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Posted by: Michael AC Jan 28 2013, 03:43 PM

The variax line is going through several changes and I saw this latest edition. Has anyone played one yet? I was wondering if the price is mostly for the electronics stuck in a cheap guitar.

There are not any available within 100 miles of me to pick up and play, so I would like your thoughts.

Posted by: PosterBoy Jan 28 2013, 05:40 PM

Have a search around on forums like The Gear Page. The floyd isn't a cheap korean licenced on like on other guitars, Graph tech is a pretty good make.

I don't know how much involvement Tyler have in the QA of these, or whether it was just the design (they're a pretty small shop) but Jim Tyler wouldn't put his name to any old crap.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Jan 29 2013, 05:12 AM

The addition of a GRAPHTECH LOCKING TREM is just freaking brilliant and it's ABOUT TIME!!!! It seemed like the obvious bit of kit that somehow got left out of the design.

For those of you not familiar, the graphtech bridge acts like sort of digital pickup that lets the on board computer in the VARIAX tansform the sound of the guitar in to theoretically anything. String section, horns, etc. So as a guitar player, you can add non guitar parts very easily to a composition.

This is not a guitar for "purists" really, but it's got so much potential, I'm guessing it might change peoples minds about it. I hope I can find one used and cheap at some point!!!

Todd

QUOTE (Michael AC @ Jan 28 2013, 09:43 AM)

Posted by: Michael AC Jan 29 2013, 03:31 PM

QUOTE (Todd Simpson @ Jan 28 2013, 11:12 PM)

Posted by: VikingBlues Jan 29 2013, 09:05 PM

What I've seen suggests it's a lot better than the last generation of Variaxes in that the guitar part of it is now seriously good and it's not just the electronics that are high quality.

I do have a reservation about it though. Perhaps just a purist, or maybe old-fashioned? I guess we all know how different types of guitars like being played different ways - you find the physical properties (weight, shape, type of neck, balance etc) of a Las Paul, a Strat, a Tele, an ES semi change how you play the guitar and that's part of what makes it sound different. If a one shape guitar tries to be all guitars can it manage to do the job 100% because it is just has one set of physical properties?

Posted by: Todd Simpson Jan 29 2013, 10:14 PM

Good question From what I've heard, the answer seems to be YES. The tone coming out of it is shaped to a great degree by the electronics to emulate the characteristics of a given instruments in it's entirety, wood, pickups, etc. Instead of the wood actually shaping the tone, an algorithm decides how it would sound and sends that out the jack. It's sort of a guitar emulator inside an actual guitar I'm a big fan of modeling/emulation after finding out how killer modern modeling has gotten in terms of what you can actually record and get in to a computer to mix. But again, not everyone's cup of tea, and God Bless the purists as they are the ones that keep great companies like MESA BOOGIE and GIBSON in business so that clever engineers can model sounds based on their products.

Todd

QUOTE (VikingBlues @ Jan 29 2013, 03:05 PM)