Variax
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Variax is the name of a line of
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
s developed and marketed by Line 6. They differ from typical electric and acoustic guitars in that internal electronics process the sound from individual strings to ''model'' (replicate) the sound of specific guitars and other instruments. The maker claims it is the first guitar family that can emulate the tones of other notable electric and acoustic guitars. It also provides a
banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
and a
sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in ...
tone. The Variax is currently available as an electric guitar, but modeling acoustic guitars and modeling electric
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
s have been available in the past.


James Tyler Variax electric guitars

In 2010, Line 6 released three new models of Variax electric guitars (replacing the old models), with updated technology and bodies designed by luthier James Tyler. * JTV59 is inspired by the archetypal single-cutaways and features time-tested tonewoods, Tyler-designed PAF-style alnico humbuckers and stoptail bridge. * JTV69 is a classic three-pickup solid-body with alder body, vintage-style Tyler neck and custom tremolo bridge. * JTV89 has a 3-piece maple neck with reverse headstock, 24-fret rosewood fingerboard and Tyler's Fast 'n' Flat neck profile. * JTV89F is the same guitar with the addition of a licensed
Floyd Rose The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1976, the first of its kind, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name. The Floyd R ...
locking tremolo. Each model comes in a US-made or Korean-made version. The Tyler Variax guitars all come with standard pickups as well as the electronic modeling capabilities, whereas the earlier Variaxes had no magnetic pickups. New models include the
Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...
-designed "Standard" and the Stevic Mckay (
Twelve Foot Ninja Twelve Foot Ninja are an Australian heavy metal band from Melbourne, Victoria. They released their debut album ''Silent Machine'' in 2012. The band consists of Kin (vocals), Russ (drums), Stevic (lead guitar), and Rohan (rhythm guitar). They w ...
) signature model "Shuriken"


Electronic Models

Models in all Variaxes are based on the following guitars:Guitar Models Based On
/ref> * 1960 Fender Telecaster Custom * 1968 Fender Telecaster * 1968 Fender Telecaster Thinline * 1959 Fender Stratocaster * 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard * 1952 Gibson Les Paul "Goldtop" * 1961 Gibson Les Paul Custom (3 PU) * 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior * 1976 Gibson Firebird V * 1955 Gibson Les Paul Special * 1959 Gretsch 6120 * 1956 Gretsch Silver Jet * 1968 Rickenbacker 360 * 1966 Rickenbacker 360-12 * 1961 Gibson ES-335 * 1967 Epiphone Casino * 1957 Gibson ES-175 * 1953 Gibson Super 400 * 1959 Martin D-28 * 1970 Martin D 12-28 * 1967 Martin O-18 * 1966 Guild F212 * 1995 Gibson J-200 * 1935 Dobro Alumilite * Danelectro 3021 * Coral/Dano Electric Sitar * Gibson Mastertone Banjo * 1928 National Style 2 "Tricone"


Variax electric guitars

The earlier solid body Variax electric guitars made by Line 6 were available in four models: * The original 500 did not have a model number when it came out in 2002, but the manufacturer relabeled it the 500 when they introduced the 700 in 2004. They discontinued the 500 about a year later. It was manufactured in Korea. * The "budget" model 300 came out in 2005, was in limited supply by 2007 and was finally discontinued in early 2009. It was manufactured in Indonesia. * The 600 featured a
vibrato Vibrato (Italian language, Italian, from past participle of "wikt:vibrare, vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch (music), pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. ...
bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
and all-maple neck with six-on-a-side tuners. It was manufactured initially in Korea, then China. * The upmarket 700 had a carved top, either a hardtail or vibrato bridge, maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard. It had three-on-a-side tuners and diamond shaped mother of pearl inlays with an abalone "V" at the 12th fret. It was manufactured in Japan. The bridge of a Variax electric guitar has an individual
piezoelectric Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied Stress (mechanics), mechanical s ...
pickup for each string. The instrument's electronics converts each of these six signals to a digital signal, and digitally processes each to emulate the selected sound. Since the system processes the strings separately, it can model the effects that one string of a target emulation might cause on another. It can also shift individual string pitches to digitally create
alternate tunings Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitch (music), pitches to the open string (music), open strings of guitars, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and classical guitars. Musical tuning, Tunings are described by the particular pitc ...
instead of pitch-shifting all strings at once. Some enthusiasts have transplanted Variax electronics and hardware into different instruments. These "transplants" can look like almost any popular guitar, yet produce all the Variax emulations.


Variax acoustic guitars

Line 6 marketed four models of Variax acoustic modeling guitars: the 300 Nylon String and 300 Steel String, which allow varying virtualbody size and mic placement—and the more expensive steel stringed, cedar (later spruce)-topped 700, which pitch-shifts individual strings to provide alternate tunings. The 700 emulates over a dozen rare and desirable acoustic instruments, including an acoustic Indian sitar, rather than the Coral electric sitar modeled in the electric Variaxes. Line 6 produced a rare and final model dubbed the 900, of which only 50 were produced and distributed by Line 6. The 900s were made in Japan rather than Korea as the 700s were. The 900s had a solid body with a semi hollow acoustic style facade sound hole, maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard was adorned with diamond shaped mother of pearl inlay instead of the cross design the 700s had, it also had an abalone inlay "V" at the 12th fret. The most publicly recognized Variax Acoustic 900 was used by recording artist
James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, havi ...
, while singing the American National Anthem at the opening ceremony of the NBA Finals of 2008, as well as an event hosted at Borders Bookstore. Line 6 discontinued the acoustic models in 2010.


Variax bass guitars

Line 6 offered the same technology for electric
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
s with the 4-string Variax 700 bass and the model 705 5-string bass, but discontinued them in 2007.


Workbench Software

Variax guitars have a ''Variax Digital Interface (VDI)'' port that connects them via an
Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...
cable to compatible hardware like the Line 6 POD amp modelers, or through the Workbench interface via
USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...
to a computer. Note that the (300-700) guitar cannot be connected directly to the computer but requires a Line 6 USB interface or POD Live / Vetta. Workbench is also the name of the software that lets users customize the electronic models—change body type, change and move pickups, and adjust volume and tone knobs function. Users can create customized models and tunings and then save them back to the guitar.


References

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External links


Line 6Line 6 Variax History
by Jim Miller Guitars