25 guitars in one!

paulrmartin · Post by **paulrmartin** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 1:04 pm

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

My birthday is coming soon

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:22 pm

Amazing!

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:55 pm

s*cks completely - one size fits all...

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 11:53 pm

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:00 am

Yeah, heard that too. Most people i know who bought Variax, returned it after a few day, or sold it on ebay.

Try enough before getting it to make SURE it fits your needs, and that you're comfortable with it.

Personnaly i would favor a Godin custom, specially made for me by hand,directly from the show over this variax

For info, read those users comments : http://fr.audiofanzine.com/produits/avi ... 28636.html

Be warned peoples, it's in french...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: marcuspocus on 2005-04-25 01:20 ]</font>

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:25 am

I also found this:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec ... 4ed3257d83

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:44 am

So, what is this? It seems to me it's some sort of fx unit that imposes sound characteristics (of the classics) onto the signal from your electric guitar? Or is it like a gadget you weld into the guitar?

The idea sounds really cool if they can pull it off right.

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:46 am

Before thinking of a FX unit integrated into a guitar, they have to make a guitar. Not all guitars are created equals

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:30 am

On 2005-04-25 00:53, braincell wrote:
WTF?

a guitar is a piece of craftsmenship, and if someone comes along touting 'hey, our board can do them all...' (which I wouldn't believe anyway) this not a move in the right direction imho.
no more posts like this
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... orum=31&11

but seriously: it will (in case it would work) simply wipe away respect and passion for certain instruments - just as VA has done it with synths.

It's nice of course to have a horde of them in the PC box, but who's really making use of the individual ones ? Instead of learning the instrument and tweak it, the next one is loaded from the internet in search for the ultimate killer sound right out of the box - oh yeah, it's so convenient...

If you have to spend a serious part of your income on an instrument you just deal with it in a different way - music isn't clicking Acid loops one after the other (imho)

cheers, Tom

emzee · Post by **emzee** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 4:00 am

25 guitars in one...........wowee!
Same shitty guitarist........damnit.......

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:20 am

One friend of mine, pro musician (makes his living by playing guitar) had one a few months, until sold it.. He didn't like it's playability and the fact the he had to tune it many times during a gig.

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:56 am

I can't speak for the Variax but I've used the Pod and Line6 amps, which I find incredibly thin-sounding and non-inspiring.

IMHO Line6 doesn't make amp and guitar sounds more accessible - they simply cheapen the whole art, and give you the illusion that you have in your hands the genuine 'sound'.

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:58 am

I'm not getting you one for your birthday, Paul - you might just sell it

emzee · Post by **emzee** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:13 am

I think the technology is remarkable.... at the George Harrison tribute concert the guitarists were playing Fender Cyber Twins (I wonder why). Sounded pretty good and amazingly versatile. Like most gear it's what you can make of it.

Maybe they should follow the Mackie advertising....."If you suck, you'll still suck....only you'll have great sound".

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:14 am

On 2005-04-25 05:00, emzee wrote:
25 guitars in one...........wowee!
Same shitty guitarist........damnit.......

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:34 am

Okay I'm getting that this technology isn't perfect and that the guitar is a cheap one. That wasn't apparent from their site for obvious reasons.

As for change. Change is good. Craftsmanship is great but that does not mean that technology is bad. You don't think that writing solid concise code is craftsmanship? Astro, You ought to check out the ITConversations Wozniak lecture at:

http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail214.html

If this product was as good as they say it is, I would shed no tears for the carpenters who make older more archaic guitars. Let us not forget the negative words spewed out by traditionalists when the electric guitar was new.

Guitarists as a lot are purists, and while many of them love to use all kinds of gadgets for their guitars, they look down at the synthesizer deeming it to be somehow "not a real instrument" and condemning drum machines as tools for "disco"; never mind that disco died 30 years ago. These people simply don't know that because they live in the past. For a long time now I have had a deep seeded hatred of guitars, not only for their dominance in music but because when I hear a guitar, I almost always am hearing the exact same clichés that I have heard billions of times before. Then it dawned on me that the guitar is not at fault... It is the guitarist. Most of them are morns.

paulrmartin · Post by **paulrmartin** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:16 am

Hmmmmmmm......Stuff to think about, eh?

But, as I told my wife, there is no way I am buying ANY guitar until I try it out to see how my hand sits on it.

I am going to tell my friend who directed me towards this axe to really think about this(mind you, he can get it at cost!)

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:42 am

On 2005-04-25 09:16, paulrmartin wrote:
Hmmmmmmm......Stuff to think about, eh?

But, as I told my wife, there is no way I am buying ANY guitar until I try it out to see how my hand sits on it.

I am going to tell my friend who directed me towards this axe to really think about this(mind you, he can get it at cost!)

This is for me very important too Paul. When I got my 14 years old Yamaha, I played many, many instruments… got mad all sellers around, but I had to. When you get a string instrument, you must try it for at least 20 minutes, watch it, touch it, and play again, let se how you feel… if it doesn’t impress you after 20 minutes, come tomorrow, but don’t bit.

I am not attracted by the idea of having 25 guitars in one, it means absolutely nothing to me, I already have 1000 thousand, just to give a high number. I can combine any kind of devices in Pulsar and VST “at the same time”, save it as presets and use them whenever I need to. The rest is marketing…

The market as a whole has gone so far, that today companies are forced to do marvels and wonders to sell you the same thing, but covered with false gold. If 70 years ago you wanted a guitar, you would need to look for it with a magnifier glass. Today there are guitars in many music stores around the world, in toys shops and even in every quite a few supermarket.

If you want a good guitar, the first and most important thing is “playability”, and then you can always change pickups at whish, no problem. Then you can build an active circuit to get hot output. Finally, if you are in this forum is most probable that you own a SCOPE board… well, that’s easy, use it to create any sound you like.

For those looking for something sophisticated, there is GuitarSynth:

http://www.lateralsol.com/

So, what do we need this fake 25th for?

emzee · Post by **emzee** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 10:03 am

Nestor...are you using this software...Guitar Synth....demo or full? I tried the demo but the latency is huge. If you use the full version, how's the latency?

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 10:11 am

Real-time Audio to MIDI on a computer will always suffer from large latency (latency of soundcard + time taken to detect pitch and output relevant MIDI). It's better to use a hexaphonic pickup and hex->MIDI converter box (the new Terratec Axon looks *very* tempting at 500 Eu).