Line 6 Variax 300

Standard features of the Variax 300 which have been covered numerous times here. Picked up a sunburst model, not due to choice, but due to being the only one I could lay my hands on in any shop in my area. Finish is excellent. Very think poly finish. Perfectly finished. Almost looks like someone's poured treacle over it. Everything is was perfect. Frets finished nicely, tuners functioning good and no cosmetic or functional issues at all.

I think the sounds of the variax are all excellent and perfectly usable. There's not as much difference between some models as you might think. I think if someone played some of the models, you might have a hard time guessing which one it was. As all have said, the lack of pickups and the subsequent lack of noise interference is very handy. I find a lot of the sounds lacking in top end regardless of the amp used or DI. The acoustic sounds are very well done. A lot of people don't like the 12 string simulations, but I think they're excellent. I think it's partly psychological in what works, but if you heard the tones recorded, you'd be hard pushed to know it was a simulation. The only thing I'd say about the variax is that if you play metal or rock and are looking for a high output, sharp top end tone, you won't find it here. For classic rock, blues and anything where gain isn't much on an issue, you'd find something here to suit you. The alternate tunings are a god send. The variax now ships with 5 alternate tunings in the second custom back to give you a taste of them and based on that, I'll be picking up workbench to go along with it, and I'm sure most people would too. The only issue with that is the model which is stated as tuned to open G and it is, but not what the majority would consider open G. It's an odd variation which won't help most. Other than that, very impressed.

Do to it being the only place that had one, I had to buy from Sound Control which I try to avoid. I don't know if they'd done any setup, but I doubt it and the setup was good for me out of the box. I thought it was set up with 9s but I'm starting wonder if they're 10s. I don't know how the string gauge would affect a piezo pickup as I'm new to them, but I'd prefer 8s on there. The action was tiny bit higher than I'd like, but it's certainly playable. The neck is comfortable and fast enough. You're not gonna feel like you're playing a ??500 plus guitar, but it doesn't feel like a bargain basement banjo either. Not excellent, but not bad,

I haven't used to variax live and I don't think I would. The options it offers are a godsend, but the majority of an audience doesn't give a crap about your tones really, they care about looks. I think I'll stick to my usual rig for live, but in the studio, I think I'd take nothing but the variax. I wouldn't want to have only the variax at a gig and have it die on me and not have a full rig to back it up and if I had to take the full rig anyway, why bother with the variax?

haven't had to deal with them.

I've played for almost 20 years and owned loads of gear. Some good, some laughable. The variax isn't the worst guitar I've ever picked up. Ironically, it is one of the cheapest. I haven't had it long and I'd have to wait till the novelty 'new toy' factor wore off to see if I went back to it. It doesn't feel like home yet when playing it. I think it's going to become at home in the studio and never feel the heat of the lights. The 300 is so cheap now that I'd recommend most guitar players pick one up just for tinkering with. You can explore alternate tunings and pick away on a banjo for fun. I guess that's worth the price of admission alone. The final word I will say is that I was under the impression that all variax's came with a gig bag and that the power box was also an A/B box, but that's not the case now. To make is cheaper there's no gig back and power box is just that and nothing more. Still, I only paid ??249 and while it can be found cheaper, I feel it's been worth the cost, so far.

Orange Sunburst with perfect gloss finish. Looks excellent (as there's no "ugly" pickups). The body is surprisingly small compared to my Start copy to the extent that I've had to adjust my strumming arm as I was strumming above the frets. Having readjusted to hit where the middle pickup on a Start would be, I find I knock the 5-way selector sometimes though. Hence an 8 (so I still like it).

I play at home (in the cellar den) for my own pleasure. Sound sad doesn't it?

As a result I play a lot of modern acoustic rock rhythym (Kooks, Starsailor) plus some Beatles (I'm that old) through Pink Floyd, Brit-pop (Oasis etc.) and Led Zeppelin too. Hey, I'm a Brit - what did you expect?

You can imagine why I bought this then. Choose a guitar, click the multi-effect pedal I need, and go! You end up changing styles three or four times per practice session for the fun of it.

It really does make a 2 hour practice session feel half that.

