm assuming surface rather than air freight?

 

On 9th April my supplier wrote to me (I hadn't chased them, they were just updating me with the latest info they had received) to say they'd been advised to expect a shipment on 30th April. On the assumption of surface shipping I'd assumed that meant the consignment was probably in transit. Given the general COVID-19 slow down in shipping I wasn't too surprised they didn't actually arrive on 30th April, but to then be told that the new latest news (just a couple of days before) was indefinite delay was an even bigger surprise than it might have been. Slowed down is one thing. Halted indefinitely sounds more fundamental than shippers short of staff due to COVID-19?

 

Like others here I've laid down money in good faith, for a good product. What's really happening? Sadly, I realise no one here can really say.... :(

 

What a pity (& a shambles). I do so dislike having to assume. :(

[pvandorp]

Exactly that. I’m starting to worry about support as well. What if this is the very last batch and something turns out to be wrong with them? How long will we have to wait for support?

 

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that as of today, after receiving the same dissatisfying answer from Andertons, I let go of the ‘dream rig’ dream and cancelled my order with Andertons and asked for a refund. I’ll go with a nice Ibanez S Series instead, which satisfies half of my wishes (playability and trem system) and is in stock in NL. 

 

Although I’m still very happy with my Helix and Helix Native, I won’t be pursuing any Line 6 products (like Variax or PowerCab) any more in the near future. 

 

Not because I have to wait a long time, but for keeping me in the dark. I feel I have tried everything to get a reasonable estimate (both directly with Line 6 and through my retailer), but without result.

[cruisinon2]

19 minutes ago, pvandorp said:

Exactly that. I’m starting to worry about support as well. What if this is the very last batch and something turns out to be wrong with them? How long will we have to wait for support?

 

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that as of today, after receiving the same dissatisfying answer from Andertons, I let go of the ‘dream rig’ dream and cancelled my order with Andertons and asked for a refund. I’ll go with a nice Ibanez S Series instead, which satisfies half of my wishes (playability and trem system) and is in stock in NL. 

 

Although I’m still very happy with my Helix and Helix Native, I won’t be pursuing any Line 6 products (like Variax or PowerCab) any more in the near future. 

 

Not because I have to wait a long time, but for keeping me in the dark. I feel I have tried everything to get a reasonable estimate (both directly with Line 6 and through my retailer), but without result.

 

If you're really intent on getting a Variax, used ones are not hard to find... they're all over eBay.

[DavidWS]

19 hours ago, cruisinon2 said:

If you're really intent on getting a Variax, used ones are not hard to find... they're all over eBay.

In the UK there are currently just over half a dozen Variax 300 & 500 models (i.e. without magnetic pickups) on offer, and two JTVs. One says it's a JTV-59, but doesn't look at all like a 59 (Strat like body, unusual controls, Variax headstock - maybe a transplant?). The other JTV is described as a 'mint' 89F at 1000 UKP, but if it's 'mint' then the pictures really don't do it justice[1]! I'll not be considering any of those.

 

[1] To my eye the pictures show what looks like a scuffed & scratched well used guitar. Maybe there was a problem with the camera.....

Edited May 7, 2020 by DavidWS
Added footnote

[DavidWS]

19 hours ago, pvandorp said:

I let go of the ‘dream rig’ dream and cancelled my order with Andertons and asked for a refund. I’ll go with a nice Ibanez S Series instead, which satisfies half of my wishes (playability and trem system) and is in stock in NL.

I'm almost at that stage. I haven't actually cancelled the order yet (I'm giving then a few more days to see if they can find out a bit more), however in the meantime I've ordered a Yamaha SLG200S 'Silent Guitar'. That covers the acoustic side of my requirement & quite possibly better than the Variax (albeit it's 'only' one 6 string guitar) as it has the normal acoustic neck  width, and can be used with no more than just a pair of headphone plugged in.

 

If I give up on the Variax order, I'll be looking for a 'flexible' electric, probably either something that has two humbuckers with coil splitting and a phase switch, or maybe the Brian May 'BMG Special' which has 3 single coils, each of which can be turned on or off and each of which can have its phase switched.

 

The JTV-59 iswould have been such a nice guitar... :(

[Lone_Poor_Boy]

Here are three recommendations I have for finding a Variax Guitar and getting a firm shipping date (ignoring whether you can purchase or ship from them):

• Guitar Center Used (I have bought 5 guitars through them)
• Reverb
• Sweetwater

 

 

[DavidWS]

10 hours ago, Lone_Poor_Boy said:

ignoring whether you can purchase or ship from them

Sadly, that's the main issue with those sources for several of the people in this topic, i.e. we are in Europe & those sources are primarily US. Some might ship to Europe, but the shipping costs are enormous, and then there is tax, etc... :(

[Lone_Poor_Boy]

5 hours ago, DavidWS said:

Sadly, that's the main issue with those sources for several of the people in this topic, i.e. we are in Europe & those sources are primarily US. Some might ship to Europe, but the shipping costs are enormous, and then there is tax, etc... :(

 

Understood.  I can only speak to sources that have worked for me here in the US.

[DavidWS]

On 5/7/2020 at 12:10 PM, DavidWS said:

I haven't actually cancelled the order yet

I've not heard any more. I've now cancelled the Variax order.

 

The Silent Guitar has arrived, but is not unpacked yet as nowadays we 'quarantine' packages for a day or two, in case they picked up anything in transit - rather frustrating, but better safe than sorry!

 

On the non-acoustic side I was seriously considering an Epiphone Les Paul Classic. That has two humbuckers with coil splitting and a phase switch, so lots of flexibility, & being in 'Heritage Cherry Burst' just happened to look almost identical to the JTV-59 I'd had on order! However, while still pondering I decided to take a glance at hollow bodied guitars, not expecting to find anything that was both desirable and in budget, and the same store where I found the 'Classic' (not Andertons) also had an Epiphone Riviera Custom P93 & I fell for that. 3 single coil pickups each with independent volume controls. 3 way switch for Neck, Bridge, or Both. The 'always on' (but can be silenced) middle pickup is wired to give a humbucker effect on noise.  It's beautiful...

 

If new Variax guitars ever appear in the UK I'll take a look (both at them & the bank balance!), but they'll now have a much tougher job attracting my attention as I have two very flexible guitars and the unsatisfactory experience of the last six months...

 

[DavidWS]

Obviously I'm not an official source, but my source (who isn't official either) tells me that this is  "the official line we've had from Line 6 and Yamaha"

Quote

"Due to unforeseen circumstances with the manufacturing and production process, production of these guitars is currently suspended with no time frame available for future deliveries. Yamaha/Line6 sincerely apologise for the disappointment this will cause to customers awaiting backordered instruments. Please rest assured this product is still part of the current catalogue, and we hope to resume production as soon as possible."

 

I look forward to that resumption.

[psarkissian]

As the CoVid-19 lock downs are being lifted gradually and in stages, product will move again.

No set time frame yet. Doing what we can, when we can.