Line 6 Variax Bass

I'm sure that you will know about the features by now so I will summarise - this is a bass containing digital models of 24 classic basses/synths.
Mine has a 21-fret rosewood fingerboard and sunburst finish. The neck feels like a Fender Jazz bass to me.
It doesn't have standard pickups - it uses piezos in the bridge.
It comes supplied with a good quality soft-case, power-supply cum DI box,twin-core lead and a really excellent manual.
The bass is powered either by the external power unit via the twin-core lead, or alternatively by 6 AA batteries. In an emergency you can even use one PP3 battery which will give you a couple of hours of life.

Not having played all of the modelled basses I can't comment on the accuracy of all of the models, but I will say that the Musicman Stingray & Fender Jazz bass models are amazingly good.
The double bass model takes some work to get it sounding right but with some effort you can get it to sound pretty convincing, considering that you are actually using a fretted instrument.
The tracking on the synth bass requires a clean technique to avoid stray noises but you can get a great impression of Herbi Hancock's 'Chameleon' out of it.
The only down side for me is that the bass doesn't have a consistent output level across the modelled instruments,so you sometimes need to switch volume levels when switching between models.
Another review has commented on a delay on between plucking the string and hearing the sound, but I have owned this bass for a year now and have not noticed any problem of this kind. Perhaps there was a problem with that particular instrument.

Bass was well set up from the factory and I haven't had to make any adjustements so far.

I've had it a year and haven't had a problem with it yet.

No problems so no opinion

I play in a covers band and this bass is just the best thing for that. I have no experience of using it in a studio so I can't comment about using one there, but live it lets you get such a variety of convincing sounds so easily it is the perfect tool for the job.
Only one word of warning, if you want to buy a hard-case for it make sure that it will fit before parting with any cash. The bass is pretty wide (almost 14 inches/36 cms)and it won't fit in all cases.

This instrument is unique and by tiself in its category. It's not a traditionnal bass but a digital modeler integrated in a bass like input device.

There are no pickups. I believe some electronic device picks the fondamental frequency, attack and amplitude and the digital board generates the desired sound. I might be wrong, but that's the conclusion I came up with after playing with this thing for a while. It's like adding a MIDI to your old fashion bass, but withoud the useless 1000 sounds bank.

I never heard any buzz in the sound, so it's easier to get the action very low. Some might dig that.

However, it almost provides the feeling of a bass guitar. I say almost...more in the action section.

I prefer old fashion gear, but It would not be honest to compare this with traditionnal gear, because even if it provides a large palet of sound, I would not expect it to provide the same feeling as traditionnal gear, like distortion generated by fret buzz an so on.

I tried this connected to a Bose L1/PS1 and B1 Single Bass Package.
It's like being connected streight to a high end PA.

Some of the sounds were very good. I did not dig all of them, but I have to admit that it was up to my expections for a Line 6 modeler.

While plucking the strings harder or smoother, the sound is more predictable and consistent and it doesn't provide all of the subtilities of the instruments is emulates. Let's be realistic here, that would be impossible.

Even though this instrument is not visualy apealing for my own taste, the finish and the action itself was excellent.

But...Beware...

There was a huge problem and this is the single reason why I'm writing this review.

While plucking strings, the sound does not come out in real time, meaning there is a noticeable delay between the action and the sonic reflection of the action.

This is very annoying, and it makes it almost impossible to play fast lines.

I don't know for you guys, but I'm not able to play in shifted time like this.

This is very bad. It might explain why the price has just been droped by 75%.

You know what, with the constent fast improvement of digital processing, I'm sure this problem can and will be resolved soon, but they're not there yet.

For now this is not serious. How could they even put this thing on the market?

I tried this thing simply out of curiosity. Great sound machine, great action, great finish, but very poor instrument.

At $1800, wasis way overpriced.

The new dramaticaly reduced price of $450 makes more sense.

It's still not playable because of the timing problem.

I would rather pick the cheapest bass on the market and get the best Line 6 modeler if that was my thing. At least I would get a real time sound.

I think you've probably read the features list by now. mine is the black four-string version, & was apparently b-stock. not a mark on it- excellent finish, excellent set-up. nice gig-bag, both allen keys...