Issues? The acoustic models aren't perfect, especially the 12-strings, but still sound more than good enough when picking out the opening lines of "wish you were here by Pink Floyd"

Frets could have been better finished (rubbed my fat fingers on the sharper than I'm used to edges when playing and bending the 6th string), but I can replace the neck at this price. Action was too high for me (coming from a low-cost and low-action strat copy) and I did release the neck bolt half a turn, but otherwise spot-on.

Dropped some 9s on there and that helped. May try 8s later (I used to play Rotosound 8s a while ago so may try again), but 9s seem fine.

So far not an issue. I don't gig so not the best person to comment. No big problems so far (6 months in). I had read that people have damaged the piezo pickups when changing strings. Well all I can say is that I'm ham-fisted and I haven't hurt them yet after two full-set string changes).

No problems, so no comment.

Got it from Sound Control in Sheffield (UK) and they were VERY patient as I tried to decide between a Highway One Strat and this. Yes after 90 minutes I chose the Variax over a US built strat, the flexibility being more important to me than the smooth sexy H1 feel. So although Sound Control had lost the gig bag it's supposed to come with, and palmed me off with a very iffy replacement, they left me alone to try stuff out so well done there guys! Would have been a 10 except for the missing gig bag.

I've been playing badly (and intermittenty) for around 30 years (started learning with 70s punk) and figured it may be worth someone who doesn't spend a fortune (or that much time) on music (it's only a hobby) and never had GAS at all before - offering an opinion.

I use a little 8 channel mixer through powered studio monitors with a Sennheiser e835 mic for my warblings and a Zoom 505 multi-effects (soon to be a Line6 XT Pro Live of course). Or sometimes I use my Fender MG15CD practice amp too (although that's no use for the Acoustic Variax models).

I was looking for an upgrade for my tiring Strat copy and thought I'd buy a Highway One, but the Variax allows me to do more (as a personal entertainment guitar) so it won (and was over ??100 cheaper - but that wasn't a real factor in the choice).

You have to understand that in my case the guitar isn't the limiting factor (my fingers and poor musical skills are). Given this, spending money on the Fender name badge seemed silly given this sounded just as good in my hands. No-one's suggested this as a learner's first upgrade, but to me it's ideal!

In the 6 moths I've had this guitar I've played twice as much as I used to, and took a guitar (the Variax) on holiday with me for the first time ever last month as I couldn't think of having free time and not playing around with it. You can't really say more than that.

I'm a solo act in Southwest Florida so the 300 has interested me for awhile. It wasn't easy to get the $299 red one but http://www.jr.com/ had 2 left. I got it last night and plugged it into my Carvin PA and most sounds are pretty darn good. Like others said, the Rick 12's aren't very good but may work in a band situation. It was hard to tell the difference between the Martin D28 and Guild 6 string - both are very good. The real electrics would certainly sound better thru a guitar amp vs. the PA but a couple are very nice for rhythm. The surprise for me was the big Gretsch. That one was really crisp. I'll use the National for a few honky tunes for sure. I'm not sure when I'll get to use it thru my Blues DeVille, if ever, since I haven't used it since I moved here in 2001.

Pretty impressive overall. Haven't heard the solids thru an amp or even with an overdrive pedal yet but that's where they'll probably sound best. It will suit my style very well. I play Beatles, Hollies, Kinks, Elvis Costello, Springsteen, Talking Heads, thru Bobby Darin and John Denver. I do need at least a $5 tip to play Buffett though. I'll give it a go Thursday night. The acoustics seem the best for my act but we'll see. I was using a Parker P38 and combined the piezo and mostly the front single in the 2nd position. The others have the usual hiss issues and the Variax will be a relief. It sounded great thru the Carvin. I also use a Boss DR5 for drum backing. Now when Digitech releases the Vocalist Live 2 I'll be all set!

My biggest concern reading this forum and by far the biggest surprise. It was set up great, the knobs were solid, very playable, and not a scratch on it. Better looking in person too.

This one's the tough call but only from the electronics. It may turn out to be a 10 but who can tell. The actual guitar, however, is way more solid than I expected. I guess I lucked out. It sure isn't what I expected from these reviews or the Guitar Player comparison of $500 and under guitars the other month.

