Line 6 Variax F'n rules!

[beltrom]

I played a Variax in the shop some days ago and have been sort of dissapointed. Not exactly by the sound of it, not exactly by the build quality or so either. It was just not "clicking" with me. Something that some other guitars do. I wish they offered their bridge and engine as a replacement, though, probably embedded in some GraphTech saddles (which is what I'm using on 3 guitars anyways). That way I could add it to some of my axes without losing their original character.

The cheaper Variaxes are so cheap that you could look at them as packages for the engine.
Lots of people rip apart one of those or a second hand Variax and put it inte their guitar of choice, others modify the things they don't like.

Some examples here: http://www.instituteofnoise.com/forum/f ... ORUM_ID=17

In general about the Variax...
I'm so very pleased with my Variax 500, had it for a few years. The sound from the electric guitars are so close that I don't get how anyone can tell the difference, and I doubt very many could in a blind test. The acoustics I can live with, but it would be nice if they improved...

I do get the "playability/don't click with" thing. But my 500 is good enough for me to be the one I keep connected to my gear and play most of the time - it's a trade off that I feel is justified in my case. But then I didn't feel put off by the feel to begin with, I was actually surprised that it felt as good and solid as it did.

I have no regrets what so ever buying the Variax, one of the best purchases I've done in music gear...
I wish I got this much mileage, use and satisfaction out of every purchase.

[Mokafix]

Just for those intereted in the technique (it can maybe help you understand what you don't like in the sound):

- It is definitely not synthesised. (one good way to chek is to try different picks or the fingers: if synthesised, it will sound the same). It doesn't need to make a pitch detection or that kind of stuff from the strings, like would a guitar-to-midi device.
- The pickups capture the sound of each individual string, and send them to the audio engine (which means the guitar body and the strings, if it makes a difference in a real guitar, will also here).
- The 6 signals are processed and then mixed together.
- It will never ever ever match a real guitar at 100%, not because the fenders are too good to be emulated , but because :

• - it actually re-mics an already miced signal, which doesn't happen in a real guitar.
  - as said before, the sound depends on the body and strings as much as in any other guitar, so it is also re-bodied in way.
  - there is a limit on sympathetic resonace, as in a banjo, the sympathetic res is really huge, and it can't happen in a variax, as the stirngs are not fed back by the engine.

How could it be better theorically?
by unmicing before remicing. This is difficult, but not impossible.


To me the most important point is that remiced sound, and I'm quite sure that's the reason why some people don't like the sound and have problems with palm mute and all.
You'd have the same issues with roland VG88.


If someone pays me, I have an idea that could get rid of that re-micing problem
Line6, if you hear...

[Cordelia]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by re-micing an already miced signal. I'm sure it's an issue of semantics. Can you make that clearer?

[Mokafix]

I mean that a real guitar uses a pickup, and that pickup position has an influence, obviously.
Variax also has a pickup, so the raw sound (that you never hear) is already "picked up" or "miced", and then, "re-picked-up" or "re-miced" by the virtual pickup position engine.
The sound sent in the engine isn't raw, and that's the problem.
It has a really big influence over the sound.

[Sascha Franck]

The cheaper Variaxes are so cheap that you could look at them as packages for the engine.
Lots of people rip apart one of those or a second hand Variax and put it inte their guitar of choice, others modify the things they don't like.

Yeah, been thinking about that a while ago already.
No need for me to do it right now, simply because my allround guitars are flexible enough for what I use them for, but I might give it a go should I ever stumble about a nicely priced 2nd hand model.
The biggest problem perhaps being that I want to keep whatever target guitar I might be using exactly as is, so the Variax system wouldn't act as a replacement but as an add-on. This means a lot of tinkering about what controls to put where, whether to use tandem pots (and which), etc.

Btw, if there's something I really learned to like about guitars, it's dealing with their limitations. You adjust your playing to those limitations and the outcome is always slightly different compared to if I was using another guitar.
Having said that, I'm not even sure if I want some "one size fits all" guitar anymore (I surely did some years ago, but that's been simply because I couldn't afford more than one or two guitars at best). In addition, my allround ones (mostly a G&L Strat and a Tom Anderson semi hollowbody) already offer quite a variety of tones, so there's not too much to lust after for me.
Fwiw, I just bought a used Yamaha Pacifica "sort of" Tele (a taiwanese Mike Stern model, which I modified slightly) for cheap, already used it for a musical job (which really requires at least some sort of sound flexibility), and it just did a great job with the 3 sounds it offers. Kinda "back to the basics" feel, which I actually enjoy atm.

Some examples here: http://www.instituteofnoise.com/forum/f ... ORUM_ID=17

Thanks for that link, interesting!