Line 6 Variax 700 Acoustic

If you're reading this - you're familiar with the features. It's a modeling guitar - so it doesn't really have much tone on it's own it's designed to emulate other instruments though a PA/amp/etc.

Build quality was fine. Very similar to an Epiphone chet Atkins - so essentially a Solid Body build with a fake Sound hole. Aesthetically it's fine - the real plus is no feedback issues.

Full build/features info on the Line 6 or Sweetwater site.

It's been mentioned that it doesn't work with workbench - but the 700 does. That allows for custom tunings to be saved to the instrument. There's some presents on the instrument that does that anyway - but workbench allows a lot more flexibility. This is one of the major differences between this and the 300. Definitely worth the extra $.

No word on the build date - I'm guessing 04-06... Came with a high quality gig bag - manual... allen wrenches, Planet Waves cable and DI box.

No name on the tuners - but they seem to work fine. Much better quality than my electric 300.

I like some models a lot better than others. I've found some good tips online and like the tones I get w. an external compressor and reverb. Does it sound exactly like the guitars it models? I don't know but for the most part they sound quite good.

You'll hear some artifacts with pitch shifting. Some people complain about delay, but I find it very workable. I just use a manual capo for any of the higher pitched tunings and it works fine.

The fact that I can do a gig that would have taken me 3 guitars before and do it with one, alone make it worth my time.

Not bad. I'd recommend getting a professional setup with any new guitar. Was a night and day playing experience. Plastic nut and bridge pins were cheap for a guitar in this price range, but upgrading made me happy...

Seems durable... having said that - it is essentially a computer housed in a guitar so I wouldn't pull a hendrix on it or anything. But for regular playing - it seems fine.

When I got the guitar, the Low E string was a little low in volume. Tried a couple of different things and then read on the online forum that some of the piezos were bad. Called Line 6 - talked about some repair options and they mailed a piezo w. No charge to me that day. A quick solder later and everything was all set.

I've read that some people have had problems - but my experience was really great.

The guitar takes a little tweaking to get it sounding right to my ears, but it's a worthwhile investment. I was on the fence about getting one, but when I saw the Sweetwater price drop, that answered all my questions about whether or not to get it.

With any piezo guitar - you have to have really clean technique to get everything to sound properly. There's not a lot of mercy with regards to sloppy hammer-ons/pull-offs etc. But it's worth the effort. For someone who lives in a noisy apartment building that makes it IMPOSSIBLE to record an acoustic guitar there - something like this is a godsend.

I have a review below from about 2 years ago (see below) and thought I'd add my views after owning this guitar for a while now.

I'm still VERY happy with this purchase. Did a minor adjustment to the action and love what it did to the playability of this guitar.

All sounds still wonderful - or the ones I use the most, which are Parlor, Dread, and Jazz.

I have little or no use for the exotic instruments, except for the sitar. It's not great, but ok, and after amplification, it's easy to hear what I'm doing with it. A fun, different sound. The dobros and banjo are never used. I will occasionally use the 12-strings and nylon and they are ok in small doses.

As I said, I did an adjustment to the action and I'm still happy with the fit on this guitar. The lighter gauge string made quite a difference.

After 2 years of steady use, I have had absolutely no problems (knock wood). I gig regularly with this guitar for rock/blues shows and solo jazz work. I take multiple guitars on all gigs, so if it should go down, I'd just substitute one of the others. I take care of my stuff and everything on this guitar still works as it did when I bought it over 2 years ago.

Still have not dealt with them. And that is a good thing.

After 2+ years, I am still VERY happy with this guitar. Other musicians are amazed at the sounds this guitar gets. I've used it thru both the Fishman Loudbox and the new Roland AC-90. Both sound great. Have also patched direct into the sound board and again, great.

After 2 years, I'm still VERY happy with this guitar and hope to be in another 2 years. It's been a keeper for sure!

