Line 6 Variax 300

This is an 05 model...no need to discuss the features as they are well documented here.

I play in a 60's - 70's retro show and this guitar suits me better than any guitar I've owned. I have a Strat and thin line Tele and I have recently parted ways with my ovation since I purchased this guitar. I use it with a Kustom Quad 100DFX and VOX AD100 VT and I like how it sounds with both of them. It is as quiet as a guitar can be with no hums, buzzes or otherwise annoying sonic ad ons. Of course it has many different sounds with the various modeling options available and I like all of them. I have to disagree with those who say that the 12 string Ric sound is not good...I find when I play it live that it really does the job and captures the essence of the guitar it is emulating. Obviously it is not a Rickenbacker but being available at the flick of a switch makes it equally valuable to me in a live situation. Of particular use to me are the acoustic sounds. They sound just like any acoustic that has a peizo would sound...very close to an ovation I would say. This being said, each acoustic sound is quite different from the other and I really liked the Martin 12 string model.

The guitar was set perfectly from the factory and the action was the way I liked it. The neck was very playable and the pocket was tight and secure. The finish was flawless and all hardware seemed of a workmanlike quality. The tuners seem to be fine but I might change them in the future if I become so inclined.

This guitar is very solid...finish and hardware seems to be durable and it is very dependable. Obviously the wild card is the electronic brain that lives in the guitar...I'm not sure how durable or reliable this is but so far so good. I haven't heard of many complaints so I'll give it a good mark. I would never go to a gig without a back up guitar in any event. The problem now is deciding whether or not to take the Strat or Tele.

I've never interacted with them but the website is quite comprehensive. I think most people are pleased with their Line 6 customer service experience so I'll give them a good mark until they do something to change my mind.

Im an average rhythm guitar player that has been gigging for about 25 years. I own a Kustom Quad 100DFX, VOX AD100VT, Stratocaster and a 69 thinline Telecaster. I really like everything about this guitar, it's very easy to program and play. I even like the sitar, it sounds great at the beginning of Paint it Black. I'd buy another one but probably the one with the better neck if this one went away. If you are a purist or guitar snob, you will not like this guitar in any event. I've even heard some people discussing the angular distortion caused by the digital electronics that are resident in the electronic brain and I am wondering how they can hear that over acoustic drums and 3 other instruments blasting away on the stage. These are the same people who claim they can hear the transistors switching in a solid state amp. All I can say is that if it's good enough for Steve Howe, it is certainly good enough for me.

This is an 05' model, red, with white pickguard. 22 frets, controls are volume, tone, and model knob. I guess you would say that the controls are active. The tuners, neck, and other hardware are fair considering the price of the guitar, needless to say for $500 you are getting awesome electronics in a Squier "level" guitar. It came with the cables and box needed for the wallwart, but I use it through a POD XTL using a VDI cable(well worth the $28 I paid Sam Ash for it). Forfeatures this guitar gets a 10 because it has somany sounds, and with the software, you can create a plethora(5 dollar word) of other guitar sounds. Probably the only guitar on the planet that deserves a 10 for the features.

This fits my musical style well, as I play at a church, and we play stuff with distortion, but not death metal or heavey, heavy stuff. I use it with an XTL, and it works and sounds great. It has a wide variety of models and a free download of a software(Only with the POD XTL) that you can use to alter all of the amp models. It sounds as good as you tweak it to sound. I like it.

This is where I score low. The body finish and controls are fine, no issues. But every guitar player knows that you have a certain type of neck that is just fast and playable. This guitar doesn't have one of those. It feels cheap and slow. It goes out of tune quite easily, and you are limited with how low you can set the action.

At this moment, I am considering replacing the neck with a Carvin Bolt replacement neck. Because IMO they make the best necks in the business. I own a Bolt and it plays better than any other guitar that I have ever played. It's just not as versatile as the Variax.

I've used this guitar in 3 or 4 services and have not had a problem with it yet, buit it's too soon to comment on it's reliability.

Line 6's customer service has always been good to me. They have sent me free parts and pieces when they didn't have to. I got free rubber feet for my POD 2.0 mounting bracket, that was really cool. I think they are pretty good.

