Variax (Worth it or not :))

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richie2708
  • Start date Start date
Richie2708

Richie2708

Dis Member
Unknown territory for me here, go crazy and tell me your views..

Small project studio, wondered if I should buy a guitar that has become available. Its an Old Line 6 Variax 300 Sunburst for around £135 or $105 ish.

What quality would I expect to get from this compared to Mic'ing an acoustic, or an amp.

:) thx
 
Geech, for $105, what have you got to lose? Worth knowing how the thing does, at the least. If you don't like it, you can get your money back by reselling.

Really, I think many of these "Is it worth the money?" posts are nothing more than the OP wanting validation about spending the money. I understand that, but there comes a price point where you just can't miss. $105 is below that point.

Go for it, dude.
 
Emailed the guy to check its still available, and your right purely after validation ;) I'm tight you know. Thx stevieb.
 
Is that a problem, moresound? I'd grab one for 105 if it were lefty...
 
Well, darn. I know what that's like. The lesson here is, when you see a great deal, if you "think about it" just a little too much, you can rest assured someone else is moving while you are thinking.

I am darn near expert at sniffing out killer deals that might amaze most people, and I have done very well flipping most of the gear I have bought and sold. (I hate calling it that- I always try to add some value to everything, before I sell it- even if it's only a new of strings on a Squier. Can somebody explain to me why anyone would sell a guitar withOUT a full set of strings on it??) I try to make sure I make money on every piece, but of course it does not always happen.

One of the things I have learned is to jump when the signs say "be froggy." :D
 
Lol sound advice there (Excuse the pun, which must have been used on here 100's of times by now.) I will make sure I jump at 'Be Froggy' signs in future. :p

But I'm still curious. I know the Variax 300 has no pickups and the sounds are completely modeled by an onboard computer that converts the signal picked up by sensors in the bridge. As this is the case I wondered if anyone had tried them.

They are meant to offer a choice of around 20 different modeled guitars. Obviously this saves you from mic'ing the guitar, and reduces pickup noises and background noise. But is there a big difference in the authenticity of the guitar sounds.
 
Richie2708 said:
Lol sound advice there (Excuse the pun, which must have been used on here 100's of times by now.) I will make sure I jump at 'Be Froggy' signs in future. :p

But I'm still curious. I know the Variax 300 has no pickups and the sounds are completely modeled by an onboard computer that converts the signal picked up by sensors in the bridge. As this is the case I wondered if anyone had tried them.

They are meant to offer a choice of around 20 different modeled guitars. Obviously this saves you from mic'ing the guitar, and reduces pickup noises and background noise. But is there a big difference in the authenticity of the guitar sounds.
Click to expand...
I haven't personally used one but I did sit in with a guy that had the very same one you didn't get.
It was pretty cool ......... we'd be playing along and I'd be hearing a violin and it'd take a moment before I'd realize .... "wait a minute . there's no violin player up here" and look around and, of course, it'd be him. This happened fairly regularly thru the night. "Man ..... that's a cool mandolin part ...... wait a minute ........" ..... :D
The sounds were natural enough that the same thing happened everytime. I'd hear something but it wouldn't really stick out to me because it did sound so natural ..... didn't call attention to itself so it'd be half a song before my mind would make the connection that "wait a minute ....... there's no big acoustic up here" or whatever the instrument might be.

From that one night my impression was that the sounds were pretty damned good. Of course, that doesn't mean in a studio where you listen a LOT closer I would have felt the same way but for that one nights' experience I was pretty impressed.
 
Thx Lt. Bob :). I have to admit It was going to be an extra tool for the studio, spose the big question is, will it sound better then my ability at mic'ing a guitar, and only I can answer that. There's no doubt that it would give me more variety of instruments to use in the studio.

If anyone else has played one I'd be interested in hearing their views. Thx everyone so far :)
 
This is the list of guitars this beauty models :)

1960 Fender® Telecaster® Custom
1968 Fender® Telecaster®
1968 Fender® Telecaster® Thinline
1959 Fender® Stratocaster®
1958 Gibson® Les Paul® Standard
1952 Gibson® Les Paul® ?Goldtop?
1961 Gibson® Les Paul® Custom (3 PU)
1956 Gibson® Les Paul® Junior
1976 Gibson® Firebird V
1955 Gibson® Les Paul® Special
1959 Gretsch® 6120
1956 Gretsch® Silver Jet
1968 Rickenbacker® 360
1966 Rickenbacker® 360-12
1961 Gibson® ES®-335
1967 Epiphone® Casino
1957 Gibson® ES-175
1953 Gibson® Super 400
1959 Martin® D-28
1970 Martin® D 12-28
1967 Martin® O-18
1966 Guild® F212
1995 Gibson® J-200
1935 Dobro® Alumilite
Danelectro 3021
Coral/Dano® Electric Sitar
Gibson® Mastertone Banjo
1928 National® Style 2 "Tricone
 
Save your money and invest in a decent mic and if you want to record any of the above guitar sounds beg steal or borrow the right instrument and amp.

I have the opposite experience to Lt in that I have done a few gigs with a guy who used one and it annoyed the fuck out of me mainly because it sounded crap. I've also seen them demo'd at quite a few trade shows and once the novelty is gone you're left with nothing. There is no substitute for the real thing and I would suggest you learn to setup a few decent guitar sounds and mic them properly rather than learn to chuck a few random notes into a PC and twiddle them into something they are not.
 