I'll use this mostly for recording- I suspect that the subtleties of the different models would be lost on stage... I'll elaborate if I may: I found the modelled versions of, say, the rick & the old precision to be closer to each other than my "real" versions of the same guitars. some of this is inevitable- the neck of the variax is not, after all, changing from bolt-on to through (now that would be clever!) or going from 1-7/8" to 1-1/2" at the nut. & you may underestimate the effect this has on the tone, directly or indirectly via what it does to your grip & playing style. so you have to remember to adapt those- close your eyes & pretend it actually is a 4001 & the sound comes closer. still not perfect, but closer.

"made in korea"? well, korea must be the new japan. the construction is amazing, the finish is excellent. the action (which, when you like a low action, this is where the shortcomings of a sloppy build will start to appear) is the lowest/quickest I've got besides my 1974 4001.

I think I'd stick with a trusty old fender or rick for stage use. with this much DSP on-board, the variax must eventually succumb to either EM interference, electronics failure or piezo malfunction. besides, see the note above about the subtleties of the modelling getting lost in a loud mix. but the modelling will enable you to sit it nicely in any mix under more controlled circumstances, i.e. in a studio.

line6 support in the UK have my full reccommendation, based on an experience with an echo-pro (out of production when I sent one of mine in for a repair). they turned it around in less than a week & charged #30, most of which was postage. if they stay as interested as this in my custom, they will get into heaven no problem.

been a bassist since 1982. this is #26 in my collection, which is a lot of older fenders, ricks & ibanez musicians. I play all styles, roundwound & flat, fretted & fretless, through a dynacord head/ashdown 4x10, or an orange or120/marshall 4x10, & a bass pod or a sansamp bass DI when recording. this bass is solid, easy to play, & instantly tweakable to sit where you want it to in any mix.
I liked the way you can adjust the tone & blend pots & then store these as the defaults for any given model. looking forward to replacing the lame synth emulations with something else when the tonebench s/w is available for it.
I'd probably get another- maybe the five-string- if it got knocked off.

I bought the bass new, a black 4 string. Came with it's own power supply and a gig bag. Very nice bag, heavy duty. You can run her on her own batteries, or the included power supply. Numerous features, easily learned using manual and experimental practice.

I play in a three piece, play anything, anywhere, at all volumes, assault trio. We are a "seasoned" bunch (old) but still often go to the dark side of the db meter. I run a Trace Elliot SM600X into twin 410 cabs and two 115 cabs. I will add an Ampeg SVT/810 rig when splitting the pickups via a Series Alembic or a stereo Rick.

As we are a three piece, I was looking to this bass as an all around athlete to "fatten" up our sound so to speak. This bass sounded great at the store, at home, and while recording. A wide variety of tones and sounds that indeed replicated the instruments it modeled. She is smooth and quiet, and has a couple of it's own cool synth sounds. If you are a recording warrior, this baby is a must have, very cool.

My only disappointment came during live fire. In the heat of "battle" she got lost in the termoil. I perform with a very active drummer, double bass, as well as a fierce guitarist, Bogner & PRS. The 700 got buried in the mix and I was unable to punch through. She all of a sudden sounded and felt very digital. All three of us noticed the issue right away.

FWIW, I own a number of basses that I have collected over the years and most of them fall to their knees trying to survive in this bands mix. The only basses that been able to constantly punch through are my Ken Smith and Alembics. All the other "big guys" get hurt, so I'm thinking in most applications the 700 would be fine.

This bass has a nice quality feel about here. I bought here at Huber & Breese Music in Fraser, Michigan, where they delivered her clean, set up, and ready to go, thanks Mike. She fits well and has a good balence. The bass and accessories appear well made and put together properly.

Although I did not keep her very long, I did play her alot. My basic impression is that she is a quality piece and I would think she will hold up well. As an only bass my concern would be a heavy dependency on batteries and electronics for it's core sound. However, these days that may be a given.

I had no problems with her during her short stay, but I got the impression from the dealer, as well as the Line 6 web site, that any issues would be rapidly dispensed.

I've been flying a bass for decades and this little baby got me going for a while. If I were a recording guy I would have kept her. However, my pleasure is the live arena, and there I could not use her the way we move. I used her in trade toward an Alembic bass.

