Big retailers are no longer selling Variax guitars. Why?

[fbunn]

I've owned a Variax since 2002.

Since buying a Helix, I've considered upgrading to a Variax HD model, but am a bit worried none of the major retailers are selling them.

Does anyone know if new models are being worked on by Line6 or Yamaha?

 

I hope they have teams working on new Variax models.

Now magnetic pickups are standard on all of them, I also hope they design new magnetic pickups that capture each string's signal separately, instead of using piezos on the bridge.

 

I called the company, and they had no information on new Variax development (at least to comment on).

 

Have any of you seen press releases or other plans regarding Variax development in the last year or two?

[josehdx]

It is not possible to use a magnetic pickup for individual strings. At least I don't know any that can do that

[brue58ski]

The current Variax has been described as a labor of love for Line 6. I take this to mean the popularity of the Variax is not what was hoped but it's till part of the Line 6 universe. I'm pretty sure that there will be no new upgrades to the current JTV Variax's and I doubt that a new one is in the works. I think a big part of the problem is people want to use their own ax's. Maybe if they came up with something that would allow you to use your own guitar. Big guess. It would be too bad if they have. I have two JTV Variax's and love them with the Helix.

[PierM]

On 10/6/2023 at 10:50 AM, josehdx said:

It is not possible to use a magnetic pickup for individual strings. At least I don't know any that can do that

 

Never heard of hexaphonic pickups? :)

[psarkissian]

Yes,... PierM remembered.

 

"... hope they design new magnetic pickups that capture each string's signal separately, "  

" It is not possible to use a magnetic pickup for individual strings. At least I don't know any that can do that. " 

 

Actually, it is possible. They are called "hexaphonic pick-ups". Hex being six, and phonic being sound source. Not enough magnetic field isolation

between strings because of magnetic mutual coupling of the magnetic fields between pick-up elements.

 

And what goes into it verses the results you get from it,... was thought of as diminishing returns for the effort put into it. Nice idea, just didn't work as

well as it was hoped.

 

Mostly used in some of the early guitar synths. Still used on certain Roland guitar synths and Fishman guitar MIDI products.

Beyond that, hardly anyone uses hexaphonic pick-ups much anymore.

 

 

 

[cruisinon2]

On 10/5/2023 at 5:52 PM, fbunn said:

Have any of you seen press releases or other plans regarding Variax development in the last year or two?

 

There hasn't been "development" of the current Variax platform in nearly a decade. The last firmware update that actually had anything new in it was in 2014. If that doesn't tell you anything, then I don't know what will.

 

Here's the simple fact: The Variax is a niche product, and always was. Yes, there's a devoted cult following who think it's the best thing since indoor plumbing, but 90% or more of the guitar playing public doesn't even know it exists.

 

Are they hard at work on a completely different kind of tech that'll reinvent the whole Variax concept? It's not impossible... but given that the last one never really caught on with the masses, I'd say there's very little financial incentive to do so...R&D is expensive.

 

Either way, the only folks who actually know the answer, ain't talking... they never do. All the rest of us can do is guess.

 

[craiganderton]

On 10/23/2023 at 2:08 PM, psarkissian said:

Mostly used in some of the early guitar synths. Still used on certain Roland guitar synths and Fishman guitar MIDI products.

Beyond that, hardly anyone uses hexaphonic pick-ups much anymore.

 

Which is a shame, IMHO. I have a Gibson HD.6X Pro with hex outputs, and used it for a festival gig with Brian Hardgroove from Public Enemy. It was just him on drums and me on guitar. The bottom two strings went to octave dividers, the top four strings went to an Andy Summers-type chorus sound, and I used the magnetic pickups through distoriton for leads. It sounded like a full band with just the two of us. It was messy - an ethernet cable went to a breakout box with six audio outputs, which then had to go into a computer interface with six audio inputs (there wasn't a way to have a direct connection to the computer). But it was worth it.

 

Unfortunately, like most of Gibson's high-tech guitars, it was hated with a passion and abandoned. The new management doesn't even have documentation for the legacy guitars online. Shows how much they care about people who spent big $$$$ on Gibson's guitars in the past.

 

I've often thought about getting the schematics for a Variax and seeing if I could hack a way to isolating the individual string outputs...

[RickBoogher]

On 10/23/2023 at 1:25 PM, brue58ski said:

The current Variax has been described as a labor of love for Line 6. I take this to mean the popularity of the Variax is not what was hoped but it's till part of the Line 6 universe. I'm pretty sure that there will be no new upgrades to the current JTV Variax's and I doubt that a new one is in the works. I think a big part of the problem is people want to use their own ax's. Maybe if they came up with something that would allow you to use your own guitar. Big guess. It would be too bad if they have. I have two JTV Variax's and love them with the Helix.

This is sad. I join the cult in 2019 when I got a Variax Standard which was made by Yamaha. I used the analog 1/4" jack to connect to my existing gear. I then bought a POD xt Live to connect digitally but that model is outdated. I recently bought a Helix and I love it with my Variax. Line 6 should sell these as a package and create more out of box presets that take advantage of the different models of instruments the Variax provides. 

