Line 6 Variax 300

Very well covered in the previous review. I am writing this review because I didnt buy the 300. I waited for it to be released, trotted down to my local music shop and tried it out. I really wanted this guitar to be good, because if you read all the advertising it offers an excellant proposition, and now the price had dropped I thought I would buy one as a second/ alternative guitar, to my existing 12 other guitars! The features are amazing, to have all those options in one guitar is outstanding, I have other Line 6 gear and am not put off by the technology I let my ears decide, after all 60 years ago someone said ' here is an electric guitar and the acoustic fraternity threw their arms up in horror! I am not a technophobe

This is where I felt let down. Firstly the sounds do sound like what they are supposed to. I thought the acoustic sounds routed through an acoustic amp were very very good. But overall it just didnt feel right. The sounds sounded like the sounds you hear on records, not processed in the usual way just too clean if you know what I mean, no character. When I play I get a sort of feeling through the guitar's body that vibrates into my stomach, the way the guitar handles and that was not there. Well it was but it didnt bear any relationship to what was coming out. I felt kinda separated from the sound. Yes the Les Pauls and Strats sounds like the guitars they were supposed to but because the string lengths are wrong playing say a Les Paul sound without the shorter scale and the more bendable string tension made me feel that it wasnt a Les Paul, so the stuff I play on my Les Paul I now wouldnt play on the 300.

Yes all good, the neck is slightly better than the 500, but I was hoping for something a bit slimmer. The body felt like a non descript and because it does not vibrate in the usual way the shape and density could be anything. I suppose they have tried to make it to fit anyone. I tried a Black one and a red one . thought the black looked better.

Dont know , didnt buy it.

Not used

I must give full marks to Line 6 for having a go. Maybe for less experienced players it might perfect, but for me , been at it for over 30 years it just does not beat the real thing. If you want a strat sound use a strat, of you want a Les Paul use a LP, and so on. The acoustics were pretty good, and the banjo and other oddities were fun. But I think how the guitar feels is where the inspiration starts. For me to buy a guitar it has the have that wow factor sorry Line 6, this didnt have it for me

This is the Indonesian built "budget" version of the Variax 500 and 700.
The software is exactly as the other two , so no costs cut there.
Differences are:
1. You dont get a footswitch to go between electric/accoustic amps.
2. You dont get a gig bag.
3. The tuners are 6 in a line [ similar to a Stratocaster ]
4. The controls are mounted on the scratch plate.
5. The controls are positioned differently
6. The neck feels a lot nicer .
Mine is in black with a black scratchplate. Neck is maple with rosewood board and dot markers.Come with Planet Waves stereo cable if you use the included power supply. 6 AA bateries otherwise.

This is what it is all about. Strat, Les Paul and all the other electric patches are really good with clear variations in sound. Accoustic patches really need an accoustic amp to get the best out of them.No noise on the single coil versions, cause there are no pickups !I feel that the guitar is best through clean to mild crunch settings on an amp. If i put mine through the standard patches of a VOX ToneLab SE for example, the sound is a bit wooly. Clean the patch up a bit and its fine

Nicely made,especially the bridge. Change of strings [ same guage ], required intonation to be reset, but the quality bridge makes adjustment easy , both for string hight and length. Paintwork well applied. Just a general nice feel. Felt better to play than the 500.

Have put Schaller straploks on. Not sure I would have the confidence in it yet to gig. Mental leap of faith re batteries and/or power supply.You can't tune it without it being plugged into the mains or without batteries !!

Never used them.

Always fancied one but was never prepared to pay the original asking price for the 500. Still experimenting with it as this stage. Certainly the asking price makes it viable now and the basic platform appears to have improved.