I do this all the time with basses and amps. Fall in love during the quiet light of day, drop them like a stone after a heated night firefight. The issues I had with her may be of my own doing.

There is nothing else like her on the market. With unlimited funds , or a change in my work environment, I will own one again.

Line 6 Variax 700 bass, sunburst. Tons of features, see line6.com.

I don't have the real-world basses to compare the accuracy of the models, but the 24 models do have a pretty good variety of tones. My previous bass (cheap Aria Pro II) had only one tone, and pretty lousy mids and highs, so it is a joy to have an instrument with a lot of tone from high to low, all without any real noise.

I didn't buy it looking for an exact copy of any specific bass - but rather I just wanted a ton of flexibility in tone. Who knows if it models a Fender Jazz bass perfectly, but it sure is nice to have 24 different tones to pick from.

Also, don't expect your audience to really be able to pick out the subtleties of the tones in a live setting. I play in a couple rock bands and in a live show I could make out maybe four or five broad types of tones, but you won't notice the nuances between two very closely related models.

However, when recording, this bass is FANTASTIC. I am lucky to have bought the Variax just before recording an album (www.estocar.com) and the variety of tones really shines through on recording. I replaced the live bass on about half the tunes with new tracks, and it was a lot of fun to spend 15-30 minutes just finding the perfect tone for any given tune. Then, during recording, the XLR output is really clean, no noise at all, even when I'm sitting 12 inches from a 19" CRT monitor.

The clencher for me was the upright acoustic (Kay) patch, which could easily fool 99% of listeners out there. You have to play it with a different touch but it doesn't take long to get used to. The model is a lot quieter than the others so be prepared to turn up the volume or compression a bit if you want to use it live, but it still sounds fine.

Overall the bass is way more throaty and flexible than other (admittedly cheap) basses I've played.

The bass is HEAVY, at least compared to what I'm used to. Worksmanship seems top-notch though. Only complaint is that the pickguard came with a thin plastic scratch-protector, which is fine, but when I pulled it off, some got stuck under the tone knobs and I still haven't been able to rip those little fragments off yet.

Seems great after four or five months of play and a few gigs. Definitely seems solid. I never bring a backup to gigs. I give it a 9 instead of 10 just because it's still relatively new.

Very amazing bass. I was disappointed at first because I expected absolute miracles, and the live sounds are not as distinct as I had dreamed. But after recording an entire album and playing this for a few months, I'm very very happy indeed. Highly recommended. Rank 9 instead of 10 just because it's so expensive, would have prefered more like $800 or $900 instead of $1200.

This is a sunburst model, long scale, fender jazz like bolt-on neck, jazz / precision type body. Excellent quality gig bag included, with again, excellent quality lead, D.I. box, and power supply.
The features are Line 6 modelling of numerous basses, from upright string bass to synth bass. so clearly as 'features' go, this is up there.

O.K. the sound - and surely this is why anyone would buy this bass - there is no pick up on the bass, so all sounds are modelled. These are generally fine, with some being more accurate than others. I find the precision & jazz models to be good, and the 8 & 12 strings are unique and interesting. The fretless is only a rough approximation.
The double bass, if you amend your playing style,is very usable, especially in a live situation when mixed in with other instruments.
The synth sounds are not so good. They need to be blended more towards the bass than the synthesiser. Interestingly, I have a line 6 bass pod, which has synth bass as one of the effects, and this is also poor. There is clearly a problem with the tracking that line 6 need to address.
The main criticism I have of this bass is that it is totally modelled. I know that this is the point of the bass, but I find it's response not 'fast' enough, and if there were a normal magnetic pick up fitted in addition to the modelling, then it would be more of a 'real' bass, and the modelled sounds could be used as and when required, and also mixed in with the normal pick up. If this were the case, then you would never need another bass.

The bass is very well made, and the finish is excellent. The gig bag is superb !
Although made in Korea, don't let this put you off, as it is clearly a quality instrument. I have a number of basses, including Gibson, Rickenbacker & Fender, and the best neck and finish on any of them is on my Epiphone Jack Casady - yep, made in Korea.

It's a new bass, so it's hard to determine reliability. It is well made and I wouldn't see any problems in gigging it. However, given the amount of electronics in the bass, I would not gig without a back-up, just in case.
Again, if a normal pick up were added, this would not be an issue.

