Line 6 Variax 300

Normal features for a basic guitar. Quality a little above a budget guitar, but price's much higher. Good finish but, lets face it, the guitar is uggly. I would never buy it is it wasn't for what line6 annouced the guitar could do. Actually, I gave it a thought about buying one years ago, but the shape of the guitar has always make me give up.
Mine included power supply and cable.
I give it only 3 due to esthetic reasons.

The sounds are really awsome... when the guitar is not crackling, gargling and/or switching randomly between presets. Some say the problem is the hardware (connections) but some say is the software and electronics. After taking a peak into the line6 website user forum, I was sad to know that lots of users are having trouble with the electronics. I give 2 because the sounds are really close to the real thing. Otherwise I would give it 1

Everything was in good condition and ready to use. The action was fairly good, close to the neck, as I like it. Nothing to say here. The hardware of the guitar is flawless (tuners, neck, body, bridge).

The hardware looks good enough to last for centuries. The guitar is solid and the tuners are ok. And if you want to upgrade the tuners, it's not that difficult or expensive.
The bridge, due to the piezos, needs to be handled carefully, specially when changing the strings (do not let the curly top of the old string pass through the saddle - it can damage the piezo for good).
But the electronics... as I said before, the guitar sounds are very close to the real thing in all presets... but only when the guitar is not crackling, gargling and/or switching randomly between presets. It doen's happen all the time, but at least happens once everytime you turn it on and at a random moment. Due to this, I would never use it on a live gig because you never know when the guitar is going to go noisy.
Since lots of users are having trouble with this, I wonder what line6 was thinking about when they released the model. Ok, the guitar is less expensive than the other line 6 models, but even so, is expensive when compared with other budget guitars with a close quality on hardware and finish. Being less expensive is not an excuse for not functioning properly.

In the line6 website they throw some tips at you and that's all, since there's practicly no customer support in Europe.

I play guitar since I was 12 and electric guitar since I was 18. I have 40 now. I've owned several different kind of electric guitars during the years, from budget to medium guitars (never got a really expensive one because I serious believe they are not worth the price).

This one seemed a perfect guitar. Playable and with a lot of different sounds to explore and enjoy.

I used to play at home and 90% of the time works perfectly. But once in a while the guitar starts going crazzy, crackling, gargling and changing presets (imagine you're playing acustic live and suddenly it changes to 12 strings electric and then to les paul bridge and then to tele neck...)

Basic Variax 300 in black, rosewood fingerboard, 22-frets and so on. You know what this thing is. I would have liked the trem, but was on a budget so I stuck with the hardtail. Came with a strap which was worthless and a little external power supply box and stereo cable (for the power) which is a pain to use but beats chewing through 9v batteries all the time.

This guitar is all about the sounds - that's why you buy them. And the sounds are pretty damn good. Not perfect for sure, but pretty good all the same. My main guitar is a Strat I've had for 20-some odd years, fitted with SD pickups and it blows this away sound-wise - but this thing has variety. I can flick a switch and make it sound like a 335 or a Ricky - something my Strat can never do. The acoustic sounds are also pretty good. Again, they're not totally convincing, but they're not too bad.

I use this guitar purely for recording. On one song I wanted a 335-kinda sound for the solo - done, and it sound pretty close. A friend of mine was scornful of these guitars. I recording a couple minutes of me noodling around on one the acoustic sounds (with a splash of reverb over the top) and sent it to him. He was very impressed and wondered when I'd got a new acoustic. Told him it was a Variax and he became quite unhappy with me :-)

These sounds will not fool die-hard tone-heads, but for the 99+% of your audience, they'll do the job just fine.

This is not a well made or well set up guitar. The strings were crap beyond belief and the tuners slip slowly out of tune constantly. When you pick up and play this for the first time, it feels cheap - it feels like a $150 guitar, which is pretty much what it is - the extra $$$ is for the electronics. I would almost certainly gut this guitar and drop the bits into a new body and neck, but I'm far to cheap and lazy to do that. Truth is I use it occasionally for recording so I'm not that bothered.

Well, it hasn't screwed up on me yet. But there is no way I would use this live without somne form of backup - I just don't trust it. Not sure how well it will survive the test of time, but I don't fancy it's chances of lasting 20+ years like my Fender. And of course, if the insides do die, the rest is just a hunk of cheap wood with no future other than the nearest bonfire. A real electric always has a future... somewhere...

Never called them.

I only use this guitar for recording - giving me access to a wider range of sounds. I use a Line6 Toneport so my sounds are already digital - so the sonic defeciencies of this guitar become less obvious. Through a really nice amp and played well, this guitar may disappoint, but it works fine for how I use it.

Would I buy another? At $300, hell yes - but I'd rather get the elctronics (for maybe $150??) as a drop-in kit and use it on a decent quality guitar.

The Variax I purchased was a standard Red Variax. You know the features. It is nothing really notable

I play in a Church Praise Team, We play anything from Traditional to Rock so I needed a guitar that would be capable of everything from Acoustic Tones to a heavily distorted Les Paul. When I first Purchased the 300 I was not toally satisfied with the tones. Most of them sounded like a guitar but not specifically what they were supposed to sound like. However I was able to get a really good tone from most of the settings by tweeking the amp.

I purchased a Line 6 Pod XT Live a few months after and was very satisfied. The most important aspect is the powering through the Variax Cable. But the Tones that you are able to get using this combo is great. You really have to play with the two of them for a long time to get the tone but once you get it worked out it is very easy to tweek the tones to get exactly what you need.

My favorite part of the Variax was the fact that no noise comes out of the thing while you are not playing. no buzz. This is better than any humbucker. I did not play my semi-hollow for a few months after playing this and I substuted my semi and was shocked at how noisy it was. (same with my strat).

Another nice feature is that if you play with teh Variax workbench software a while you can get sounds that you would never dream of. By de-tuning through software I have very beliveable bass tones, Mandalin sounds etc.

The set up was acutally good from the factory. The action was sweet, intonation perfect. THe prbolem came when I changed the strings. (De-Addario' 12s or Fender Bullet 11's sound great everything else seems to mess with the modeling a bit. But once I changed back to the De-Addario's it sounds great again.

The only flaw that I found was that the battery compartment on the back will not close all the way when batteries are in it. But I can totally look past that.

About 6 months after playing it first the High E-String Pickup Cut out. Line 6 will tell you that this is a known problem from the factory. Everything seems solid. I have been playing it for over a year now and it still seems new to me.

Strap Buttons seemed a bit odd in that the cheap strap that I had would not stay buttoned. I switched with a strap lock on the top and Have had no problems at all now.

I use it for Live playing bi weekly and I do not have a backup I totally trust the guitar.

There was one version of firmware that I had installed that seemed to be a problem with switching the tones by itself. But the newer firmware does not seem to have that problem.

I did have to deal with Line 6 Customer service and they were frendly they told me exactly how to get it fixed. When my pickup died they told me to take it along with my reciept to the local repair shop and tehy would fix it. They Told me that it would take 5 ~6 weeks which really disapointed me. But when I got the local shop the guy told me that he could fix it within an Hour. So I waited with him and watched him fix it. I had the Guitar back together in 20 mins. (note this was my local shop and This guy was great I am sure that not all of them are like this)

This is a great guitar. It is not going to fool the local tone junkies right away but with the proper tone modeling it could.

I would only suggest buying this guitar with a Pod XT Live or X3 Live
It needs that extra tone modeling power enless you have a museum full of vintage amps.

I would totally buy another Variax if this one was stolen. I think I would go with one with a Tremelo however just because my playing style has changed.

I have played several guitars over the years. Anything from Vintiage Fender Jaguars to Gibson 335s to a wide range of acoustics. This one (along with the XT Live) is my favorite guitar to play. It does not quite have the feel of a good guitar but it has the tone (After hours of tweeking).

I bought this guitar 2006. I liked the various sounds it was able to produce, I like the look, especially the absence of pick ups. Finish is okay but nothing special. Best of it is the electronis and the variations it allows - at least as long as it works.

Most of the sounds are very useful, even the acoustic ones. The ability to create own sounds with the workbench is great. Not important for me, but alternate tunings only sound good when up-/down-tuning a small amount, especially on the higher strings (g, b, e). What I like best is the absolute absence of unwanted noise - you only hear what you play.

Set-up and finish of the hardware is okay. As the electronics is very important at this guitar it belongs IMHO also to this point. And electronics the weak point of this guitar: As long as it works it's okay, but if not... see next point. Because without electronics this guitar is of no use my rating is that bad.

Hardware is okay and I never had problems with it - that's the good part.
Electronics is crap:
The model selecting knob after some month began changing models by himself during playing, no way to end this behaviour. Therfore it is not useable for live playing.
Firmware upgrades only seem to work with special MIDI-connectors and even then only work sometimes. Two month ago I once again tried an upgrade and it ended up with a guitar producing no more sound - since then I'm trying to get a solution from Line6 support.
Simply said: No, you can't depend on it, I even wouldn't use it on a gig WITH backup.

