Shoot me now, bought a Yamaha Variax Standard

[TapperMike]

Hi Rudi

 

One of my major concerns about buying a Variax is that they haven't added any "New" sounds to the instrument since before the JTV models. 

Re the Les Paul's You have to remember that the LP's come in two varieties.  Standard and Special. The special has a straight mahogany body (no maple top) and the top is therefore flat like.... An SG.

 

 

.  

 

What is not shown is the "no body" which gives you the pickup tone without a body

 

It's important to note you can mix and match any pickup with any guitar.  As well you can change the pot and volume controls and phase.  This is huge.  For instance.... Les Paul Deluxe (not shown) is the same as a standard but uses mini humbuckers.  A super 400 is different from an ES-175 by virtue of the neck pickup position and type.  

The VGuitars board has a sub forum dedicated to patches made by users http://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=138.50

 

With regards to acoustic models.  First if you are into percussive playing (hitting the body ) forget that,  Second you will experience warble when playing harmonics (more so if your guitar is out of tune)  Aside from that... The volume knob is in an annoying place if you intend to plick near the bridge. I've given up using a pick near the bridge for brushing chords and instead use my fingers.   I'm not an acoustic player per say.

 

Some of the acoustic sounds are too boomy for me.  This guy has a solution using eq and compression 

 

After watching this video I'm going to open my Yamaha THRC editor and apply some compression and equ

 

With regards to the tone control on acoustic models.  It operates as mic positioning.  And it's subtle.  

 

The more I play my variax the more I wish I had a pod HD or helix to maximize it's potential

 

[Rudi]

I had not heard of the Helix so I checked it out. I found this

http://www.tonymckenzie.com/line6-helix-effects-unit-floor-pedal-inside-and-out-review.htm

Thanks for the info. I try to pick close to the neck most of the time. At times I even pick over the upper frets (I like the way it sounds).

6 hours ago, TapperMike said:

Re the Les Paul's You have to remember that the LP's come in two varieties.  Standard and Special. The special has a straight mahogany body (no maple top) and the top is therefore flat like.... An SG.

 

I can hear the difference between an SG & an LP. The SG has less definition.

But between a slab LP and a maple cap LP? That's lost on my ears.

 

So what difference they find to model is bewildering to me. Surely a whole range of different pickups (57 Classics / Burstbuckers / 496r etc) would make more difference than a bit of wood?

 

The acoustic models certainly sounded authentic but like the action was too low. Notes not clear enough because fret noise. Perhaps his action was too low, or maybe its really in the signal? How does it seem to you?

 

 

 

 

[Rudi]

Ok, I dropped into PMT (dont ask! - formerly Nevada Music) on the way home from getting the groceries.

 

I looked over some stuff there. They had 3 variax. 2 x Standards and a James Tyler. I tried out the JT and a black Standard.

 

It took a little while to realise why I was only getting magnetic pickup sounds. They had no batteries installed. Nevertheless it was a very worthwhile experience.

 

I liked that they had the countries of origin on the headstocks. JT is MIK and Std is Indonesian.

 

The Std feels nicer. The JT has a thick baseball bat neck, while the Std is slimmer & easier to use. Soundwise, I was surprised. I listened to everything clean on a Blackstar amp with the EQ on midaway for bass, mid & treble. The JT neck humbucker seemed muddy and out of balance (high e quieter than the others). The Std sounded very Strat like with woody tones. The handling felt just fine. More importantly, it sounded lovely!

 

If i had ordered one based on specs alone, I would have gone for the JT, but comparing these now I am very impressed with the Std as a regular guitar, before any thought of the variax circuit.

 

[teek]

@Rudi i hope you didn't have ice cream or anything that melts , among your groceries . 

[Rudi]

10 hours ago, teek said:

@Rudi i hope you didn't have ice cream or anything that melts , among your groceries . 

 

Yes I did. Ice cream, ice lollies and prawns.

 

They were still frozen when I got home. The coolbag did its stuff, but probably didnt need it coz it was freezing yesterday. Hmmm... could use a frozen fruit juice lolly right now. Its 7.17am at the moment and breakfast is 2 hours away.

