TapperMike

Both. At ten watts output and having to limit the master volume to 5 (neighbors) It's just not there for me. While I've got a 60 watt roland cube sitting in the corner anything past the 3 mark and the cops are at my door.

Great read Rudi. Things will change with a variax. Line 6 strove for authenticity as much as humanly possible with the models included. This means that the output and tone control varies widely from model to model. One of the forum members from VGuitars created a customized bank based on all the original settings but...Volume levels. He normalized the volume across the board so if you are switching say from a Les Paul to a Gretsch Duo Jet the output is the same. I have his custom bank which I've modified a little on my variax. It's convenient but not authentic anymore. As a result I'm going through a "unbalancing" act in my own modded model guitars. Sure I can't change the virtual string windings, gauge, bobbins and base plates but there is much that can be done with regards to varying the output on a per string basis and altering the pots capacitance and resistance. It's nothing that I would advise a working musician to do. My first "serious" modelling attempt is trying to recreate Frampton's Les Paul Custom. His signature model is not far from the truth to the original one he owned. Which was modded before he acquired it. Originally it had soap bar P90's not humbuckers. Though Gibson states that his original "modded" LPC had two Gibson humbuckers and a humbucker of "unknown origin" in the middle. I personally have every reason to believe that all three humbuckers were SD's. two Jazz and one JB in the bridge. As well Frampton's original had a different wiring then every other 3 pup. On the original one it was two tone and two volume. On LP Customs with 3 pups the wiring goes.... Neck only, Bridge Only and the middle position is bridge and middle. On Frampton's one that he played he had the middle pup always on. And the tone was bypassed for the middle pup. The three-was selector was... Bridge-Middle, All Three, Neck Middle. When you take out the tone control completely on a pup the character of the pickup sound changes. The problem with my noble idea is that the variax won't allow a position which uses all three pups at ones. Or to use two pups at the same time with one pup having a tone control while the other one doesn't. Crazy cork sniffing stuff I know. In the end I opted for middle pup only for the middle position and boosted the middle pup levels as Frampton's pup levels are set (the middle pup has a higher output then the bridge/neck. It's been fun and I just wish I had an amp that was loud enough to capture the whole thing.

We are living in both the best of times and the worst of times for music creators. For a time before the advent of home CD burners I spent a small fortune for music production equipment with the hopes of operating a small but profitable recording studio. It bankrupted me and I'm still carrying some of the notes 26 years later. As for talent, and performance. Many many great musicians I knew left the scene pre internet. One of the greatest guitarists I knew put down the guitar, never to play again. There are many who try but not hard enough, or try and find other interests. Persistence is always key. With regards to "DJ's" I usually run into a lot of them on other forums that are daw and plugin centric. They all want to be the next big thing. When I ask them about who they admire as "artists" I do research and find out that those same ppl had experience as musicians and engineers before switching over to acid, or dubstep or whatever. The frustrated ones refuse to accept that hard work, dedication and practice are the key. Instead they think they can be all juiced up after midnight and the magic will come. There are always those who think owning a guitar is the same as being good at guitar. As there will always be those that thinking they have logic or live or reason makes them a DJ/Producer. I've had students that I couldn't get to sit down and play a simple scale to save their lives. Honestly, week after week would go by and it seemed like the only time they would put guitar in hand was for the lesson. That's why I don't teach anymore. I teach to teach so that someone can apply and learn. I don't teach to babysit.

As far as Vi's and v-synths go..... The best thing to happen to me was getting a new computer. Even though I have a bridge to run them I left all my 32 bit plugins behind. They are still there if I need them but haven't felt the need to transfer them. Though I will admit that the linnstrument is a godsend for aftertouch as is the Roli Seaboard/Rise for bringing new life to old sounds. Chappers sums it all up for me. I used to haul around three amps back before all this amp sim / amp modelling took storm. Carrying around gear was a pain. But I wanted the tone that I could only get from those amps. And I needed a bass amp for the times I'd be playing bass instead of guitar. Having an all in one and being able to pull the sound you want / need as opposed to the only one you have make a huge difference. Sure I most likely will never need or want any of the current high gain amps on the market. But I like the idea of.... with the click of a footswitch bringing up a specific amp with specific settings rather then having to dial them in or using an amp that really wasn't designed for the tone I'm going for on a particular song.

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.

Funny thing about transplants. Parker made one (adrian belew) it took years to make a reality and costed a small fortune. Line 6 refused to sell the parts so Parker had to buy complete guitars, (700 series) Gut them and then transplant the guts to the parker. Because the Belew model took so long for development many a wealthy parker guitar owner went out and had a transplant done. Before JTV several luthiers/ guitar techs and hobbyist's would do transplants. With Luthiers it would cost a small fortune just for the labor. I know a guy who makes 5K just for a paint job. Until I win the lottery I'll stay happy with my Yamaha Standard as it is. Re Sillouette There is something magical about the EB/MM necks. Every time I've played a Musicman neck I've been awestruck by it I have no problems buying used if/when I can play something prior to purchase.

