Variax Line Axed

[soundog]

The writing has been on the wall for quite awhile, but now it's official .... Variax has been discontinued and no more will be made.

 

 

[datacommando]

On 11/15/2023 at 4:49 AM, soundog said:

The writing has been on the wall for quite awhile, but now it's official .... Variax has been discontinued and no more will be made.

 

 

There was a similar post over on TGP from Frank Ritchotte.

 

And just at time that my JTV59 decided to go flakey - the toggle switch is not changing the options for the models, but works just fine with the mag pups.

 

Oh, hum - another museum piece?

I was using my 2005 Variax 600 only yesterday - still going strong. Also, I might be the only person who bought one of those short lived Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon models from 2007 (still O.K.).

 

R.I.P. Variax.

[codamedia]

I believe the Helix LT was the last device to get a VDI input and integration... with official word finally coming down I suspect that's the last VDI port we'll ever see.

 

Both my Variax guitars are going strong.... a 1st Gen 300 and a JTV 69, both with replacements necks. Neither is my primary guitar but I have no intent in getting rid of them due to this news. 

 

[brue58ski]

The VDIs may be going away but at least DI has said they have a solution for all of us that have a Variax. I'm not sure what that is or how little or how much it will allow a device to control the Variax. My bigger fear is that they will never fix the bugs tha Helix has with the Variax currently. 

[cruisinon2]

The only thing that surprises me about this, is that it took this long for the axe to officially fall...(pun intended) ;)... development ceased long ago, as the last update worth discussing was in 2014, if memory serves. That's an eternity for any product that's heavily tech-dependent.

[silverhead]

On 11/15/2023 at 11:20 AM, cruisinon2 said:

The only thing that surprises me about this, is that it took this long for the axe to officially fall...(pun intended) ;)... development ceased long ago, as the last update worth discussing was in 2014, if memory serves. That's an eternity for any product that's heavily tech-dependent.

I agree. It took a long time. My completely unsupported speculation is that there was a lengthy internal difference of opinion between the Line 6 people and the Yamaha Guitar Group people after Yamaha bought Line 6. I believe Line 6 wanted to continue Variax development but Yamaha is now in charge, and they didn’t want to. As I have said previously I wouldn’t be surprised to see Yamaha come up with the next generation of Variax someday and sell it under the Yamaha brand. 
 

But I’ll repeat myself. Completely unsupported speculation!

[ricstudioc]

Inasmuch as I'm now pretty much "retired" (various physical issues, and just plain gettin' too old for this sh*t) this will have no major impact on me, other than not feeling comfortable trying to sell either of my Variaxes.  How do you look at a potential buyer and say "oh by the way.....?"

 

That said - next to the Helix, the Variax was the most useful bit o'kit I purchased/used in the last 6 years or so.  In a working "business" band, where the songlist is wildly diverse, the V was a godsend.  I used various electrics, acoustics (6/12 string), dobro, banjo, sitar - the custom tunings put licks I could not otherwise play under my fingers.  It (they) certainly payed for itself many times over, over those years.

 

So for the sake of the next generation I hope a new iteration is forthcoming, regardless of the brand name on it.  A bit "niche"?  Possibly, but it fills a need that - once you have that need - no other instrument can.

[cruisinon2]

On 11/15/2023 at 12:11 PM, ricstudioc said:

Inasmuch as I'm now pretty much "retired" (various physical issues, and just plain gettin' too old for this sh*t) this will have no major impact on me, other than not feeling comfortable trying to sell either of my Variaxes.  How do you look at a potential buyer and say "oh by the way.....?"

 

That said - next to the Helix, the Variax was the most useful bit o'kit I purchased/used in the last 6 years or so.  In a working "business" band, where the songlist is wildly diverse, the V was a godsend.  I used various electrics, acoustics (6/12 string), dobro, banjo, sitar - the custom tunings put licks I could not otherwise play under my fingers.  It (they) certainly payed for itself many times over, over those years.

 

So for the sake of the next generation I hope a new iteration is forthcoming, regardless of the brand name on it.  A bit "niche"?  Possibly, but it fills a need that - once you have that need - no other instrument can.

