GUITAR BOARD

I see the new 700 Series models are on Line6s site now:

http://www.line6.com/variax/specs.asp

I could be quite tempted by
http://www.line6.com/variax/images/specs/photos/700Blue.jpg or
http://www.line6.com/variax/images/specs/photos/700Blonde.jpg
although Im not sure I could be tempted to the tune of Ł900.

have they sorted the necks out yet then?

D

David Morton wrote in message
news:memo.20031110144414.120B@feynman.morton.org.uk...

Hi

I played one last week. As you may well recall, I have the standard Variax
and am very enthusiastic about it.

My impressions were:

Finish quality is much better.
The neck shape is the same, though it felt nicer.
It is quite a bit heavier due to being made from solid mahogany
The sustain was better on the trem version I tried than on my hard tail
convensional Variax.

The sounds are the same, though the improved sustain (obviously) helps.

The neck still might feel clunky to some people, but necks are such a highly
personal thing that I couldnt really say; I dont like a widdle neck on an
Ibanez, e.g. Gives me cramp.... For my hands, the Variax neck shape is
fine, though I prefer a friends 90s strat as far as the feel goes.

I like the look of the blonde one. The one I played was red, and it didnt
appeal to me visually.

Sound control are doing them for Ł850. Worth the extra IMO as compared to
the regular model for the extra sustain alone, and they are certainly nicer
looking finishes. I really like bursts, so Im disappointed that they dont
do the mahogany body with a flamed burst and a pearl scratch. Then again,
its probably for the best as the beer tokens arent in abundance at the
moment....

David Morton wrote in message
news:memo.20031110144414.120B@feynman.morton.org.uk...

I still think they are fugley(F**king Ugly), One thing I have always found
funny is when they lay the spec down, is they name the type of wood they
use, It cant really matter that much can it?, it is digital so who cares
what it is made out of?, I would also like them to put dummy pickups on
there, or a Fernandes Sustainer, I would also love to see an altered tuning
mode, a small screen on the guitar could allow you to set each string to
whatever pitch you want.

Eddy

Eddy wrote in message
news:bopb37$1gkrg7$1@ID-144341.news.uni-berlin.de...

Actually I have to confess I found the amber one rather attractive (ok some
will understand that but maybe not all :-). Anyway I think altered tunings
are beyond this geetar, or maybe Im wrong? If itll accurately do altered
tunings out to 1/4 jack Ill buy one tomorrow no matter what the price...
although I notice its still got a horrible neck radius (think *Gibson*,
Line6 - any decent player uses one!)

JJ

Email: jj at jjquick dot com
Home: www.jjquick.com

Jonathan J Quick wrote in message
news:bopc2i$1hca6e$1@ID-76383.news.uni-berlin.de...

Hi

No, it doesnt do altered tunings. It does not track, so it cant really
do altered tunings. All its doing is to take the output of the six strings
individually (6 seperate piezo pickups) and process them without any
perceptable delay.

The idea behind basswood on the original was allegedly that it was light,
easy to route and very consistant between different pieces. In other words,
if 2 bits of basswood are cut to exactly the same size and shape they are
more likely to resonate in the same way as opposed to 2 bits of
dimensionally identical ash (e.g). The modelling is then starting from a
level playing field and every Variax should sound the same. All of this
might well be complete tosh, but thats the reasoning behind it as I
understand it.

Lots of cynical people said that the reason basswood was used was because
basswood is cheaper. Im not sure that this is the case, as Tom Anderson
builds quite a few basswood guitars. If it were crap wood, he would surely
not use it. Go look on the Warmouth site and see how much a basswood body
costs as opposed to maple or ash. There is little difference in price.
Anyway, some people were put off buying the original due to it being made of
basswood, either due to the fact that basswood aint pretty or basswood is
not in common use, therefore must be suspicious. Mahogany sounds expensive,
and that will probably be enough to tip the balance for people who care
about such things.

As I said in my earlier post, the sustain on the one I played was better
than my basswood model. Whether it is the wood that makes the difference or
some other factor is anyones guess. The one I played also had an ash top
stuck on it. IIUIC, the black one is just a solid piece of mahogany. Dont
they make SGs out of that? Not alluding to anything here, just wondering
;)

And yup, the neck will still seem clunky to some people. Ive never used a
Gibson. But then Im not a decent player ;) On the original, the neck
socket is apparantly identical to a Fender Strat, so you can get any
licenced Strat neck and put it on. Obviously not something you want to do
when youve just dropped Ł850 for a guitar.

Looking on the Warmouth site under fingerboard radius
http://www.warmoth.com/common/frames/guitarneck.htm, it claims that Gibson
necks are typically 10 or 11 inch fingerboard radius. The Variax is 10. Am
I (as usual) missing something?

Gary

Gary Wright wrote:


O.K.

can someone explain this a little more in depth please?

what is Track?

if all you are doing is reducing / increasing the tension on a string to
change pitch then can the Piezo not detect this? it does on an electro
acoustic!!

or is it all to do with the sampler & given frequences to emulate the
different guitars that cannot cope?

:o

Andy (Slick) wrote in message ...

Theres a digital process (or effect) which can alter the pitch of the input
signal but keep the timing the same ... this type of process is used on many
PC audio packages. You could have your guitar tuned EADGBe but the sound
coming from your amp could be say DGCFAD ie. transposed down a tone. As far
as I can tell it takes a lot of computing power / clock cycles to do this
type of thing convincingly. You can do it with less computing power but the
tone degrades rapidly as you increase the change in pitch.

If you want to alter the pitch of the whole guitar you only need work with
one signal / or one pickup. So my Boss GT3 can do this with any of my
guitars.

If you want to alter individual strings by different amounts (ie. alternate
types of tuning) you need a pickup for each string - hence the need for a
hex pickup. BUT, you also need a separate process for each string.

I dont know what the original poster meant by track but Ive mostly heard
it in relation to synthesizers. Synthisizers do something completely
different. The sound they produce is not that of your guitar after being
effected / processed. They measure the characteristics of the sound your
guitar played (mainly the pitch and volume of the notes) and then feed these
as parameters into a signal generator. IE. The tone you hear is generated
from samples or oscillators built into the synthesizer - the guitar just
controls which notes it plays, when and how loud.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Steve W