I have been playing off and on for about 18 years. I own a Carvin Bolt, a Carvin C850 acoustic, and a POD XT Live. I like the Variax, and probably would buy another one if it were stolen. I love it's versatility, and when coupled with my XTL, it is just great for recording on my computer, and playing live. I don't care for the neck, but I had expected this before I purchased it, and I didn't expect much for $499. I think this guitar is a really great bargain for $499.

Has anybody else experienced the following problems ?

1. Intermittent crackling: this occurs both when the strings are played and when the guitar is at rest.

2. Total loss of sound: worst experience to date was loss of sound and could not get it back. Previously, a gentle tap or two on the volume control had returned sound.

I ask this as my Variax was a couple of months ago and do not feel that a brand new guitar should give such unreliability. My overall impression of the guitar is that it is an amazing piece of gear .... when it works! At the moment I do not have the confidence to consider that it will not let me down again.

So far I have dealt with the supplier. The guitar was returned to them and they apparently returned it to Line6. I had the guitar back several weeks later. I was told that it was fixed and that the fault had been with the mini box. This was something I found surprising as I had also reproduced the above faults whilst the mini box was not used. Anyway, at the first gig the guitar played for all of about 10 to 15 minutes when the crackling again started, followed by total unrecoverable sound loss. I have since tried to test the guitar and have had once again intermittent results. I am currently in dialogue with the supplier (or at least am trying to be). At the moment they are not answering my emails and I am thinking of contacting Line6 direct.

I guess that at a price of ?440, this is a very good quality instrument. Finish is OK, neck is easy, frets are OK, bridge is high-quality L.R.Baggs, tuners are OK, body wood does not make a difference as sound/sustain is generated by the DSP. Instrument is a little heavy, and I installed strap lock clips to prevent later problems. I have tried it with 6 AA rechargeable batteries (2200mA Ni-MH) and could play for more than 6 hours with no reload, so this option remains a very valid one when there is a need for wireless connectivity. I was fortunate to get my 300 with the higher series A/B box and power supply, normaly the 300 has a very tiny power unit, I was told. Workbench adds a bunch of extra features and at that price (around ?100), is a must.

Playing mostly in a cover band, this instrument is a perfect fit, allowing to change from Teli to Strat to LP to Acoustic in seconds... Sounds are usually very good (with as already mentioned, some weak ones like the rick 12-strings). At VERY low fingering dynamics, there are some digital weaknesses (some DSP noiseand other artefacts,..) but those are really minor (to me at least) and I don't think they can impact a normal playing session. I was surprised to read that palm muting or other harmonic effects (a la ZZTop) could not be realized... I have absolutely no problem with any of those. On top, the workbench opens new horizons, allowing alternate tunings, and personal hardware setups adding to the overall capabilities.
It is important to use a dedicated acoustic or PA amplification for the acoustic emulations, as well as for the resonators, banjor, Citar,.. as the tonal response is totally different. Using a guitar amp does no good to the quality that can be obtained.

Action was OK, overall finish and setup was just fine, and to my opinion, far above instruments in the same price range.

Too early to say. I hope the selection switch is not too fragile... but only time will tell.

I didn't need any support at this stage, and I hope I won't for a while.

I used this for 2 months now, on a daily base. Using it with a little Roland Cube 60 seems like a perfect fit, including the acoustic mode for the acoustic and resonator simulations. I took me a while to get into such digital instrument, but I am convinced now about the validity of this, specially for cover bands and/or need for various tone/sound responses.

Right, we have an agathis body and a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. The look of the guitar takes a bit of getting used to as there are no magnetic pick-ups, but it does make it easier to get all the dust out from under the strings ;). Tuners are ok, not the best, but I have seen worse. It comes with a power supply, little box to get the power to the guitar and a stereo cable. I also got a hardcase included in the price of mine, which was nice.

