Did Some Horsetrading Today

Vaughn McMillan

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As most of you probably know from this thread, I'm in the process of refinishing one of my guitars, the Variax. Thing is, I'm not happy with the way the finish is coming out. There were a few flaws in the color coat that I thought were handled, but the clear coat has made them stand out like a sore thumb. (To me at least. Most people would probably never notice them.) The problems can be fixed, but not before Tuesday and Friday of next week, when I have gigs to play.

I do have another guitar here in Albuquerque with me, but they guys I'm playing with do about half their songs tuned to regular pitch, and the other half tuned lower, with the guitar in E flat. With the Variax guitar, changing the tuning is as easy as flipping a switch. Anyway, today I went to a local music store that sells a lot of used gear, with the intent to pick up an inexpensive guitar so I could have two guitars on stage...one in E and the other in E flat. I had an old tube amp that I no longer need or use, so I figured I'd see if I could do some horsetrading with this shop.

Long story short, this ended up following me home. with zero dollars spent out of my paycheck to get it:

Variax 700 - 01 - 800.jpgVariax 700 - 02 - 800.jpg

Notice how it has no visible pickups? Yep, it's another Variax. And it's not red...bonus! Not a lot of them around on the used market, so I was very pleasantly surprised to find this one on the shelf. It's a couple of models higher than my other one...the old one is a Variax 300, this is the 700. It has nicer wood, better hardware, and a nicer finish. Plays and sounds better, too. :thumb: So now I don't need to make room for two guitars on stage...this one has me covered. And when I get the refinishing job in the other one done, I'll have a spare. Or something else to use for horsetrading down the road. ;)
 
I know nothing about guitars or amps other than some people (not me) can make beautiful sounds from them. So, will take your word on it being a good guitar. One question though, where's the horse??
 
Yeah, you walked right into that one, huh? Great score and perfect timing. Can't get much better than that.
I have never seen this type of guitar. Since it doesn't have the normal type pickups, how does it work? I'm guessing it's built into the bridge? I'll have to do a search and see how it works. Very interesting. And is it limited to changing only one 1/2 step?, or can you do multiples if needed? Jim.
 
Yeah, you walked right into that one, huh? Great score and perfect timing. Can't get much better than that.
I have never seen this type of guitar. Since it doesn't have the normal type pickups, how does it work? I'm guessing it's built into the bridge? I'll have to do a search and see how it works. Very interesting. And is it limited to changing only one 1/2 step?, or can you do multiples if needed? Jim.

You're right...the pickups are in the bridge. The thing that makes the Variax different is that is uses electronic "modeling" to emulate a lot of different guitars. The makers took extensive sound samples from a variety of famous guitars, created electronic models for each of them, then programmed those models into the guitar's circuitry. And that's just the beginning. Using a computer, I can tweak any of those models a bunch of different ways. If I want to put Fender pickups on a Gibson guitar it can be done. I can even adjust the position and angle of the pickups, or the relative volume of each string. And each string can be tuned individually up or down a full octave, so different tunings (such as open tunings for playing with a slide) are the twist of a knob (or push of a button on the pedal board) away.

Line 6, the company that developed the Variax is best known for their amp modeling technology. Like they did with guitars, they sampled a bunch of different popular amps, speaker cabinets, and effects pedals, then built a hardware/software combo to put all those sounds into a compact package. I've got one of their pedal boards (called a POD XT Live), and with it I can sound like I'm using anything from a small combo amp to a huge Marshall stack. I can also do all sorts of tweaking with amp/speaker combinations, every effect you can imagine, and even nuances like where the "microphone" is in relation to the speaker cabinet.

Between the Variax and the POD, I can sound like I have dozens of guitars and literally thousands of amp/speaker/effects combinations. And since the two talk to each other nicely, I can switch guitar settings with the pedal board. For example, for one song I've got things set up so I start with a Strat through a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp, then I hit a button on the floor and I'm playing a banjo through no amp, then another button has me playing a Les Paul through a chorus and reverb into a Hi Watt amp with two 12" speakers in an open backed cabinet (with the mic 8' away and at a 45º angle to the speaker). It's pretty crazy. But like any audio gear with more than 3 knobs, it's capable of more bad settings than good ones. ;) The trick is finding those good ones.
 
Very cool Vaughn! I've never played guitar but having built my cigar box guitar I recently traded for a Fender "Bullet" amp with several special effect settings. It's fun to play with and can help me sound like I know what I'm doing. NOT! LOL. I'm sure you can really make some great music with that guitar.....and it's not red!
 
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