Haven't had to deal with the company, but they seem to be 'on the ball' with facility to upgrade software, sounds etc. via the network port on the bass. They seem to me to be a forward thinking company, and I like the fact that power supply, lead, D.I. box etc. are included when you buy the bass.

I have been playing and loving basses for way too long now, and own Gibson, Rickenbacker, and Fender. The line 6 variax is obviously new technology, and clearly has great potential.
I am old fashioned enough however, to still prefer the response of a 'real' bass, and would suggest that if a magnetic pick up was fitted to this bass, then line 6 would have a major winner.
If I lost the bass, then I don't think I would replace it, but if the option was available for modelling and magnetic pickups, then I would use this bass exclusively.

Made in Korea, pretty lightweight since it?s filled with electronics.
Mine has a very nice sunburst finish. Very decent looking bass, of course the first shocker: No PICKUPS! The tuners are also very decent, don?t expect wonders, but in all a LOT better than some $400 basses.
The best features, obviously, are the huge ammount of different sounds you get in one intrument.
For more info check out www.line6.com

Ok, I dunno if some of the other people reviewing are world acclaimed bass players or producers but I have worked with LOTS of different instruments (most of the original basses modeled by this one)and I LIKE this bass a lot.
The sounds are pretty good, not perfecto but VERY USABLE. For example, the H?fner Violin model sounds pretty much like the original but a little muffled for my taste. Fenders are all very usable, although you can?t really expect the "fretless" to sound as such in a fretted instruments. Modern basses like active jazz, modulus, warwick and such are very nice and totally different from the others. If what you want is the sound of a lot of basses in one, there is nothing better that this. The synth is not at all so easy to use, but a lot better if you use a pick to play. It takes a bit of getting used to it. The acoustics and Upright are NICE. Not at all perfect, but usable. Rickenbackers, 8 and 12 strings, tobias and others are VERY nice to use, depending of your sound system (I use a BASS POD and HiFI Studio Monitors) and music style.
I think this bass sounds excelent, either for recording or live gig.

This is all very dependent of how well calibrated it is. From the factory it?s ok but I needed a little extra fine tuning to get just the action and tuning I needed. Your qualified guitar technitican sould take care of any problem you have. Not noisy at all, very clean and lots of volume.

It sure will hold in a live gig, but I wouldn?t really bang it around like some players do. Remember there is a lot of ELECTRONIC parts inside, not just wires and pickups like all other basses.

Line 6 has some very decent customer suppot, never had a problem with the bass, but they have helped me a lot with a variax guitar once. The even sent a free replacement for the DI box which was missing when I bought the guitar.

I love this bass. I produce jingles and backup tracks for singers and also tour witha band (mostly covers), so I needed LOTS of different sounds for LOTS of different styles. That?s exactly what I got. USE IT WITH A GREAT AMP SIMULATOR (Bass POD XT or Behringer Bass V-Amp) and you?ll get it right!

As previous reviews.

Excellent sounds from Precision bass and Jazz bass settings - smooth to edgy for the P-bass and gutty and precise for the J-bass. Same brilliance for the Modulus Flea and the Musicman - very accurate and usable. Not so sure about the Rick setting - for me, not enough clank although plenty full-bodied. The eight and twleve string models really have to be heard to be believed. Can't comment about the accuracy of the others. Synth bass settings are odd - tracking problems me thinks.

The bass is well constructed and solid. Neck and action are first rate.
Paint job is decent and well finished. Thumb rest a bit tacky but useful for fingerstyle players. Pick guard has too much pattern - could do with toning down a touch.

Seems pretty solid. Would certainly use it live but feel it would be better as an all-round studio bass.

Can't comment as yet - no dealings.

Played for over 15 years and this bass is really quite special. Current main bass is a Musicman SUB, but have been looking for a bass with a warmer sound to complete my set up. This bass has the capabilities and then some. Try one - see how you go.

This is an update of my review of 02/07/2005 04:01 below.

