Variax 300 and pod hd500x

[Dbbritt12]

Hey! So I’m very new to the variax guitars. I have the chance to buy a variax 300 and was curious to see if I am able to edit the guitar sounds through my pod hd500x any help is appreciated and thank you for reading the post! 

[silverhead]

Yes and no. Your POD HD500X device is not supported with the Variax 300 but may have limited capability. It will probably be able to store and recall Variax models properly using the POD Presets. For full compatibility with your 500X you might want to look for a chance to get a Variax JTV or later model rather than the 300.

 

The Variax 300 ‘editor’ is called Variax Workbench (not Workbench HD). It allows you to edit the patches/sounds (aka models) stored in the guitar and organized into Banks (Tele, Spank, etc.) The Variax Workbench product is very old now and may not be compatible with recent computer OS; you may need workarounds to use it.

 

A compatible POD HD device allows you to store Variax parameters in the POD HD presets. These presets don’t actually change the sounds/models stored in the guitar but they do send commands to the Variax that causes different models to be loaded in the Variax and also different Vol/Tone knob values.

 

The HD500X fully supports Variax JTV and later models, including alternate tunings and using JTV Vol/Tone knobs as controllers for HD500X FX block parameters. It also uses the newer Workbench HD editor which is compatible with current computer OS.

 

The POD HD500 (not X) is fully compatible with the Variax 300 but again, older and retired technology.

 

Having said all that, you will certainly have a lot of fun exploring the Variax concept with a Variax 300 and a POD HD500X. You’ll just be limited compared to today’s technology and you may face some technical issues getting everything working smoothly.