All user reviews for the Line 6 Variax 500

Guitar modeling model 500 black
no microphones since this is a piezo sensor which senses the vibrations of the strings.
1 volume
Tonalitbr 1 /> 1 5-way switch
1 rotary knob

The handle is round but not very thick.
the guitar is well balanced
the access to acute is very correct
a respectable weight

Course extreme versatility
plugs into a pod pro sound palette is huge

Acoustic presets are allucinants and sitar sounds great.
all the simulations provide a really interesting sound fan,
12 strings are really realistic and ...

2 weeks now and for recording the top c.
I imagine that the possibility to live go from a 12-string has a strong body and has an acoustic lowering a simple selector, will involve more than one.
I'm really bluff by this guitar, and even if the finish is basic sounds are really excellent

One of my friends had it and it did not fit my style of game then I did some tests on a pod x3 HD500 then and there I knew. I had a dd guitars but no score with so many possibilities.

No need to go over the different simulatio's what interested me the most is being able to change tunings on the fly, parasites have only very little noise and lug a minimum of material with a panel of experimentations maximum sonic.

It's done. Only complaint, holding agreement not top and average look. I had the 600 blue hands, it is already much more modern. But good. I was delighted by the sounds. And to separate the two electric and acoustic channels via the footswitch is just cannon. Acoustic sound just bluffed a pack of friends. The blind test I even managed to have a sound engineer, who thought that the guitar had just emulated a small chorus to round the sound while I played on a preset sound martin.

If it were to do again, I let myself be tempted by the new series. Or I can be me take the Variax 600 blue. Such beauty can not resist me for long, unless the contrary is ca ...

Here in his magnificent International Garage Studio headquarters, Kevin Mattson continues to create inevitable fame and riches as a singer/songwriter/guitarist/philosopher (whose wife has a real job). I'm a guitarist in general and 12-string specialist in particular. Just turned 50. Yikes.

I stumbled onto a closeout of the Variax 500 at Music123.com, for a little under $500.

I've got several 12-strings left after giving my seldom-used sixes to my kids over the years. But lately I wished I had access to a few good electric and acoustic sixes.

The demo at Line6.com made me curious so I took a chance.


It's ramarkable what the Variax can do. Good to excellent electronic models of 28 separate instruments are available with a turn of an on-board knob and a flick of the "pickup" selector switch. (See below for technical details.)

The variety of instruments is well chosen, including Strats, Telecastors, Pauls, thin- and big-body electrics, and a range of resonator and wooden acoustics--including banjo and sitar.

The sounds rate mostly very good, with a couple excellents and a couple "nice try's."

The acoustic 6-string guitars all sound very good or even excellent, in the sense that they sound like real Martins and Gibsons which have high quality piezo pickups installed. And of course, the Variax 500 is built like a hard-body electric. So you have to get used to the odd sensation of playing an "electric" and hearing a big body acoustic sound.

I'm mainly an acoustic and jazz player, so I can't judge the rock guitars properly. To my ears, the rock axes all sounded authentic through my practice amp. But please note, the Variax's modeling is strictly the sound of the dry guitar. Amp effects (distortion, etc) have to be produced the way you would with the regular version of these guitars.

The set-up was poor. Action and intonation were way off, but easily fixed with included hex-wrenches--if you know what you are doing.

I could do with out the tacky white pearl pickguard.

No tremolo bar. The replacement model (Variax 600) has one.

The 12s are the weakest of the models. The sounds of the string pairs are purposely de-tuned to add to the jangle sound, which non-12 players think is expected. But Line6 over did the de-tuning, so the the 12s sound cartoonish. Also, the electronics can't seem to handle the 12 sounds when you strum. But arpeggios are OK. Fortunately I own plenty of real 12s.

There are no coil pickups on the Variax. Rather there are piezos for each string under each adjustable saddle element. So the "pickup" selector does three things. For some guitar models it mimics a pickup selector. It also can switch between models.

The volume and tone control act as they should, except for the acoustic guitars. For them, Line6 uses the tone control to model varying mic placements. It's a very useful control in those cases.