Nope. The city decided to downgrade the event. They didn't want to pay for entertainment or other things (like security, cook off) Then it rained hard the weekend of the event. Only 70 ppl showed up.

Way back when I had a motel room sized apartment. It was very narrow I had all four walls lined with guitars and stacked amps on top of amps. I had just bought a Carvin Amp with a 4x12 cabinet and a 200 watt head. The deal was too good to pass up at a local pawn shop. Well I was trying it out and I didn't think it was up that loud. Neighbors called the cops. When the police arrived the Sheriff's deputy looked through the door and saw my lineup. Fortunately I had receipts for everything well organized. He spent about an hour going through the equipment and matching it up with the receipts. Finally all he said was keep it down. After that I found a storage place which offered rehearsal room @ $100 a month. I choose to keep most of the amps there. It was a half hour drive and limited my time to explore my amps (plural ) capabilities. I kept a practice pignose amp at the apt. Thank goodness for current music industry technologies. (amp sims etc) I do have to admit whenever I see someone's collection on the web like Scott Grove or Gregor Hilden who started off as a professional musician collector and now sells guitars as well https://www.youtube.com/user/GregsGuitars/featured and a few others. For a time I didn't play as much guitar in general when I first got the linnstrument. It was worse when I got a ztar. I played the ztar for the first 6 months without looking at a guitar. Having the chance to play guitar in front of other people again and acquiring the variax changed all that. I still rotate through my other guitars but the majority of my playing time is on the variax. It's just too much fun.

It never hurts to have another guitar around the house. Until you hit your head on the ceiling because there are too many guitar cases under your bed.

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

I know, when I was young I wanted a guitar like crazy. Couldn't afford it and my Dad didn't want one in the house (let alone popular music) It's was different over here then it was there. Sure there always was a rebellious nature to have a guitar but over here we had a long long history of guitars in a positive role culturally.

A funny thing about that..... Before I started teaching again (Which has now ended) I gave a great guitar away to my student. He'd stated he had to get rid of the one he previously owned. He was shocked that I'd do something as generous as that. Now, He's lost interest in playing guitar again. It's simply too much work. for him to practice more then once a week. When I was a kid and others were taking classes it was part of the commitment smart parents would put on their kids. Yes you can get a guitar but you have to take lessons and not give up on playing at least for 6 months. With the exception of me... this is what separated those who wished to play guitar and those who wanted. Lots of kids had guitars but few were willing to make the commitment to play them. It's funny looking back on those days now. My Bassist had a high school graduation party in the backyard. Relatives and friends came from all over. All of them came with at least one instrument. Steve played guitar, banjo, mandolin, electric and upright bass. His father, brother and sister also played. As well as cousins and cousins and cousins. Grandpa would call out a song and they'd all play along. A sea of stringed instrument players. Surprised you don't have a Salvation Army or Goodwill there. While I'm not a fan of Goodwill as it's a non-profit that does nothing but line the pockets of the CEO. Salvation Army uses the sale of items donated to a wide variety of social causes like homelessness, substance addiction, domestic abuse intervention and more.

Yikes. Regarding the Dillon that's the problem with inexpensive guitars They have no resell value. My Samick Fastback is a damn fine Les Paul Copy. It's got great tone and a great body design and finish. I was showing it off to my student and explaining that I was thinking of thinning the herd (my guitar collection) as my financial situation has changed. He said "You can't be considering selling This One. I said no simply because I knew it had no resell value.

@Tom I'm always thinking of my next guitar. I've had hundreds over the years, as well as a good assortment of Basses keyboards and other midi based instruments. After I got the linnstrument I'm pretty much set with midi controllers. (though sometimes I think about another ztar.) With guitars. I've promised myself I'll never own a guitar that I can't find or create with the variax. http://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=138.0 I've told the story before but I'll tell it again. When I was growing up I wanted "That one guitar" which for me was a Gibson 335. I didn't own a guitar and when learning I'd always go over to a buddies house and borrow one of his. Most all the guitarists I knew had at least one electric and one acoustic. Or two electrics. It was common for guitarists to share their guitars hanging out at the parents house. Though the years guys I knew would sell or trade one guitar for another and then regret selling the old one. Not me, I'd keep the old ones when I got a new one. Getting a new guitar was always fun and cool and I'd think about how much I wanted to play like so and so when I got it. Not uncommon. Many a guitarist from the 50's, 60's 70's and beyond would get a guitar based on someone they admired. Then they might explore beyond that point and try different things. When I play a certain guitar I get into a "mood" for playing it. It takes me down a path. Afterwards I may play the same song on a different guitar but it won't feel the same. It doesn't conjure up the same sensory experience. But having that initial experience carries me on. This is the one thing I've noticed about the variax. The closer I am to the famous tone the more at ease I am with learning / playing the cover. The guitar is only part of the equation.

