Just got a Variax!

Fireal402

Fireal402

Eyeballs! OH MY GOD EYES
I went to Guitar Center (shudder) today, traded in a synthesizer, and picked up a black Variax 300 Electric. I was sort of skeptical, having played the 500 and thinking it was kind of a novelty. Now that I've used it in my studio, I have to say it's AMAZING!
It's not that often that I have fun playing guitar, but the amount of styles I can conjure out of this beast is just tits!

I have 7 other guitars, and I'd end up spending over $200 on strings every month or so. That's enough to buy a Variax every 2 months! It's great knowing I'm going to have money now, and I don't have to compromise my sounds in the process.

If anyone wants any sound clips or info, I'll share whatever! This is truly an awesome guitar!
 
That's great. You're really going to like how quiet they are for recording, and the time saved setting up different instruments.
 
I think I'm pretty much settled in the way I use my VAX. It's got three main purposes, although two are pretty much the same:

1 - for recording. Plug it in, go through the guitar types until you find the one which suits the sound you're after and then go to the "real" guitar which will give you that sound (if you're lucky enough to have that many. I am).

2 - same for practice - "Hmmm...wonder if a Ricky 12 would work here?"

3 - the ultimate backup guitar for bands who have a lot of different guitars on stage: "Oh, you've broken a string on your Strat/LP/SG/Dano/Gretsch/Ricky/Banjo...?"

Basically, it's a whole lot more fun than any guitar has a right to be.
 
Supercreep said:
I use it mainly for 12-string sounds. Very cool tool!!
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Maybe it's just my variax, but do you get sort of a "digital" detuning on the 12 string simulations? It sounds fine on the high e and b strings, but on the octave strings it gets artifacts if I play hard whatsoever. It sounds like a digitech whammy, for lack of a better description.

Other than that it's amazing, but I'd heard people speak so highly of the 12 strings so I'm a little disappointed. I don't have the workbench software yet, but I hear you can adjust the detune of each string, so maybe that will be what I need?

Phildo said:
Basically, it's a whole lot more fun than any guitar has a right to be.
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Yes. I started toying with it at 8 last night, and didn't get done until 6 am this morning. that's TEN hours straight of Variax goodness! I haven't been this into a peice of gear since I moved from standalone recorders to PC!
 
it is worth getting hooked up to workbench if you can. I love it !!!

Out of phase P90s on a SPANK body for me please !!
 
so you can do things like switch pickup phase?

I thought it was just the various models, and that was that. No?
 
aha where's all the ludite pickup lovers????

I have a variax 700 bass & guitar & man they're great. Had a brand new Gretsch country classic II 12string electric in the studio & the various hums!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuck!! but hey it was a novelty to finally lay down a solo on a gretsch, I think I'll keep my V/axe imo
 
There was an issue with "warble" on the 12 strings which I think you're referring to. However, the problems were rectified in the latest firmware which I believe is 3.10. Run Line 6 monkey and see if your Variax is up to date.
 
I just ordered the workbench thing, it'll be nice to tweak things and see if that update fixes the warble.

It's surprising to me that people would say it doesn't sound like the guitars it's modeled after. Considering the amount of sound variation in the 2005 line of Gibson Les Pauls alone, I'd say they did a great job.
Anyways, the only thing that matters is the sound. The audience is not going to notice that the left channel rhythm guitar is a Variax, not a Strat.
 
I don't know if you saw or are interested but I posted an A/B comparison of a strat, an LP and a variax no long ago in the guitar forum.

Might be worth a look
 
Be careful with the banjo/12 string/ alt.tunings on the variax. You have to be almost perfectly in tune, or it'll sound pants.
 
I played a les paul custom & then a strat for years & I'll stand by the variaxe any day of the week, month, year, decade, century

ya know's wad I mean huh
 
dr_simon, I just listened to the A/B les paul thing... it's made me proud to own a variax :p

I was surprised, because even though I own both a paul and a variax and I like the variax better, I wanted b to be the paul. It just sounds like a les paul should.
 
cheers dude !

I didn't try to make the variax sound better or anything.

I think a few people were quite pissed with the result !

After doing quite a lot of Jamming with it, it also appears that the Spank tones cut through a mix really nicely as well !

Wooohoo !
 
Since you guys have these things, how do they work exactly? They have a piezo bridge? Is it the same as having a piezo bridge plugged into an outboard POD? Is the signal processed hexaphonically?
 
cephus said:
Since you guys have these things, how do they work exactly? They have a piezo bridge? Is it the same as having a piezo bridge plugged into an outboard POD? Is the signal processed hexaphonically?
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as far as I know yes it's hexaphonic

I have a Godin LGXT that runs the midi from the LRbaggs piezzos

Dr. Simon~~~the T-model bridge is rapid for the ol' country thang & NO HUM
 
cephus said:
Since you guys have these things, how do they work exactly? They have a piezo bridge? Is it the same as having a piezo bridge plugged into an outboard POD? Is the signal processed hexaphonically?
Click to expand...

It's a piezo bridge, but it's done a little differently than other guitars. The output for each string is sent seperately to the processor, which does the modeling, then sends it to the 1/4" output. I assume it's hexaphonic, as each string is processed
Think of it as a POD for guitars. Instead of replicating the resistors and the tubes and whatnot, it models the pickups, the body resonance, the tone and volume pots, and the various other things that make a guitar work
 
Hi all,

The bad:

#1 I tried to put Jim Dunlop strap locks on my Variax and found that the strap button on the butt of the guitar is VERY thin where the routing for the electronics takes place. I drilled the screw in, noticed it went as far as it could go and was still loose. Out of curiosity, I opened the plate up on the back and saw to my utter horror that the screw was protruding into the body where a circuit board was sitting! Even if you could get a shorter screw in, there isn't much wood there to support it.I put the original strap holders back on and called it a day.

#2 I paid close to $1000 for mine and it didn't come with a hardshell case.One would think that with electronics and all, it would have been standard.

I'm running mine usually through a Fender Cyber Twin and find that on some presets, the high E sounds louder than the other strings...there is a website with a forum that explains how to tweak the volume of each string individually without hooking it up to a computer. It's all in the knobs. I also wish they had a droning sitar, but you could probably do this with a delay.


When people say that the models sound the same to them...I'm betting it's because of the overdrive/distortion on the amp. Hell, if you distort the crap out of any guitar, it's going to sound like a distorted guitar...period. I actually did this myself the day I bought it...I went to an over driven sound on an amp and switched models with little difference. The sales man cleaned the amp up and said "now try it"...sure enough, BIG difference. If they can't distinguish the tones on the Variax with a clean setting, they probably are somewhat tone deaf. I can't help but wonder how many guitarists crank up and over driven amp to chech out a Variax and walk away feeling it's not all it's cracked up to be. I think it really shines on somewhat cleaner sounds.

J.P.
 
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