Cheers for the response Muttley. I definitely will concentrate on improving my guitar Mic'ing skills, great advice that I know I need to take on board. But I have been doing a lot of research into the Variax guitars, and they seem to be a "Love 'em or Hate 'em" instrument. I don't know enough local guitarists to borrow the guitars or amps listed above, so will blunder on with whats available to me and focus on gettin the best I can out of what I have.

I'm a keyboardist at heart, really not much of a guitar player, so the tech side always appeals to me, at the moment I plug straight into an AI and run through guitar rig 4. Just thought this Variax could greatly improve my already meager set up.
 
Muttley, I know you usually present strong opinions here, and I know you are a professional luthier. I normally am no fan of modeling or electronica (defined here as making music with lots of computer assistance, not the musical genre,) an although I respect both your qualifications and your personal opinion, I think you are coming down too hard on the Variax. By way of explanation:

"There is no substitute for the real thing...beg steal or borrow the right instrument and amp." True, that. But really, it's gotta be next to impossible to find most of those guitars that one can beg or borrow (and stealing is not really advised...) I am fairly well connected 'round here, and darned if I can think of many people who own, never mind loan me, all of those, and that level of instrument. Add to that learning how to play an instrument that is tuned differently from a 6-string guitar- banjo, maybe sitar- can be a rather time-intensive activity. Yes, you can tune a string instrument any way you want, but I know from experience that the more standard tunings for any particular instrument are the standards because they "work" for that particular instrument- when I first tuned up my tenor, I used DGBE, but when I tuned to CGDA, that little thing fairly SUNG. The OP may have little patience for learning several different tunings at once.

Part of the appeal to the OP was the price- and really, you almost can't miss at $105- the Variax is new and exciting enough that the OP will be able to get his money back, should it be disappointing to him.
 
Richie2708 said:
This is the list of guitars this beauty models :)

1960 Fender® Telecaster® Custom
1968 Fender® Telecaster®
1968 Fender® Telecaster® Thinline
1959 Fender® Stratocaster®
1958 Gibson® Les Paul® Standard
1952 Gibson® Les Paul® “Goldtop”
1961 Gibson® Les Paul® Custom (3 PU)
1956 Gibson® Les Paul® Junior
1976 Gibson® Firebird V
1955 Gibson® Les Paul® Special
1959 Gretsch® 6120
1956 Gretsch® Silver Jet
1968 Rickenbacker® 360
1966 Rickenbacker® 360-12
1961 Gibson® ES®-335
1967 Epiphone® Casino
1957 Gibson® ES-175
1953 Gibson® Super 400
1959 Martin® D-28
1970 Martin® D 12-28
1967 Martin® O-18
1966 Guild® F212
1995 Gibson® J-200
1935 Dobro® Alumilite
Danelectro 3021
Coral/Dano® Electric Sitar
Gibson® Mastertone Banjo
1928 National® Style 2 "Tricone
Click to expand...




There is always something not right about the twelve string sound. I think it was the G string.
 
Thanx stevieb, but I didn't get it :( Not out of choice, just that someone beat me to the deal. But I will be keeping an eye open for one in the future.

You hit the nail on the head. I am a keyboard techy guy, who loves my music production. I dabble on the guitar, but would rather use a session guitarist. And the wealth of instruments this opens up for me seems a little too irresistable.
Providing I buy a safe deal, Like you said I can sell it on and get my money back :) (If i don't like it ;))

‪Line 6 JTV-59 James Tyler Design Variax (Guitar overview) - Part 1 of 5‬‏ - YouTube

I think this swayed me

@Moresound

Yeah I have heard that too, however a twelve string is something I do have, so not to concerned there :)
 
stevieb said:
Muttley, I know you usually present strong opinions here, and I know you are a professional luthier. I normally am no fan of modeling or electronica (defined here as making music with lots of computer assistance, not the musical genre,) an although I respect both your qualifications and your personal opinion, I think you are coming down too hard on the Variax. By way of explanation:

"There is no substitute for the real thing...beg steal or borrow the right instrument and amp." True, that. But really, it's gotta be next to impossible to find most of those guitars that one can beg or borrow (and stealing is not really advised...) I am fairly well connected 'round here, and darned if I can think of many people who own, never mind loan me, all of those, and that level of instrument. Add to that learning how to play an instrument that is tuned differently from a 6-string guitar- banjo, maybe sitar- can be a rather time-intensive activity. Yes, you can tune a string instrument any way you want, but I know from experience that the more standard tunings for any particular instrument are the standards because they "work" for that particular instrument- when I first tuned up my tenor, I used DGBE, but when I tuned to CGDA, that little thing fairly SUNG. The OP may have little patience for learning several different tunings at once.

Part of the appeal to the OP was the price- and really, you almost can't miss at $105- the Variax is new and exciting enough that the OP will be able to get his money back, should it be disappointing to him.
Click to expand...

If you really think you can get any where close to all those guitar or other instrument sounds out of one $xxx guitar I'll tell you now you can't. There are a whole bunch of reasons why not and I really can't be arsed to go through them all. Rarely make a point of commenting on "which guitar" threads or "is this a good guitar?" threads because mostly it's subjective. In the case of Variax an Fender acoustics I'll make an exception.;)

I say again there is no substitute for the real thing a good amp, a good mic setup and a good idea of the sound you want and most important the right playing technique to achieve it. If Variax could deliver that then thousands of prominent guitar players would queue round the block to buy them. They don't.

At the end of the day it isn't about the money but more about saving the time it takes to realise that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top