Whatever happened to Line6 Variax guitar?

[Fabbio]

...it used to be the holy grail of the newest of the future tecnology of guitars.

Now I can't find one in any music shop where where I live (not that I would want to buy one but I remember they used to keep a lot of models on sale up until two-three years ago...).

 

[ahjteam]

most likely not enough demand, so they aren't being stocked or maybe it has been discontinued.

 

[Trevoire520]

You'll still find plenty on ebay, I always thought it was a pretty cool concept tbh.

 

[006]

If you want one for heavy sounds you can forget wasting your money. However, the abundance of cleans, lightly distorted and lead sounds are actually decent, IMO of course.

 

[Metaltastic]

If you want one for heavy sounds you can forget wasting your money. However, the abundance of cleans, lightly distorted and lead sounds are actually decent, IMO of course.

This reminds me of a great post by Egan awhile back about the Variax

I'm pretty impressed with the variax for getting non-metal sounds. Forget it if you plan to do anything high-gain though.

Whenever line6 stuff comes up, I always wonder if the guys in rockabilly (or blues, or jazz or whatever) forums talk about how the line 6 stuff is ok for high gain stuff but sucks for crunch and clean sounds. I imagine they probably do.....

In other words, does it suck for high gain or does it suck for whatever amp/guitar sound you personally are most familiar w/ and critical of?
sorry for the random interjection.

In short, I suspect it's probably like the Pod technology; a shit-ton of 5-6/10 simulations of the real thing, with an omnipresent digital character permeating them all

 

[006]

Haha, well that's just the impression I got from using one a couple of times at a friend's place. He thought it was cool for heavier rock styles, the band he is in, but it sounded ass for anything but cleans/dirty cleans/etc. It does a decent emulation of a Strat and LP sound, etc. I dunno if I would personally ever get one, I have three actual Strats so...

 

[Metaltastic]

Haha, yeah, I'd say you're covered in that department then Also, what was he running it through? If it was a real amp (especially a tube one) I'd imagine that definitely helped!

 

[Rockchops]

If you want one for heavy sounds you can forget wasting your money. However, the abundance of cleans, lightly distorted and lead sounds are actually decent, IMO of course.

I agree, but mainly because most of the guitar models are suitable for softer styles, i mean if you look at the list, it's full of teles, semihollows, grestch s, etc. guitars that are obviously not ment to be played in a hi gain context, in that area you only have the les paul.

I think the main problem that Line6 had with the guitar, was not to enhance it, they could have done model packs for the variax, maybe some kind of "metal pack" where they included more "modern" guitar sounds.

but i find the emulations to be very convincing, cool guitar.

 

[006]

Marcus, it was Variax>X3Live>VHT tube power amp>Avatar 4x12, I think the Orange style one like lolzgreg has. The lighter stuff did sound good, but I think the downfall is that it's not geared to heavy stuff anyway - as Rockchops pointed out. It's true, pretty much the only model that can do something a little heavier is the LP model, but that only goes so far.

 

[Harry Hughes]

I like modeling technology and where's it's going, but something about the Variax seems really to miss the point.
When you pick up a strat, the feel of the guitar inspires you to play a certain way. When you pick up a Les Paul, it inspires you to play a certain way.
Sure, to an extent, amps force you to play a certain way, but with guitars, since you're holding it in your hands, the way it feels is significantly more important. If it doesn't feel right, the player just isn't going to be inspired.
Sure the Variax can emulate those sounds, but the physical feel isn't there at all, so I'm honestly not surprised they don't sell that well.

 

[drew_drummer]

The problem I've always found with Line 6 is their cab modelling. I don't exactly know how they do it, but I assume its some older variant of impulse technology. Whenever I've plugged the Line 6 amps into Space Designer, with Recabinet or Redwirez, I can get pretty damn good tones.

But their amps aren't perfect; I wouldn't say they were as low as 5-6/10, more like an 7 or 8. The Citrus one is pretty good. I think because of the nature of these devices, you tend to feel you need more gain than you actually do; because of the lack of volume and 3d space.

 

[joeymusicguy]

its in the andrian belew parker signature, which is sweet as shit in my opinion

i think the variax technology is useful, but not for what it was intended
more for just having more sound shaping options at your finger tips, and configuring the guitar for awkward tunings to play a part that would otherwise comprimise the intonation of the guitar.

 

[Harry Hughes]

its in the andrian belew parker signature, which is sweet as shit in my opinion

And also costs you an arm, a leg, a liver and a kidney

 

[Rex Rocker]

I think also a big part of why it's not all that great for metal is because the pickup is not placed in the conventional spot it is placed on a regular guitar, so when you palm-mute, it sounds REALLY awkward... or so I thought.

The acoustic sims aren't all that great... or at least they weren't the brief time I got to hear them, but the bluesy and clean tones I heard were really damn good.

I'd imagine the Variax 700 plays pretty damn good seeing it's such an expensive instrument... plus it looks pretty darn cool, IMO. I played the 300 and it was alright.

 

[kev]

I was hoping it had been variAXED.

 

[SteelRat]

I've been thinking about getting one of these for the rock band I play in. We do a lot of channel and pickup switching, and it would be good to have some different tones to use.

Here's a video I found while researching the variax.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL6IiugA6M0&feature=youtube_gdata[/ame]

one of the better vids, where he uses the setting within the context of what a guitar player actually would...most videos don't do this as well.

There are a couple vids I've seen where it sounds great, and others where it's not. I think it's all in how you use it.

 

[narcossintese]

The accoustic tone at 4:10 is awesome.
Great video! Made me want one. Do you know if this was on a PODxt or something?

 

[kaomao]

Basically all the classic tones are on that video, it emulates really well and close to the original.

 

[gemini8026]

I owned one for a year. It was unique. The sitar was kind of cool, and truthfully the acoustics werent much different then a standard piezo! As mentioned above, palm mutes DONT work worth a damn!

It was a nifty toy, but i sold mine because the novelty wore off and i wanted top tone, so I bought a single coil axe, and a humbucker axe, and a real acoustic, and covered my bases!

Id avoid it, it's also a BITCH if the electronics crap out. I had a bad piezo on mine, and its not overly easy to fix up!

 

[SteelRat]

Here's a good one for acoustics...He uses the variax for the solo and second guitar...



The playing's not tight or anything, but you get a good idea of how it sounds.