String Parallel Pitch on Variax guitars

[Reascot]

I've been watching some videos about Variax guitars and hoped some of you could answer some questions for me. 

 

I'm looking for a way to have a -12 pitch on the two bottom strings (E and A) in order to create a fake bassist type sound. 

From the videos I have seen, I have only seen people do +12 settings, so I would like to know whether it is possible to do lower octave -12 settings. 

 

I think there is a mix function where I can have the original pitch of the E and A strings as well as the -12 pitch. Is this correct?

 

And just to confirm, I can save this setting to the guitar and it will work with a standard 1/4 inch guitar cable into a normal guitar amp. I won't need to buy any further Line 6 products. Can anyone confirm this?

 

Thanks. :)

[silverhead]

Yes you can do that. I have used Workbench HD to create several bass guitar models which I store in the Custom bank on my JTV-59. I tune each of the bottom 4 strings to -12 and set the mix to 0% original and 100% alternate tuning.

[Reascot]

On 9/26/2022 at 9:33 PM, silverhead said:

Yes you can do that. I have used Workbench HD to create several bass guitar models which I store in the Custom bank on my JTV-59. I tune each of the bottom 4 strings to -12 and set the mix to 0% original and 100% alternate tuning.

Thanks for your reply. 

How good is the tracking when you lower the pitch? Does it work polyphonically or do they glitch if you play two strings together?

[silverhead]

I'm not 100% sure but I would think it's polyphonic. Each string on the Variax has its own under-saddle piezo so the alternate tuning can be applied to the individual strings, which means polyphonic. The tracking seems fine to me but I'm not  a bass player. I just use it for simple stuff on recordings so that I don't need to buy a bass guitar. For instance I can't speak to how it would perform with a slap-bass style. Probably not well, due mostly to the string gauge rather than the tunings.