line 6 new variax jtv89f

[hunter]

 

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

"Les Paul style, Stratocaster style..."

 

Even these guitars want to be other guitars. Well, I guess that's their whole purpose.

 

The thing about all that pitch shifting is that if you listen closely it will be artifacty. This would be good for a gigging guitarist who wants to keep his rig to minimum. Wouldn't want to use it in the studio too much though. Steve Howe has been playing an older one for his sitar and some acoustic tones. Fairly effective.

[default236]

"Hey guys, sorry I can't make the gig, my guitar caught a virus."

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

I was at a wedding last year, and the guitarist in the band used the Variax rig. HATED it. The cleans sounded thin and sterile, and the dirty sounds were completely bleagh. It made Alex's HYF tone sound fat.

[hunter]

I was at a wedding last year, and the guitarist in the band used the Variax rig. HATED it. The cleans sounded thin and sterile, and the dirty sounds were completely bleagh. It made Alex's HYF tone sound fat.

Yep. I'd definitely have to play it and hear it for myself before I'd buy it. I've had good luck with line 6 and some decent tones. I think it might depend on the users knowledge of the equipment at hand, but we'll see.

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

I was at a wedding last year, and the guitarist in the band used the Variax rig. HATED it. The cleans sounded thin and sterile, and the dirty sounds were completely bleagh. It made Alex's HYF tone sound fat.

Yep. I'd definitely have to play it and hear it for myself before I'd buy it. I've had good luck with line 6 and some decent tones. I think it might depend on the users knowledge of the equipment at hand, but we'll see.

 

I've heard some decent tones from Line6 amps -- with real guitars plugged into them. The Variax setup didn't work for me at all.

[Maverick]

Steve Howe seems to have totally ceded his tone to Line6, and I feel his tone has really suffered for it. But honestly, I don'ttthinkhhe'shad consistently good tone since the first Asia album.

[launchpad67a]

Words like "digital" and "active" have no place in the guitar world. Especially on the instrument itself, or the amp!

Although, I guess if you play death metal and tone is you're lowest priority, then go for it. :)

 

Default236 - love the virus comment!!! So funny.

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

Words like "digital" and "active" have no place in the guitar world. Especially on the instrument itself, or the amp!

Although, I guess if you play death metal and tone is you're lowest priority, then go for it. :)

 

My nephew has two Line6 amps, and he's into the metal thing, and in that setting -- full blast with the mids scooped -- the amps do okay. Of course, every time I'm over there I plug into them and proceed to play non-metal, and when I turn the guitar's volume down, the gain just doesn't clean up -- from 10 down to 1 it sounds the same, then it just shuts off when I go to zero, and I can't get used to that.

 

There are players who can get modeling to work. Steven Wilson is a good example. It isn't something I'm ready to embrace just yet.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Steve Howe seems to have totally ceded his tone to Line6, and I feel his tone has really suffered for it. But honestly, I don'ttthinkhhe'shad consistently good tone since the first Asia album.

Last time I saw Howe was an Asia/"Yes" show a couple years ago. He used an ES-Artist (which is somewhere around a 345-355 with fancy stuff) for the majority of both shows, his regular ES 175 and the Fender steel with the VariAx mounted onto the Fender for the sitar and 12 string acoustic sounds. When he played Mood For a Day he played his Martin. For And You and I he played both the VariAx and a Martin 6 string.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Honestly the amp models in the Line6 Spider series are not horrible but they don't sound like the real thing. They sound ok and act like the real thing once you make the correlation of controls. But right next to a real tube amp you can hear a difference.

[rushfanNlv]

Words like "digital" and "active" have no place in the guitar world. Especially on the instrument itself, or the amp!

Although, I guess if you play death metal and tone is you're lowest priority, then go for it. :)

 

My nephew has two Line6 amps, and he's into the metal thing, and in that setting -- full blast with the mids scooped -- the amps do okay. Of course, every time I'm over there I plug into them and proceed to play non-metal, and when I turn the guitar's volume down, the gain just doesn't clean up -- from 10 down to 1 it sounds the same, then it just shuts off when I go to zero, and I can't get used to that.

 

There are players who can get modeling to work. Steven Wilson is a good example. It isn't something I'm ready to embrace just yet.

 

There is a classic rock cover band called Yellow Brick Road here in town and the guitarist for that band, Mark Cole, never uses an amp and his tone is unbelieveable. He's got the whole modeling thing down for sure. Whatever band they are covering, he sounds just like that guitarist. You have to see/hear it to believe it.

 

Having said that, I agree with Launch. I prefer the real thing to modeling.

[Maverick]

Steve Howe seems to have totally ceded his tone to Line6, and I feel his tone has really suffered for it. But honestly, I don'ttthinkhhe'shad consistently good tone since the first Asia album.

Last time I saw Howe was an Asia/"Yes" show a couple years ago. He used an ES-Artist (which is somewhere around a 345-355 with fancy stuff) for the majority of both shows, his regular ES 175 and the Fender steel with the VariAx mounted onto the Fender for the sitar and 12 string acoustic sounds. When he played Mood For a Day he played his Martin. For And You and I he played both the VariAx and a Martin 6 string.

 

So you saw that Asia tour? What did you think? I got the double CD and was pretty disappointed with it.

 

I know Howe still uses a lot of good, real guitars. The most recent concert clip I saw he had a Line6 amp behind him.

 

But again, I've had issues with his tone before I knew there was something called tone.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

It was a small venue in SF called the Warfield Theater and I was only a few feet away from the stage. The sound in that place tends to get a little muddy but this show was one of the better ones there for me. Saw Heaven and Hell there not long before RJD passed. That show was good but didn't sound great. I digress: The Asia part of the show was better than the "Yes" portion for a couple of reasons. The biggest being that Asia was the original lineup. I was in between Howe and Wetton and and was getting mostly stage sound where I was standing. It sounded like Steve Howe. I saw a Twin and and a Line 6 onstage. Wasn't crazy about Wetton's tone. He was playing that Zon thing and I think it has active pickups. Good bottom but scratchy top end. The performance was good and I enjoyed the homages to each member's previous bands.

 

The "Yes" part of the show was louder and a little muddier and damn if those guys can't be sloppy as f***. White had a couple of biffs and just seemed less than enthused. Squire had great moments and some great slop on top of that. Wakeman the younger was the keyboardist and he played like his dad. The Canadian guy was ok but not Jon. It was cool to see them in a smaller venue and even sloppy live "Yes" is better than sitting at home doing my sitting at home thing.

 

I can see where a DVD of this may be less than great. I have seen some live Asia footage from around this time that is ok. I am finding that mixes on live DVDs (and some new release CDs) are less than stellar representations of the performances given. I am really disappointed with the Time Machine DVD personally, mostly because of editing cluster f***s. The sound is ok. Of the recent era Rush live DVDs I think that R30 and S&A live sound and look pretty good. Or at least better than Rio and TM. But in general live DVDs do not give the viewer the same sense of being at the show that it should.

 

I am not sure if I answered your question. :codger:

Edited February 1, 2013 by CygnusX-1Bk2

[default236]

I went to a local Battle of the Bands last May, and there were quite a few metal/death core bands playing some songs, but they were using Line 6 heads and cabs cranked to a distortion that sounded like full-blown ass, I hated it! It sounded way to digital and thin to me, I would've just left, but I stuck around to hear my friends band play their set. I like what they do for the money, but it's not something I would invest money into.