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Still complaints about the Variax! Really.


m6255
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Hi, I’ve been a Variax owner and line 6 Variax pods and amp owner for a couple decades now. Sometimes I’m amazed at the comments of dissatisfied customers. (I in no way am part of line 6 nor do I speak for them) . Line 6 didn’t start as a guitar company, rather synth centered stuff. But they had some great ideas. I know line 6 advertises instead of bringing multiple guitars, just bring a Variax. Well I’ve been a luthier for years and when the Variax came out I purchased a 300, 500, 600 which is a 300 with tremolo, and the 500 and 700 are similar. ALL the models back then used the same firmware the same sounds and were interchangeable where hardware was allowed. Number 1. I have never believed one amplifier would service this guitar correctly. Especially if you’re trying to play a classic sound of any type then try to play an acoustic guitar through the same rig. If you can only have one rig let it be sent to a high quality pa and use a line  pod. Usually when you plug a Variax into a pod, and turn the model non either on the guitar or the pod line six has some pretty good presets to start with, then you can tweak from there. I’m semi retired now on a fixed income and can’t afford the latest in the pod family but I’ve listened to many they are awsome. My BEST Variax rig was 2- 4x12 marshal cabinets . I accidentally came across a vintage Acoustic speaker cabinet. It had 4 vintage celestion green backs 25 watt, and Jimmy Hendrix favorite the 55hz version instead of the 75hz that almost everybody uses. I also use a line 6 short board floor pedal and a line 6 - x3 pro rack unit. For power I used the Mesa bogie Stereo 4 6L6 GC 50/50 stereo power amp. Nice tube compression. So I used my edited tones from the X3 and it sounded fabulous. I also used their Variax editing software. I grew up playing during the mid 60s through early eighties. So I created a bass guitar model that sounds similar when played through my bass amp rig which I’ll talk about some other time. I made a patch where one was a Gibson Les Paul and the bottom one was the precision bass. You know how bass guitarists sometimes followed the lead player in some funky stuff or blues. What an incredible sound and with the foot switch I can turn the bass off and on by copying a patch calling it b instead of a so when I did chords I most often would switch the bass off.

 

what I’m getting at, and especially fir guys like me who no longer has a band but still love recording in my home studio with my Logic x. 
 

before line 6 was putting mag pickups in Variax I was doing it. Only problem I know nothing about the software part of this so my guitars had way too many knobs and switches. I saw the JT stuff. It was starting to het too expensive to buy one to canabalize and hope to get your money back with a sale. Then the standard came out. Like I said I started a strat body design with all the contours and that big battery pack is in the way. One of my Variax conversions I still have is a GIBSON Les Paul Double cut. I decided to leave the tone control out because that can all be adjusted with the pod x3 and easily edited and saved . Pluse I never moved the tone control that much . I don’t miss it. I also left the battery cavity out of that one. Anyway it’s clean. Not as clean switch wise as the jt, but it’s not bad. 
having a Variax is a commitment. If you don’t put much time into this platform, well your sound will give you what you give it. But put some real time in what she’ll do you’ll be a pleased player. Anyway not trying to be know it a;l. I was so impressed with the potential of this system I really got into them. I think I’ve purchased 50 different Variax guitars and bass. Sold most but the favorites/ if you ever have a question with builds or what ever, I don’t know everything like the designers but certain ally have spent the time to get what I want out of it. If you are ready to dump your Variax standard contact me.. I think they are great 

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  • 1 month later...

I couldn't agree more.  I also have been using Variax since the 300 came out.  And I still have it and it still works great. Then a 500 and a 600 with vibrato.  Would have a 700 too but couldn't swing the cost.  Time goes on and a JTV69 popped up on eBay several years ago and I got it at a good price.  Dealt with a loose neck and bad nut and have [played it ever since.Open tunings and acoustic voices have been useful live.  At home I use a  Helix LT and just can't imagine any Helix Owner not having a Variax to go with it.

 

Hope some new tech is in the pipeline at Yamaha for an even better design. And maybe, just MAYBE some new models in workbench HD to play with.  I am thinking a Jazzmaster pickup set. More full range Hi-Fii pickup styles like an Alumatone voice or even some Gold foils would be useful...  More body dynamic controls.  Even some Line-6  guitar voices that are not based on anything but your imagination..

 

Love my old beat up hard working Variax Tools!!

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I also love my Variax Standard. But please, Line 6. Don't abandon Workbench HD like you have abandoned Workbench! Variax guitars are computers, after all, and partially rely on software. I have to keep an ancient Macbook laying around just so I can use Workbench with my old Variax acoustic!

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Is it possible to have Workbench HD Upgrades or  aftermarket voices, like the impulse responses on Marketplace.. to allow tone shaping of the pickups and body resonance.  I can not get a big hollow body jazz tone.  Maybe even some made up pickups like the line6 amp models they have created.  It would be nice to open up a wider spectrum of voices.  aka Jazzmaster pickup voices on a big archtop or acoustic body with pickups added.

 

Magic pickup voices to add even more to our Variax tools..

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/10/2021 at 7:21 PM, soundog said:

To infinity! And beyond! (But I'd settle on twenty years).

 

 

 

I can't even count how many PC's and laptops I've gone through in the last 20 years.... and honestly, I don't think I could come up with even one other thing that was "cutting edge technology" in 2001 that I'm still using today, music related or otherwise. Today's technological marvel is tomorrow's abacus. I figure the only reason there hasn't been another Variax generation (or two) already is lack of sufficient demand.

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I hear ya. I've bought a stream of electronic music gear and computer stuff over the years, and sold almost as much of it on craigslist or ebay when its going obsolete. My first DAW was on an Amiga! Jeepers! And yet, I have had the same musical instruments (Fender Strat, Mark VI alto sax, Dobro, even some penny whistles) for over 40 years .... and going strong.

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