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Where it did do well was as a fuss-free way of recording acoustic guitar and banjo - it sounded way better than a mid-range piezo-equipped acoustic (except for the 12-string model, which was shite).
http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-USA/HD-6X-Pro-Digital-Guitar/Features.aspx
The Roland thing was imho shite. The VG’s tracking was atrocious and the pickup is terrible for picking up any nuance of your playing, meaning that you end up with a cartoon sound. Bends were never convincing and vibrato just sounded odd. I agree on the convent thing to a point - ruined by too many menus and options. And that shitty cable... fail.
Someone made comment that ‘half’ the cost of a Variax was the electronics - and the rest. We used to get loads of complaints about the cost of replacement circuit boards - and that the cost of the electronics if bought as parts to repair a guitar (especially the lower end ones) would be greater than the retail price of a new guitar... to which the answer would be “yes, how are you enjoying your free guitar?” In seriousness, the v300s had ridiculously cheap guitar ‘chassis’ but with some work, they could be made to play very well. Tuning issues were ALWAYS down to the nut made from solidified cream cheese. The frets were a bit soft too...
The later JTVs were a quantum leap in terms of build quality as they were built side by side with PRS SEs by the same folks using same wood, paint and processes. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the neck shapes - I’m not a Tyler fan (sorry James but those Strat type necks just feel odd to me) and they were a bit marmite in the market place. I also found the 59 to be a bit heavy in general - but tbh, there is a LOT of mahogany in it.
For me, my fave was always the 700 Custom. Built by Fujigen, they were excellent quality but let down by the tech that was available. The necks were lovely and were super-stable. I’ve built a custom guitar for someone who had the guts of a JTV59 and wanted the 700 chassis. It took a lot of routing (not by me - I did the electronics) but imho, it was the best Variax I ever played. It was helped by having Seymours and a Ghost pickup system mounted in a Strat trem unit (six screw).
As for the sounds - Steve Howe has used Variax from day one live and in the studio. I’ve worked on all of his Variaxes and he is very particular about the code revisions on them. He also has a 24fret semi-acoustic custom built Variax that I helped with - it was going to be a signature model but it got canned. As he has said to me, the sounds need the correct EQ to get the best from them. Plus they are closer to the *recorded* sounds of these guitars rather than the live sounds - especially the acoustics. Whether or not they sound better or the same as guitar ‘x’ is moot - perhaps, a better marketing idea would have been to have distanced them a little more from the vintage guitars, to avoid direct comparison. Because there are some very useful sounds in them that can work well in a mix.
’Meh’? Well, tbh, I don’t own one any more - as I have a load of ‘real’ guitars and don’t need the versatility. But having played literally 10,000s of them in my professional life I’d say they are better than that.
With an exception - the V300 acoustic range. Awful. End of.
Either that or you had a broken one, but the above wasn't my experience and I used the VG a lot.
You can get the bits in a Pacifica now.
I agree with impmann and what Steve Howe said - the sounds are more like a recording of the guitar than playing the guitar itself - but why? Surely if you're playing a guitar, you want it to respond like a guitar. The idea that the sounds could be improved by editing them via a computer is also puzzling - if so, why didn't they come like that in the first place?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It's not just Line 6, to be fair - it's almost always a complaint with any programmable modeller or multi-FX.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The VG-88 posts were hilariously bad.
The UD Stomp is the only such thing I can think of that had really excellent presets. I've had mine fur a decade and still can't work out how some of then work, even with every parameter exposed...