The basswood body is nicely contoured with a bolt-on maple neck with medium frets. I like the feel of the neck, except the frets are a bit high--I'll have them dressed when I get a chance. The tuners seem solid. The guitar is balanced nicely.

It comes with a well-made power supply/A-B foot switch. The A-B switch box allows you to choose between a standard 1/4 inch output, or an XLR out. The XLR is preferred for the acoustic guitar models. The Variax can be powered from the switch box, or six AA batteries in the guitar will give you 10 hours or so of play time directly into any amp.

The Variax 500 is remarkable value. Several of its 28 built-in instrument sounds would be worth the price alone.

It's great fun to play. It's a godsend for gigs where you want a variety of fretted instrument sounds.

If you can find this model, and you don't need a tremolo bar, it's worth more then every penny.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I paid £699 for this online.

I love the different guitars, especially the Gibons Les Paul and the Gibson acoustics. I love having a range of guitars from resenators to les pauls to telecasters. Another one that might interest people is the strat! You can make your own custom bank of guitars, and the pickups are built into the guitar, so you don't get any buzz from computers, etc.

It's so good I can't complain about it :s

Amazing construction, won't brake,even the battery holder(optional, you can use a power pack) is made out of metal, and is fantastic.

Amazing guitar, brilliant for guitarists who want to record, and don't have those 28 guitars to use. Also brilliant for live work, I've used it many a time, and i've had one problem, where it was fixed overnight, and sent back.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought my Variax on eBay about 6 months ago. It cost $600.00, plus $15.00 for shipping.

The Variax sounds just like the guitars it models, period.
I had a chance to plug it into the same rigs as a Les Paul Studio and a Fender Paisley Telecaster. It sounded identical in both cases.
The banjo, and sitar is so real that it is freaky!
I love being able to switch from instrument to instrument without switching guitars. I am a Keyboard player in a band and I often play acoustic, 12 string and banjo. Having all of those instruments really adds a lot of diversity to our band!
It comes with a A/B switch so you can switch between running direct into a PA with a balanced line system or an amp with an unbalanced line. You can power it with batteries or power it from the A/B switch.

The guitar itself is a inexpensive guitar. It is like a $375.00 (list price) Korean guitar. It sets up nice, but I am surprised that this guitar is like that. It is like having a 500 horsepower engine in a Pacer. It will run good and win races, but won't get you many dates!

It has good tuners, and a solid feel. The finish is OK... but for the price of this guitar, it should be much nicer. If you treat it right, it will last a long time, I would think.
Essentially it is like getting a $1500 computer in a $50 box. If the guitar had regular pickups, it would sell for $250 brand new.

The Line6 Variax is a great piece. It is well worth the price to have all of those guitars at your disposal. The sound is unbelievable. Definately worth the price of admission!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

from piedog.com 475 pounds in the uk, free delivery

many of the guitars sound great and it will be very useful for recording purposes. all the guitars sound like you're playing through a compressed.


some of the guitar sounds are rather synthetic sounding especially the twelve string guitars. playing the same note rapidly in succession sounds different to a real guitar. muting a string while rapidly doing hammer-ons and pull-offs sounds wrong. there seems to be a slight delay in the sound coming out after hitting the strings but this is less noticable the higher pitched the note is. some chords sound different, perhaps on a real guitar the different pitches on different strings affect each other.


it feels very solid.

it's very good but i wouldn't use it exclusively.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I needed a versatile guitar, as I'm home-recording a Cd with different styles of music. I bought the guitar from The Netherlands, Online in Germany for 676.00 including gig-bag and delivery.

All these great guitar sounds into one guitar. I can't compare them off course sound with the real ones, but they nearly all sounds pretty realistic to me. I bought a nice looking Sunburst version, because I own already an acoustic Sunburst Gibson J100Xtra, they look like 'father and son' to me! Unike some others, I have no complaints about the feel of the neck or it's workmanship.

Straight out of the box, I hade to work on the angle of the neck and the position of one of the saddles. When I play the guitar sitting with it on my lap, I'm not to keen on it's balance. It's quite heavy, because of all it's electronics I think. I find the Banjo and the Sitar sounds not very convincing. It's a pity you can't Transpose with this guitar like it's acoustic version!