 

There's lots of reasons why they never really caught on... but mostly I think it's due to the fact that Joe Average guitar player just doesn't have needs/wants that are sufficiently diverse to justify the purchase, as those you've described... and that makes it a hard sell on a scale that would make it worthwhile for a big multi-national corporation to bother with. It's also a device that requires a great deal of time and tinkering to get the desired results, particularly with the acoustic tones... and I think that was a turn off for a lot of folks who aren't that tech-savvy and/ or knowledgeable about what makes different types of guitars sound the way they do in the first place. The latter was exacerbated by the way it was advertised, which convinced a lot of people that a realistic jumbo acoustic guitar tone would come flowing out of whatever electric guitar amp/cabinet setup they already owned, with just the flick of a switch on the guitar. Many of them, having no clue that the frequency response of typical guitar speakers simply can't do that, blamed the resulting crap-tastic acoustic tone on the Variax... there was a new thread complaining about this every 11 minutes back in the day, lol.

 

Plus, most of the guitar playing universe gravitates towards a particular genre, with limited crossover outside of whatever it is that they like to hear and play. There just aren't that many guys out there who are equally at home playing a dobro, banjo, and shredding their way through "Matter of Puppets".

 

The Variax concept was ambitious, and while not without its limitations, was largely successful. I just don't ever see it being widely adopted by the masses, even if there is a next generation at some point. My guess is that the bean-counters came to the same conclusion some time ago...

[soundog]

Great stories shared here, and a lot of love for Variax. I used an Acoustic 700 at acoustic gigs for alternative tunings for many years. I kept an ancient MacBook just so I could run the original (and unsupported) WorkBench software. I still have my trusty Variax Standard for studio recordings when quick alt tuning is needed, and its a decent guitar. I pray Workbench HD is supported for a good while.

 

And I agree with others, I hope parts (piezos, etc) will be made available into the near future, especially for the "newer" JTVs and Standards.

[ricstudioc]

On 11/15/2023 at 4:19 PM, soundog said:

And I agree with others, I hope parts (piezos, etc) will be made available into the near future, especially for the "newer" JTVs and Standards.

Yah - if I knew for a fact that support would be available for X period of time, I'd be much more comfortable selling one/both of mine (probably one).

 

I know that in certain industries, manufacturers are required by law to stock parts for a period of years - maybe 7 to 10?  Don't know if modeling guitars are covered under that.

[craiganderton]

On 11/15/2023 at 11:29 AM, cruisinon2 said:

I think it's due to the fact that Joe Average guitar player just doesn't have needs/wants that are sufficiently diverse to justify the purchase

 

That, and not being able to use the Variax concept with "their" guitar. OTOH when I  was doing studio work in NY, I would have given anything for a Variax. 

[cruisinon2]

On 11/16/2023 at 12:07 AM, craiganderton said:

 

That, and not being able to use the Variax concept with "their" guitar. OTOH when I  was doing studio work in NY, I would have given anything for a Variax. 

 

Sure... for session guys who have to be EVH one minute and Joe Pass the next (and can actually pull that off), the Variax is a dream come true. But the other 99.97% are generally only interested in one or the other. Most guitar players, even the good ones,  are one trick ponies... and yes, I'm including myself in that lot, lol

[rwinking]

On 11/16/2023 at 10:37 AM, cruisinon2 said:

for session guys who have to be EVH one minute and Joe Pass the next (and can actually pull that off), the Variax is a dream come true

No way....IT never really sounded good enough to pull that off. THe Jazz tones were the worst. IT excelled on tuning changes and the sitar and other cool things for live use. The glitchyness, Honkyness and sterility kept most good guitarists away from it. I bought one of the James Tyler US made single cuts and it is a beautiful guitar even without the Variax. Knowing it is outdated now really suckes. I guess I am stuck with it 

[silverhead]

On 11/16/2023 at 5:13 PM, rwinking said:

…. Knowing it is outdated now really suckes. I guess I am stuck with it 

This mystifies me. The guitar is exactly the same now as it was before its end-of-life was announced. There hasn’t been a firmware update for JTV since 2014 and it has performed exactly the same since then. Why do you suddenly feel, after 9 years, that it sucks but you are stuck with it?

 

Did it suddenly stop working with the EOL announcement?

[rwinking]

1) I did not buy it 9 years ago.

2) I can't sell it

3) I thought that maybe Covid slowed down any new firmware developments and maybe there might be a better version at some point 

4) There may not be parts available soon

5) I am also having trouble selling my VHS player or DVD. They still work as well as they ever did.

 

 

the list goes on.....

[craiganderton]

On 11/16/2023 at 4:13 PM, rwinking said:

No way....IT never really sounded good enough to pull that off.

 

It would definitely have worked for the sessions I did. If I brought in a Tele and the produce wanted a Les Paul or a Ric, unless the rhythm guitar was going to be mixed up to solo guitar levels and dry, I really doubt anyone would have noticed. 

