Variax 300 from Line 6 and the Variax Workbench

Line 6, oft known for their electronic effects and amp modeling technology, decided to take the next bold leap and start modeling guitars. Thus the "Variax" was born. "Various Axes" or "Variety of Axes" I see in that name, but I really don't know if that's where they went with it...

The package shown to the left is the package I received to put through the paces in my studio. It's an attractive, albeit unique looking guitar. The package comes with the guitar itself, and nice, heavier than average gig bag, and instruction booklet, direct box/power supply (optional battery power is available as well), and a TRS cable.

In addition to that standard package they sent along the Variax Workbench as well, which is a USB device to interface with your computer. The workbench application is a visual interface to help the user design custom guitar by choosing the body style, pickup styles, pickup placement and much more.

The Guitar

I have heard many and varied opinions regarding the appearance of the Variax. Personally, I like it; it's a light weight, sleek and minimalist design. Some people are taken aback due to having no visible pickups, which is understandable if one is more of a traditionalist.

The guitar I received has a nice rosewood fretboard and maple satin-finished neck with a 12" radius, 22 frets on a 25 1/2" scale length. The body is made of agathis and is available in red or black...the one I received was red, and it is a beautiful finish. The guitar has the standard 1/4" jack plus a digital I/O for POD xt Live, Vetta and Workbench connection.

The instrument is equipped with 4 controls, one volume control, one tone control, one control to page through the model library and a toggle switch to switch between different variations of each model. The volume and tone controls are said to respond in the same ways that the controls did on the guitars they set up to be modeling. The model control pages through a few groups of five models, typically by guitar style. There is one set of Telecasters, one set of Stratocasters, a set of Les Pauls, a set of hollow bodies, semi-hollow bodies and so one. There is also a banjo, a sitar and a couple dobro models mixed in there as well. When on the "Strat" group, for example, you then use the 5-position toggle switch to toggle between 5 different models within that group. Either a different Strat, or a Strat with different pickup selection than the previous. It's actually pretty quick and easy to flip between models with this set up.

The guitar does take some external power source to function and a power supply does come with it, however, power supply is not necessary to use. If you don't you need to keep the guitar full of 6 AA batteries which last a whole 10-12 hours before needing to be replaced, or one 9volt for an emergency situation which lasts 2 hours or less.

I found the guitar pretty comfortable to play, it wasn't very heavy which was good, while shipping with heavier strings then I like, played like one of those Mexican-made Stratocasters, not to hard, but a bit tighter of an action then I personally prefer. I noticed pretty quickly I had a harder time getting the shrills and squeals out of it that I am used to being able to easily get out of my trusty old Washburn. The instrument does not feel like any of the guitars it models, but on that note, also consider the Variax 300 is the least expensive Variax in the line. With a street price of around $499, it plays like a $200-$300 guitar, but, of course with that $200-$300 guitar you don't get the features I am about to cover next...

During the course of this review I did not have the chance to play the other models, but did talk to a couple people who did make the comment that the higher end models were much nicer playing guitars.

The Variax line has, during the course of this review, discontinued the 500, added the 600 and also has had the 700 in the line for a while, each getting progressively more expensive and progressively better playing and feeling as well as being made from better woods on the body and neck. The higher end models also have a smaller radius neck.

The Models

Line 6 did choose a wide range of guitars to models...heck a couple are not even guitars. They obviously choose some of the standards, those being a few different Telecasters, some Stratocasters and some Les Pauls. In addition they modeled some hollow body and semi-hollow body rockabilly and jazz style guitars, some acoustics, a couple of dobros, a banjo and a sitar. As explained above, switching between them is pretty easy, and there are also 10 slots available for your custom configurations.

I played the Variax through a few different systems. I ran it direct through my Behringer 1662FX-Pro board, also into a small, solid-state practice amp, into a cigarette box amp as well as through the POD xt Pro. Most of the models sound pretty good; I really like some of the Stratocaster and Les Paul models. Some of the acoustic models were interesting, they really had that acoustic flavor to the sound, very full and ... well, "acousticy", for lack of a better word.

Some of the models were less impressive than others. While I have never been a big fan of Telecasters in the first place, I didn't really find a tele sound that I liked, they all sounded sort of drown in effects, a couple of were decent, but not great, and a couple were really washed out in a coloring of the sound that I attribute to the pickup and technology being used, but I don't have enough technical knowledge to really comment on it other than there is a coloring of the sound. The sitar model I can't say really sounded like a sitar, but I will say it was a damn cool sound none-the-less, I actually want to use that sound on a couple songs of mine.

The dobros and banjo I found to be interesting models and actually pretty accurate to the real deal. The banjo seemed a bit more muted than the real thing, but the sound was pretty good. The hollows and semi-hollows were good, but lacked a tiny bit of the depth of the sound.

Overall the models were nice, they had the most obvious characteristics of the guitars they were modeling, but many had a slight coloring in them that I mentioned earlier, which wasn't always completely prominent or unpleasant in the sound, but it was always there to some degree. Still, the Les Paul models were strong and thick, the Strat models were smooth and silky, the Tele's were a little twangier...they did hold up to some of those indistinguishable characteristics of the guitars it modeled.

The Workbench

The Workbench is a USB computer interface for the Variax series of instruments. It works on Mac or PC and includes the USB device and a software application. It allows the user to custom design a guitar models to save and share. Models are built by selecting body type, pickup type, pickup placement and a host of other parameters.

The application is quite simple, really. The guitar is connected to the interface with a cable that is an RJ45 (network type jack) at one end, and the end that plugs into the guitar looks like a microphone XLR casing with the same RJ45 jack inside of it. Then, the interface is hooked to the PC with a standard USB cable.

After opening the application you pick one of the current models stored in the Variax instrument to use as a starting point. You can, from there, change the body type, hearing the difference in the sound when you do, choose pickups, angle the pickups, move them back and forth, and so on.

The Workbench was actually a pretty good time to play with, choosing different bodies, pickups, moving them around, seeing the sound differences...add a neck pickup gives the sound more body, slide it forward and the sound slowly thins out just as one would expect. Drag a couple pickups back to the neck position you get a pretty muddy sound, as expected. Choose from single coil and humbucker pickups, different style of each are available, you can angle them like the typical bridge pickup on a Stratocaster. One thing I noticed though is that not all the body choices are represented that well visually...the thumbnail view looks good but the full color window doesn't always match.

One other cool feature of the Workbench is the simplicity with which you can change to alternate tunings to experiment with them. Just tell the app which tunings you want on which strings and boom, there ya go...

My Two Cents

Overall the technology behind the Variax, much like Line 6's other modeling gear, is impressive. It sounds good, it's fun to play with, it's relatively easy to use and it's an attractive package...all the things that make for a good product.

That being said, I don't think I would recommend the Variax to the hard-core guitar aficionado, or a very anal-retentive purist for the simply fact, while many of the models do sound good, they are not all 100% perfect models.

However, for your typical hobby or even semi-pro home/project studio owner, the Variax could be a time, trouble and expense saving product. Many of the models are quite good (a few dogs in there, but not many) and could well get the job done for many of us. I know I personally will consider getting one in the future just for the good models of different common guitars in my rock music style, namely, the Strats and Les Pauls. It could be a huge time and expense saver for me and allow me to use guitar sounds that I could not otherwise use because quite simply, I can't afford all the guitars I would like to have...such is the case with many of us I suspect.

Overall I give the Variax 300 a thumbs up in treading on some new ground and making a product that could really be of help to many studio owners and musicians that don't sell millions of albums...yet...