Modeling Guitars ... what do you think?

[jpfeifer]

Hi Everyone,

Robert's posting on synth guitars got me thinking about this other new category of guitars that are emerging, modeling guitars.

Fender just announced their new VG Strat, and Line 6 has had the Variax on the market for some time now. Here are the links to these two brands for you to check out if you've never seen them or heard them:

Fender VG Strat: http://www.fender.com/vgstrat/home.html
Line6 Variax: http://line6.com/variax/

I've played the Variax, but the new Fender VG Strat is just now starting to ship so I haven't had a chance to try it out. I was quite impressed with the Variax, although I think that the guitar itself is a little clunky. The modeling technology in it is really quite amazing.

I think that Fender's offering will have a much better playing guitar (basically a USA Strat), but I think that they made some key misteps on this design after checking out the features on Fender's website. The biggest thing that I didn't like was that the guitar requires 4 AA batteries. There is no box that you plug into that keeps the electronics powered up. This will be a big pain for anyone who is planning to gig with this guitar, since the batteries only last for 10 hours. You will need to keep a stash of fresh batteries in you bag and change them out about every other gig, unless you plan to only use the standard Strat pickups (then why have a modeling guitar?)

The other thing that I see missing is a dedicated output for the acoustic sounds. The Line6 guitar has a splitter box that allows you to route your acoustic sounds to a separate amp if you need to. It also powers up the guitar for you so that you never have to rely on batteries.

I can't wait to try one of these new Fenders though. It seems to have some great sounds in it. I just think that they didn't go far enough on some of the features that would have made it a Variax killer.

I want to get a modeling guitar someday. If I had to buy one today I'd probably go with the Variax 700. But I don't have the money for one right now.

Anyone else have any thoughts on these new kind of guitars?

-- Jim

[Spudman***]

I think they are a great tool and will be around from here on out. I've heard some very good sounds from them too. I would certainly like to have one and the POD to go with the Line 6 guitar.

That said a couple things come to my mind. First, I've been programed for so long on the feel of certain guitars that I'd freak out if I got a jazz box sound out of a thin solid body. Ya know?
Second, what would you buy after that? Once you can replicate the sound of any guitar you wouldn't need to buy any more. Where is the fun in that? A big percentage of the fun of being a guitarist is looking for unique guitars that you bond with. Right? Or is it just me?

[jpfeifer]

Spudman,

I'm with you there. There's nothing I like better than having a few different guitars to choose from. Each guitar makes you play a little differently for some reason, and I always like bonding with one guitar for a while then switching to another sometime later. That's half the fun of looking for new guitars that make you play better.

The main reason that I would want a modeling guitar is for playing situations where I have to cover a lot of sounds in a short amount of time. I'd really like one of these for recording. It's the same reason that I like the PoD and Tonelab, just for having a bunch of great sounds to choose from in one small package without the hassel of setting up a lot of equipment.

Another example for a modeling guitar would be for playing at church where we have to play really quiet acoustic, meditative, music for one part of the service, then switch to upbeat rocking stuff at the end. It would be nice to take one guitar that could cover all of that since our space is also limited.

-- Jim

[Jimi75]

I owned the Variax 700. It was a very good guitar. Excellent craftmanship, one of the best necks I have ever played and the sounds were very close to the originals.

I had to sell it, because my amph belw so I needed some money to buy a new one. The variax had to go, because I found out that you can not substitue the real feeling of a Tele, Strat or Paula virtually. As I own all these other models physically I had to say goodbye to the Variax.

Anyway, I miss playing this guitar specially now as I do lots of recording.

I think if you confront this new trend open minded you can be very happy with the Variax/digital guitars.

[SuperSwede]

I think that modeling guitars are great! The current offerings from Line6 or Fender (I havent tried the Fender yet) might not be 100% faithful to the originals but give them a few generations to evolve and they will probably be hard to tell apart from the originals in a blind test. Just look at the modeling units of today, SO much has happened since the early days of the Roland GP-100 and the original POD.

One of the modeling guitars that I really really liked was the Variax nylon string guitar.. the sound was incredible!

[Danzego]

They're voodoo electronics and should be burned. Burned, I tell you!!




Ok, so that's a bit extreme. I think it's actually a cool idea and great if you're in a situation where you need a lot of sounds, but don't want to or can't lug around a bunch of different guitars. But, as Spud pointed out, there's just something about different guitars and different feels and whatnot. I have no problem being "old school" and agreeing with that.

Besides, if we're in a band together and on the same stage, you're playing a Variax and I'm up there with a Les Paul and a Fender Strat, I don't care who's better...I'm cooler than you by default.

[SuperSwede]

I found this page:

http://www.guitaristjeffmiller.com/audio.htm

I think that the ES-175 model sounds really good!

[tot_Ou_tard]

The odd thing about buying a modeling guitar right now is they'll be soooo much better in a decade. That's not true with a regular guitar. I guess it depends on what you need now & how wrll the modeling guitar fills that need.

I think any and all advances are cool.

I can't wait until I get modeling *FINGERS* no guitar, no amp just freakin rawkin' air guitar.