 

OTOH having been bitten many times in the past by the evolution of technology, I've just kind of resigned myself to the fact that a lot of hardware and software is of the moment, and that I depend on it at my own risk.

[k2mia]

When the word went out about the Variax EOL I started daily searches on Reverb for a Blood Red JTV-89f and today one popped up in mint condition (woot). This same guitar has been my go-to for the last 4 years doing P&W every week and I wanted to make sure I had a backup. I absolutely love this guitar from the feel to the mag pickups to the Variax functionality with my Helix, haven't wanted to play anything else in years. I hope there are plans for a Variax successor because I will be pre-ordering it as soon as its available.

[talonmm]

Not sure if this will help - but it certainly helped me.  I have a James Tyler Variax JTF-89 guitar with a floyd rose.  It is an amazing guitar!

 

The electronics stopped working a long time ago, and a couple of people tried to fix it, but the low e-string thing just never got fixed.

 

Eventually I purchased a roland guitar synth pickup and the gr55 unit and installed it on my Variax.

 

The roland system is amazing and so much more powerful than what line 6 tried to do.

 

So now I have a pedal board with a helix stomp, and an a/b switch.  This allows me to use the Viriax with the helix and the built in guitar pick ups and then immediately switch to the Roland system whenever I need to.  The roland system has buttons on the device that attached to the guitar that allows me to scroll to the tones I need.

 

One minute I can be playing guitar, the next, I'll be playing guitar but soundig like a Piano, or orchestra, or sax, or anything esle.

 

This saved my guitar and made it so much better.

 

[codamedia]

On 11/16/2023 at 4:13 PM, rwinking said:

I bought one of the James Tyler US made single cuts and it is a beautiful guitar even without the Variax. Knowing it is outdated now really suckes. I guess I am stuck with it

 

How do you get "stuck" with a beautiful guitar?

How does a "beautiful guitar" become outdated?

 

The magnetic pickups are still there... and as stated already, the modeling is what it is, it hasn't been updated in about 8 years so what's the difference now that EOL has been announced? I know my JTV won't see any additional updates but I wasn't expecting any so to me nothing has changed? 

 

When my JTV gives up the ghost the worse case scenario is it becomes a beautiful guitar with only magnetic pickups. IE: It becomes a regular guitar.

[codamedia]

On 11/18/2023 at 10:15 AM, talonmm said:

Eventually I purchased a roland guitar synth pickup and the gr55 unit and installed it on my Variax.

 

That's my plan for my 1st gen Variax 300.... 

Not that the 300 has died (it's still going strong) but I'd love to add the Roland component. 

 

On 11/18/2023 at 10:15 AM, talonmm said:

roland system is amazing and so much more powerful than what line 6 tried to do.

 

IMO.. it's apples and oranges, both are really good at what they set out to do. 

 

The Roland is great for non standard guitar tones (piano, synth, brass, etc... etc...) and integration into the keyboard world. However when it came down to guitar modeling, I much prefer the Variax. 

[amsdenj]

I guess we all knew this was coming, but it still saddens me a bit. Variax was a really innovative product that I would like to have seen be more successful. I still have two Variax guitars, a JTV69S and a Variax Acoustic. Both are excellent instruments in in perfect working order. I don't gig with them anymore as I wanted to focus on playing my other guitars. But I use the JTV69S every day for practicing and for rehearsals. It's light, has an excellent replacement neck with stainless steel frets, SVL Daytona pickups and plays as well as any guitar I've ever played. So I'll keep it, and maybe use it for quick open tunings or baritone occasionally. 

[talonmm]

On 11/18/2023 at 12:04 PM, codamedia said:

 

That's my plan for my 1st gen Variax 300.... 

Not that the 300 has died (it's still going strong) but I'd love to add the Roland component. 

 

 

IMO.. it's apples and oranges, both are really good at what they set out to do. 

 

The Roland is great for non standard guitar tones (piano, synth, brass, etc... etc...) and integration into the keyboard world. However when it came down to guitar modeling, I much prefer the Variax. 

 

To each their own. I posted on this topic because for me, I have a much more powerful combination than I ever imagined.  And I wanted to tell others, there is a solution out there.

 

I now feel I have the best of both worlds (helix and synth) and my Beatles band (who never had a keyboard player) is now able to play pretty much any Beatles song we want to.