Line6 support doesn't seem to exist, at least in EU. When reading Line6-forums it seems that a lot of Variax owners have similiar problems with electronics like me but besides the usual more or less helpfull hints from other users Line6 doesn't seem to be able to produce corrections of their buggy software and firmeware. For example: Firmware upgrade of variax (in my configuration via Vetta amp) functions that way, that a PC-program (monkey) connects via MIDI-port and Vetta to the Variax. Line6 states that this works only with a few MIDI-connectors. Why? The whole music industry communicates via MIDI with every existing MIDI-connector without problems, only Line6 doesn't? And even when using the recommended MIDI-connectors most of the times you must try the upgrade process a few times until it really works. Tried this with a few PC's, connectors and cables - everywhere the same ****. And the only answer Line6 is able to give is "You should send it to repair". If they would pay it - okay, but they don't.

I'm playing guitar since about 30 years. Two years ago I bought a Variax and a Vetta and sold everything but a Strat as backup. As long as this combination worked I never wanted anything else, it sounded good, it played well and I liked it. But because of the unreliability of the Variax I now am pretty disappointed. Because of this and the not existing Line6 support I never would by a Line6 instument again.

Black Variax 300 - if you don't know the details, check the web (or the reviews below). Looks-wise it's absolutely unique. The Variax top has a lovely "clean" look to it with the absence of pickups. I'm seriously tempted to do a bit of artwork on the top, because all that uninterrupted space would be just perfect for it.

The guitar itself seems well-made. Hardware is relatively cheap, but significantly better than Squiers or similar - think basic-seriesStrat, for example. I suspect it was set up by the shop (Digital Village), and the setup was absolutely spot-on. A few buzzes with the light strings it came with, but restringing with 11s (my preferred option) fixed that.

The matt-finish neck isn't quite as nice as the gloss neck on the Variax 600, and it doesn't feel quite as smooth. There's hardly anything in it though - certainly it's as good as yer average Fender neck, and much better than Yamahas, Squiers and other low-end stuff I've played.

No gig-bag which was a bit of a bummer, but you can't really complain at the price. Anyway, I bought a hard-case for it, so I wouldn't have used the gig-bag anyway.

I'm not too impressed with the XPS Mini power box that comes with it, which lets you power the guitar using a (supplied) stereo lead. It's a good idea, but the box is quite flimsy plastic, and there's no retaining clip for the power supply cable off the (supplied) wall-wart. This does create some risk of losing sound during a gig if you accidentally boot the XPS Mini.

I also got the Workbench. This is 100% vital if you're getting a Variax - make sure you include the cost of this in your calculations. See later for more.

How does the guitar sound plugged in? Pretty damn good, actually! It really is designed to be heard through an amp though - you can hear it in the tone of the guitars, especially the acoustic models. I wouldn't be tempted to DI straight out of the Variax into the PA. It's worth noting that the 300, 600 and 700 sound identical, so don't waste your money on a 600 unless you need the trem.

The Tele sound is far and away the most believable - I can recreate "Run to you", Springsteen or Status Quo dead easily. Generally though they all sound pretty good. The weakest electric patch for me is the LP Junior which sounds a bit lifeless, but I don't know whether that's how it really sounds. The Special sound is rather nice too. And although the 12-string Rickenbacker models aren't perfect, they're convincing enough to use for "Hotel California" or anywhere else where a 6-string sound (even with chorus) doesn't quite cut it.

The weakest sounds are the acoustics. They seem not to be modelled after acoustics as they actually sound (or as they're picked up from a microphone), but rather as acoustics sound with cheap-and-nasty piezo pickups through a cheap preamp! The only acoustic model worth using is the dread - the others are pretty ropey. The F212 in particular isn't even close.

The resonators are a bit better. The Tricone ain't perfect, but a bit of EQ livens it up OK. But I was disappointed to find the Dobro model was some strange aluminium-body version, instead of the wood-body one everyone would have preferred. The sitar is an absolute stand-out though - it really sounds perfect for "Paint it black" or Beatles numbers. And the idea to make the tone control set how much sympathetic resonance you get is a complete masterstroke, so you can move smoothly from a fairly clean electric sound to a full swooshing sitar sound or anything in betweeen.

One problem with the default setup is that the levels change between guitar models. OK, this represents pickup/body behaviour accurately, but it makes life harder when you're trying to find the right sound and you have to keep tweaking the gain/volume on your amp or FX. If you've got the Workbench then you can do what I did, which is to adjust everything to the same level, but it can be annoying.

Which leads me onto Workbench, which is fantastic. You could almost say that if you can't find the guitar sound you want with the options it gives you, you aren't looking hard enough. Once you start changing things at this level, you're usually not looking to reproduce a particular guitar but rather find the sound you want for a particular song, and chances are that if it's an electric sound then you can probably find it. It's a shame that you can't use the models from the acoustic Variax on the electric - that's one big change I'd like to see. Actually, better acoustic models in general would be an improvement. But I'd rather have seen a classical model instead of the banjo, for instance.

The pitch-shifting works very well for small shifts. Don't be tempted to detune the whole thing by an octave and use it as a bass though - it produces the right notes, but it just doesn't sound the same without a bass's fatter strings. I was disappointed to find that you couldn't change the tuning on the 12-string models in Workbench though - all other models let you change the base tuning, but the 12-string models only let you change the relative pitch of the secondary strings. If you're pitch-shifting, you need your amp loud enough to mask the guitar's acoustic sound, but this isn't usually a problem.

Absolutely spot-on. I do suspect though that this was a setup done by Digital Village, not as shipped by Line6.

I don't see there being any problems with the guitar. My only worry is with the floor-box power supply, but I can live with that.

Not needed it.

I'm generally keen on finding the right tone for the song, rather than using a "standard" tone on everything. So I use a Korg multi-FX already to get loads of different sounds, and just put it through the amp on clean. The Variax is just a natural extension of this.

Ratings-wise, it's got to be a 10, really. There's nothing else like it, and especially not when you can't even buy a basic road-series Fender or Gibson for that price. If it gets broken or stolen, I'll buy another immediately.

You are aware of the features, Jack of all trades, master of none.

Mine started life as a black one.

The electronics on this are the whole reason you want one. They are worth it.

My 10 is specifically because it has TONS of features. It's loaded with sounds.

As others have said, the sounds are really nice. I have plenty of guitars to compare this to, and to me, the differences between the original and the Variax sounds are much like the differences between different identical guitars. They're different, but it's pretty slight. All the sounds are very usable on stage, and they shine in recordings.

Not a huge fan of the 12 string sounds, but the alt tunings are really nice. LOVE the workbench. Really nice to experiment with.

Here's where I really wasn't happy. It felt like a really poor guitar. The neck was shimmed with plastic, the nut was "funny" and the frets were rough. I have purchased a few cheapo guitars (my fave is the Squier '51) and this one was not a well made cheapo guitar. I would recommend a different factory, this one is rough.

HOWEVER, I yanked the electronics (Really not hard to do at all) and dropped them into a Warmoth Black Korina Body and a Warmoth Pro neck. Set it up right, and plugged it in. It felt as good as it played. This is how the thing was meant to be. Honestly, I think it sounded better with the Warmoth parts (it's illogical because it's a computer and maintains the sound digitally, but maybe it's happier with me in its new home...)

My rating is based on the way it was out of box...

As it was, it would have worked, but it just didn't feel good. I wouldn't want to play it for hours, it just never hit my heart. With the body change it became one of my go to axes.

The original body and neck is now sitting on a shelf in my shop. Someday it will make a nice doorstop or something...

The bridge and the electonics are constructed very well and I have no doubts that they will last for a while. The solders were very clean on the circuit board, and there was no slop or runners on it.

My rating is an average of the highs of the electronics, and the lows of the body and neck

I have had a few interactions with Line6, and to quote the American Idol judges, "I'm a Fan". They have always been fair with me and pretty fast.

I've been playing for 30 years and I own a lot of the gear many people drool over (The benefit of giving up on that dream of being a pro guitarist, and focusing on Computer Science is that I can afford what I want now.)

My guitars are mostly tweaked to the 10s, I play mostly assembled Warmoths or USA Customs, My off the shelf guitars mostly have just the label in common with their original counterparts.

I play Keeley modded effects, a Teese wah, and tweaked tube amps including Ceriatone, Fender, Hoffman and homebuilts.

I have played most every type of music, and currently play with a cover band that covers everything from metal to country to jazz. This puppy covers everything really well. Well enough to generate complements from my band and from the crowd.