The guitar is amazing! The sheer amount of sounds available make this guitar worth buying. I got it for my 18th birthday and now I've gone up to Leeds College of Music and it is great because I can just take 1 guitar into the studio. I tend to use the tele and firebird sounds and they really work well with my set-up. I've got the variax, boss SD-1, Frontline Chorus, Dano Wasabi Delay, Dano Fuzz, Marshall MG50DFX. I don't particularly think that the acoustic sounds are that great, but I think that if it was eq'd properly for the acoustics it would be fine. However, as I don't have a separate amp I don't particularly rate them. I can live without the acoustic sounds, but what I really miss is being able to create feedback. The only thing that I've found that can do this is a rat but unfortunately it wasn't mine, so I think I know what I'm getting after christmas!

The guitar was set up surprisingly well out of the box, it just needed a slight truss rod adjustment. The finish is very good, smooth and very black. It even had D'Addario 10's fitted (my favourite guage and brand!).

I can't really see that there will be any problems. I've only used it live once for a very small set but I can't think of anything that might cause a problem, except maybe the supplied 10ft stereo cable isn't quite long enough. However, that problem could soon be rectified.

No idea, I've heard they are good though.

I've been guitar for about 3 years and bass for about 6 years. My other guitar is a Dean baby Z, which is a nice starter guitar, but it is a bit of a one trick pony. This guitar is brilliant. Even if you don't agree that, say, the tele sounds exactly like a tele it doesn't matter. The thing about this guitar is that there are plenty of very useable sounds regerdless of what they are meant to sound like. If it were stolen, I would be seriously peeved and would immediately blow the student loan on another. My only real greivance is that I can't make feedback, well, at least untill I get my rat.....

As ststed in my previous rev,the main joy of this model is its price and ability to act as doner!

With the new software up-grade the sounds are very good indeed,apart from the ricky patch being a lot louder than the rest,still workbench sorts this out ,

I had to return it to get new sadds,fitted as almost from the box 2 failed.

The electronics were removed and fitted into a top end squire-strat by Vic in Watford,It is now a guitar I love with a passion play's,looks and sounds superb,has a great Trem and cost me half what a 700 would have (sold one hated it ) Am now buying another one to donate to an OLP.MM4 to make a spare with a difference ,Total cost after selling off surplus bits #345!! Pretty damn good value for two custom one off's

L6 are a great bunch of guy's and cannot do enough to help you with any problems ( pity the cant put a harmoniser into the pod xt-live though)

I have been before the mast 40 years man and boy and owned and sold nearly everthing with strings on ,what I went for was the versatility factor ,I mean switching from accoustic to les-paul and back with one foot,etc how can you not like this? If my guitars were stolen the thief would die horribly a thousand times (my personal demon would see to it ).I love the sound of these through my new Bose pas system,that is one up-grade I will never regret making IT ROCKS BIG TIME.

This guitar is one of the most versatile tools I have ever used. It is of course Digital Modeling of 26 different guitars, I use it with the PODXT Live through the digital link, and the results are amazing.

The sounds that come from this instrument are incredible especially when coupled with the PODXT Live, I play Rock, Hard Rock, R&B, Blues. The versatality of this intstrument makes a great tool, in both Live and Studio Settings. There is the dreaded Microphonic feedback with high gain settings, but it can be controlled through the pots.

It is not the most beautiful guitar in the world, but it is the most versatile. The finish is cheap but the action is good, I care about what comes out of the pickups mostly. It is dead quiet too.

I got this guitar back in May, and I have been playing live gigs with it ever since, I use it exclusively live and in the studio. I never gig without a backup. Just this last weekend I was in Louisiana and the R&B band I was in, opened for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, one guy looked at my variax (owner of a music store), and said "Maybe someday you will get a real guitar" I said that I have many real guitars right there, I also told him that I own a Les Paul, a PRS, and a Strat, and they are all at home. My backup? it was another Variax 300 thank you, I don't have to...I choose to play the Variax.

The forums on their website are great, they have worked really hard to get the kinks worked out of the software and the interface between the PODXT Live and the Workbench Software.

