Line 6 Variax 700 Acoustic

It's a well layed out guitar for me. It provides me with the eletric guitar feel. I'm just not an acoustic player. My dad has a stratacoustic that I realy like, but I wanted a resophonic guitar, a 12 string, and a jumbo acoustic. And I got them all and a hole lot more in this Line 6 700 Acoustic.

The (Dobro) square neck seting, is rite on the money of a gig mic'ed wood body Dobro. But you have to realise that a mic setup is vary prone to feedback on these and most other acoustic guitars. so the gig setups arent exacly the same sound as a true nonelectric sound. I am very happy with the sound from most of the models. The nylon string model is the weakest in my opinion, but 15 out of 16 aint bad.

I pefer to play this Line 6 Variax 700 Acoustic over any of the other 6 guitars I own. Lite acoustic strings that still feel very medium electric to me. fast average action no buzz and can hanle my hevy brass slide with no problems.

I've only had it a month. So far so good. Who gigs without a back up?

"If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?"
I can't aford to replace it it cost to much the first time. My only compant is that this is a good $800-$1000 guitar that cost me $1260.

I hate to spoil the party but this guitar is a bomb. The features are listed on the web site and may be a try at innovation but the user interface is dismal. All the fancy features like tuning and virtual capo are on the sliders which have no detents or markings. If you want to change the pitch or capo up you better have "perfect pitch", or a tuner and some time on your hands. In addition you can only save one alternate tuning in each model detent and that tuning is hard wired to the model and only available to that model where saved. So you can't have say a jumbo with two alternate tunings handy on the fly or two different capo positions on the same model. Not very flexible.

It may be better than having several guitars tuned and handy but it is certainly not something you can do on the fly.
There is no midi interface or other way to save the tunings outside the guitar as far as I can tell. That function may be available on the Vetta amps but then you'll have to shell out another $1,600 more or less.

Lastly there is nothing "acoustic" about this guitar at all. It is basically a solid body electric with a fake soundhole. So if the modeling card goes on the fritz which mine did (see below) you basically have a $1,200 wall ornament. :-( What you have is the original variax with acoustic guitar models at twice the price for the fake cosmetics. Great marketing hype. Ouch!

The sounds are good for modeling and I don't have any beefs here. It doesn't sound like a live guitar in any of the models but close enough. It is after all a digital model and you have to give up some trade offs.

Big ding here. This is my major gripe and why mine is one the way back to Line 6. Waited 4 months for the guitar because Line 6 could not keep up with demand. Within one week I had the same problems with noise and other stuff that the other gentlemen described. I looked at the innards and what you have is about a $400 korean made guitar with a $29.95 sound card. After talking to Line 6 and others including the dealer it is obvious that Line6 has quality and production problems in every electronic component in this guitar. I have been in computers and electronics for 30+ years and this has some really chintzy electronics. The margin on this thing must be astronomical. Line 6 will need the money to service warranty claims. And it can only be serviced in California. Good luck

See my comments above. The guitar itself is not bad but not any better than any other $400 Korean assembled guitar (and I have several which I like) and it is totally worthless without the electronics. May I say again it lasted one week in the field before it went south? Poor quality electronics, poor quality control and again without the electronics you might be able to sell it to Hard Rock Cafe to hang on their wall. Use it without backup are you kidding?

Only gave them a five because I couldn't get it repaired locally and in a timely manner other wise would be higher. The people I spoke to were knowledgeable and great to deal with. And big plus you don't have to hang on forever after a couple of minutes you can punch in your call back number as an option and they are very prompt +/- 30 minutes on calling you back on their dime. Too bad other companies don't do this. Unfortuantely this is the highlight of the experience.

In summary I own a pretty good array of equipment Peavey, Epiphone, Alvarez, Turser and Takamine guitars and as I said the actual guitar rates about in this category of $300-500 guitars from a fit and finish standpoint. The electronics are doodoo and without them there is no guitar.

I sent this back to SAMASH which is making good on the purchase. Thanks SAMASH!
I re-thought this concept and used the credit ($1,200)to get the following: Fender Telecoustic, Roland 7 series modeling amp, Roland foot pedal midi controller, GK3 divided pickup. This set up will do way more than the Line6 and has 130 stereo amp to boot from ROLAND.