Do yourself a favor, buy one on eBay for a cheap price, and drop it into a Warmoth body. Buy a neck that meets your desires, and you'll have spent $700 on a guitar that sounds like many much more expensive guitars. I love mine in its current form, and plan on making one more...

I really only wish that Line6 had the option to buy the electronics outright. The doorstop that they shipped them in is too pricey.

Made in Indonesia, 22 frets medium frets, 1 volume and tone, 1 model selection knob, 5-way selector switch, 2 outputs (standard 1/4" and Line 6 VDI). You can go to Line6.com for detals on the models and such. In terms of value for the money, it's very high. If you have a POD XT Live or Vetta, you can get extra power from saving guitars with effects patches, which is a very nice option. Also, you can use Workbench though the Vetta or XTL without the separate interface. As someone who has to use a lot of different tunings often, having the ability to save tunings and not have to change guitars is absolutely imparative.

Um, I was surprised. It sounds great. I don't own all the actual guitar, but I can tell you it does sound like the ones I do own (LP and Strat). Many of the sounds are very usable and accurate enough. Sure, they are not perfect, but if you need total versatlity, it'll do very nicely.

I got mine used on eBay. I had to change the strings and do the standard neck adjustments and lower the action a bit. Small buzzes here and there, but they are not audible amplified. It plays much better that advertised.

Seems pretty solid. I'll get a backup just because I only own one. If it holds up like my POD XTL, it'll be a winner.

I was unsure I wanted to go the whole way into digital modelling. I've used a POD XT Live for a while now, and it's been great. Once I started to mess around with the Variax and all the possibilities especially in tandem with the XTL, I was blown away. Again, if you're one of those analog snobs, don't bother. I play in a contemporary church where I need to accomodate vocalists with different ranges, changing keys, and varying styles often. For players with these needs, I can't think of a better value-for-the-money modern tool than a Variax. Again, the models are not perfect, but they will do more than well enough to get through almost any situation.

The basic Variax, made in China to a high standard. Cant expect much finesse for the price especially as I got $200 off as red ones don't sell as well - I think it's fine. The neck isn't very comfortable around the nut - too thin, not enough to anchor on to. Have played it regularly for about 6 months and no problems with anything yet

Would prefer to have paid more for a solid metal floor power box rather than the dodgy looking plastic one. The stereo lead supplied crapped out quickly so got a decent one.

They've done a pretty good job of capturing the essence of most of the 30 or so models/tunings it comes with. BUT, it's like the difference between a high resolution photograph - perfect in every detail - and the same scene in real life. The guitar just doesn't have quite the presence that the real things have. Presumably that can be modelled, if you know what the magic element is, so maybe later generations will nail it. Having said that, it's now my main performance guitar because we cover anything that rocks from 60s to the present, and the slight compromise on 'presence' is outweighed by the huge sound palette.

I find the main thing about good tone is that it inspires the player to play better. Few in the audience are even aware of individual instruments most of the time and just respond to the band's overall sound. So by approximating a wide variety of guitars, your're more likely to impress an audience than using the world's best-ever Strat to try and cover everything - it just doesn't inspire as much when you really need an acoustic sound (try Black Horse and a Cherry Tree on a Strat ansd you won't enjoy playing the song) or say an Eb Les Paul for Guns n Roses.

Working against this inspiration though is the psychological difficulty you face in playing a cheap feeling/looking guitar and imagining what you're supposed to be playing! Buying the 900 would partly solve this, and I think the price of that is still very good value.


The ones I use most are Tele (position 4), Strat (2 and 5), Les Paul (1-3), Special (1-3: these are my favourites), Gretsch (3 and 5), Ricky (3and 5) Acoustic (3 and 5), Custom - Les Paul detuned to Eb (for Guns & Roses etc), tunings (open E, open A)

Very good for the price. No flaws apart from the lead. Just cheap looking.

So far so good. Always take at least one other guitar to a gig as it's still unproven

Dunno

Been playing 45 years,since teenage bands in Liverpool in the 60s. I had settled on a Twin, Strats and Tele, with a decent rack of pedals. I now use the Variax for its variety, and settle for the imprefect sound and the completely wrong feel for playing.

Got this Variax through CraigsList before they got cheap (and apparently got a bit cheap in the manufacturing process too). It came with the good foot pedal/power supply that has an XLR output as well as the standard 1/4" jack. The body is jet black ... and very nicely finished too. He had a Peavey hard case that fits perfectly and all the cables too ... more than comes with the $300 ones sold in the stores or Musician's Friend.

What surprised me was how good it sounds when recorded. Not only does it give you all the classic sounds they talk about, things like the relative volume of the guitars is realistic too. EG: If you play the Strat sound then click to a Les Paul, the volume jumps up about the amount a LP is louder than a Strat. And the fact that response and playability are exactly like a "real" guitar ... down to pick scratches and hand muting and string noise. All of it is precisely like playing a "normal" guitar.

The things you can do using the computer Workbench are WAY beyond what I originally expected. I'd thought that I was pretty much getting just guitar sounds and would have to drop the bottom string for "Drop D" tuning and such basic stuff. NOT! With the workbench, I built EVERY odd tuning I've ever tried, even a "split guitar" with the bottom three strings an octave down for playing bass along with the upper strings in normal tuning ... amazing for a jazzer or a good finger/pick player! You want a Baritone guitar? Click the switch. Open D or open G or open pick your chord? No problem!

So that's why this has become my favorite guitar. I can play ANY part in a recording session without even re-tuning the thing!

When I bought it, the previous owner had it set up pretty well. Just the right string height and neck relief. I just feels like a well finished Strat ... but with NO pickups to get in the way of your fingers or buzz next to a light dimmer or a computer monitor!

The only tweak I did was to lift the bottom fret a tad on the bass side to prevent a bit of buzzing on loud strokes. All it took was a slight lift with a knife blade and a bead of Crazy Glue and it's been perfect for more than a year now, probably forever.

This particular guitar seems very solid. I find that the tuning stays rock solid for days at a time, so the tuners and neck must be solid too. The only possible concern might be the fact that if the true computer inside went on the fritz, it'd be like having your hard drive crash in a computer. ALL sound is created instantly inside the body, including all the stuff you created with the Workbench and saved ... body styles, pickup choices, tunings, etc. There's a lot more going on inside than any "normal" guitar. So if I was a guy making a living playing night after night, I'd either have another Variax ready as a backup, or another "ordinary" guitar to grab just in case.

The only thing that was strange was when I got the Workbench (off eBay). After the first experiments were successful, the guitar wouldn't talk to the computer the next time. I did several software re-installs, but still no dice. So I called their Service Dept guys and ... despite the fact that I hadn't bought either the guitar OR the Workbench from them (!!) they gave me all kinds of help. Still didn't work. So they actually SENT ME A REPLACEMENT Workbench (remember, it wasn't under warranty and I didn't buy it from them!).

You know what the problem was? Not their Workbench software or hardware ... it was the silly computer plug in the guitar! I'd bent one of the 6 or 8 contact wires so the thing didn't "see" the interface box! It took me exactly 2 minutes to fix it with a pair of tweezers! Wasn't a construction or software problem. It was a stupid bent wire that I had bent!

I'm an old fart who's been playing since the early 1960's (cut my teeth on The Ventures!). Over the years I've built up a collection of WAY too many guitars and keyboards, many of which are pretty classic axes, both electric and acoustic. I've got great PLAYING guitars of every description, fretted and fretless basses, several mandolins, a dobro, a lap steet, even a bouzouki from Ireland! I've repaired many instruments and amps and love the smell of solder. I've designed and created custom guitars in both acoustic and electric forms. So when I say that this Variax has become my favorite guitar ... to PLAY and to listen to while I play ... it might carry some weight.

These folks have come up with something that constantly changes the way I play and they've put it all together in a form that's what I'm used to holding, with NONE of the irritating things that you learn to live with ... like hummmmm when you stand the wrong direction in a room with dimmed lights or 2 feet from your computer when you're recording.

Replace it? Absolutely! It pisses me off now when I play one of my old classics and, after about 3 tunes, find I can't just flip a switch and lay a bass part down in my Boss looper or hear an amazing sitar on top of a mellow Les Paul bed in a mix.

They've got me hooked!

The other reviews will give you a full round down of the list of features but my impression, after playing the guitar for just one week, is that the general build quality for the money is merely average.
After having some problems with my 300 I had a look at the Variax 600 and my fingers were cut to bits by all frets that were sticking out the neck. The shop assistant thought that the wood in the neck may well have seasoned or shrunk after the frets had been added.
The first 3 Variax 300s I tried were all faulty. The first had no output whatsoever, the 2nd produced crackling noises on one of the pickup selector settings, the third also had an issue with the selector (it wouldn't re-select new guitars or tones without repeated jiggling) the fourth (touch wood) seems to be Ok.

