How Handy Is A Line6 Variax Standard? 

Man that is amazing tony!!!!!! I dig that having the many options !!!! Always a pleasurey friend. Catching up !!! Killer strat.

Man, that's nice. Those have been around for a long time too! I never knew about the alternative tunings.

That sitar and banjo are insane!!! Awesome !!❤

I've had a trusty Variax with me at every gig I've done for at least the last 10 years. Not sure how else I could pull off the 6 & 12 string acoustics, 12 string Rickenbacker (Beatles/Byrds) and drop-D rockers, and to be able to instantly between them (via footswitch) otherwise. It makes a huge difference having something approaching the correct guitar per each song, instead of pretending that turning down the neck pickup on a Tele sounds anything like the intro to "Stairway", "Hotel" or "Behind Blue Eyes" (for example). A Variax and a Helix can nail anything!

I now own two JTV-69S Variax guitars. Line 6 no longer makes or fully supports these guitars. They will support as best they can if you have any L6 gear but the Variax dev team is ancient history now. A real shame since Yamaha said that they were not interested in continuing to develop it. So I will not buy the Yamaha version. There is still so much potential with better modeling assisted by machine learning and AI, more wiring options for volume pot treble bleed, on-board EQ, mid-EQ boost, Alnico 2, 3, 4, and 5 modellinig options, body chambering, body wood options, neck wood options, and more. None of this was ever implemented but the HD Workbench takes you pretty far and you can wire the pickups in sequence or parrallel modes as well with the workbench software, though I thought that it could be even better than they implemented that feature. And, of course, the much wished for wireless VDI which was possible and feasible but never implemented. There truly is no other guitar like the Variax. And for the price, unrivalled. But there is an inherent mistrust of any guitar designed after 1960 amoung electric guitar players.

Always nice to see Variax put through its paces, did you know we now have a way to wirelessly control a Variax freeing you from the VDI cable?

Great video! Does the capability to place the guitar into alternate tunings also ensure that the standard tuning is in-tune? Thanks for your straight-forward review, really appreciate it.

Excelente

How is that powered Tony? My old version is a pain to use at times because I have to use a different cable and hook up the power unit etc. to be able to use it. Plus, the old ones don't have magnetic pickups, so they just look ugly. You can't beat them for versatility though. I should hook mine up again. I do have to try and find the software online again so I can create the custom sounds again. I know it was hard to track down before, but it was installed on a PC that died taking the HD with it. Unfortunately, the old models aren't compatible with the newer ones so they can't use the same software. How do the models sounds through a valve amp compared to a modelling amp? Do they benefit as much as the magnetic pickups?

Got this one brown

While I appreciate how cool this thing is. Nothing is cooler than using a real Stratocaster, a real Telecaster, are real Les Paul, a real Rickenbacker etc. The visual aesthetic adds a certain something to the appeal. 3D Holographic guitars will be the next major evolution. The sounds and the looks in one complete package that can be configured to weigh as much as you like.

I actually got sick from most of its modelling sounds, nasal that makes me a headache . Sitar ok. HOw about the balance between the 6 strings volume?

With all due respect, the models don't sound as good as the regular pick ups because of perception bias. If you can tell the difference in a well designed blind test, we can begin to consider the possibility.

you keep playing the same riff over and over and over