My advice to anyone take a big pass on this one, use your cash to get a Roland Synth and pickup/ a GeNX3 or similar and pocket the difference or use the difference to buy a decent guitar that you can actually use. Nough said?

Anybody got some good Roland blues patches???

Before I can talk about the sound, let me mention that I had to send my VA back twice. When I first got it, it produced an awful background noise and some "whistling" whenever a string was picked. After sending it back and waiting for two weeks (!) the noise was gone and the whistling still there. This reduced my belief in this product to almost zero, and I was considering to ask for my money back. Nontheless I sent it back another time, and they didn't send me a new one, but repaired mine. Well let me say that finally it works. However I had to wait for 4 weeks, and still I'm quite nervous if it will soon be broke again...

The Variax sounds almost only good when played directly plugged to the PA. But this accounts for other acoustic guitars as well. The sound is already enhanced in some way. It doesn't sound like an unplugged acoustic... But for most cases that is cool anyway. The Sitar sounds however not good to my ears, as it has some annoying high frequency parts. However the biggest difference between the Variax and the acoustic edition is in my oppinion that the VA has also nylonstring simulation and of course the virtual tuning opportunity. While you could get a real decent Martin Guitar plus the normal Variax 500 I therefore was especially about these two features. As I play in very various styles an nylon sound is very important for my gigs. But let me tell you that I consider it ok. Of course it sounds not exactly like a spanish guitar. Anyways you cannot play it like one as cannot clap onto the corpus to make percussive sounds. But for having a "touch of Latin" it still works. What surprised me, is that it sounds much better when played through my Zoom Nylon simulator.

Tuning: You will HAVE to play loud in order to not hear the original sounds. The folks in the audience won't anyways, but as you sit close to the guitar you almost always will. And there was another big problem: I am the lead singer in our ensemble, and the mic for singing also got the original guitar sound in. This means you will hear detuned strings through the PA as well! The only setting where this isn't a problem is when shifting them down an octave. Then you will hear something as a "12-string"-bass. Strange, huh? And there is one thing I truly use: A bass emulation at hand. I often play the bass part in our combo, and now I have a "short-scale" bass at a click...

The guitar had a scratch within the plastic. But hey, guitars are made for rock'n'roll...

I doubt that it will withstand, as I had a lot of trouble so far as mentioned above...

As I clearly described both problems (noise and whistling) and they sent it back with only one problem fixed, I wonder how they test the guitars. This error was CLEARLY audible! How can you send something back as fixed that rings like hell...? At least it was quite fast.

I play since some years, mostly blues, jazz, rock and latin. I had a lot of trouble with this guitar so far, but I still love it. Since I got it, I hardly can't wait to get back from work to play it all night long. And by now I already miss a knob to switch sound at my Ibanez or Martin acoustic guitars. As I play very much electric on a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender strat I love the shape and body, which is very slim and not like an acoustic guitar at all. I also love the snowflake inlays. Why is almost every guitar having these boring dot inlays? And instantly switching to Open D, having the slide out, well it rocks. From now on I take only two guitars to my gigs: The variax and my Fender. That is cool. And the sound is awesome without mic and feedback problems. If only it doesn't produce those noises and whistling one day again... Keeps me nervous ;)

The features are well documented on the Line6 site. There is nothing else like this guitar that I am aware of, so for innovation it gets a 10. I scored the features lower because there are some features Line6 could improve on in the next generation.
Things that stand out: 1) the ability to pick from a list of pre-configured alternate tunings or dial your own custom alternate tuning and save the settings. This is a great feature, because your guitar setup stays the same, unlike a normal guitar where the different string tensions take some getting used to, and may even require bridge or truss rod adjustments. There is some latency here, so you have to train yourself to play with a noticable delay between picked note and audible note. 2) In addition to a volume slider, it has a mic position and compressor slider. These add a wide range of sound control to each guitar model. 3) The padded case is high quality, with pouches for cords, power box, and manual. 4) The bridge adjusts with a hex-wrench, and is very solid and easy to tweak. 5) For each of the 16 sounds, you can program two different sound settings. So really, there are 32 customizable sounds available.
Things that lack: 1) The strings anchor to the bridge with regular acoustic-style plastic push pins. These are a real pain to change, you need a special plug puller tool. It looks nice, but I would rather see a through the bridge design. 2) There is no factory reset to the default settings. Not a big deal, but the one I got was a display model, so the settings had been changed and I would have liked to have been able to get back to how Line6 intended it. 3) The fretboard extends to 24 frets for the 1st and 2nd strings. This is right in the sweet-spot for certain settings (more on that in the sound section). I would rather see the fretboard end at the 22nd fret for greater playability. 4) The capo feature is not very good when tuning up. I get a lot better sound just using a real capo.

