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If you want to cover a lot of ground it's really useful. I have some gigs coming up with some songs that simply couldn't be performed properly if I wasn't using a Variax. I have to go from clean strat to acoustic to gainy les paul to 12 string acoustic back to a les paul. Yes it could be done all on an electric but I want things to sound right. I'm using the Tyler 69. If it's just for messing around or recording, just have fun with it.
I play guitar and take photos of stuff. I also like beans on toast.
I really wanted to like them - which is why I tried twice.
Ultimately, I determined that they weren't for me, for two main reasons.
1. I spent more time fiddling with the software, creating Frankenstein guitars and tweaking them, re-tweaking and re-re-tweaking ... than I did really playing the guitar. Maybe that's just personal discipline, but I used it more as a toy than guitar.
2. It was a perfect "jack of all trades". When I play a Strat, it sounds like a Strat because I know I'm playing one, and my playing style adapts. I play it like a Strat, it sounds like a Strat. All is good. When you flick the Variax switch/knob to the Strat position, you're still playing the same guitar as you were 2 seconds again when it was a 12-string acoustic. You don't adapt your playing style for the different feel of the different instrument, because it's still the same feel/instrument. Consequently, it doesn't sound like a real Strat (or 12 string acoustic, or 59LP, or reso, or whatever).
That was my experience.
I think rossyamaha and TTony perfectly sum up my 2 trains of thought on this at the moment. One half of me thinks it would be perfect for recording different parts for home demos, also I really like the idea of the acoustic/different instruments and tunings. Then the other half of me thinks, I already have a Strat and a Tele, as well as a couple of humbucker guitars, which cover most sounds I want to make, and this probably won't match up to those. Plus I would spend more time editing sounds than I actually do playing.
In the end I moved it on, not because it wasn't useful but that Ifound myself moving towards fatter chunkier necks and didn't enjoy playing it as much as my other guitars. I did consider a transplant but in the end, the electronics in the 300 turned out to be too much hassle to transplant and I sold it to somone who would use it more than I could.
In terms of the emulated sounds, they are 95% of the way there in isolation and I would say indistinguishable from the real thing in a live or studio mix.
I did find mine very heavy though, heavier than my Les Paul Custom (Which is a beast)
I used my tele for regular electric, put slightly heavier strings on Variax to make me play it differently and used it for slide and acoustic work.
I also depend a few times with a 60's covers band and when they say Pretty Woman in D having the dropped Baritone setting made it so easy.
For example - can you justify buying a Ricky 12 string for just say Mr Tamborine Man - Could you justify the cost of an electric mandolin, just for the end of Maggie May - Furthermore can you play a mandolin, when the Variax will allow you to just play guitar parts with a pseudo mandolin voice - Also for live work in a covers band it may well allow you to use just the one guitar for many songs and offer that versatility - As a recording tool, again I can see the point of it to layer an additional voice, maybe a sitar, on one track, when you would never buy one, or indeed be able to play one - So that is its positive options
On the negative - it doesn't sound like a Strat or an LP or a 335 or a D28 - so IMO not a serious tool
In short - I think it has a useful 'gimmick' approach that some will need for live and recording
I know I'm biased - I worked for 10 years at Line6, I was head of guitar quality at one point - but the JTVs were the best guitars L6 made. The 'chassis ' were made at World Guitars in Korea - who make PRS SE, LTD, Shecter, Burns and Chapman (amongst others) and the wood stocks, fretting etc is exactly the same quality as these brands. I know this because I visited the factory in Korea and oversaw them being made!
Where they become 'Marmite' is the neck profile. I never understood and never will the choices made about these. The 69 in particular isn't a typical Strat neck profile, nor is it a one I particularly like but apparently this is a production-ised copy of the Tyler neck... which is a lift from a worn '69 Strat neck owned by either Tyler, Landau or one of the other 'cats' associated with Tyler. I forget...
Anyway point is, it doesn't appeal to all, so you need to try it.
I had the prototype Variax Standards around my desk for some time. If you like Pacificas, you'll get on great with the chassis as it's pretty darn near identical bar the lack of contours. They are a friendly feeling guitar but ultimately they do feel like they are made to a price - which they are. Hopefully the woeful trems have been sorted on the production versions, though.
The variax concept is very powerful if you want to cover a lot of sonic ground quickly and conveniently. I'm not going to get drawn on whether or not they sound like the real guitars - but the comment about feel is valid and important. No it won't feel like you are playing a 335 for example and that may matter when playing a part using that sound - only you can say if that's important or not.
Also so if you are using one at home bear in mind that if you are using alternate tunings, you need the amp significantly louder than the acoustic sound of the strings otherwise your ears will pick out both - and it sounds horribly discordant.
So try one - you may like it. Buy with your own ears, though. Not someone else's from a forum!
possibly the best line ever on this forum
You are never going to get the acoustic sounds right with a plain G string instead of a wound one. If you put a wound G on then it compromises it as an electric.
Also, I don't think the Strat model quite works without a trem bridge, and the scale length is an important part of the guitar as well. With a 25.5" scale the LP sounds will be compromised, and with a 24.75" scale the Strat/Tele sounds are compromised.
Some of the later JTV models give you the option of the 59 or 69 style depending on what you use most, but I expect that the Strat sounds won't quite work on the 59 and the LP sounds won't quite be right on the 69, and you still have the problem of the acoustic sounds being wrong with a plain G.
In the OPs position, if he already has 3 or 4 decent electrics, I'd recommend getting an acoustic and a decent mic for recording it.
I have a 700, and love it. I tweaked it to get the sounds I wanted and the tunings I used, and maybe fine tune it once a year if I need something else. I love the fact I can swap to an alternate guitar/tuning mid track. It has been excellent for recording and for general practice but not sure it would 'work' in a live environment.
It sits very nicely in amongst my other electric guitars, and I wouldn't get rid of it.
But do you play the same through a clean amp as you would a distorted amp? Or even on the bridge pickup vs the neck pickup? I do know what you mean but I did find I changed my playing style when switching models.
A mate had one ages ago, I thought it sounded ok (better than I expected) but I didn't like the neck on it personally.
If you already have a strat, tele, and some humbucker guitars then I'd say the Variax is going to be redundant for recording. A real acoustic is going to sound better, and your guitars will also probably still sound better than the Variax models.