It all looks pretty good to me, especial if you realize what you all get for a very decent price!

There is an upgrade connection on the guitar, I wonder what will be on offer in the future and if you can choose from the upgrades on offer!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Special Price from The Guitar Center: $ 499.00

Terrific electric and acoustic models, nice resonators, sitar, banjo models

Lousy neck. Very uncomfortable with lousy fret job.

Replaced the neck with a Warmouth Tele neck. Tele and Strat necks can easily replace the Variax neck.

Quality is very good...with the exception of the cheap import neck.

On a scale of 1-5, I would rate this a 5 ( once the ncek was replaced). A great tool for live or recording. Most of the modeled instruments are surprisingly good!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

About to buy one through Sweetwater.com. Demoed the unit at Guitar Center for a total of three hours across several visits.

The impressive versatility of the sounds you can get - it's amazing. Unlike a few reviewers, I found the guitar quite comfortable in my hands and I'm no novice to guitar - more than a quarter century of playing here and the Variax felt exactly like what it is - a good middle of the road between the "baseball bat necks" of some vintage gear and the slimmer Paul necks that are more popular these days. Well balanced instrument also.

The acoustic twelve string sounds don't quite nail it yet. However, consider the complexities of that task - how CAN you model the octave strings so that they sound louder when played with an upstroke of the pick rather than a downstroke?

Well constructed instrument and I've owned some great gear - an original 1st year Jackson Rhoads (serial #1308), a LP Custom, amany, many a strat, Godins, etc. The Variax sits in that company well.

I find the black 500 VERY appealing visually but then again, a guitar is about tone to me, not eye candy. This thing sounds better than my old Paul and buzzless strats - wondferful!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I test-run this guitar at 30th Street Guitars in Manhattan. It was on sale for $999; I didn't buy it.

Lots and lots of tonal variations. And I didn't even hook the guitar up to a stompbox. Imagine the possibilities. All the sounds are already built into the guitar -- no special amp, foot controller etc. necessary.

The pickup selection is very confusing because on some settings the selector flicks between traditional "neck" and "bridge" sounds, but on other settings the selector changes the instrument model completely. I would've preferred an extra control for instrument changes and left the pickup selector as a normal rhythm/treble switch. The guitar itself doesn't feel like a player -- a little stiff. And the body shape is horrible to the eye; you won't catch me playing one live.

Good, although as I mentioned, I don't like the guitar from an aesthetic point of view.

This guitar would be tremendously useful as a recording and songwriting tool because of the number of textures you can get. It won't replace the other instruments you have in your arsenal; the modelling technology isn't acute enough to make genuine Strat, Les Paul, and sitar sounds, and I'd never try to do a 12-string acoustic guitar part on it. However, the quality of the sounds is still high enough that you will be able to get some unusual tones that you can't get anywhere else.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I purchased this unit from Musician's Friend for $999. Having previously owned a Line 6 AX212 and a POD, I was very interested in seeing how they would put togehter the world's first modelling guitar. My hope was that the guitar would be the only one I would need on a gig.

The guitar I haev is a very nice example of Tobacco Sunburst. There are no finish flaws and the neck pocket is tight with no noticeable gaps.
The neck is sort of a cross between a Les Paul and a Strat. This is OK for me since I play both of those and this seems to be right smack in the middle of that road.
Now to the modelling aspects: I am playing this through a few different amps. The acoustic models absolutely shine when palyed through an SWR CA Blonde. I think I could use the Blonde, the guitar and a mic and play any coffee house gig. The six sting models (especialy the Gibson J200) are absolutely stunning. The 12 strings models a bit less so, but they will definitely sit well in a mix. The Dobros are also very good.
The electrics are fantastic as well. The Strat model with just the bridge P/U played through a TS9 into a Duoverb is SRV tone all the way. I have also played this through a Fender Reverb Deluxe with excellent results.
The Ric 12 is Tom Petty/Byrds all the way as well - try American Girl or Mr. Tambourine Man.


My least favorite model is the Coral Sitar. It probably sounds just like a Coral Sitar, but I probably won't use it much if at all. I would've rather had a mandolin model.
I also thought the guitar should have come with strap locks. It did not and I had to modify some screws to get the Schaller strap locks to fit into the oversized holes from the original strap buttons.