I've been playing guitar for 24 years, I am currently in a Christian Band (www.liftmeup.net) and a R&B band (www.greggmartinez.com). I use the variax exclusively in both of these bands, in both performing and recording. When coupled with the PODXT Live and Workbench, the options are limitless, In fact I created a guitar that doesn't exist, and use it as a solo instrument in one of the bands I play in. It's not perfect, but it is the future, and this is coming from a vintage tube head that came kicking and screaming to the digital age, I'm glad it has arrived. Like line6 says....Believe

not much to add versus other reviews. I have never been fan of digital modelling but this guitar was the gateway drug. A friend lent me a Variax 500 early in 2005. I thought it was butt ugly, had an abysmal neck, but could not believe the variety and quality of the sounds available even when plugged in direct to a decent amp with no effects. I tried the Variax 300 in local store a few weeks later, and while I thought it was even uglier than the 500, it had a much improved more strat like neck, and I left store with it that day.

Guitar as a standalone has more features than just aobut any other guitar on the planet. Hook it digitally to a pod XT or XTlive and it has previously unimaginable capability (single footswitch controlling guitar model, i.e. go from Martin/acoustic to strat to les paul to sitar using only footswitches.

There really is not much to knock this guitar on from a feature standpoint. I would give 10 if it had tremelo arm, but have to ding by a point.

Sound quality is commendable and frankly very surprising for an instrument this cheap, and radical (no magnetic pickups, instead using LR Baggs piezo). I play varied guitars and styles, but I am normally a strat player, and variax strat model holds up very well with a decent fender strat. I have quite a few strats of various vintages (fender, tokai, fernandes, early squier). Variax holds up decently against many of these. (Better than mexican standard (birthday gift last year, I wish I had a receipt to take it back. Fender are my most and least favourite company, the really have had some classics but an abundance of absolute crap products over the years). Anyway, without going down a strat rat hole, I have found probably half the models usable. Highlights being the strat, some tele (position 5 tele, can recall what it is, but i don't like it), lester, rockabilly, semi, jazzbox, and martin om are used frequently. Reso models, 12strings, and rick I have found to be novel for first few strums, but dont hold up well and cannot image using live. For first few months, I played happily through my Fender Blues deville. For last month, I have been playing using variax digital cable, through XTlive, into Tech21 powerengine, and PA. I am now finding this gives huge flexibility and scope, and also allows me to simultaneously hook up other guitar(s) into XTlive analog input. I have used this to A/B the variax sounds with some of my other guitars, and also have used live with breedlove acoustic. Switching between guitars takes just a few seconds and volume knob up/down action.
Regarding A/B comparison. Variax models are close in all the cases I could compare (I have more than 26 guitars, but not the ones Line 6 modelled unfortunately). Despite what some reviewers have mentioned variax models, played through digital input, sound similar, but have a bit more gain AND a lot more harmonics than the originals. The natural harmonics surprised me, but actually, it should not be difficult thing to recreate in terms of modelling, and I think Line6 may intentionally over-use this technique to make the sound more pleasing to the ear. Essentially, the Variax strat at even the lowest volume, has ringing undertones, that only come out on my conventional strats when volume is cranked a lot more (strat/tele using holy grails, texas specials, tex mex, tele US std p/u, vintage tokai).

Acoustic sounds are passable especially using position 1 (guild?), or 3 (martin om?), running digital input to XTlive acoustic pre-amp, then into PA.

This thing is not perfect however. There is some unexpected background noise that is subtle, but can be annoying. Some is constant (like an underlying fizz that is not noticable until note/chord volume decays, and really takes A/Bing to put your finger on it. It seems to be an artefact of the digital processing. You can have variax set up with insane amp volume setting, dont touch a string, and it is absolutely silent. Hit a string, you get the back to the future speaker blast, its as musical as expected, but then as note decays, you get some (very subtle) background hiss/crackle. It took me several months to really nail this down (as opposed to it being amp noise, power supply noise, or an effect, etc). Its always there, whether I use the analog guitar lead output or the digital variax output (which bypasses the variaxs onboard D/A converter, and pre-amp). This is very minor, but very unexpected.

For rating. This really deserves a 10, given that there are 26 models, ranging from 5/10 to 8/10). Quite commendable. I will take off one for the background noise issue.

This is obviously a cheap guitar, but workmanship is actually very good. Tight neck pocket, good paint, good fret job. I am actually on my second variax 300, the first one had a problem with the onboard flash memory used to store the 10 custom configs, and I had to return it after a week. That guitar also had poor truss rod setup and I had to tweak, but it could have been degradation in shipping. Satin neck finish is good, but I hate bleached satin maple finish found a lot of new guitars. I will strip and do a nitro refinish at some point.