This is why I persisted with this guitar... I would never in a million years put up with the aggravation of trying numerous faulty models without the killer feature of the variax which know to be the instant access to its broad sound palette.

What impressed me about having all the sounds so quickly available to me was the tunes, licks etc that I was inspired to have a go at that I wouldn't normally touch. On the banjo setting I found myself learning dualing banjos, on the sitar setting I was experimenting with new chords, weird scales of my own invention, I started playing Byrds licks on the twelve string settings etc etc.

I recently bought a Digitech JamMan phrase sampler and I was layering these different instrument sounds over each other and it was inspiring. I'm not a particularly good musician but the sound mix of all these instruments starting out with some basic chords has really motivated me to improve in all facets of musicianship.

I am a tad dissappointed by lack of effect that the tone knob has - I am aware that on some settings it is designed to have no effect but I found that even when it is supposed to be adjustable its effect seems almost negligible.

I would never get a Variax by mail order. In my opinion Line 6 has quality control issues. To try 5 of their guitars (4 300s and 1 600) and find only one that so far seems fully operational is a very poor ratio. Maybe I have just been very unlucky.

Due to the problems I have encountered so far with the Variax range I would never take this guitar to a gig without a backup. For me, it's worth lies in recording, practice and general musical exploration. For the latter, it excels.

I have heard good things about Line 6 customer support but have had no direct experience myself.

In music, I crave variety. I hate the thought of being limited to one style, one genre, one sound etc so the Variax suits me. I also dislike having too much gear - amps, effects etc. I am primarily an acoustic guitarist but have recently picked up the electric again after a long abstinence.

As previously mention this guitar is tool to explore musical possibilities. I have so far got an enormous amount out of it and it has resulted me being able to scratch up some interesting stringed instrument arrangements. I have also found it a useful practice instrument for learning guitar in the various styles when a particular guitar type is associated with that style e.g. Gretsch - rockabilly etc.

If I were a professional musician I wouldn't use a variax as a replacement for the real thing. Certainly, don't thing for a moment that you will never need an accoustic guitar because the Variax has it modelled - there is no real comparison.

I'm so far glad I persisted with the Variax and I certainly would replace it - but I'd only buy a 300 series. Ideally I would like the Variax system in a better guitar. I would like to see a collaboration between Variax and a reputable guitar maker to produce a quality, reliable instrument. That I would cough up extra for.

20+ guitars in one. what can you ask for more. I guess you can ask for more. Will there be a software updates add more guitars? Like Maple Neck Strats, PRSs, etc. For the time being it does fine with me. I finished my Christmas instumental CD that I give to eveyone for each year - and I used the Variax 300 and XTlive exclusively. It turned out pretty well. I have used many variation and used lot of different guitar. I had one track that I down tunes to Eb. And it sounded pretty good. I have been using this Varaix for reheasals - was still scared to use it for real gig. Today I did and it turned out pretty good.

I mainly play in a praise and worship band - where veratality is required depending on the songs. We do not have a acoustic guitar player. And many praise/worship song comes alive with acoustic touch. I also own a Brian Moore iGuitar. I call it my Utility guitar. Check my posting on Brian Moore for details. The piezo on BM is pretty good - although it seems harsh. My Main Axe is Fender Stratocaster Eric Johnson Model. It is one of the best guitar that I have ever owned. I started using Boss Acoustic simulator - well it does the job. The acoustic modeling with 5 choices on Variax just blows other acoustic emulator - except using a real acoustic guitar. Even that has limitation dependinh how it is processed by the main PA guy.

The spank (strat) is the setting that I use most. Looks like it is modeled after a rosewood 60's model and it does not have bright maple sound - and the in between sound of BM and MN PU selection is not too good. I do love the P-90. I actually created a P-90 on a Les Paul - looks like it sounds better that the Les Paul Jr.

I had the need to play jazzy for some Christmas gig. I liked the Jazz Box - sounded too boomy. But with the right amp setting it worked great. I wanted to try 335 but it sounded too "electric" I own a Ephiohone Casino - It sounds woody. I thought Semi(335) would sound similar. For Jazz like the Box model.

I like the Lester for lead. Something that I couldn't get with my Strat nor BM. I have not used Rickenbucker or Tele...yet on a live situation.

I will keep it updated

It is $300 Guitar... I actually paid $259.00 - buying a demo.. which happened to be defective. and I got good fresh one in the box.. a Sunburst. Neck could be better. I heard there is a way to swap the neck to something better. I will do more research.

Well first one that I had was DOA. electronical problem... It stays in tune ok..but I can't do too much bending.. So far no major problem

I was told that I could get replacement in 3 days... it took me 4 weeks. It probably is retail thing not the manufacturer's fault

Great guitar- it could be the future of guitar. Like keyboard had a transition from hammered (piano) and bag piped (organ) to digital simulation. I think guitar is evolving toward this... it just took so long.. Because we guitarist are so - traditional?? I still love tube tone and there is nothing like 50 year old banged up strat. Well it is changing..

It's all good

Everyone should know by now what the Variax is and does. There is simplay nothing else like it on the market. That last statement does take into account Fender's new VG Strat. While being a great guitar in it's own right it doesn't compete with the Variax on the instruments it models. I give this section a 9 because there are a few other instruments I would like to have seen modelled. Still, you can't have it all I suppose.

I suspect that, like me, the vast majority of other players out there do not or will not own all the instruments that the Variax offers. Having said that, I own a Strat and a Gretsch. The Variax does not sound exactly like my Strat or my Gretsch. However, the Variax offerings do sound like a Strat or a Gretsch, just not mine. Do you see where I'm going with this? Sound-wise, it does a damn fine job with the breadth of options available. Before Variax what else was there. So why be picky??

I give this section a 9 because it can't be all things to all people but comes mighty close.

Well here is the downside. You get what you pay for. This is basically a cheap Indonesian made guitar that, without the Variax electronics, no one would buy. Certainly not at the price anyway. Want better quality? Then either upgrade to a 600 or a 700 or build your own using either pre-routed body or make you own.

The guitar can be improved by performing a little set-up work etc but it'll never be your dream player.

I give a 4 because that's all the actual guitar itself deserves.

No problems to date. I play it through a POD XT Live so don't have to worry about fading batteries.

I give this section a 7 because the hardware is not as good as other guitars of the same value.

Line 6 have always been very helpful when needed. No problems with these guys. They deserve a 10 for that.

Been playing over 35 years and owned all sorts of guitars. Having started off with a Hofner Colorama and dodgy solid-state amp I've been spoiled over the years with better and better gear. The Variax to me is nothing short of a wonder. Technology has made it possible and I'm not one to go on about "how much better things were in the past". I just wish I'd had one of these all those years ago.

I fully intend to transplant the electrics into a better guitar so that I can get the very best out of the modelled sounds.

All of the settings sound good. The Gretsch and semi-hollow sound particularly good.
The problem I have with the sound is all the things that a piezo pickup DOESN'T produce: the interaction between your pick and pickup, the little squeaks and sqwaks and honks when your sound is overdriven, and the subtle variations in string attack. The Variax is just incapable of transmitting that, and after a while, it really bugged me.
Also occasionally I would notice that an individual string would seem quieter than the others. I read on several Line 6 groups that this happened. If you have Workbench you can solve this but I never bought it.

Pretty good for factory setup.

Seemed fine.

I also got tired of having to put batteries in my guitar, that gets old fast.

Stock as described before. Worked well--then I took it apart and tried to put the bridge and electronics into a double neck body with a upper ax being a mandolin. Unfortunately after a lot of routing and juggling it was not to be. So....... I cut the top 3rd off the body of the Variax and cut the double neck in half. I glued them together and put on an old Ibanez Roadstar II neck. It is now a great double ax: Mandolin and Variax.

When I played it for the first time I ran it through my bass amp--Didn't sound so great. Spouse thought it was a waste of money and time. After the alteration above I set it up with 3 channels on my GT3: Clean Jazz sound with verb, Clean preamp with verb, and then a regular twinlike sound for blues etc.

I use the ES 335 emulation with the clean jazz setting to great sucess--sounds fab. As good or better than my regular guitar.

I use the Martin 6 String acoustic sound and the Guild 12 String sounds---They work really well--They are not like having the real thing miked with condenser's but in a gig setting it is great--no hassles, usable acoustic tones.

I have used the Sitar a few times in the clean Jazz or acoustic setting--it works really well.

I have only used a Tele or Strat sounds a few times--but they worked well.

This ax tracks all nuances of playing--just like a real guitar.