This is a guitar in the same way a keyboard is a piano. My Variax has a spruce look about it, its quite a pretty guitar though I did not orginally think so when I played one last year. As for features, well I paid a small sum for what is effectively 12 guitars, with half a dozen usable open tunings.

I want to add my own open tunings, C and C modal and that looks like it will be tricky - though I haven't tried yet. It may be easy.

The sounds are amazing. They may not be perfect but - wow. I bought this as I play open mic night and I get instant variation at the touch of a button. For the working acoustic guitarist it is a must have unless you have a roadie and 8 vintage guitars.

It was rather shop soiled and they knocked off ??100 for me.

Its a great live guitar. I dunno about the electrical side of it, it has a mini computer inside I guess. I would not use any guitar on a gig without a back up. Tuning is pretty solid though the gig bag inevitably knocks the machine heads. I may get a hard case for it.

N/A

I have been playing 27 years. I traded in an Ovation Balladeer against this - no regrets. I have a Squire Strat (my son has claimed this I think) a Fylde Goodfellow. A basic Yamaha in my classroom at school and a Samick banjo.

If this was robbed I'd have another before the end of the day.

I love its variation at the touch of the switch, amazing.

My only gripe is that there is a workbench for the electric variax but not for the acoustic. Why? There's a thousand guitars they could model for use. Mandolin? Bazouki? Until Line 6 adress that the acosutic is a poor cousin of the electric models.

This goes without saying - features are what the Variax is all about and from this point of view it does not disappoint. Visit their website for the rundown but it's as much a computer as a guitar, and feature-filled.

Here's the truth as I see it. Apart from the models of real acoustics at the beginning of the dial, the other models are useless, seriously. The resonator models sound completely Woolworths, as does the classical model, and the wobble as the pitch shifting software tries to emulate a twelve-string is alarming and renders the sound unusable. Don't even ask about the mandola model - I sat with a mandola player for comparison and he almost wet himself laughing. Seriously, you get what you pay for but ??750? Add to this the fact of the strings being loud enough to hear in their original pitches when you're in alternate tunings even amped up (most musicians have good ears, Line 6!) and you're on a losing streak from the start.

The action lies somewhere between acoustic and electric, feeling like a well set-up arch top guitar. The small body makes for comfort and you can sense a strange polarity here - your right hand feels like it's picking or strumming a nice small-bodied acoustic while your left hand enjoys way more fluidity and comfort than you might be used to on a run-of-the-mill acoustic guitar.

My Variax is with Line 6 as we speak for the THIRD TIME in a year! Reliable is NOT the word. Sure it's nicely made and finished, and the gig bag is lovely, but you do not want to go through your playing life wondering when the thing will go wrong next. At your next gig? At the next recording session? In the next five minutes? If they fix it it's back on eBay for a bargain price while I invest in some wood instead of software. Not dependable. Not reliable. Not funny.

The people at Line 6 are a mixture, but by and large very friendly, paying for pickups and redeliveries with no hassles.

32 years man and boy, and in addition to the Variax I have an old Yamaha FG310, a Barcelonian classical, a small bodied Westwood electroacoustic and a Breedlove Atlas through Behringer guitar amps and a Behringer PA. I should have taken more time to listen to the models. If stolen the insurance money would go towards a small bodied Martin. Think seriously and listen hard to this guitar before buying.

If you're checking it out, you probably know what the features are, but it's a digital guitar with various virtual vintage "models", including mandola, shamisen, and sitar. Variax Workbench recently added the ability to tweak the models in really cool ways.

I'm not sure how to rate this. On intention? As in, they intended to give us a lot of cool features? Or on how effective those features turn out to be? I'll split the difference at 5.

At first the sounds were pretty good. I play all open tunings, which was why I bought this thing, so at first, out of convenience, I was willing to overlook the bad sounds that came out of it. Over time, though, my patience got shorter and the sounds got worse and worse. About 7 months after I bought it, they were so awful that I took the thing back. The guy at the store agreed on how awful it sounded and replaced it. He said the chip had gone bad. A week later, the low E string piezo pickup on the replacement blinked out. I took it back and traded it in for an American-made Tele. I'm sure the Tele will never make those awful chirps, blips, squawks, burps, and squirrely digital squiggles that the Variax made.

