Line 6 James Tyler Variax

[Mark L]

Anyone tried one out?

 

I like the idea of having several guitars for the price of one

[AlamoJoe]

Guess I need to figure out what one is first....

[Mark L]

[monstermaker]

I have one of the older 700 models that I use with GearWorks amp modeling software. The guitars sound good and serve my needs but the way mine is set up the pickup combinations aren't all there though I usually find a good tone if I'm after a specific one. They've actually done a good job with this. Try before you buy.

[Anderton]

The new HD software is night and day compared to the older models - much more detail. I once joked with Marcus from Line 6 that they should do an ad campaign called "The Variax - everyone's second favorite guitar." He knew exactly what I meant - you have your favorite guitars, but if you need a particular guitar sound in a pinch, there's the Variax.

 

Mark, that was (not surprisingly) a Variax I played in London last July for the Line 6 workshop.

[Mark L]

I have one of the older 700 models that I use with GearWorks amp modeling software. The guitars sound good and serve my needs but the way mine is set up the pickup combinations aren't all there though I usually find a good tone if I'm after a specific one. They've actually done a good job with this. Try before you buy.

 

I'm too embarrassed to try out gear in music shops, so I tend to watch vids on Youtube and make up my mind from there

[Mark L]

The new HD software is night and day compared to the older models - much more detail. I once joked with Marcus from Line 6 that they should do an ad campaign called "The Variax - everyone's second favorite guitar." He knew exactly what I meant - you have your favorite guitars, but if you need a particular guitar sound in a pinch, there's the Variax.

 

Mark, that was (not surprisingly) a Variax I played in London last July for the Line 6 workshop.

 

Sounded good as I recall

[Anderton]

I think the big question is do you need to sound like other guitars, or do you need to get different guitar sounds? I really got into the whole subject when I was working on the Gibson FBX. It didn't do modeling, but had nine bands of onboard EQ. By analyzing the spectral "signatures" of different guitars, I was able to EQ the FBX for iconic guitar sounds that fooled guitarists in blind A-B testing. That was cool, and since then I've done a bunch of guitars for my own use...a bunch of semi-hollow bodies with Varitone sounds, a Rickenbacker six-string with "Ric-o-sound," etc.

 

But I found myself using the guitar emulations less than modified versions. I'm in no way recommending you get an FBX, it's a really complex guitar and programming your own sounds is not easy. However, it is amazing what you can do with a good programmable EQ in terms of getting lots of different sounds out of an existing guitar.

 

A major difference between the Variax and FBX is the Variax synthesizes the string sound while the FBX always works with the physical string sound. As a result, with a Variax you can get a true 12-string or Nashville tuning emulation because you can synthesize the sound of a string that's an octave higher. The Variax workbench is an editor that lets you do things like this.

 

For the record, the guitar I'm using the most these days is the Les Paul X as it can load all my FBX patches and, interestingly enough, the Les Paul Melody Maker. I know it's "cheap and cheerful" but I love the pickups and its overall sound..

[ggm1960]

I think much better for me than the guitar imitation would be the ability to tune anyway I want. At different times over the course of it all I've carried an extra guitar that was (a) tuned down a half step, (b) tuned down a half step or more with a dropped low string, © tuned to open G or E for slide playing, (d) some other type of tuning required by only one, maybe two songs.

 

The Variax is capable in that department right?

 

[Anderton]

I think much better for me than the guitar imitation would be the ability to tune anyway I want. At different times over the course of it all I've carried an extra guitar that was (a) tuned down a half step, (b) tuned down a half step or more with a dropped low string, © tuned to open G or E for slide playing, (d) some other type of tuning required by only one, maybe two songs.

 

The Variax is capable in that department right?

 

Yes, both the Variax and the Peavey AT-200 synthesize the string sound, so the only real limitation is how far you can transpose before the sound quality deteriorates. But as only individual strings are being transposed, it's not hard to get away with octaves - hence the ability to do 12-string sounds. The only thing some people complain about is that the string pitches themselves don't change, so if you're doing something like an open G, what you hear from the amp is not the same as what the guitar is playing..

 

The Gibson guitars with "robot" tuning or Min-ETune change the pitch of the actual strings, so what you hear coming out of the amp is the actual string sound itself. However, this means you're limited to how far you can transpose the strings. If you go too low, they become "floppy" and of course, you can't tune much higher in pitch than a few semitones. Fortunately most "alternate tunings" were created using physical guitars, so the Gibsons can do those. The Variax and AT-200 can do tunings that aren't physically possible,

[Mark L]

My budget won't stretch to the Gibson, but I can just about afford a Variax

 

Thanks for the info

[Anderton]

I wouldn't recommend the FBX for you. People get lost in it and never return.