Here is my suggestion: I play jazz and don't need to bend a lot. I strung it with Diadario bluegrass acoustic strings. Gives me great jazz tone and very usable acoustic sounds. The GT3 makes the difference for processing. (I am not into distortion--so GT3 is perfect) The sound is very clean

I hated the neck --so I switched it out. There is not much to change after that. Now it is great.So I give it a "5" for the neck--but at $299--it is a steal

I use this ax 3 times a week without a backup for 3 months. I hope that it will last a long time. I took all the electrics out--dragged the cables through new routing holes---then put it all back into the Variax body. It still worked!! After that it should be able to handle normal wear and tear. So far no problems

I destroyed the warranty--so not much point in contacting Line 6

I have been playing 15 years professionally. Have used Ibanez Strat model--Cort Les Paul (great guitar) Hohner ES 335 Model (Another great Guitar), Tacoma Archtop and a Martin M-38.

The Variax with a neck replacement is a great gigging guitar. The amount of usable tones is jaw dropping

Variax 300 electric having solid black body similiar to a Fender Stratocaster with black pickguard, satin bridge, enclosed chrome tuners, maple neck and rosewood fretboard. Five position selection switch has white top and three control knobs are knurled with chrome tops.

Shipped with mini XPS power supply that in turn receives power from a 9 VAC at 2000 milliamp power pack, 6 AAA battery holder, neck truss rod allen wrench, bridge allen wrench, Planet Waves TRS cable, Pilot's (owners) manual and advertisement for Workbench usb interface.

Purchased August 3, 2007 and was manufactured in China March, 2007.

The features are not rated as high as they could be because: TS cable required to connect with an amplifier is not included. Received product is cosmetically different than advertising photographs.

The guitar sounds really good for the uses I have. I use it on ballads, country and classic rock. I use a Fender 15G amplifier and the effects section of a Zoom MRS-8 multitrack recorder.

Factory setup was fair. Strings were set way too high, all strings were in tune but one. Intonation was slightly off.

Intonation is diffcult to set because the bridge to body screws interfere with saddle adjustments. The screw heads are raised a little higher than the bridge itself.

I don't like the satin finish to the bridge and string saddles as I expected chrome. Similarly I don't understand the white cap on the five way switch or the stainless steel pickguard screws on a black body guitar having a black pickguard. Both are more a matter of taste and expectation than fault with the finish.

The build quality was better than I expected and in line with what I hoped.

I have no doubts about the guitar lasting. Strap button are solid and dependable. The finish is thick, solid and glossy. All controls have a solid feel. It stays in tune. If I was a professional musician, I used it on gigs.

I have not had to use Line 6 or AMS customer support.

The amazing breathe of tone is both the plus and minus to this guitar. All the sounds are pleasing, solid and clean. Having said that, the sounds are a little different than any other guitar I've ever heard. I think sound quantity and quality are why most people buy this instrument. If this one was lost or stolen, I'd definately buy another.

Okay if, like me, you never tried a line 6 product before, this is my first impression having purchased a Variax 300 yesterday and been playing it "non-stop" at home (for only one day).

1] to me, the sound is un-usable with a solid state amp. too grainy. horrible.
2] useable with a tube amp. not bad. good enough.
3] at low volume its like a synthesizer vs. a piano (each are useful). it has less dynamic range and less tonal variations. to me, it definitely does not sound like the real thing but nevertheless its an "attractive" artifical sound. Its "addictive" emough to pratice with.)
4] at high volume (which I haven't really tried fully yet) this sounds damn good. Actually, even with "real" equipment, to me, really loud guitars sound like "horns".
5] "un-plugged" the guitar sounds "twangy" as in "country". louder than I expected. the wood is good but still light weight.

I made the seller set the intonation at purchase (took 15 minutes).

Build better than I expected. hey, this is only a $299 instrument. No problems playing. Nice wide flat neck with big enough frets. Knobs feel solid. Nice paint job. Am pleased and cannot ask for anything more at this price.

I give this a 9 when considering the price.

You know what I'm going to do? At home, I'm going to put away all my guitars except for 3, this one, a nylon acoustic and a bass. This is all I need to mess around with. I like 2 of the extremely reverby acoustics settings. I will have a small tube amp upstairs and a larger tube amp downstairs. I think this is good for now.

Note: I am just a hobbyist. Not a professional or giging guitar player. I do have a little recording business (tracking and post) so I know decent sound.

I give this an 8 because it fills a need.

P.S. I ordered a Live XT floorboard that I didn't get yet.

Very nicely finished guitar and the features for the price are probably unbeatable. The guitar seems well made and solid and so far the electronics are working perfectly. The only thing i would say is that the strings that it came with were not that great but then again i dont know how long this guitar was hung on the wall in the shop before i bought it. A new set of strings made it brighter and more responsive with much better sustain. The new strings perticularly made the acoustics sound alot better.

Though the variax 300 does come with a power supply, to cut costs Lin6 only provided the basic one and not the footswitchable one. This does seem a bit cheep of line6 as they only cost ??22 so i will be purchasing one soon.

Other than that apsolutly brilliant for the money, i bought it for studio recording at uni just because i dont have that many guitars so the versatility is amazing.

The sound quality is brilliant. The fact that it has no conventinal pickups makes it extremely quiet and none of my computer hardware effects it. I did take some time setting up my POD so the different patches were true to the different guitar models. I did this because my friend tried one out and said he was disapointed as the different guitar models sounded two simialar.

In response to this they will sound samey if you dont change your amp settings to correspond to the different styles of music that each model in the variax has been designed for, Once i had set up my POD with the patches that i liked the range of this instrument is almost endless.

Some others have said that the acoustic models dont sound very good. I think they do sound good but only when used right Line 6 did state that the Acoustics sound best through a PA (why i will be purchasing the footswitch) or acoustic amp just like any other so its not bound to sound very nice through a guitar amp because that isnt what it was designed for. I managed to get them to sound pretty good through a small fender combo with a flat EQ (bass-0 middle-10 treble-0) but when tried through a PA they sounded amazing. I guess its thats fact thatit still feels like an electric guitar that places a slight bit of doubt in my mind.

The finish was perfect!!
The action was to high for my liking though the shop i bought it from offers a free set up with every guitar when bought new so this wasnt an issue either.

The guitar seems very well built. The wood used for the neck and the body have some weight to them and the guitar is nicely ballanced. The tuning stablity is fabulous aswell. So far i have had apsolutely no trouble with the electronics within the guitar but as it is a digital instrument im not sure i would fully trust it just yet. Because of the sheer range of tone i can produce i would probably use it live but i would definatly have a backup guitar just in case.

The strap pegs are solid and the finish seems very thick and durable.

I havnt had to deal with line 6 for this particular product though they have been helpful in the past when it came to recomending a good foot controller for the POD 2.0 (Behringer FCB1010 :D)

The guitar also comes with a one year waranty on the electronics and a limited lifetime waranty on wood.

Overall i would have to give this guitar a 10 just because if its sound/build quality and versatility. I have been playing about 7 years now and do alot of recording and composing, I also play bass in a semi professional band. In fairness i have only every owned a Squire Showmaster, a Vintage SG and an Ibanez destroyer but as far as it goes this is the best guitar i have evr bought and if it were lost or stolen i would definatly buy another.

The only thing i would say about the guitar that i didnt like was the fact that it came with no case and no footswitch and to switch to a PA during a gig to make the acoustics sound awsome you need that footswitch. The footswitch is ??22 how much does that cost to make. No alot as i would imagine as the thing is powered by a 9vDC PSU so there is nothing at all in the DI box apart from a very basic curcuit so how much more would it cost to add a footswitch into that, not alot.

I am still going to give it a 10 because it is an awsome instrument and i cant wait to get the Workbench software :D

The features have been covered enough, it's a digital modeling guitar and it has a bunch of models available. You'll like some and have no use for others.

Sounds surprisingly good, I was expecting less. I play it through a tube amp built by Mark Sampson and use good analog stompboxes. I favor Strats and Jazzboxes, but I also like P-90 guitars as well. The Jazzbox is not that great but it's useable for practice. The acoustic models have typical piezo sounds and the reso models are a kick, but I don't know what to do with them. The Strat, P-90 and semi-hollow models alone make this instrument worth the money for me.

I bought mine from a local dealer and got it already set-up and in tune. It's not an attractive guitar to my eyes (the pickguard is just flat ugly) but that's not what I bought it for. I have the three tone finish and it looks amateurish. But the fretwork is excellent and there is no burring. The neck is unfinished so I'll probably have to take some 0000 steel wool to it.

No comment.

Not needed so far, but it's still early.

17 amps-100+ pedals-and this is my 46th guitar. Doesn't mean I know anything but I've had plenty of things to compare it to. It's nowhere near the best guitar I've ever owned but it's quite serviceable. I wish they would have had these things around when I was young, it would have saved me a lot of time, effort and money. If you're a purist-stay away- if you like variety, this is a gas. It has plenty of limitations tonally but it's a lot of fun for those of us who are easily bored.

Strat style solid body with piezo pickups in the bridge. Simulates several popular electric and acoustic guitars. Not built like a PRS but not bad for the price.