I would've given it a 1 for sounds, but that wouldn't have been quite fair. I have to hand it to Line 6, they did a great job of emulating those sounds. If you're a strummer, or a very clean picker, you'll probably be okay. However, if you like to hit the strings hard -- if you like to break them sometimes out of sheer joy and abandon -- if you like to play percussively, and especially if you do so with a slide -- then DONT GET THIS GUITAR.

Action is so variable, it's not worth rating. Everybody has their own preferences. The finish was beautiful. Overall, it was like a girl who turns her face away and grunts while you try to make love. Not very sexy. The Tele on the other hand ...

I wouldn't gig it even with a backup.

Never dealt with them. The store took care of everything.

Again, if you're really gentle and don't subject the thing -- I hesitate to call it a guitar -- to too much force, it might be okay. But if you like to play hard, forget it. Don't even waste your time.

The features are well documented by others here - suffice to say they're all OK, though could do with som kind of finishing to the 3 sliders... they look like they used to have knobbly bits on the ends, but they've fallen off!

Sound is brilliant - an ideal guitar for playing in an amplified scenario. Controllable, no feedback, and nicely bright.

Like others, I immediately swapped inte medium guage strings for a set of Martin extra lights, with no noticeable deterioration in sound quality. Just makes it even more playable, in my book.

This is where I had a problem. Eight months into ownership, it failed during a gig. Thought it was the batteries that had expired at first, but eliminated this as the source of the problem when a hefty clout to the body of the guitar brought about a reconcilliation of the sound. So, off it went to Line 6 for a repair under guarantee. I have to say, their service was laughable; 3 weeks and not return of guitar, followed by a brand new one delivered to ther dealer, followed by the dealer admitting Line 6 had made a mistake, followed by my original being returned but without the hard case I had invested in. Took 6 weeks and many paddies from me to get my guitar repaired and delivered with its hard case. NOT GOOD LINE 6!

See above answer...

Playing donkey's years (you wouldn't know, though...). If it were lost/stolen, I would replace immediately - its veratility in a live situation makes it worth its weight in gold. Share other people's comments that it ought to come with a hard case, not just a mucky brown gig bag. It's not a guitar to throw around, so needs A* protection.

I am very happy with the features on this guitar. I wish they would make a way to use the same guitar sound with more than one alternate tuning. In fact, I would be happy if all the patches were either the jumbo or dread sound.

I play through a Bose PAS system and think this is a great way to hear the Acoustic Variax.

For an acoustic guitar, it doesn't get much better than this. It plays like a Les Paul.

This is my second review of the Acoustic Variax. I did another review back in Feb 2005 with my 2nd Variax which I returned. I guess 3 times is a charm, because I've been using my Variax for 10 months now and haven't had a problem.

I've called Line 6 from time to time to see when they are going to bring out a port for this guitar so I can upload sounds and tunings like you can do with the electric Variax guitars. They come off like that don't seem to care.

This feature was supposed to be out a year ago.

I'm very happy with this guitar. It has been very good to me and hasn't let me down once.

Bought this Variax from Guitar Center about 4 months ago. At first, I was not comfortable with the feel, which is very much like a Les Paul. I've always preferred slimmer necks and this guitar felt "chunky". However, I was very much impressed with the sound. They had it demo'ed thru the Bose PAS. I sat for about 3 hours fooling around with the settings, programming, and different sounds. Gradually, I became more comfortable with the feel. I thanked the salesman and told him I'd sleep on it. About 10 days later, he called me and said they'd knock $300 off the price if I could make the purchase before the end of the quarter. I went back in, played around with it a little more, and cut the deal. They were very nice to deal with.