 

I've been having trouble with the connection on the guitar where it cuts out when moving around on stage. I bought a new cable but that didn't fix issue. It looks like I may have to replace the whole Jack assembly. 

 

I am looking at a used JTV-69 on Reverb but I am concerned that if these aren't supported and I have problems with it, I won’t be able to get it fixed. 

 

It would be great if Line 6 could get other big name Guitar Manufacturers to buy into using their technology but I think most of them are competitors in the pedal market and won't play nice. 

I think another down side to using VDI to go full digital is the fact you can't go wireless. 

[brue58ski]

On 11/1/2023 at 5:32 AM, RickBoogher said:

I think another down side to using VDI to go full digital is the fact you can't go wireless. 

 

Have you seen this?

 

 

[cruisinon2]

On 11/1/2023 at 8:32 AM, RickBoogher said:

This is sad. I join the cult in 2019 when I got a Variax Standard which was made by Yamaha. I used the analog 1/4" jack to connect to my existing gear. I then bought a POD xt Live to connect digitally but that model is outdated. I recently bought a Helix and I love it with my Variax. Line 6 should sell these as a package and create more out of box presets that take advantage of the different models of instruments the Variax provides. 

 

I've been having trouble with the connection on the guitar where it cuts out when moving around on stage. I bought a new cable but that didn't fix issue. It looks like I may have to replace the whole Jack assembly. 

 

I am looking at a used JTV-69 on Reverb but I am concerned that if these aren't supported and I have problems with it, I won’t be able to get it fixed. 

 

It would be great if Line 6 could get other big name Guitar Manufacturers to buy into using their technology but I think most of them are competitors in the pedal market and won't play nice. 

I think another down side to using VDI to go full digital is the fact you can't go wireless. 

 

They just never caught on the way L6 had hoped. While I was quite enamored with my Variax initially, the more I used it the more difficult it became to ignore the shortcomings. In my case it was largely the drop D tuning that was utterly unusable with anything approaching high gain...too much cross-talk between the low E and A string piezo saddles. Little by little it just spent more and more time in the case. Being tethered to a cable didn't help either...I went wireless a long time ago.

 

They're also way too finicky and unstable, and if/ when something goes awry, there nothing under the hood that's user-serviceable. Most guitar techs/luthiers have never seen one, and even if they're competent they haven't the faintest idea what to do with the hardware because it's not "normal" guitar guts. And finding an "authorized service center" can be a real pain in the arse depending on where you live. Nobody wants the extra expense of shipping a guitar to hell and back to get it fixed, on top of being without it for an extended period of time. They're also a lot of work at the beginning just to get them functioning... balancing individual string volumes from one model to another, etc. I think that turned off a lot of users who aren't the most tech savvy, or who just don't have the time or inclination to figure it all out. All of that adds up to a product that's just not destined to be widely adopted by the masses.

 

It's a great concept, and perhaps at some point it'll be refined to a point where the platform is more stable and requires less tinkering to get results. Problem is I don't think there's enough of a demand for L6 to bother... the current iterations have been stagnant for years, and I'd be surprised if there's a next generation anytime soon. But who knows?

[silverhead]

I think it’s also noteworthy that Line 6 was acquired by Yamaha some years ago and the Line 6 brand is now housed under Yamaha Guitar Group. Since acquisition YGG has focused Line 6 brand development on its multiFX guitar processors, which complements rather than competes with existing Yamaha products. Competing lines such as StageScape and StageSource were halted in their tracks. I haven’t seen anything new in Line 6 wireless mics since then either. Variax development has also been invisible even though Variax Standard was based on a Yamaha guitar build.
 

I wouldn’t be surprised if the future sees some Line 6 technology incorporated into some Yamaha products. Perhaps some of this has already happened in Yamaha digital mixers and speakers. It could happen with guitars; we might someday see the next generation of Variax technology in a Yamaha guitar.

[cruisinon2]

On 11/9/2023 at 10:55 AM, silverhead said:

I think it’s also noteworthy that Line 6 was acquired by Yamaha some years ago and the Line 6 brand is now housed under Yamaha Guitar Group. Since acquisition YGG has focused Line 6 brand development on its multiFX guitar processors, which complements rather than competes with existing Yamaha products. Competing lines such as StageScape and StageSource were halted in their tracks. I haven’t seen anything new in Line 6 wireless mics since then either. Variax development has also been invisible even though Variax Standard was based on a Yamaha guitar build.
 

I wouldn’t be surprised if the future sees some Line 6 technology incorporated into some Yamaha products. Perhaps some of this has already happened in Yamaha digital mixers and speakers. It could happen with guitars; we might someday see the next generation of Variax technology in a Yamaha guitar.

 

Everything evolves, and while it's certainly not impossible that the existing design could be improved upon...I just don't think there's any money in it. Even the powers that be around here keep referring to the Variax as a "labor of love"... and nobody gets rich off of those, which makes it a hard sell to the bean counters.