Sounds very good, full stop. I have/had a few nice guitars such as an American Deluxe strat, Mexican strat, Gibson Nighthawk among others. Now I only play the Variax. I don??t care if the sound matches the originals or not. I only know that the strat model sounds like a nice sounding strat, the tele sounds like a nice tele and there is at least one great sounding acoustic model. Another great feature is its silence. I play in circumstances where even silent humbucker guitars are noisy (lots of ligthing, Giottos and all that stuff). It is quiet even with high gain and compressors on. Also, to be able to tune down a whole step or however you like is a blessing, although you must use the Workbench program for that.

Needed to be adjusted a bit. Its hard to get very low action without buzzing but I love its playability anyway. Finish is decent.

I do trust this guitar and it hasn't broken down on me yet, but it does have one flaw. When using the five way switch it will not always change to the desired sound. Sometimes it won't even change or it will go to another sound. That's not good. So Line 6 please take notice on this. Good idea to have a backup guitar.

I play guitar for a living. I have seen other pros using the 700, 500 and even the cheap 300 live. Judge sound with your ears. Playability can always be improved. I'm using this guitar instead of my beloved American
Deluxe so it can't be that bad.

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.

I have to give it a 10. I mean. How many more features do you want? And they're at least decent...
Mine is the black one. The nicest looking, in my opinion. All black. Except for the white tip on the pickup switch (?). Funny, it sits next to a white strat, with a black pickup switch tip (not on purpose, I bought a special switch for some wiring mods I wanted to do, and the previous white tip wouldn't fit, so I used the black one that came with the switch).
I don't like how you need to use the stereo cable to the power supply, then the mono to the amp... but it's good to have that alternative, rather than relying on batteries only. If you use batteries you can use a normal cable. And you can use either 6x AA type, of if in an emergency, a single 9V one (that would last less time, but will get you out of a tight spot). That's nice. And if you use a POD XT Live, you could simply use the digital cable, and with that one cable do everything. Cool.
One thing: the included stereo cable, by Planet Waves, is TERRIBLE. Get a new decent one. It's very microphonic. I noticed my guitar making some weird noises, and I thought it was some problem with the electronics... until I realised it was just that cable making rustling noises as I moved about the carpeted room). My advice: give it to your enemy, and get yourself a normal decent stereo cable, with good solid connectors and good quality screened cable.

This guitar is growing on me. After the initial "wow", I was a little disappointed. I have had a few guitars, and I still own some various ones, so I was comparing the real strat with the Variax, a twin humbucker with Variax, etc... The Variax always seemed "less nice". But never bad. In fact, certain models are very nice. I love the P90 emulations (Special), and the 335 (Semi). The Gretsch sounds great to me, although that's one style of guitar I never owned or even tried. But in general, they all have the right "spirit". The bite and twang of the tele, the classic strat sounds, the Les Paul bridge humbucker is not bad either...
Only one thing was BAD: the 12-string simulations. Some were better than others, but I didn't like any of them. They sound far too fake, like using a pitchshifter, and when you leave the sound decay you start hearing weird artifacts.
The acoustics were better than I expected (don't try them on an electric guitar amp, please... or they'll sound like... well, an acoustic through an electric amp :-) but they are still no substitute for teh real thing. Yet, they're more than passable, they will record well with other instruments... and having all those sounds in just one guitar body is unbeatable. Even if the sounds are not perfect, they're good.
I hear that with the WorkBench software you can tweak the models to make them sound better... the flexibility offered by the Workbench seems very good.
I also hear that the Variax is best partners with a POD XT Live...
I play mine through a V-Amp2 at home, and it's good enough.
The fact that it will not pick up TV or monitor interference etc, makes it the guitar of choice when messing about in the living room when the TV is on etc. Very quiet.
My guitar came with 10-46 strings. This feels a bit tougher than what I'm used to (mere 9-42 on tremolo equipped guitars... like butter, and a 10-46 on a Les Paul style guitar, with a slightly shorter scale), but I think I'll keep it this way. It probably helps with the acoustic sounds, and unplugged it's very resonant. Not a bad guitar!

The guitar was bought online... but surprisingly came perfectly set up. This is a first! I sometimes bought guitars online (usually cheap, for more money I have to really see it "in the flesh") and I am not worried about set-up as I can do that myself. In fact, I prefer to do it myself so that the guitar plays just the way I want it. But this one was pick it and go. I mean, it was almost in tune too!
The finish was also surprisingly good. I was expecting less, certainly. I have seen more expensive guitars with small flaws, but I couldn't find one on this guitar.
It does feel a bit "generic Korean"... but like a "good generic Korean", if you know what I mean. No, if you were to play it blind you would not mistake it with a PRS, or a nice Am Series stratocaster... but it feels nice enough to me. I paid ?230 for it, and it looks and feels better than what I expect for that money, especially considering that it has some fancy electronics (sure it saves on magnetic pickups, but they're not that expensive for a guitar manufacturer who can buy them un bulk).
I see other people complained about their guitars. Maybe I got lucky? Maybe the shop I got it from (iMuso.co.uk) set it up beforehand? I don't know... but it was good.

No experience on this... and long may I remain this way.
I am a little worried, in that with a conventional guitar, as long as it's structurally sound (especially a bolt-on neck guitar) I can make any guitar good. But if this dies... I'll just have a bunch of pretty integrated circuit boards and chips to look at. I guess that as long as the piezo bridge (by LR Baggs, not bad) is not damaged, you can always use it as an acoustic of sorts... Hmmm, it shouldn't be difficult to route it and install real magnetic pickups on this baby and get both styles in one... that's a thought for an interesting project.

I have been playing for about 20 years. (ouch, that long???)
I wouldn't pay ?400 for this guitar... but at ?230, I feel it's a good price. It doesn't sound like any wonderful guitar, but it sounds like many pretty decent ones. Variety. It doesn't feel like a ?1000 guitar, but it feels pretty good to me, better than the ?230 tag suggested. For your average gigging pub musician, this guitar must be a godsend. Just one guitar for everything. However, I'd worry that if the electronics die on me, what then? So a backup guitar would be adviseable. Actually, I've seen people transplanting the Variax brain to other nicer guitars... I quite like this one as it is, and it could be interesting to fit a couple of real pickups on it. Given the construction (bolt-on neck, large pickguard) it should not be difficult to do. That would give you the best of both worlds... and if the electronics die mid-gig, just switch on your magnetic pickups.
I think it's pretty well built, sounds good, feels good, the price is as low as I could expect it to be... you get a lot for ?230!
It's not my favourite guitar, and it will not substitute my Sambora strat or my VRS etc... but I play this one a lot. One reason to love this guitar is the noiselessness. But beware... if you get used to it, the hum from normal pickups seem to become extremely annoying by comparison!
Nice guitar, if you can have it new for ?200-250. At higher prices, I'll think first if I really would benefit significantly from having those sounds or from the noiseless operation.
If it got stolen... I would probably not buy it again. It's nice. Very nice. But it would not be terribly missed.

The features are well-covered by the other reviewers below. Basically it's an inexpensive strat-style body.

Sound? That's a tough one. First, all of the models have a slight digital sound to them. They just don't quite sound "organic". With that said, as other reviewers have noted, some of the models are quite good, some are terrible. To my ear the tele and strat are fairly well done, but not exceptional. My "real" guitar is a G&L Legacy with Vinatge Rail pickups. There is no way that the strat sounds on the Variax can comptete with it. The G&L has much more punch, depth and expression. That doesn't mean the Variax sounds bad, it just doesn't sound as "real". The various les Paul's range from fair to good (there are five to choose from, so one will probably satisfy you). I was impressed with the Grestch 6120. Plug it in a Vox amp and you'll sound like George Harrison circa 1965. The Rickenbacker 360 six string is quite good, and captures the "chime factor" nicely. The Rickenbacker 12 string is terrible, however, because the octave strings all suffer from severe "munchkinization". Ouch. Still, live and in a band setting it might do in a pinch. The various hollowbodies didn't do much for me. Some sound appropriately "woody", but I don't hear the partciular guitar being modeled. For me that is espcially true for the Epiphone Casino. The acoustics, as other reviewers have noted, sound like they are amplified by a piezo pickup. You won't be fooled into thinking they are "real". Not even close. On the other hand the dobro, banjo and coral sitar are surprsing realistic. In terms of the sitar, however, that doesn't mean it sounds like a real sitar (it doesn't), but that it sounds like the "electric" sitars in the '60's. I was also pleased with the Danelectro 3021.

Overall, you have to evaluate the Variax for what it is: a sort of "guitar sampler". With that in mind, what it does, it manages to fairly well.

Mine was set up about as poorly as any other guitar stright out of the box. I had to back off the neck relief, and lower the strings considerably. Once set up properly, though, it's a playable guitar. It won't make you want to put down your PRS, but it's not a chore to play either. The finish is well applied and did not have any blemishes.