I have had dozens of guitars over the past 40 years. This is one I simply have not been able to put down. I've played it some every day since I got it. While I don't have all of the acoustics modeled by the Variax, I can tell you that they are all first rate sounding acoustic tones. I prefer the Parlor, Dread, Triple O, and Jazz. The Nylon is ok, but sounds more like a synthesized nylon rather than a true classical guitar. My regular nylon sounds much better, but it is useable live.

The 12 strings sound fine to me, and the sitar is fun. Adds a nice toch to a jazz arrangement of Steely Dan's "Do It Again". Dobro's and banjo sound pretty good, but I don't have much use for them.

But the acoustics are great, and that's what I bought it for. For live performance thru a good, flat PA, or direct recording, you can't do much better.

Controls and settings are all documented here and on the Line-6 website. There are also some demo sounds on the web that are helpful.

Guitar seems very well made and durable. I am very careful with all my guitars (7) and maybe a little moreso with this one because of the electronics. Setup was pretty good, but I put a lighter guage string on when I got it home. Despite what some say, I installed some light gauge strings and they performed just as they do on a standard acoustic. Bright sounds and easy fingering.

Time will tell, and I'm very careful with my stuff. I have used this guitar on about a dozen live gigs so far, and it's working beautifully.

Overall, it seems to be a very solid guitar. I always take a backup of some sort.

Have not dealt with them.

Played about 40+ years. Have several guitars from Fender Strat, Takamine 12-string, Gibson ES-175, Ovation Tornado, Ovation Balladeer, etc. Fender, Tech-21, and Roland amps. Lots of analog pedals and a few digital ones.

One thing about this guitar that I didn't expect to use, but do is the virtual capo. I occasionally do a jazz trio with guitar, sax, and percussionist. As a guitarist, I do a lot of solo arrangements in "guitar" keys like A or E. The virtual capo lets me move those to Bb or F easily to better accommodate the sax. HE loves it!!

I would buy this guitar again in a heartbeat.

Wish it had a tuner and a better sounding nylon string.

The $950 price I paid was not too bad. I think the regular price is around $1200 which is a little pricey for a basically, electronic modeling guitar.

For what it is - a great acoustic sound for live or studio performance - this guitar is fantastic.

Good selection of acoustic models. The sitar and shamisen are gimmicky and not very useful.

Initially sounded great, at least for a direct-recording situation. After a little over a year of owning the guitar it began to develop problems with the electronics, and now pretty much sounds like crap, in spite of resetting it and trying a host of other remedies. I suspect something on the circuit board or in the processor has gone south.

Looks good, but the construction is poor. Three months after I bought it the bridge began to lift and the top began to delaminate around the bridge. Had it fixed by a local shop. Now a year-plus on it's coming up again, and even more of the top is delaminating.

Very poor. See the above categories.

Word was it could be a month or two to get the bridge repaired when it first came up, so I paid to have it fixed locally. Now that it's coming apart again AND the electronics are going it's out of warranty. Learned my lesson the expensive way- I do not reccomend this particular Line6 product.

Very, very disappointing. Yeah, sounded fantastic, but barely a year after I bought it it's now worthless.

This sound review is from the audience perspective. A pro female singer who's gigs I attend, recently switched to the Variax Acoustic: Her sound improved dramatically with the Variax. (Sorry, I don't know what guitars she was using prior). Her musical style is sort of folk-rock, her own material, a strummer, with 1 electric guitar backup guy. The venue was outdoors at a party. She's only owned it for a few days. She plugged directly into a modest PA. Her sound was focused and clear, no mud, no twang, no rumbles, no feedback. Bright but not harsh, you could hear the low string clearly. Plenty of dynamic balance. She used a few different guitar patches. When she started one of her numbers, I suddenly hear a Dobro. Another, a 12 string. This was one of the best live acoustic sounds I've ever heard.

During a break, she let me mess with it a little. The action was low and smooth. I asked her to switch to various sounds as I played, and most sounded very good. The "banjo" and some others were a little wierd, but hey, this was all on the fly on stage and new to both of us.

Hearsay, she said she absolutely loves it, and is so easy to just plug and play in a live situation.