I've been playing since the week after the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. High School bands thru GB bands with tuxedos. I was a solo/duo act in Massachusetts before moving to FL in 2001. I play out once a week and that's enough with a regular job and 4 guitar students. My other guitars are the P38, 82 Ibanez Artist, 80 Ibanez AS200, 78 Ibanez 2455 ES175 copy, Peavey Odyssey, Peavey Foundation Bass, Taylor 710KCE limited edition KOA, and Seagull S6 Cedar. Fender Blues DeVille and a small Tech21. I wouldn't be in the market for another guitar but this one will offer me way more sounds than the Parker. It can get boring doing the same old stuff so this will at least get me interested again. This is an unreal value for my situation.

No point in re-inventing what other reviewers have written. For me however, is the fact Line 6 has created a modelling guitar, is a great feature and accomplishment in this kind of technology. I really become infuriated when reviewers rant on about it not sounding like "this model or that model" guitar. The 300 and the rest of the Variax range are modellers nothing more, nothing less. Once they get rid of that mindset, review it for what it is- a modeller!

I nde play almost any style of music and the 300 nails most genres. I've run it through a Behringer 40watt, A Jade 80w keyboard amp, a Roland 50w with onboard digital effects and unbranded amps and the 300 sounded good through all of them. Through a zoom 504ii acoustic the harshness of the humbucker models is "softened". I'd say that 80% of all the models are useful while the sitar and banjo are interesting to have fun with.

My 300 was great out of the box. No complaints here.

If treated carefully it will last a long time. I don't like the feel of the machine heads- they feel cheapish. As a matter of caution I'll replace the strap buttons with strap-locking ones. It's dependable and I've played at church without a backup. The electronics did pack up after 3 months but since then it's been solid.

Didn't have to deal with them as the dealer sorted out my problems within a week.

I'm 55 and started playing at 10. Took an extended break - 10 years to be exact. Back playing since 1995. Have played and owned second hand crap as well as a 58 Hofner jazzbox, 75 ibanez 12 string, Squiers, Cort, Epiphone, 96 Ibanez AG75, ES 335 Copy amd a gorgeous Rickenbacker 250. I've watched the development of the Vax for 5 years before buying one in 2006. Purely on looks I'd buy another model like the discontinued 500. It's a breeze to switch from Tele to Gretch to Ricky 12 to Jazzers and acoustics. For me it's a great instrument. I just wonder what percentage of an audience knows the difference between a Fender tone and a Gibson tone. I say this with no disrespect to audiences but my experiences have shown that they love the "sound" one delivers, irrespective of what one plays.

For the price, this a pretty well made guitar. I purchased the red one, and it was beautifully finished. It looked great. Very comfortable body. Amazing neck, that was fast and smooth. The control for the model selector was a little loose, but nothing to be alarmed about (but how about in five years?). Volume and tone controls, nicely out of the way. The selector was like on a strat. Really nice guitar.

The sounds are varied, and the models are great. The twelve string models were not great. I would probably never use them. The accoustics were hit and miss, but it comes pretty darn close to a amplified accoustic guitar. But I don't know if close is close enough for recording or playing live. The strat sound is bang on. If you want an affordable strat and nothing more, pass on the squire and pick this up. The tele was also very good, as were the jazz guitars (hollow and semi hollows). It sounds awesome. The only complaint was that not all the piezos were the same. Some strings were much louder than others (I know in some of the models that's actually the case, but it was the same over all the models). And there was some buzzing, which I guess could be fixed with enough tweaking. It would take some adjustments on an amp to get all the guitars to sounds good. A Line 6 amp is perfect. If you only get a few sounds from your amp, you might not use half the guitar sounds.

Everything was set-up pretty well. I guess I got lucky. It came direct from Line 6 through my local guitar shop.

Here;s the reason I took it back. The guitar died on me a few times. Just went quiet. I had to take the plug out, and put it back in to kind of "reset" the guitar and get it working again. Also, the piezo on the 6th string was REALLY quiet. Not dead, but quiet. I know I can fix the string volumes using Workbench. If that software program (which runs $100 USD) had been bundled with the guitar, I might have kept the guitar. As it stands I returned it because I was worried about the guitar dying on me, or the piezos going, during the many years I was hoping to have the guitar. I just felt insecure about the reliability so I took it back. Otherwise, I loved almost everything about this guitar.