The Variax looks and feels like a garden variety Squire Strat you'd find at Guitar Center. If it didn't have the modeling capabilities it would probably sell for about $200. This is not a fine instrument that's going to last a lifetime.

I ordered mine online from Sweetwater Sound and the one I received was DOA (Line 6: I am very unimpressed!!!). I wrote Line 6 and was told to send it in for repair. Instead, I contacted Sweetwater and they replaced it for me. Very cool on Sweetwater's part. Incidentally, the cable on the replacement did not work.

I've noticed from other online reviews that Line 6 seems to have a real quality control issue with these things, so be careful! If you can play it then do so, and if you're going to use the Workbench software, hook it up to the software BEFORE YOU BUY IT!!!

Also I was a bit peeved that for $500 you don't even get a gig bag: that's extra. Come on, Line 6 stop being so cheap, at $500 you're making a killing on these things.

I haven't used it, but I've heard bad stories about it.

I've been playing 40 years, and for a few years did so professionally.

Would I replace it? I guess, but I'd make sure it worked before I carried out of the store.

What do I love about it? The fact you do get a small arsenal of guitars. What do I hate? The fact that Line 6 hasn't worked all the bugs out of this thing, and I'm a bit afraid mine might die.

This guitar is really great when your looking for a special sound. Before i had the variax hours go by before i found the right guitar now it's very simple just turn to knob and you got 25 guitars without changing gear.

It depends on wich guitar you choose, for example the strat and les paul are really great even better than the real job but the tele's don't feel like my own tele. The acoustic guitars are great to bad you can't record them like an acoustic guitar with a neumann mike. The Rickenbacker sound is amazing just like the gibson es-175 the best thing about those guitar sounds are they also got the interaction of the guitar they simulate.

I must say i also tried the variax 500 but the 300 is better in my opinion. The 300 is very light sometimes you forget your playing on a cheap guitar thats really great. The 500 stinks way to heavy playing.

I have this baby for three weeks and i have no problem with it. But on stage i use first quality guitars like musicman or gibson.

I don't know.

This guitar is really great and cheap too. Most of my guitars are 2000 euro or more. I use this baby only at home looking for a sound but i think when your looking for a all-around budget guitar try this out.

I'm torn on this catagory. It has a wide variety of sounds, and workbench makes it amazing with alternate tunings - so it has many unique features - but the guitar this computer is housed in is quite unexciting, so I'm giving it a lower rating that the usual 9 or 10's. The features are well documented in other reviews.

If nothing else, the guitar is certainly versatile. It gives you a wide variety of sounds and can fit more situations than anything else out there, but it just doesn't seem to sound as good as a well built traditional guitar. The sounds were generally good, but there is something missing to me. Also, at higher volume settings it seems to have a brittle/ringing quality that I've never experienced with any other guitar in my amp. Seemed like a bit of unwanted, unmusical feedback that haunted it. I liked how the guitar was totally silent, and doesn't pick up hum from lights, but it seemed to lack the dynamics and finer qualities of the real things. It sounds fantastic through headphones while playing through a POD, but I find that hard to reproduce live with much satisfaction. Through a normal amp, it seems less at home. The acoustic guitars were quite nice sounding through a P.A, but I had a hard time playing an electric guitar and trying to pretend it was an acoustic. So I'd still rather use an acoustic with a soundhole pickup/piezo bridge - but this would be great for live recordings.

In the end, I feel that (aside from trying to sound like a banjo/sitar/acoustic) I can get just as much versatility out of a normal tele/strat/les paul - which ever - and it would generally sound better to me to play the traditional guitar. A good effort by line 6, but the technology seems to still be lacking. In a few more years, whatever they have at that point may be breath taking. Great for some circumstances, and I'd certainly want one around if I owned a small studio - but as a guitar player, I just can't see bonding with one of these in the same way as with a traditional electric guitar.

Well, it was well setup for a guitar that's about the equivalent of a squier strat (though I've play some squiers with better build qualities). I have the guitar set up, and the frets polished, which helps, but it's still not a great feeling guitar. Certainly a well made guitar not for the price - but you are paying for the electronics. The one I had didn't have great sustain, and the neck felt rough/unfinished. It's also quite heavy as guitars go (and I've tried others, which had the same issue) and I don't see any point to that. It doesn't seem to add to the sustain, and the guitar itself has little bearings on it's sound because the electronics modify everything anyway.

I've been playing about 12 years. I'm constantly changing my gear line up. Thus far, I've owned a strat, telecaster custom, a les paul, a gretsch hollowbody, a gibson blueshawk, godin LG, Martin and a breedlove acoustic, a danelectro DC-59, an old Teisco like hound dog taylor used to play, an epiphone dot, and more. Amp wise, I played the variax through a podxt live, through a PA (for the acoustics), and through a '59 fender bassman. The variax was good at capturing the general quality of the real instruments but was lacking at ever capturing real excellence in any particular sound. I thought the guitar my quench my thirst for variety in my sounds, but I've realized that I'd much rather have a few great sounds as opposed to a bunch of less than excellent sounds from a guitar. I don't think I was ever quite comfortable with the feel of the guitar either, and I like how different guitars feel different and force you to play differently. I've returned the guitar now, but can see renting a variax from time to time for recordings. But most of the time, I don't think you need all of what this offers. With a well built, responsive guitar and a good amp I feel my fingers can help give me just as much versatility.

Just got my Variax 300, no point repeating what has been written many times. It is a modelling guitar that has some very good sounds, easy to use and very useful if you are lugging loads of guitars around to gigs or recordings.
Can store 2 lots of 5 sounds so that you can change sounds more quickly without the rotary knob. Useful if like me you are in different bands and use different sounds for each band.

I am a professional musician and have been playing for almost 30 years, the reason I bought this was mainly for the acoustic sounds (to save carrying too many guitars to gigs). As has already been said the sounds are great, but the acoustic sounds really must either be played through an acoustic amp or directly through a PA to fully appreciate them. Through a normal guitar amp they sound like most modelling units through a full range system they really come alive.
Also like some of the Gretch, Les Paul, Tele and most of all the Strat sounds(great clean sound for funky music)

It seems that finish, tuners etc seem to be hit or miss according to others I must be lucky!. The finish is good the tuners are smooth and stay in tune well even when string bending a lot.Neck is clean and smooth with no rough frets etc. I suppose it is the standard you would expect for a normal guitar of around this price.

The pick up selector and rotary knob for selecting sounds may be a little flimsy but if you look after your guitars properly there shouldn't be a problem.

Gigging with it for first time this week so don't really know. I don't forsee any problems tho. Always have at least one back up guitar anyway.

Never dealt with although the Line 6 website is more than you get from most companies anyway!

At the moment I think the guitar is a very useful tool. I've played better guitars but I've also played a lot worse! If the guitar was a standard guitar I think the build quality is about right for the money. For the features and sounds I think it's a bargain.
Again I can only stress for the acoustic sounds you really need to find a way to bypass your FX pedals and guitar amp and put is straight into a PA or acoustic amp with just a touch of reverb and it will sound great. You will be disappointed with the acoustic sounds through a normal amp!! However Line 6 do mention this on the website.
This guitar is great if you have say a Les Paul and a Tele but also need a strat sound and a 12 string acoustic for example because you can now have those sounds without the expense or hassle of carring loads of guitars!

Matter of public record, so I won't repeat what many others have said. The features are what makes this guitar useful.

Very good emulation of many guitars. It's not going to replace high quality guitars in certain environments, but for an out of town weekend jam with friends, it's perfect because you aren't limited to one sound.

I bought a blemished return and as usual, found absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I must have gotten one of the good ones. Some others have complained about the finish or the neck, but mine was good straight out of the box. I worked for 10 minutes on the intonation and that was it. My tuners seem to hold just fine too, something others coplained about.

I don't gig anyway, but I think if I did, I would never go with only one guitar, so it's not an issue to me.

I called them about some other Line 6 products I have and found them pretty nice, responsive and immediately knowledgable.

I've been playing 40 years, mostly country, blues and rock. This is just a toy for me and it's great to play.

black with maple neck and rosewood fretboard, came with Planet Waves stereo cable (power and signal), power supply with junction box, no case

It recreates the models well enough. You won't replace a strat or LP with this or any other "real" guitar that you use regularly, you'll want the real one. It will however, replace guitars that you wouldn't buy. For me that's the resonators, semis, 12-string and some others.

the frets were too narrow and high. I think they weren't really dressed properly. I'm about to change the neck for a WD flame maple with jumbo frets. Also, the volume knob goes onto a star shaped spline. It was pressed on by the robot in line but the plastic insert was off which meant using a puller to get it off to remove the plastic on the pickguard. The insert is ruined and I'll have to get another knob...

no idea, the electronics are an unknown

It's at the dealer now because of electronic weird behaviour, clips, volume drops, etc.