First one was almost DOA, I had to return in a week, but I suspect that this was a test issue at factory. It took some demoing and convincing at local store before they even realised there was a problem (dead flash in a guitar is kinda rare for now...)

I bought this as a novelty guitar to motivate me to practice. I don't like to record, I don't like to practice. I play live and know I should practice more. The variax has been perfect motivational practice tool in that regard. I have taken variax as backup numerous times, and played live on a few occasions and it held up flawlessly. I have used for entire evening on one occasion when my primary strat broke a string. I switched out string at next break, but had a blast using the variax in any case. There is a lot more to go wrong obviously than on the tried and tested strat or LP config. I am hard on guitars live, and usually need to do a lot of tech work keeping them in playing condition. Who knows how variax will hold up in long term, but so far so good.

I am obviously quite impressed NOW by Line 6 products. This was a slow process, as I have played along side early POD, Spyder and stomp box wielding bandmates for close to 10 years now and thought some of Line6 earlier products were absolute crap. First the variax, then the xtlive have convinced me that Line6 have something special going on. Products are very decent, support documentation is excellent, hardware and software suport and integration is great, web support is good. I have not gone as far as trying to get one on one support for a specific problem. I may do that for the digi noise issue, they may get 10 in a follow up.

It is hard to rate this guitar. I have been playing since 1975 and if this had come along in my first 20 years of playing, it would have received an absolutely perfect score, because it achieved something that no one would have believed possible. It does either very well, or at least decently in so many areas, that I am compelled to give it 10 out of 10. It is not perfect, but it has exceeded my expecations by a long shot and I really cant see much in the way of downsides. Six months into ownersip, I have grown to quite like the look of the guitar (I guess its like finding out the elephant man is your son and growing not to mind his looks... these features, in an old strat body would be a killer). Actually theres my pet peav... Warmoth do Variax conversion bodies and necks (, but the 300 electronics pack is not supported). Damn, I need to fork out $1500 for a variax 700, take out the bridge and guts, insert into a warmoth strat. $2000 for an unfinished but more convential looking modelling guitar... I think I may have to wait till squier release one, if my cryogenic freezing fee is much under $2K.

Line 6 Variax 300 Hardtail, Made in Indonesia, Bought New, $450 US
22 fret Rosewood neck
Black-on-black finish
Non-Name sealed tuners
Accessories: Combination A/B Switch-Power Supply, TRS 14" cable, 'Wall Wart' power supply. No case or gig bag.

I play in a couple of tribute bands as well as a hard-rock copy band, and I record quite a bit on a hame studio, so versatility is a must with any equipment that I buy. The Variax fits the bill unlike any other instrument I've ever owned - and I have nearly a couple of rooms full of equipment after 40 years of playing.

I'm using this giutar with Line 6's Pod XTLive, and while the guitar sounds pretty good straight into an amp, you don't get a handle on the full range of possibilities unless and until you plug in with the Variax Digital Interface (VDI). Using what appears to be an ethernet cable with Neutrik XLR-type metal clips, you plug into the Variax (it's outfitted with both VDI and 1/4" jacks), and bypass the Audio in on the Pod for the Digital In. This powers the guitar as well as kicking open the door for total control of the instrument.

The guitar models, from the '59 Strat to the Les Paul Goldtop, from the Telecaster to the Electric Sitar, and everything in between sound great. I nearly bought a Variax about six months ago, but the neck was horrible (burrs on every fret, up and down both sides of the neck) and it put me off, even though I loved the sounds that came out of it. After re-visiting the shop, I found that later models knocked the neck problems, so I bought it. And I'm glad I did.

If you'd told me five years ago that I could buy a guitar that would effectively replace my beloved Strat and 335 (as well as adding another 23 guitars to the sonic arsenal) and it would cost me under a couple of grand, I would have told you that you were nuts. But here it is.

