johnnyayyy Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Is this a thing? When did it happen? Never seen anything like it... http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/4556248314.html Line 6 Variax Tele Body and Neck without electronics - Schaller tuners - $150 (berkeley) © craigslist - Map data © OpenStreetMap (google map) (yahoo map) Line 6 Variax Telecaster body, neck, and hardware. Made in Korea. Includes 2 pickguards, humbucker surround, back electronics cover, bridge, neck bolts, jack plate, strap buttons, and Schaller tuners (W. Germany). No pickups or other electronics. One pickguard is fits 2 Strat pickups and the other pickguard fits a neck humbucking pickup. Basswood body and maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. Very little wear with some light body scuffs behind the bridge. The frets show little wear. 25 1/2" scale neck. About 1 3/4" wide at the nut. Body 1 3/4" thick. Neck is fully adjustable. Guitar weighs about 6 lbs 7 oz. and has a well balanced, solid feel. Easy to bend string action. No case. Great project guitar with battery compartment and lots of room for on-board electronics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clay-man Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Looks like a custom. This isn't uncommon, a lot of Variax uses have transplanted and/or made their own Variax guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyayyy Posted July 8, 2014 Author Share Posted July 8, 2014 It looks slicker, more stylized and more like a from-the-factory item than any Variax transplant I have ever seen. And the number of Variax transplants I have seen with pickups is very low... Compare the shape of the top bout and the cutaway to the JTV59 - very similar, yes? And it looks like the same simulated binding on the top. Like a JTV59 and a Tele melted together. And that sweet "Tele-but-not-a-Tele" pickguard... really well designed IMO, I would say it was done by someone extremely talented. Enlarging the pics I do not see the typical LR Baggs markings and the saddles look like they have the newer Tyler designed piezo elements. Mighty interesting... The whole thing looks exactly like what I would expect Line 6 to come up with if they designed the Tele people have been begging for for years, and if this isn't the long awaited Line 6 Tele style Variax it really should be IMO. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_m Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 I believe that's the body from a Peavey Generation EXP guitar. Those guitars have an active piezo system with acoustic modeling, hence the battery slot and large cavity for electronics. Someone managed to stick an older Variax neck on there. http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/351081663911?lpid=82 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyayyy Posted July 8, 2014 Author Share Posted July 8, 2014 I believe that's the body from a Peavey Generation EXP guitar. Those guitars have an active piezo system with acoustic modeling, hence the battery slot and large cavity for electronics. Someone managed to stick an older Variax neck on there. http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/351081663911?lpid=82 I believe you are correct. Nice guitar. Weird that the control layout is the same as the Variax 500, that is what made me think factory job. And I KNEW that body looked too cool to be a one off. Now that I see it I remember someone did a similar Peavey Tele/Variax transplant in the old forums, a really nice one with a purple quilted top. The Peavey body was too thin so they couldn't get the rear control cover to close - had to put spacers and it stuck out of the body about 1/4", looked pretty bad... maybe that is what made them give up on the black one currently for sale on Craigslist. Update: I just got an email from the guy selling it, he bought it in its current state and didn't know it was a Peavey - he thought it was stock or maybe a prototype. Thanks for the info Phil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clay-man Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 Smart. A lot of people will buy an existing guitar, or a body, to make their transplant. It's rare that one will flat out make one, but sometimes they do. There was Warmoth that used to make guitars for Variax transplants but I'm not sure if they do that anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_Watt Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 The neck looks like it came from a 500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyayyy Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 The neck looks like it came from a 500. Yep, the stamp on the neck was what made me think it was new - wasn't aware the 500s were made in Korea like the JTVs, in my memory all the older Variaxes were Indo except the 700 Japanese model - even though I had a 500 that I used as a donor for my transplant I guess I had forgotten about it being Korean. The neck on my 500 WAS pretty nice, almost as nice as my 700 and much better than my Korean JTV... I wish the JTVs had the same neck quality as the older 500/700 Variaxes :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clay-man Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Yep, the stamp on the neck was what made me think it was new - wasn't aware the 500s were made in Korea like the JTVs, in my memory all the older Variaxes were Indo except the 700 Japanese model - even though I had a 500 that I used as a donor for my transplant I guess I had forgotten about it being Korean. The neck on my 500 WAS pretty nice, almost as nice as my 700 and much better than my Korean JTV... I wish the JTVs had the same neck quality as the older 500/700 Variaxes :( My 600 is made in Korea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_Watt Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I like my JTV69 neck better than my 500 neck. It's on the narrow side which suits my small hands nicely. My 500 neck is not bad either. Good build quality. I have no complaints about either of my Line6 guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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