I think of this more as a new instrument than an acoustic. If you are looking for a dead-on replica of a mic'd acoustic you will be disappointed. But the 16 different guitars all create a different sound and feel, making it an awesome creativity tool. All sounds record better than they play live, so if you are looking for a recording tool, make sure you don't judge it on a live audition alone.
Effects: There are no built-in effects, but it sounds good plugged straight into the sound board.
Feel: This instrument does not have any true acoustic sound, meaning that you can't play it unplugged or mic it. As a result, I had a hard time getting used to the lack of resonance from the body and vibrations transfered to my hands. If you've played acoustic for a long time, you have to untrain your brain from expecting certain reactions generated from your playing style.
Alternate Tunings: If you do not amplify the sound loud enough to drown out the sound of the real strings, you will hear wrong notes or chorused sounds that really aren't there. This also takes some getting used to.
Strings: The lowest gage you can go is 11-46 in a Phosphor Bronze. I tried a light 10-46 acoustic set, and a regular 9-42 Nickle electric set, and they sounded terrible. The action can be set up pretty low, so it is not as hard to play as a normal acoustic.
Piezo-Electric: While the pickups sound better than my Ovation, there is still some of that Piezo-Electric plastic crunch that keeps it from sounding exactly like a mic'd acoustic. In addition, it gives a "thump" sound on single picked notes. Set the guitar to Parlor and play some high single notes to demo the effect. You will hear a low thumping with each picked note. My Ovation does this to ... annoying but not fatal to the overall sound.
Summary of sounds (5=Ovation, 10=True Acoustic Sound):
Standard Acoustics: Rating=7. Differences between models are more than just eq changes - the attack, sustain, and overall feel covers a wide spectrum. Set the Parlor to an open G, and you are transported to Led Zeppelin III!
12-Strings: Rating = 9. Jaw dropping sound combined with the ease of playing just 6 strings. The settings allow you to adjust the level of the octave strings and the amount of de-tuning. Think Magic Power by Triumph or Over the Hills and Far Away by Zep. The Blues12 with just a hint of the octave strings is a great sound that you could not get with a regular 12 string. The Mandola sounds great with the octave strings turned down slightly, and a real capo put on the 3rd or 5th frets.
Nylon: Rating = 5. This is a real disappointment. It has a nice sound, but I wouldn't recognize it a classical nylon stringed instrument. You have to pick or pluck right at the 22nd fret area to get the right tone, but it still sounds like a steel string. On all the settings, the sound if very sensitive to where you are picking. I think the best sound comes from the area near the top of the sound hole, which may make you adjust your normal picking style.
Novelty: Sound Rating = 8. The banjo, sitar, and shamisen are a lot of fun. The banjo is best with an open tuning, and is one where you have to record it to truly appreciate how close it sounds to a real banjo. It is nice for a guitar player to have the option of getting these sounds without having to use a synthesizer.

The nut on mine is poor quality. There were rough edges, and shavings underneath the strings. The G string slot is so tight it grabs preventing smooth tuning. For $1200, I should not have had to mess with the nut.
The neck is comfortable, and the truss rod is easy to adjust.
The tuners are solid and accurate.
The finish is nice - this a professional looking instrument. It feels solid and well balanced hanging from a strap.

It is not a fragile instrument. The sliders and selector switch are high quality, and look like they will stand up to frequent use. I'll have to use it for a longer period before I can rate it.

I had some questions that were answered via. email within 48 hours. The answer was very detailed, I could tell the tech knew the product and also was a guitar player. The website is helpful.