The only problem model was the Rickenbacker 12-string, which is every bit as cutting and shrill as the original. But using the Variax Workbench (more on that in a bit), I was able to swap out the Rick 'toaster' pickup for a DeArmond pickup, and the sound is much better suited for playing with a band.

I've been a Line 6 user from the days of the very first Pod and FlexTone amps, so I was familiar with how they approach things - but the real surprise is the Variax Workbench. Sold as a standalone VDI-USB interface for computer, it's also available for free to Variax players who use the Pod XTLive as a download from Line 6's web site. This is where the magic happens.

Imagine having a Telecaster body and a couple of vintage P-90 pickups, and putting those pickups on the Tele. Don't like the sound? Then take off the 90s and put on a set of DeArmond pickups - or Strat pickups, or Humbuckers or Danelectro Lipstick Pickups.

As rough as that would be to do in the real world, Workbench lets you put together combinations of guitar bodies, pickups, volume and tone configurations, phase settings, and hear it on the spot. And if a certain song demands a 'drop-D' tuning, just 'retune' the guitar through the Workbench and save it in one of 60 slots on the Variax. Every time you go to that model, you're in 'drop-D' without having to touch the machine heads.

And when you put the Variax together with the XTLive, you can go from a Martin Dreadnought with a clean amp (or no amp) and a touch of chorus and reverb to a Les Paul through a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with saturated distortion by stepping on a switch.

One dislike - the Variax/Workbench/Pod XTLive setup was a long time coming - Line 6 released the 300 without allowing for the XTL to recognize the 300, which prevented the updating of the Variax firmware using this setup. The wait was agonizing, but they finally released the appropriate software to do it. One can fgault Line 6 for rushing a product on to the market without providing ample support, but now that they've taken care of it, all is forgiven.

I have to say it does take a while to get everything coordinated between guitar models, amp models, Pod output levels and amp levels (I found that too high of a level off the Pod causes the Variax to squeal like a LP Junior with P-90 pickups, which is annoying). I dove right in and started building the necessary patches for my bands' stuff, but still had to re-tweak a lot of the sounds to work well in a band setting. After 3 weeks, a few shows and a few rehearsals, I seem to have found a happy medium where the guitar responds as well as any 'traditional' guitar I own.

I'd compare the Variax 300 to a good mid-level Stratocaster. The satin neck is very comfortable, and the neck is uniform from end to end. The one weak spot is the tuners - they seem to 'catch' like the ones on cheap Fender guitars - but I've got a set of Sperzel locking tuners that will be put on this week.

The black-on-black finish lends sort of a 'Stealth' look to the guitar, and along with the fact that there are no traditional pickups on the thing, it gets people asking what the hell it is every time I've played a show with it.

I play hard. The joke among my bandmates is that I lead the league in broken strings. My guitars need to be 'tightend up' on a bi-weekly basis because of the way I play. The Variax stands up to everything I dish out to my other guitars, and the number of broken strings has dropped dramatically since I've started using it on stage.

Hopefully, the electronics will hold up. This is pretty much uncharted territory - this thing is basically a computer with a guitar-shaped interface. I doubt my laptop would react well to my taking it on stage and banging it against my knee for four hours a night, but so far, so good.

During the time when I was wating for the software issues to be cleared up, Line 6 seemed pretty unresponsive. Once they released the software, I attempted to update the Variax firmware and it failed, leaving me with precisely one guitar model in all of the slots on the guitar. At that point, they came through like a champ. I spent an hour on the phone with their tech support, and even though they didn't resolve the problem, they were as helpful as I could have hoped for.

I eventually tried the firmware update again, and it worked perfectly yhe second time.

I've been playing for about 40 years. I have Strats, Les Pauls, a 335, an Explorer, and various other 6 and 7-strings, acoustic and electric. Most of what I own is fairly good quality, with a few low-end pieces. For the price I paid for the Variax, I got an instrument that stacks up quite well against a mid-level Fender or Gibson, for a slightly lower price. But what makes it a worthwhile buy is the sound you get out of it. This is the next generation of electric guitar, and it is nothing short of revolutionary.

Pardon the long review. I can't say enough about the possibilities of this instrument.

