New version of Variax coming ... GAS soon to follow

[jpfeifer]

I'm a current Variax 700 owner, and it has become one of the guitars I use the most. I'm a huge fan! It's very useful to have access to a huge variety of sounds for covering lots of styles for doing covers, or recording, or just for having fun. I've been on the lookout for an updated version of this guitar for some time and it looks like it is now on the way. One of my friends pointed me to this latest announcement that Line6 as re-vamped this guitar with James Tyler (a custom guitar luthier).

I can't wait to try one of these. If they have fixed some of the shortcomings with the current model (which is pretty good) then this will be one killer guitar. One of the big improvements seems to be that they have gone with a combination of standard pickups in addition to the modeling technology. They have also re-vamped the power options so that you have re-chargable battery packs instead of standard batteries. (not sure if I like that or not, as I kind of liked using the battery elimintor and not worrying about the batteries at all) However, I'm sure that this is going to be a great guitar.

[Jimi75]

The battery improvement was the most crucial step for Line6 to take concerning the Variax. I loved my Variax 700, but I hated the little helper I had to carry around, I hated the battery thing...it was too much issues to just enjoy playing that beautiful instrument.

The updates will make the Variax more adorable, for sure.

[Robert****]

We talked about this in March too http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=14838

Looks very interesting indeed. I would be interested for sure!

[Tig***]

Very promising! The American mades they showcased look like excellent quality, but quite a bit out of my price range. I'd love to switch from an LP to Strat, to 335, to acoustic, etc. in an instant, and the alt tunings are cool.

Some great innovations that other manufacturers should look into as well.

[sumitomo]

I have a question for jpfeifer,since you have had the time to play alot with your variax can you just turn from one tuning to another with a flip of the switch and does it sound good to you when you do?I would really like one just for that feature alone.Sumi

[MAXIFUNK]

NOT my cup of tea.

[jpfeifer]

Hi Sumitomo,

The current version of the Variax comes with PC software that you can use to create your own presets with any tuning that you want, however the tuning is saved with the preset (you can't change the tuning independently of the preset) Although this is not the most flexible setup, this works great for saving your presets with the exact tuning and guitar sound that you want for certain things. For example, I have one preset configured for a Les Paul sound in Open G tuning to use for slide to get that Duane Alman sort of slide thing (it sounds really good). I also have another preset with a Tele sound using the open tuning that Keith Richards uses for doing any Rolling Stones sort of rhythm parts. I also have another Tele preset with dropped D and Baritone tuning for doing country parts where I need to do really low twangy guitar lines, and this works fantastic for that.

However the new Variax model (shown in the videos above) seems to have improved on this were you can change the tuning of any preset you want with any guitar model that you are using, independent of the preset itself. This seems to be a great feature. I can't wait to try that.

With the current Variax the altered tunings work great, but they sound less realistic the further you stray from standard tuning. The dropped D tuning sounds fine as well as the open tunings, but it doesn't sound as realistic with the Barritone tuning, but it depends on how hard you pick, and also which guitar model you use for the tuning.

Since they have improved the overall performance of the new Variax, I'm expecting that these altered tuning sounds will be much more realistic than the current model.

I agree with you about the re-tuning feature. This alone is a good reason to use a guitar like this. However, I've found that even the current Variax is so useful for covering lots of parts with one guitar. The Tele sounds are fantastic as well as the Jazz guitar sounds, Gretch sounds, Strat sounds, etc. It is a very useful guitar if you like to cover lots of different sounds for different styles of music. However, if you like to stay with one primary sound for most of your playing then it's probably not going to be that useful to you since it may not sound as good as your favorite Strat, Les Paul or other guitar that you like to use for most of your thing. But for me, it's one of the best things to ever come along.
--Jim

[marnold***]

Are there any problems with tracking, especially with full chords, in the alternate tunings?

[sumitomo]

Wow! Thanks for that answer.I have been learning so stuff in different tunings and it has sparked that urge to play more,so a flip of the switch is cool and all the other voices would be icing on the cake.Sumi

[jpfeifer]

Hi Marnold,

No I haven't noticed any problems with tracking at all. It's not like the old midi guitars that would respond too slow, etc. There is no delay at all when you play and the pitch is exactly what you are playing, unless you have setup a retuning.

The only artifacts I've noticed is when you are using a radical detuning of the guitar in your model. Since it is processing the original guitar note and re-tuning them on the fly, you do notice some artifacts on the low strings if you have detuned really low (likea low B or something) You notice it more if you pick really hard.

The other artifact that I notice (on the current Variax) is a sensitivity to string noise. This is mostly due to the use of peizzo pickups to process the guitar sounds into the various models.

I'm hoping that the newer Variax has improved this area also. I'm anxious to try one to see if the overall sound is improved. As I said earlier, the current Variax is pretty useful as it is. If they have fine tuned some of these areas then it should be even better.

On the newer Variax, they're using a faster processor which is supposedly improving on the overall quality of the models, etc. They're also using a completely different bridge design.

--Jim

[Tig***]

NOT my cup of tea.

But yer missin' out... I mean, what guitar player would want a big ol' collection of guitars of all types?
No one around here, I'm sure!