 

[shaker]

The problem with the Yamaha  built Variax it simply wasn’t a very good guitar, it’s essentially a  $300 Pacifica with Variax software and asking price in Australia is$2K!

[cruisinon2]

On 7/25/2024 at 2:58 AM, shaker said:

The problem with the Yamaha  built Variax it simply wasn’t a very good guitar, it’s essentially a  $300 Pacifica with Variax software and asking price in Australia is$2K!

 

Yup... but Variax was effectively DOA a decade ago (give or take), updates of any significance having ceased sometime in 2014, before the Standard even arrived on the scene. Honestly, I'm not sure why they even bothered with it. It was always a niche product, and whether or not one finds it useful depends a great deal on the individual player. It's too dependent on what you play and how you play it... issues with higher gain tones, palm muting, and the dreaded "piezo plink", for example. The tech just wasn't ready for prime time... still isn't, imho. It works for some, but not others, and you can't build a successful platform that way. Whatever a product does, it has to do the same thing for everybody. You can't have strange issues that only crop up for some folks, and allow them to go unsolved/unexplained for years, as was the case with the aforementioned "piezo plink"... because the result was essentially telling everybody:  "All the fancy features work great, but only if you never use more gain than Angus Young". That doesn't look good in the brochure, lol...

[silverhead]

Since Yamaha took over Line 6 in 2014, and then with the formation of the Yamaha Guitar Group in 2018, I’ve been waiting and hoping for a next generation Variax to be launched under the YGG brand.  Nowhere in sight, at least not yet, but I haven’t given up hope!

[cruisinon2]

On 7/25/2024 at 12:11 PM, silverhead said:

but I haven’t given up hope!

 

Unfortunately, I think they have...;)

[brue58ski]

The first Variax had no mag pickups and that was definitely issue. The second gen got pickups and it still didn't help it's popularity. I suspect one of the biggest issues was not being able to put into any guitar they wanted. And the sounds were adequate for some (me included) but many people thought many fell short. The acoustics and jazz models in particular. I often did not  approach the Variax as a bunch of different guitar brands sounds. It was just a guitar that had a lot more sounds than any other guitar. It wasn't a strat or a Les Paul. It just happened to sound a lot like those. But it was just too frustrating to approach it from the other way. Especially given all of the ways any guitar can be wired. I think that was what the software was supposed solve. But it was a little clunky and didn't integrate perfectly with the Helix. As well as one major bug that was never fixed that rendered pr programming the tone and volume knobs from a patch from the Helix, rendered those functions non functioning. And you NEEDED that function to squeeze as good a sound as you can get out of the acoustics in the Variax. I did anyway. 

[silverhead]

On 8/1/2024 at 6:08 AM, brue58ski said:

... I often did not  approach the Variax as a bunch of different guitar brands sounds. It was just a guitar that had a lot more sounds than any other guitar. It wasn't a strat or a Les Paul. It just happened to sound a lot like those. ..

I agree. Even among the same brand/type of physical guitar they can sound different. One individual Les Paul sounds different from another. Same with Strats - that's why many pros may have several different Strats, but one is their favourite (e.g. Clapton's Blackie). To me, the Variax models are just another instance of a specific type of guitar, but many different types in a single instrument.

[soundog]

I keep my Variax Standard on hand for some occasional guitar tracks that need alt tunings without having to worry about strings breaking. I even used the sitar on a song last month! I bought a few piezos to keep in the drawer in case of failures.

[rwinking]

I would never need to use my Variax in the studio as I have most of those guitars, I do use it live as the sitar is great. Also using the tunings like the open G for slide is cool for live. I still maintain that there is a kind of squank to the guitar models that I have never been able to EQ out. I do believe that Craig Anderton could do this but I just don't have the knowledge. I also think that in the years since they stopped developing the Variax, a lot has changed and they could have made it impossible to  differentiate the "real" guitar from the modeled. much in the same way Helix, Quad Cortex, etc, have been able to do that with amps.

[Snackbar]

I'm seriously thinking of having a trad humbuckers fitted to my 700 , whist keeping all the Variax functionalitywith the piezos. Soundog and rwinking are so right about the sitar, I've used it quite a few times on tracks. I also like the banjo, Danelectro and National Steel Models for alternative sounds sources. Why would I have the humbuckesr fitted? Because the guitar is in pristine condition and plays so darned well that I want to use it more often than just sitar and banjo parts. Rwinking is also bang on about the 'squank' (great word) with the other models, so beong able to flick to some 'proper' pick ups might keep my old 700 alive.