Line 6 has a very informative web site. I got a lot of my questions answered about the piezos on thier site.

This would be an awesome first guitar for someone. Despite bringing it back (it was a tough decision) I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this guitar to anyone starting out, who wants a nice playing guitar with lots of varieties in sound. Having a Line 6 amp like the Flextone or Vetta would be eeven more perfect. But defnintely have a back-up if you're going to be playing live gigs.

i've been a aerospace human-machine interface engineer during approx 20 years, and several years i was in charge of acoustic environment design inside spaces station. of course, i play guitar (jazz), mainly for my pleasure and sometimes for audience in a club.
if you are curious about how much i can play a guitar. Please go to my web below and listen to mp3 file that i play. (Sorry it is written by Japanese but you can find mp3 file easily, and furthermore i made English entrance last year.)
I???ve owned dozens of guitars, if you want to see, please visit my web and click ???Guitars???of right side. 'couse their photos are uploaded.

http://www.geocities.jp/extra_vehicular/

i do not recommend variax as a first guitar.
as a first guitar, you'd better buy strat type model more than $400, and you should buy it with reliable friend who can play a guitar.
and you should learn what real guitar can do.
if you know what a real guitar is, variax gives you new extended horizon.

Anyway variax is only a tool to create music. it is not a vintage strat! To own the vintage start gives you supreme experience. Those two are both worthy, but quite different.

Thank line6! you give our great- grandchildren a chance to feel the great sound of the vintage strat and more. Because a 100 year later, a vintage strat with good condition must not exist.

i would like to explain the variax feature using easy equation.

Output = A x Input / B

here...
Output is sound of the variax sent to amp.
A is a simplified ideal vintage strat characteristics(of course, in case of that you choose vintage strat mode).
Input is detected signal by piezo when you hit notes.
B is a characteristics of standard variax 300. (this is very important!!!)

you have to be aware that a variax only gives you simplified sound of vintage strat. So it is limited, but you know the limitation, you can use variax efficiently.

a real guitar has nature, that as you play it, your guitar's sound is getting better (because wood of guitar still has life). Unfortunately the electronics of variax must be tuned for the standard (initial) variax characteristics, so you will not get line 6 intended sound 5 to 10 years later.
Exactly speaking, each variax300 sound is slightly different characteristics from the standardized variax 300 guitar model (=parameter B above). so some variax300s give you nice sound as line6 intended, and there is possibility of that some give you not so good sound, because of the different characteristic from the standard. this difference (=deviation) can not be avoidable, because main structure (which defines each variax300 characteristics) is wood, and there is not any exactly same wood in the world!

there are two caution... when you use variax300

one: electronics of variax is durable as portable md and cd, but exposed piezo pickpu and pickups' wires are fragile. Please be careful.

two: most guy seems to have miss-understanding that electronics of variax 300, 500, 600 are the same. as a fact, they have similar electronics circuit construction but different firm ware (or to say different parameters related to B i mentioned above) therefore if you remove circuit and bridge of variax300 successfully and install it into an other guitar, the sound should be different from line6 originally intended.

for reference...

approx 20 years ago, Roland made VG(Virtual Guitar) system (too expensive product!) at that time, unfortunately we do not have sufficiently speedy & cheap digital processor. Roland used conventional divided magnetic pickup (now it is usually used for GT synth), but the product was in vain. because Roland did not determine B of above equation.

at last, what i would like to say is that you should be careful to modify variax body which is related to the parameters of B. For example, even heavier pegs utilization may be slightly change your favorite sound of the current variax300 you own.

considering price of 299$ including shipping fee, the sounds are amazing.
i like sounds of strat(spank) models and semi & jazz box models. they are far beyond the sound of $299 real guitar.
Variax300 nicely simulates the sounds of decent guitars.
but i am not careful of that how much they are like vintage strat, es-175, es-335 or something. i am only careful of that the sounds are useable or not.

i bought new one (sunburst variax 300 made in china) using web shop. The first one had dead piezo, so the web shop gave me the replacement. Additionally the replacement has awful noise from circuit! So again shop gave me another replacement.

