Customer Reviews

Line 6 Variax 700 Guitar, Black Tremolo

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The Line6 has been a complete replacement to my guitar collection, I wound up selling a lot of the electric guitars I had. It's excellent in the studio as well as live. The ability to turn a knob and have a completely different guitar at your needs is amazing. And they sound exactly like their descriptions (with a few exceptions [see below]). It's an even better guitar if you have a Line6 Pod XT Live or X3 Live as you can control your sounds as you switch the guitar with whatever amp model you are using. I also recommend purchasing the $99 Variax Workbench. In that software you'll be able to change the pickups, and even customize different tunings (like a capo, drop D, DADGAD) without having to tune your guitar. There are 10 Custom presets you can store on your Variax to be able to do this.

The biggest standout to me, besides the incredible Les Paul, Stratocaster and Telecaster models (which I have used the most) was the amazing tone of the ACOUSTIC models on this guitar (except for the 12-String...see below). My friend has a Taylor and the Variax Martin model ran circles around the tone of his $3000 Taylor with Fishman pickups.

There are quite a few cons to this guitar...but they have not hindered my happiness with owning the 700.

* If you're recording, and are sustaining a guitar chord, you may notice the tones dieing out near the end of a sustained chord. It's almost as if the guitar has some sort of slight noise gate. It's not too bad...but I hope someday they will fix that (there's always firmware updates coming out).

* They have been fixing the latency issue with the 12-string, although it's not quite there yet. The 12-string sounds a little too synthetic to me, compared to a real 12-string plugged into a PA system.

* If you plan to use Variax Workbench, and want to fool around with alternate tunings, there is a slight latency if you detune certain strings a lot lower than they originally are (it gets noticeable if you fool around with full-octave de-tunings). I have not noticed this problem with tuning up, however.

* I don't have this issue, as I have strong shoulders...but you'll notice, compared to a Strat or Tele is the weight of the guitar on your shoulders. It will take some getting used to, as it is heavy. I recommend a good, padded strap. Eventually it won't be so bad.

* There are no straplocks installed on the guitar. Most guitars don't come with them, but it would be a nice bonus for a $1300 guitar. The only straplocks I found to work on the Variax 700 are the Schaller straplocks. I could not get the Dunlop "buttonlocks" to install, as the nails were too small.

I would like to see a Maple neck instead of a Rosewood neck. That's just a personal preference, though. There may be some third party company making them in the future.

I wasn't sure about purchasing one of these guitars after reading some negative reviews. Some had mentioned the "cheap" sound of the guitar when unplugged, and the inability to palm mute notes. The guitar certainly does not sound like a quality instrument when unplugged, but that's not how it is intended to be played. When you plug it into an amp, the sounds are really amazing. Palm muting functions exactly the same as any guitar, too. The tremolo is unusable, as far as I'm concerned. It goes out of tune constantly. I tightened the springs all the way, had a professional dress and polish on the frets, and now the guitar plays like a dream (and stays in tune).

The optional software is a must if you want to take full advantage of this guitar's capabilities. You can select from a wide range of body types, pickups, pickup angles, phase settings, series/parallel wiring configurations, and more. You can save your personal settings at any of the factory preset or user-definable "custom" locations on the rotary dial. Also, each of the five positions of the selector switch can be a completely different guitar.

If Line 6 would contract with a better guitar manufacturer, this could be a sensational product.