I think I already covered this, but it s a very good quality guitar. It is no PRS or high end Les Paul, but the workmanship appears to be well done and the finish is flawless. One thing - the neck has a satin finish, not heavy lacquer like most Pauls and Strats.

I will rate this 4.5 and perhaps give it a 5 if an upgrade includes a mandolin and slightly better 12 string models.
I would buy this guitar again, and I have not been sleeping much since it was delivered!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought a new Variax Medium Music in Rouen in 2008.
From the beginning, I had lost her, but then very few and very short, to the point that if I brought the guitar, the dealer would have had every chance not to find fault. And it was also really not a problem.
But then, it has grown in recent weeks and now the standard case is the intermittent (or more sound at all) after 10 minutes.
I contacted the dealer and Line 6 who take refuge in one and the other behind the warranty expired.
I am very disappointed that the story and end up with one hand dealer "local" that I bought a lot of material for years "in confidence" and "let me go" to the first seed, and the other a manufacturer who has proposed an interesting concept which I concurred, but ultimately sees its product as "disposable."
Modeling, I find it fun and convenient.
But at the cost of an instrument every 4 years, niet!
And when I read reviews of the latest models, I see that the reliability is really not the primary concern of Line 6 ...

This is the first guitar Line6 and uses the same principle as the POD, ie, modeling, and this time some twenty different guitars all the more famous than the other, this is done through a piezo sensor installed in the bridge that captures all the nuances of playing guitar and transcribed in the software (see https://fr.audiofanzine.com/apprendre/mailing_forums/?page=3&idtopic=15851&idsearch=0).
Then we choose the model with a third knob
, In addition to the tone and volume.
The list of guitars is very long and extends from the Strato Dean Martin through the Gibson and even the National Tricone (Knofler is going to be happy) and it is here https://www.line6.com/ Variax / en / collection.html.
In terms of the violin, she m'inpire confidence afterwards because the first time, it seemed a little light, but it was his side a little "new" and propre.Maintenant after a few days to grind, I 'm very comfortable on it and the handle is shaped well enough not to lose in execution speed compared to my Ibanez, nothing to do with the handle of a Les Paul such as I have read some part.
No vibrato at the bridge on the other hand, too bad, but all models do not agree with Floyd satrianien.

Its use is unfathomable as I feel that I will take ten years to make the tour.Chaque day I discovered tens of different sounds by adjusting the volume or tone.
I think this is the ultimate guitar for guitar studio and we will see more flowering, in my opinion, the Variax in professional studios so its use facilitates the work of recording and even talk mixage.Je not where the acoustic tone knob changes here to change the sound as it did for placement in front of the microphone amplifier (technique of the "AIR" on the POD).
The guitar is well balanced and light enough, the neck is fast (what a joy to play a Les Paul or a Gibson J-200 as easily) and the lack of microphones greatly facilitates the finger-picking game.
The knobs are offset under the bridge which prevents too much teasing when we embarked on a frenzied rhythm.
Finally, it's a good vacuum with an incisive attack and good sustain which assures the quality of manufacture.

THE SOUND IS FANTASTIC! Do I need to be clearer?
Everything is beautifully transcribed: grain, vibrato, dynamics on the types of plectrum and fingers, attack and sustain, the humbuckers as single coils, all is well felt.
You can buy it eyes closed.
Put the model example Dean Martin D-28 in a tube preamp directly connected to the console, close your eyes and you will be stuck!
Obviously, this guitar suits all styles since all the sounds of the guitar are beautifully reproduced (with some exceptions Of course, much I quibble) and the usefulness of this POD is even more striking in order to marry easily the types of guitar the different types of amplifier.
My favorite model is ... I know ... every day I find a much different it rich.

This is the first time when I buy music equipment, I feel for Scamming the seller, as, wanting to buy clothes at La Redoute, I received incorrectly everything that had in catalogue.Croyez me this guitar will not stay at that price (1100 euros) and when more and more pros will use it (which is always ready to "reassure" the amateur lamda always keen on "brands "), Line6 will raise its prices to bring it to its true value (is it" Mr. Gibson ").