I am satisfied now. The web shop finally gave me a proper one.

anyway $299 is too cheap for the capability of variax300.
does line6 have a plan to release new model? Or are there any powerful competitor?
If anyone knows something, I hope you to write it as a part of variax300???s review.

Sunburst Body... Nice finish too. Everything seems solid so far. The neck finish looks cheap but feels pretty decent.

This thing is the bomb! I usually play Gibson Les Pauls but needed a quite versitile rig for church worship service. I bought a POD XT Live at the same time to use the VAX300 with the variax cable into the POD. So far, so good. This rig is super quiet, can go from a J200 acoustic to a LP into a plexi with one stomp. Pretty awesome actually. I play it direct to FOH or through my studio monitors. Haven't played the VAX and POD into my Matchless DC30 yet... that just seems like tone blasphemy... I can't do it ;)

Set up very good. Finish is nice for the price of this guitar.

Been playing around 28 years and have owned so many guitars and amps through the years I can't beging to name them. My main rig at the moment is a Gibson Les Paul GEM into a few stomps in to a Matchless DC30 or 20 watt Plexi. Now I have these "new fangled" modeling toys (still can't believe it). I'd buy this set up again if something happened to it. I love the versatility (sp?), the light weight of the guitar, the abilty to go to alternate tunings in a second and then back to standard. Only thing I need for this Variax/POD XT Live set up is a good solid state 2x12 combo amp to power it to use with my band.

its an agathis body with a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard - even with cheap tuners and body you have to give it a 10 for the alectronics!

this is my second variax 300 - i traded my first one (wich i bought when they first came out) i had loved it but grown bored and wanted a 'real' guitar. i got bored of my 'real' guitar after a year and listened back to some recordings id made with the variax and decided the models on the variax sounded better than the Epi les Paul classic id traded it for - so i got another vax ;) this one sounds better than the first one - i guess it maybe has a newer firmware version or something. the first one was good but i didnt like the piezo noise youd get if you played with any aggression - this one still has it but you pretty much have to try to make it happen - led zep's good time bad times with the tele model and the line 6 supro amp - is great can play really hard and it just sounds good - aggressive palm muting with the lester models and the line 6 bogner amp works too - its only on some amps like the treadplates and big bottom that i get that horrible piezo noise. but its so good at everything else - im using the ux1 toneport at the moment and can duplicate the tone of any song in seconds and jam along - im going to get the pod xtl so i can use the digital cable for patch changing and power supply and also so i can use workbench for free - im itching to have an open tuned dobro and some fat strat iron maiden action!

my fave sounds are.... pretty much all of them! the lester model sounds better than my epi lp custom - the spank has the exact handrix vibe ive been looking for and i love the hollow bodies with open tuning or for some who action. the acoustics still sound amazing to me - especially mixed with the toneport preamp models. all round winner really im tired of having hundreds (slight exageration!) of guitar and amps and cables all over the place - i think im just gonne ditch everything in favour of the variax and toneport - ill keep my stagemaster around for its SD invader and obviously my bass (although ive heard people use a dobro tuned down an octave with workbench to duplicate upright bass and it really sounds incredible) - but otherwise its just a massive tone library at your finger tips - whats not to like?

first one was perfect - this one was a store demo and the action and intonation was atrocious - not line 6's fault and easily fixed but on this one the tuners are bit poor - when you remove the strings all the compnonent parts are really loose and the tuner for the g string pretty much falls out of the headstock with no string tension. but its still works and sounds great and is as cheap as a mexican strat or standard epiphone LP but sounds better so i can live with it.

well i had the first one for 2 years with no issues - so im pretty confident - just be careful intonating it and changing strings - ive heard the wires on the piezo pickups snap easily around the saddles.

im in love with line 6 at the moment - i got the ux1 and in 6 months weve recieved 3 new versions of drivers and geabox and a free add on pack of new amps and effects to encourage us to buy the bass add on pack. ive tried other companies but im lazy and line 6 do everything so darn well - the faq section on the support part of their website is pretty darn useful..