[teek]

Oh a coolbag , 

[starise]

Since I've had the JTV 69 there have been several revisions of the sounds. Line 6 monkey will replace the new set and delete anything you might have customized. You have the opportunity to save the old sound set into a separate file. The 69 does have a " baseball bat" neck. This makes it sound larger than it really is IMHO. I got accustomed to playing with it. 

Line 6 has been good about updating the firmware and improving the sounds. You can  adjust the volume of each string for the modeled section and even the tuning. Pickups can also be tweaked.

Good luck!

[Rudi]

20 hours ago, starise said:

Since I've had the JTV 69 there have been several revisions of the sounds. Line 6 monkey will replace the new set and delete anything you might have customized. You have the opportunity to save the old sound set into a separate file. The 69 does have a " baseball bat" neck. This makes it sound larger than it really is IMHO. I got accustomed to playing with it. 

Line 6 has been good about updating the firmware and improving the sounds. You can  adjust the volume of each string for the modeled section and even the tuning. Pickups can also be tweaked.

Good luck!

 

Ah the JTV 69. I have not tried that. It was the JTV 59 I tried at Farlington.

 

I hope to try that and the remaining JVT 89 at Andertons. I would like to go soon. But its probably more sensible to wait until after Xmas.

 

My Ric 650C has a baseball bat neck. I can cope with it, but a more slender neck feels nicer to me. I used the 650C last night at a gig in the Southampton Football Club (a suite, not the stadium itself).

 

A big gig for us. 500 people. Free drinks, food and access to the staff areas. However we were kept waiting til nearly 11pm before going on, and didnt finish til close on 1.am Saturday.

 

[TapperMike]

Nothing is mentioned about rolling back on Standards,  Mine came set up with 2.12 firmware.  2.x seems harsher then 1.xx to me in video comparisons.

 

[Rudi]

SO yes. I've had my Variax Standard for a couple of weeks now.

 

Only today have I created a bank of tones for in the POD HD400. It was more tricky than I expected. I may have to have another go sometime.

 

Yes I have played with the Workbench software and had fun with it. I'd like to improve the action more. Its playable and fine but I am hearing a buzz that I cant account for. For that reason I am reluctant to lower it any further.

 

I am still enjoying the sound of the regular mag pups.

[Rudi]

Quite impressed with this nicely tooled bridge. Chrome string guides. Ground steel saddles.

 

 

 

[starise]

17 hours ago, Rudi said:

SO yes. I've had my Variax Standard for a couple of weeks now.

 

Now I know where you've been. I hope you took the time to eat.

[Rudi]

45 minutes ago, starise said:

 

Now I know where you've been. I hope you took the time to eat.

 

I've not spent much time on it at all actually Tim.

 

The weird thing is that now I've got the Fender sound again, I dont know what to do with it! I wish I wasnt so damned tone dependent.

[Rudi]

Mike, Tim, AN-Other,

 

Will using heavy gauge strings (.012-.056) cause problems for the variax circuit?

I'm thinking of in relation to the alternative tunings.

 

 

[starise]

Shouldn't be a problem Rudi, so long as the strings physically fit the nut.

[TapperMike]

I tried using 10's but moved back to 09's.

 

You really can't control the input trim level on it.  If the signal is overloaded it will most likely cause dithering distortion upon conversion.

 

It's not like the volume control will have any effect.

 

[Rudi]

didnt it ship with 10s Mike?

[TapperMike]

Mine had 09's on it shipped new.

[Rudi]

17 hours ago, TapperMike said:

Mine had 09's on it shipped new.

 

hmm!? I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed 9s. Maybe I did restring it with 10s?

[TapperMike]

Yeah, Rondo's don't really cut it for me.   I had a brand new Furrian (Tele) delivered directly from them.  The neck was warped the fretwork was uneven and hanging off the edges so it was really sharp.  The pickup output was low and it had noise from the coils not being potted.  And the neck joint wasn't fitted correctly.  Also the screws were shredded when I tried to adjust the intonation.  Worst new guitar I've ever owned.

 

I tried to make it work and invested a lot of time to make it playable but it was all for not.  Too bad it was a really pretty swamp ash body.

Also the neck binding was crackled by the first two days.  As well the maple fretboard began to unseat itself from the rest of the neck and I had to file down and recut the nut.  I really wanted a tele style guitar bad and after my experience I went with Fender Telecasters of which I don't regret.