This is an instrument that I will play and record a lot with. Line6 is a company that continues to innovate and deliver products that focus on sound quality. My guess is that they will refine this instrument even more, and the next generation will surpass the sound and function of this first release.

Variax 700 Acou. really tickled me ... for features learn more at the line6 website. Guitar is really well crafted reminds be of a Gibson Chet Atkins SST. Instant alt tunings are a gas, I was skeptical.

Blues/folk/tortured unrequited love :^) singer songwriter, the axe just appealed to me, I have never been gadgets guy. My performing guitar of choice, 97 Gibson BKE. I can achieve good results through my Bose PAS. Although a couple of the "models" sound a bit electronic, just keep on playing and it's pretty magic. No problems uncovered, i.e. noisy. There is a virtual capo feature that I don't care for, alt tunings are great thought.

I really was impressed by the guitar right out of the box. No flaws, real pretty guitar. More like an electric in ones hands than a acoustic. Very well crafted.

Gigged once so far with the guitar and the audience was pleased. I played with the alt tunings, and several different models, 12 string classics, SF Bay Blues, Walk Right In. Used the resonator model. Every part of the guitar seems bullet proof. I didn't bring a backup to my first gig with it.

Playing for 35 years. Sound reinforcement Bose PAS w/ B1 module. Super. Gibsons x3.
The V 700 A is a real nice axe, and of course the favorite feature is it's alternative voices at the flick of a switch. I test drove it for 1.5 hours before deciding to purchase.
It's not a sit around the living room enjoying mellow sound acoustic, but I beleive it can deliver some good live entertainment value. I can tell after one gig that it will be in my hands at most venues I play.

The main feature for this guitar is all the models. Some are good, some are so-so. You also get the ability to have electronically controlled alternate tunings, virtual mike placement, and compression.

This is a difficult one on this instrument. Does it sound like a live, acoustic guitar? No. It can sound like a well recorded acoustic guitar, however. A previous reviewer mention that the models should be viewed as being inspired by certain guitars. I think that is the right attitude to approach the variax acoustic.

I have had the guitar for about a week. So far I like the Gibson models and Dobro models the best. The Martin parlor is also getting a lot of use. I think part of learning this instrument is figuring out which model(s) to use for a particular song/style. I am finding that in one instance I might really like the Martin 000-28 model but not like it at all on another song. It really depends. The bottom line? I think that I could fool the average person listening with eyes closed to this guitar compared to a reasonably priced acoustic-electric in a solo performance. In a mix, the variety of models to choose from is great. Even the 12 strings (which I think are weak), work in a mix.

The Gypsy and Jazz models are good, but not great. The banjo sounds like an electric banjo to me -- Bela Fleck anyone? The Gibsons are great. The Martins are growing on me (I have played Martins guitars for years, so I'm a tough sell on those). Since I have a good quality electric-acoustic nylon string, I haven't tried the nylon model yet.

Overall, good marks and thanks to Line6 for developing a creative and well sounding product. Don't sell the old Martin, but get the Variax Acoustic to add lots of spice to your gigs and recordings.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the body of the guitar. It is a solid body, but has fairly good tonal qualities. There were a few minor blemishes on the back of the guitar, but nothing you would notice at a casual glance. The action is low -- maybe too low for some folks. It looks like an easy adjustment, however. It plays easily, almost like an electric to me, even with 12s on it. One low point was the strings. They were dead, and the bottom E string was the wrong size for the rest of the set! A new set of strings improved the feel and sound of the guitar. I did not need to make any adjustments to the guitar.

Fingers are crossed. This is my first Line6 guitar.

No need for customer support so far.

At first I was a little leery of the guitar, but I have come to love in a week of playing. Many thanks to my wife who must love me to buy it!

I just paid for mine.It'll be here in a week.I've been into modeling
since the beginning having owned the Line6AX2,Yamaha DG Stomp, The Line6 PODxt, and the new MagicStomp by Yamaha.
I think Line6 is the hands down top dog when it comes to innovation and quality, and sound in modeling.
Based on my research, and a lot of that comes from this website, I'm purchasing this guitar without really seeing it or hearing it. I really feel it will be great.

Based on what I've heard, and read, I'll give this baby a 10. The hype has been great.

All I've heard about this new guitar says it sounds great.And in recording these guitars should or will come into focus much more.