This guitar together with the optional WorkBench software is a must for anyone who wants to be able to switch between various alternate tunings at the flick of a switch AND get access to a number of okay models of guitars which you wouldn't normally have.

Well, it's a Variax, it stands apart from the other guitars for it's inovative technology, as for the features I will give it a 10 because it simply can't be beaten... Lots of models to select, 10 user memories... And if you also have variax workbench you have literaly thousands of possibilities...

As it says, it emulates the sound of several models, it's not perfect, but it's VERY good (And no other manufacturer has anything like this). The only thing I can't do with it is the muffled distortion sound, I suppose it's impossible due to the piezzo architecture... Therefore I'm giving it a 9.

Well, a lot of folks complain about the poor build of the 300, but I wouldn't call it poor (I also have an Aria Fullerton and Aria's neck is much less solid). I'm no guitar expert (In fact I'm a keyboard player), I don't know nothing about woods of the body, necks or whatever.

The Variax 300 is visually quite simple, as expected for an entry level model, mine is the all black version. I find it solid, it stays in tune, it plays well, I like the neck action... The only thing I might change is the strings, the stock 0.10 are a bit thick for the solos I like to do. But the strings issue is a personal matter, therefeore it won't influence my rating.

The guitar is very quiet, it doesn't suffer from feedback or noise problems.

The knobs and sliders work very well without noises, treat them gently though, the don't seem made to take abuses.

I'm giving it a 9 because I had to put a little bit of paper inside the model selector knob's axe hole to make it a little higher so I could fully press it down to activate the save function (read the manual and you'll understand what I'm talking about). This was just a minor and easy to solve issue.

It's fair for the price.

Can say anything about it yet, I've only bought it 2 days ago.

There's a user forum at line 6, there's variax workbench, there's firmware upgrades for the variax, there's custom warmoth parts to upgrade your Variax...

Never had any issue with mine, nor dealt with the support staff, but all that seems promising... :-)

In the future I will tell.

It's worth every cent. For it's price, it simply can't be beaten at the present time. Get one, you won't regret. If this was stolen or damaged I would definitely get another one. Make sure you check everythings in order before buying it.

This is best buy for budget guitars... It delivers 28 guitar for one price, and for people who never could afford to have a bunch of guitars, this is the right one.

Some sounds brilliant, some sounds mid-ranged. Especially the semi-acoustic sounds good. (like es-335...) But the twelve strings does not deliver any quality sounds... i will never use those presents, but i'll use those who sounds godd. In my opinion, i found it suprising that some says that this guitar not deliver metal tone... The Les Paul sound kicks ass with some quality dist-pedal. (i use a boss mega distorion, md-2, and a boss blues driver, bd-2)

For the price...(!!):
This guitar delivers more than expected in playability... it's a mid between a squire and a fender:s Not as comfortable as a fender neck, but more comfortable than a Squier... So i would say this guitar delivers the goods very well.

Well.. i bought the guitar yesterday, so i cant say anything about this yet.

Well.. i bought the guitar yesterday, so i cant say anything about this yet.

This is the guitar for someona who ownes a rel guitar and use it as a first guitar, but sometimes need variations, without spending too much money...
It's also the guitar for a studio musicioan, who has endless possibilities whit this guitar.
-But... if i had to choose, from this guitar or my Delux Powerhouse Stratocaster, i would choose the stratocaster! But its a genius piece for a second guitar.

It is difficult to compare features with any other guitar i have ever played other than the body style which right away felt incredibly comfortable to me. the balance and weight were so right that the first time i played it live i didnt even think about the weight and balance which is a major factor to me...the less i have to be aware of...the more i can just play. the knobs are in the right spot and the 5 way switch is properly placed(i may be biased because of my extensive years on the strat). Neck was very surprisingly good with a natural finish. frets are nice. tuners are working great and staying in tune well. finish is great.

i play every style of music from heavy distortion to fingerpicking country in my concerts. This guitar sounds incredible to me. i know a lot of the reviews here try to compare it to different guitars but this guitar stands on its own. i fly to almost all of my gigs and plug into house systems and can usually fly with a single guitar and many times i wish i had an acoustic sound or a chunkier sound on some of my tunes. with acoustics rooms and sometime less than adequate sound systems, i could care less if it accurately models a paul, tele or strat or martin etc. i know the sound i need and want to hear and this guitar makes it happen for me. keyboard players were thrilled when they were able to have a keyboard or a module that gave them a rhodes, acoustic, strings, organ etc even if wasnt 100% the convenience was the tradeoff. i play my variax thru a pod xt live and it works well for me. the bottom line of this guitar to me is being able to express myself thru a variety of tones and sounds with one guitar. Sure i wish i could carry all of my guitars on the road but i am just glad to be able to make a living playing and people enjoying what i do. They could care less what brand my guitar is.

i had to slightly lower the strings. the frets arent highly finished on the edges but for the price i cant complain.
everything else was great

everything seems well made and durable. Finish is good. it does seem a little odd knowing that these arent conventional pickups and if the guitar quit i wouldnt know what to do about that but i think i will adjust kind of like going from tape base recording to hard drive.
i do use it without a backup because its great enough to take that chance.

no contact with them. i will say that i have owned the original pod 1.0 since they came out and that unit has been a workhorse for me and has been tougher than a box of rocks. that speaks volumes to me about there reputation and products

i am 44 and started playing at age 6. i own a don grosh retro classic 1995 and several fender strats and other assorted guitars including carvin and ibanez as well as some custom built guitars. i had researched this guitar for a while and the reviews were great but i was thinking no way could it be near as playable as some of my other guitars. It is. i would buy another one if it were stolen and probably will soon...maybe for the warmoth retrofit. I love the fact that this is the most revolutionary guitar i have ever seen and played and that line 6 has set the standard and hopefully as in the amp modeling clones that followed we will see several guitar companies enter the ring. It will be great for us as players and give us so many other options.

for whatever reason whether it be financial, space or justification of expenses most of us will never own a huge stable of vintage guitars much less play a lot of them. that makes this guitar a must have to get that sound for almost any sound and style you want. i like the fact that this guitar has its own identity both in style and sounds even if i never read about the guitars it models it would be a sure bet just for the versitilty. major kudos to line 6 here

This is an '05 red model. It was a floor demo which is why the price was low. No sense in going over the controls, everybody else has. Tuners leave a lot to be desired as they tend to go out of tune quickly. I have two Ibanez's and they both do it. My Musicman Sillouhette however is rock solid so it has to be the Korean connection. The neck takes some time to get used to. The frets appear to be jumbo so sliding around the neck takes some doing. Comes with a stereo cable, the power supply interface and the wall wart. Rate eight because of the tuners.

I play classic rock to standards to 60s to jazz. I have a guitar for every occasion. This one seems to cover everything so far. I run it into my Zoom GFX-8 into two Carvin halfstacks. There is no noise whatsoever but some of the meatier models will overdrive while other patches aren't quite as hot volumewise..a lot like the volume change between a humbucker and a single coil. The twelve string models are good whether it's the Rick or the acoustic and as the previous writer pointed out they aren't perfect but are a good match when playing with drums, keys, other guitars, etc. The strat model is great. Some of the others are very usable such as the sitar. Very 70ish. I've even thrown in the banjo on Eagle tunes. Really different.

The finish is what you get with a $400 Korean guitar, you're paying for the guts and not much attention is paid to the looks of the guitar. Everything is fit except for the tuners. Without strings the posts tend to wobble just as my Ibanez's do. This may contribute to the tuning problem.

I've used this on a few gigs now including one out side (in southern AZ we can do this comfortably almost all year). It seems to be steady and reliable but I won't play without a backup. I bring at least one or maybe two other guitars with me. If the electronics go down there is no sound so my advice is to make sure there's a backup handy.

n/a, never dealt with them

I've been playing for 40 years and have had my share of Gibsons and Fenders and others over the years. My favorite is still my Musicman. But I find I use the Variax a lot of the night. I tend to get bored with the same sound so to be able to switch from a strat to an acoustic is very refreshing. A true sound fanatic will tell you the sounds are not exactly the same. That's probably true but it also depends on the quality of your rig. If you use a two bit peavy nothing will sound good and the same is for a hot rodded Marshall on ten. But if you do what I do, go from a motown tune to one by the Beatles it's enough of a sound difference to make it believable. And that's what we do as a cover band, make the reproduction believable. I may replace the neck with a Carvin only because they are more closer to my Musicman and because I found a slight dead spot very high on the neck. I'd buy another one but maybe a higher model. The bottom line is if you don't have a few thousand bucks to buy everything it doesn't sound exactly like then this guitar should do what you need it to do.

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.