THE MOST UNDERRATED GUITAR?

Hi Friends,
Today I've made a short essay to decide if the Line 6 Variax Guitars are underrated and overlooked, or if they should be left in the past.
They have incredible capabilities but do the drawbacks outweigh the positives?
Please comment below your thoughts and subscribe so I can keep making stuff for you!
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
02:19 - Performance/Demo
04:30 - Conclusion

[@frankr6053]

original JTV-59 owner here and its by far my favorite guitar out of the dozen or so guitars I own,. I never use the varian magic though

[@gnumarco]

I had a JTV59 and a JTV89. I did not like the neck of the JTV59, I loved the overall ergonomics of the JTV89. Sound-wise, the mag pickups were OK, and the models were...OK...just OK. I had coupled it to a Helix Rack, and I had to tweak quite a bit my sounds to get what I wanted. Also I had to adapt my technique to get rid of the unpleasant high pitch "pluck" the models were generating at high gains. I have to say though that being able to switch pickups, models and tunings on the guitar by just pressing one foot switch on the Helix was a killer feature! The last release: the Shuriken, was a commercial flop. It was a great piece of tech, but this particular tech (more than 10 years old) was not enough to get it to quality standards that most of us expect.

[@MrSteviethegreat]

This would have been great advisement if the still made these

[@paulmarch59]

I have never gotten so much value out of any instrument I have ever owned. My main use for the Variax was for covers and for worship. When paired with the Helix, all I ever heard was comments like "you sound just like...". It's not for everything, but there is nothing like it for many situations. I was literally heartbroken when they were discontinued. I don't think it will be missed, but it should be...

[@Melos-Media]

@paulmarch59 yeah I don't think they will be but for that kind of stuff they're a Swiss army knife. Not exceptional at anything but great for a multitude of applications

[@andrewbonica]

A point of clarification: the reason for discontinuation had nothing to do with latency or capabilities. It was parts obsolescence. Unfortunately, the music products industry is quite small compared to the larger consumer products market. Thus, it is reliant on components used by other manufacturers that utilize millions of components and sell orders of magnitude more products that the music industry. When they move on, the music equipment manufacturers must adapt. Especially as more products incorporate IC chips, they’re completely beholden to availability. No music product manufacturer makes their own ICs, the small quantities make it financially prohibitive.

[@gtrdrumsplayerduarte]

The missing part. You can change the sound but you can't change the feel of the guitar. I would go for 012 and a wider neck when in acoustic modeling, I would go for 009 and slim neck for a superstrat.

[@AlecBourneMidiMadScientist]

This was a good video, what latency specs do you refer to though??

[@Melos-Media]

@AlecBourneMidiMadScientist Thank you! I can't measure it exactly, but anecdotally I have noticed increased latency when using the pitch feature. The lower you go, the greater the delay from your input. It gets distracting.

[@gtrdrumsplayerduarte]

I have 2 jtv 69 and had previously a standard. I think what people go wrong with it is trying it to be the perfect replica of the vintage gibson, fender and so on and when comparing it always feel lacking. I always look for a type of sound or new creative sounds and that's it. I can perfectly do palm mute with it altough you have to improve your technique. Magnetic pickups are more forgiving than piezo and with piezo a lot of detail comes out more quickly. It's a fantastic production tool for me in the studio.

[@MyOtherNick]

there is one flaw in your story.. the variax sound is achieved via analogue processing, so there is latency. And would I get one?? I already own 5 of them, which says it all..

[@andrewbonica]

Sorry, that’s not it. It’s processed digitally. Hence the DSP inside the guitar. (Former Variax Product Manager here.)

[@MyOtherNick]

..as if hou neef any introduction to the variax family..😃 the dsp is digital, indeed.