Playing live you need to think of what is your chain of signal,what is your speaker system? this is so important. I use two Tech21 Power Engine 60 power amp/cabs. These were designed to have no tone, be transperant as possible. I think they sound awesome with the PODxt
and they will sound great with my new acoustic modeling guitar.

I don't like the name though. sounds like a perscription for meds.

Based on my expectations it gets a 10

This is the area that will make or break any possibility of a long term relationship. If it don't feel right it's gone. I have five days to return it and I will if this thing doesn't play well. I expect it to be a very playable guitar but not a great one so I'll give it an 8

All Line6 gear I've bought has held up well. Built better than average
That's a 10 in this day and age.

As is all areas of this most booming of music companies I can still
talk to someone in customer support and get help. I've called a couple of times.

This whole thing is a gamble for me. I expect a 10

I'm looking forward to my next review of my new fantastic
"wonder guitar" now that's a name.

Mahogony body, cedar top...Ton of useful features. I think the virtual capo is one of the most useful things ever. Check www.line6 for all the specs...

One should not be too critical when comparing the sounds to the actual guitars that it is modeled after...Though it does a great job of emulating them, it has a charactistic of it's own...which happens to be very cool. I would say the sounds are "inspired" by the models listed...When put in a mix, it can sound very convincing. I think the JUMBO model sounds great when strum...the Triple O sounds very good when finger picked...The Sitar is excellent...Never heard a more realistic sitar emulation...The Nylon...hmmm...Though it's playable, I wouldn't sell my real nylon guitar just yet...Overall, the sound is great. It definitely beats having to mic acoustic guitars in my small home studio. The sounds are bright and powerful...

The setup was perfect out of the box...practically no fret buzz...I couldn't believe it, but it was actually in tune right out of the box...The guitar looks beautful and plays just as well...The only gripe would be the lacquer on the guitar...I noticed that Korean made guitars sometimes go overboard with the lacquer...There is a lot of lacquer on the entire guitar...In fact, on the headstock there is a bump where the excess lacquer dried up while it was dripping down the headstock...It's not too bad to look at though...Other than that, the guitar is absolutely pristine...One of the best Korean made guitars I've played...Any Korean guitar you pay over a grand for should be made pretty well...

Seems like a solid guitar...Definitely could gig without a backup. I do worry about the knob...There is ONE knob that basically controls everything...I'm afraid I might break it cuz I'm going nuts going through the sounds every 5 seconds...I wish there was some sort of display that shows the edits, etc...

Haven't dealt with them yet...

Overall, it's a very useful guitar for live or studio. It's one of the coolest things to happen to acoustic guitars...true genius...It will put an end to the plastic sounding standard "piezo" pickups of all acoustic/electric guitars of the past...I'm a happy camper...

Made April 2004, 24 frets on thr treble side, Solid Mahogany Body, Laminate Cedar Top, Variax controls for model selection, compression, volume,mic positioning. Mahogany Neck 1 and 11 sixteenths fingerboard, Rosewood fingerboard,Rosewood bridge with six piezo elements adjustable for height. Ping? Tuners, gig bag, trs lead, footswitch, manual

Acoustic modelling, some are awesome some are diabolical. The acoustic dreadnought in open A tuning through a PA is very impressive. The Triple O in DADGAD is very good, The Parlour fingerpicked is quite authentic and even re-creates the boxy sound. The Nylon is excellent. The 12 strings nearly credible in a mix, The Banjo is a Joke. It's Quiet and some tunings are better suited to different models. The mic positioning is really just a tone control but the compressor is very useful for evening out your pickink attack. Occasionally you'll hear wolf tones and certain fret positions are overly loud. String balance suffers on certain settings. Overall though a very useful live tool and for studio work. Best used in a mix rather than solo.

Well set up, nicely finished albeit very Korean. Needed to drop the action slightly

Looks tough and durable. I worry about the lifespan of the rotary control with all that switching and pressing. Quite heavy, could take a fall.

not applicable as yet

I like it. I would replace it because I think it will be invaluable a a stage guitar for live performances where it's versitality lets me be lazy. Don't compare it to your collection, see it as a new and very different addition that can do things no other guitar can do.