10! Im never going to have my wood stock maple neck strat and jimi page's les paul and jeff becks telecaster etc..etc.. even if i did i dont have the space to put them anywhere and i get really irritated un plugging and setting everything back up for a new guitar when im recording - this is so good sounding/convenient and compact i love it.

but ive only had cheap stuff im no jobbing musician or anything but as you have asked i shall tell you ive owned an epihpone les paul custom, an epiphone les paul elite, squier stagemaster HH, fame strat copy, variax 300, vox ad30VT amp, behringer LX210 v-ampire amp, marshall mg30dfx amp, marshall mg10cd amp, gorilla tube practice amp (yuk), digitech rp100, bp50, rpx400, gnx3000 - and ive ditched it all for the UX1 toneport and variax 300 and i have more sounds at my disposal then before but now i can actually move freely around my room without standing on things all the time.

Overall I thoiught the features where great on this guitar..

In bands i mainly just play metal .But for when practicing at home I like to mess with several stlyes ranging from jazz to bluegrass..the line 6 work bench is a must own for this guitar..I mean the alternate tunings where amazing..I also use a pod xt ..Having the ability to have full control at the stomp of a button was amazing..the only dis adavatage I founs was ..When playing double and triplet picking on the lower notes I found it had a total different response and sound..I am guessing that was caused by the piezo pickups in it,,But still for any other style out there guitar was perfect..

I put this guitar to the ultimate test not too long ago, and it passed with flying colors. I recorded my entire last album using ONLY the Variax 300 and a PODXT Live (other than the vocals and the drums, of course). I have more than a few buddies that are absolute tube snobs that absolutely HATE Line 6 and everything they stand for. I lied to every single one of them and told them that the album was recorded using the guitars from my considerable collection (3 Fender Strats, 2 PRSs, 1 Gibson Les Paul, 1 Epiphone Les Paul, a Parker P-36, a Martin Acoustic, an Alvarex Acoustic, 2 Ovations, and a Fender P Bass) and three different tube amps (I told them that I used a Vox AC-30, a Fender Blues DeVille, and a Marshall JCM800). As stated, I lied. Every guitar sound on the album came through my Variax and the PODXT Live. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM COULD TELL THAT I WAS LYING!!!! A few of them even commended me on the fact that I chose NOT to use my extensive collection of Line 6 gear on the record. To me, this is the ultimate testament to what this guitar can do...expecially when paired with the PODXT Live.

The finish on this guitar is definitely on par with an entry level Strat. It is certainly more than playable, but it doesn't FEEL like a very expensive guitar.

Well, I am a HUGE Line 6 fan...but I must admit that I did have to return the first Variax 300 that I bought. My top two strings were buzzing like mad out of the box, and I adjusted the saddled to bring the action up a tad. I have been making adjustment to my guitars for years, and I have gotten pretty good at tech-ing my instruments. Despite the fact that the saddle adjustments I made were VERY delicate, my high E string stopped outputting any sound at all after I was finished. I called Line 6, and they told me that there are actually piezo-style electronics underneath EACH saddle, and that I probably shorted one of them out. There is no way that the tiny adjustments I made should have shorted anything out, so this was a BIG disappointment. Guitar Center swapped the instrument out with no problem, but I am a little gun shy about working on this guitar now.

Despite many negative reviews regarding Line 6's customer support, I have never had anything but great experiences with them. I don't know if I am just getting lucky or if the people who are complaining just have unrealistic expectations. Any time I've had a problem, they've been patient and stayed on the phone with me until it was solved.

Based on the fact that I can now go into the recording studio with just two pieces of gear...my Varix and my PODXT Live...and pretty much dial in ANY sound I can imagine in about ten or fifteen minutes, I have to give this guitar the highest rating possible. I don't know how I would feel about it without the XT Live, but since I'm using it with the XT Live, it would just be conjecture anyway. I do agree that some of the models don't sound EXACTLY like the real things, but as with all of the modeling gear that Line 6 produces, it comes SO damn close that you would NEVER know the difference. Like I explained before, I lied through my teeth to quite a few tube snobs about the gear that I used on my last album, and not a single one of them knew the difference.