The scale length is same as a strat 25.5. The fretboard radius is flat with medium jumbos. The neck profile is a Slim "C" shape As far as width at the nut. Nut width: 41.9 mm https://www.thomann.de/gb/line6_variax_standard_sb.htm It's very near my 80's strat plus with the exception of the flat radius fretboard. The JTV 69 has a much "beefier" neck. Which to be frank I didn't like at all. I also didn't like the raised action on the JTV69 I've read from Line 6 Staff that while one shouldn't replace the neck on the JTV69 that the Yamaha Standard can be replaced with a standard strat neck so long as the tech doing the job has lots of experience.

My recent Fender CIC (crafted in china) telecaster is great. My MIM is crap. Which strikes me as odd as those are supposed to be the higher quality. The CIC is fine although I'd still like to replace the pups. I'm also not impressed with any of the squier line of strats. Honestly save your money for a Yamaha Variax Standard. If you don't like the neck swap it out for something else. I play my Variax everyday. And everyday I get more accustomed to the neck. It will never replace the feel of my Strat but it does what it needs to do. Having the ability to swap out the virtual pups is a godsend to me. As well being able to adjust the pups. Simply rotating, moving the pups swapping out the resistance of the tone pots allows for a great deal in variation of tone. Not to mention the pup sound is authentic

It's funny, I stopped going to Gearslutz years ago. The trolls are unbearable. Every-once-in-awhile someone will link to gearslutz in a different thread @kvr or another music forum that I frequent. It adds nothing to the discussion of using virtual technology be it kemper or line 6 or some other new technology. Sometimes it begs the question. "If these guys are so anti technology then how did they get on the internet?"

I watched part two as well. Only one in four times did they get it right. At least Lee was honest with himself and the public. It's funny how some die hard tube types will never accept modeled amps. In part two Rob states that he'll keep and leave his valve amp at home and tour with the Kemper. I'm reminded of when Kiss was still a small band and they would bring dummy amplifiers and cabs to look like the sound was bigger then it was. This sadly is a division that may not be overcome in time. Looking the part. \

It's funny about those two. I love Lee "The Captain"s guitar playing. I always feel it's overshadowed by Rob Chapman's personality.

I agree I am working harder then he is. but also it's a great motivator for me. I haven't had an audience per say in many many years. So even an audience of one is a plus at this point. I've written out a very concise document for him in music theory. It explains keys and chords and how to read chord charts. It's about 8 pages long. None of it is guitar specific. I'm trying to cultivate his knowledge and make him work towards applying himself. When He first came to me he knew nothing about chords, could only read single note tablature and then hadn't developed any fingering techniques. There is a limit to what I'm willing to teach him if he is unwilling to commit further. Partly I blame his stupid app. It isolates things one string at a time then builds up things to add more strings. The other part I suffer as well as in these years. He won't practice without the app running, So it's become a crutch for him He has to see it and hear it to do anything and easily gets lost when he doesn't have a reference point.

Yes, I just wish he was a little more motivated. I've had to change my direction musically hoping to gain more of a connection interest. Which does to an extent. I'm pulling out some melodic metal (Joe Satriani, queensryche and some others) I'm also trying to expand his musical awareness with some jazz. If he would just practice scales for 15 minutes a day and then chords for another 15 he'd advance dramatically. Right now he practices one day a week and gets frustrated that he hasn't progressed. Partly I blame the app he's also using to learn guitar.

I'm not a fan of alnico 5's The humbuckers on my blacktop telecaster are,,,,"fair" at best. The magnetic single coils on my yamaha variax standard are way way to brash makes me feel like I'm in a punk band. We can't all have the same ears. Have you thought about changing the eq and adding a preamp to boost the signal before it hits your input. It's funny the more I have the more I want. As I dabble with the variax I'm constantly wanting a helix or a pod hd. So I can assign everything (including the variax to a single preset. I find myself constantly trying different settings on my thr amp to balance the output In other news I've yet to really start work on my website famous sounds Between the new kitten, doing things for users of SWiSHzone products (now that the company has shut down, taking on a student and more. I've just lost interest.

As rare as they are during winter. Our festivals etc pay more then most regular bar gigs across the board. Major sponsors contribute heavily as a form of advertising. About the only ones where musicians don't get paid is when they are performing as a school of music. With regards to venues and flyers....Small table tents are more effective then full size flyers It's smaller then a big piece of paper and less likely for someone to throw it out. It's bigger then a credit card. Rudi, Are you selling hats and t-shirts at your shows?

A buddy of mine was playing the one man band circuit for many years. I worked in a restaurant within a holiday inn at the time. He had it in writing and when he arrived for a gig, They double booked. Then sent him away because they got the other act for cheaper. He turned around and took the biz to small claims court. The most honest bar owner I ever met told me. I don't care if you are good or you are great or if you suck. I only care how much everyone is drinking. If you keep the crowd drinking you'll keep the gig. I used to play hard drinking music (the blues) but I was earning a quarter of what suburban pop bands were making.

Nice performance. Used to be on my set list back in the 70's and 80's