I tried another Variax bass with a different (simpler: 1x12 combo) setup, just as a double-check. The result was much worse. Strings were a bit dead, and that affected the sound enormously; plus in this instrument somehow the neck was not so comfortable and the bass was a lot less responsive. The synth is STILL a joke. If you want Bootsy, get a good envelope filter for a fraction of the price. There are several good to excellent filters around. Even the cheaper ones - the 'Resonance' effect on my Zoom St-224 sampler behaves perfectly. IMPORTANT: don't know if this was a problem of the specific instrument but I found a major drawback: when you switch models, all controls are internally reset to 'flat' position automatically. You have to turn the knob and turn it again if your setup or your playing asks for, eg. more bass in general, or if you just like it that way. I asked the guy at the shop and as usual they have no clue about anything. In my opinion this is hampers on the fly switching, or even change of models between songs. I agree it is probably a studio instrument.
I really think that this instrument could be useful for players that are just beyond the beginner stage, so that they can have a variety of sounds, but it is expensive for that - I feel the majority of sounds can actually be recreated with different pick up configurations and with some powerful and creative EQ on a good bass. Just as we all know some good basses allow for fretless simulation by just cutting all highs, boosting middle and bass frequencies and selecting just the bridge pickup.
Sorry to disagree but although pretty comfortable, i still think it feels and looks a tad cheap.

As of this writing, for bassists, there's nothing else quite like it on the planet! Stupid amount of features and possibilities for a bass guitar.

Impressive! Recorded in the studio... very clean, lot's of output. The studio environment is where you'll really be able to hear the differences between (modern\similar?) models. Here is where you'll notice the subtleties of low/mid growl, or top end ping. They're all quite unique.
The Upright Bass actually surprised me. I wasn't too impressed when I played it at the store, but on the gig........... I had heads turning! It felt very appropriate during the dinner set to use this sound, as everything I would play would seem to 'swing' all of a sudden. The Fenders were all good esp. the flatwounds. (BTW- I own a very nice Precision). I read elsewhere that the synth sounds could be better, I agree, but I found good use in them for playing P-funk stuff - instant Parliament!. Sure, the tracking feels a little slow, but it takes very little time to adjust and master. And again, lots of fun - Blew everybody away!. The Hollow bodys were cool too (Hofner Beatle bass - as I imagined it should be). Rickys (with pick) excellent! Music Man & Modulus Flea - Super! (I also own a Music Man Cutlass w\ graphite neck). 8 & 12 strings ? - more useful than you might think. In a power trio setting,during guitar solos, these sounds helped to put a point on the bass, and give the impression of a another guitar doubling the bass - massive sound. The Gibsons (Thunderbird & EB2) had that hard rock-bottom punch so characteristic of Gibson basses. The fretless Jazz ?... I'm not so sure.
Hint: you may find that the brilliance and added harmonics of the supplied Round Wound strings a little much when going for accuarcy in the hollow\acoustic models. I've found that using Half-Round , Ground Wound or even Flat-Wound strings will remedy that nicely.

This bass came feeling really great, sort of like a nice Jazz neck. I found it very fast & easy to play (I had to slow it down a little - heavier strings, bow the neck a little etc...). It feels like a quality instrument, very, very nice and I found no flaws (feels more comfortable\lighter\better than my Music Man). The intonation was bang on!.... I'm real fussy about this stuff.
I like the way this bass looks.... Finish? To my eyes, as good as any other. 'Made in Korea' doesn't bother me at all when it feels this good. I remember when 'Made in Japan' was a joke too?

Just as good as any regular bass. May have to be careful with the piezos though.

Not sure yet. Still waiting for a reply to my question (the E string output is a few db's hotter than the rest. I've heard that there is an on-board set-up mode to correct this - I need to know how).

....because nothing's perfect. Workbench software is much delayed for the guitar version... imagine how much longer we'll have to wait.I do hope for more models in the future though.
I've earned a living for over 30 years playing many different basses, and IMHO, this is the newest\best thing since Jaco, to hit the bass world. It'll be hard for the 'purist' in us to accept that 1 instrument can do so much, so well. But, we'll all come around sooner or later. So..........Anybody that needs versatility, whether on the gig or in the studio, should really check this thing out.........'cause we've finally reached the digital age along with our keyboard counterparts, and we're not turning back..... this bass rocks! Line 6 has delivered!

BTW - No, I'm not in any way affiliated with Line 6 ......(In case you were wondering). ;-)