Variax 300, 2005, Made In Singapore, Solid Alder Body, Unique Body Style, Unique Headstock, Rosewood Fingerboard, Volume Nob, 5-way switch + guitar model dial, Piezo Pickup, Active DSP Modeling, Fixed Bridge, Medium Jumbo Frets, Included Gig Bag, Floor Power Box, Data Cable, Instruction Manual, & Models 28 different guitars.

1st Thanks to all the reviewers especially the negatives. Even though I like this guitar, I knew what to expect thanks to NEGATIVE REVIEWS. This guitar is comparable to a real guitar in the way that an electric piano is comparable to a real, acoustic piano. First, let me cover what the Variax will NOT do well in terms of sound. DISLIKES = 1) Variax does not create all the harmonics of a real guitar. 2) Variax will not produce pinch harmonics (ZZ-Top) like a real guitar. 3) It does not react to distortion (Rock & Heavy Metal)like a real guitar. 4) It does not respond to hand muting like a real guitar. 5) It is NOT a good guitar for Heavy Metal sound. 6) Variax does not sound exactly like all the guitars it models although some sounds are close, or at least similar. 7) Many of the sounds have a wierd, subtle compressed phaser-like sound even with the latest flash memory upgrade. 8) Finally, the sound is somewhat sterile when clean & harsh when distorted (Honk).

But, now let me tell you why I like this guitar. LIKES = 1) Variax sounds good for clean rythm-style playing on a variety of models. 2) Variax sounds good for flat picking-style playing on a variety of models including some of the acoustics. 3) Makes a cool sitar simulation (Rolling Stones). 4) The tone is completely consistant everywhere on the neck in a way that is unlike a real guitar. 5) Because it does not have all the harmonics of a real guitar, individual notes stand out unlike a real guitar. 6) Sounds ok for certain styles of clean lead playing. 7) The tones are delivered SUPER QUIET unlike single coils on a real guitar. 8) If you tweak the guitar and reduce volume, you can get some unique and ok sound with distortion. 8) Finally, the best thing Variax does is deliver a VARIETY of clean tones.

I have used the Variax through my tube amp (Fender Blues Deville 410) and it sounds good. I have used the Variax through a POD XT-LIVE and it can sound good with a lot of tweaking. The Gibson J200 Acoustic model sounded great thru XT with NO AMP setting patched through the Power Amp in on my tube Amp. The Variax sounded horrible through my Metal Zone pedal on ALL MODELS and no amount of tweaking could fix it. Some of the models sounded ok through my Real Tube Overdrive pedal by reducing the guitar volume and with a lot of tweaking of the pedal, but definitely NOT like a real guitar (missing harmonics).

My first Variax 300 was defective, so line 6 sent another from the factory. The replacement plays fantastic for such a cheap guitar ($300). The action is relatively low and VERY playable on the whole neck. The guitar had many small flaws in the finish on the body and neck, but nothing too obvious or that would affect tone playability.

I suppose the Variax could hold up to live playing, but only time will tell. The hardware seems fine and stays in tune. The finish will probably wear off in time. Strap buttons are solid. I would NEVER gig without a backup for this guitar because it can't do everything a real guitar can do and the Variax has digital components that can break.

Big companies always seem to suck at support. I guess they were ok this time since I bought a defective guitar and they had it replaced within a week. It has a 1 year warranty.

I have been playing guitar for about 15 years. I mainly write my own music, but have been getting back into covering music in a garage band. I own a 1993 Gibson MIII (Metal, Rock, Clean, All Tone!), a 1981 Fender Srat (USA, Blues & Rock), a 1950 Danelecrto with lipstick pickup (Slide), a 1987 Epiphone Fat-Strat Copy (Rock), 2004 Dillion Fat-Strat Copy (Blues),a 1994 Ovation Acoustic/Electric, a 2002 Takamine Acoustic/Electric, and the 2005 Variax 300 (Rythm & Flat Pickin').

I plug through Boss Compressor/Sustainer, Real Tube Overdrive, MT-2 Metal Zone, or Pod XT Live via a 1995 Fender Blues Deville 4x10.

If the Variax was stolen, I might buy another. But, chances are the digital modeling technology will improve over time, so I might replace with something else.