The Delta Snake Review: Musical Gear Review & Article Archive: Review: Variax 500 Modeling Guirar

The Variax 500 Gives You 28 Guitars, But You Have to Learn 28 Guitars

I've owned a Variax 500 for over a year now and was lucky to get one before it was discontinued. It was replaced by the 700 Model, which was more similar to the 300. This may or may not be important, as the 500 was very similar in appearance to the 800 series and may have been stealing sales from the top of the line.

The 500 has a basswood Strat-type body that is more than good enough, and decent maple neck that is easy to play. The tuners are good enough to make upgrading unnecessary. The headstock is like the 800s with three to a side pegs on a triangular headstock, which I think gives it a nice surf guitar look.

In any case, the modeling electronics are the same throughout the line, and construction and materials plays less of a role due to the piezo pickup system located in the bridge area. I should note that in playing various models, the materials do make some difference, but it's up to the buyer to decide (as usual) what warrants the extra investment.

The specs and other technical details were covered in detailed reviews by others on the Internet, so I’ll talk more about my experiences in making this excellent concept guitar work.

The main thing is that you can't just hit a dial and get an automatic sound change. If you just blindly crank the tone knob, for example, the Les Paul Special settings will simply just sound all alike. This is especially true with the acoustic instruments, which is technically more difficult to model than a solid body electric.

As you traverse the knob settings, it becomes obvious that the instrument does a fine job of reproducing electric guitars. Fine adjustments take some tweaking, so the presets are essential to keep from having to constantly fiddle around to get your favorite sounds.

However, for those who've played at least production versions of these classics, it becomes obvious that the solid body construction of the Variax makes it better at modeling some guitars than others.

For example, the Variax nails the Fender sound. A friend of mine who owns an old Tele tried it out and said it was so close that it didn't matter, particularly at volume. Also, having owned a 50's Gold Top Les Paul in my youth (and like a foolish youth, sold it), I can say it simulates Les Paul well in all of its variations. On the Juniors, you have to take into account that most used P-90s and use the tone knobs accordingly.

The 500 stays in comfortable territory with the Firebird, Gretsch Jets and 6 string Rickenbacker. Many may not find much use for these, as we’re entering into the area of the higher pitched, sharper toned axes, but certainly those into the English sound will find these a welcome option.

The Rickenbacker 12 sound is an interesting setting. Played clean, it's passable, and certainly usable in 90% of any situations an electric 12 might be needed. However, the tone isn't so much the chime of two strings as the frequency of the two combined. Anyone who has played a 12 will understand that there's a spatial quality to having 2 strings vibrating at once. If you're playing “Eight Miles High” by the Byrds, or an electric raga, though, then it works well enough.

As you begin exploring the Gibson hollow bodies, amp selection and settings become important. The reason is that you have a solid body using modeling to capture not only the basic tone of a classic jazzbox like the ES-175, but the fullness the hollow body adds. In addition, in a jazz guitar, string selection counts. Many jazzers use extra thick or “flat wound” strings that give a fuller sound. If your Variax is strung with thinner strings, you'll get a jazzy sound, but one that isn't exactly like a 175. In fact, it’ll sound more like a semi-solid like an ES-335.

The acoustic settings can be a mixed bag depending on your amplification. Most will sound best coming through an acoustic amp or PA system. Also, the bigger the amp, the better. The smaller practice types severely restrict the performance of the acoustic settings. For example, the Roland Cube overemphasizes the bass on those settings, making the models almost useless unless you add an equalizer.

Put the 500 through a PA, and it does fulfill much of its promise (as far as the acoustic emulation). Taking the time to learn the tone knob (which at this point is controlling an imaginary miking distance) will have you amazed at what this guitar can do. An acoustic amp also is ideal.

The acoustic guitar sounds are pretty good, maybe not as good as the real thing, but very good. In particular, the D-18 setting works with just about any amp or PA. The National and all-metal Dobro are also very fine, with the latter being particularly authentic sounding.

The banjo setting does produce that classic tone, but just flailing at it with a plastic pick does create a thin, flat sound. Players who can do old-time flatpicking or fingerstyle will find this setting more useful. Variax did miss the boat in one respect; banjos do have a natural echo and yes, even some sustain. So, when using this setting, a little addition of reverb will bring out the best in the banjo setting.

The Coral Sitar is OK, but it's the type you heard in the old Boxtops or B.J. Thomas recordings, not the Indian type with the sympathetic strings (or even the Corel type with the sympathetic strings). The electric sitar got it's “buzz” by using a piece of wood or plastic under the bridge that barely touched the strings, thus creating a buzzing tone that approximated a sitar (at least to 60's ears). It's a cool sound, but if you've been reading the ads to decide on buying a Variax, do be forewarned that it's not a real sitar sound you're getting.

The Danelectro was a puzzling choice, probably more of a marketing move. This was the model Jimmy Page used on numbers like “White Summer” so that may be the reason for its inclusion. It's the setting that's the hardest to get to sound right for some reason, certainly not sounding close to my Mod 6, or my old Bell shaped one I owned in the 70's.

It's difficult to criticize what is essentially a well executed concept, but I would have liked to see another vintage SG instead of the Danelectro.

The two acoustic twelves, the Martin and the Guild present you with the same situation as the Rickenbacker. It's a good recording sound, and certainly usable. I am keeping comments about sound accuracy in context here. I'm sure Line 6 isn't pretending it's giving you a real acoustic box.

However, once again, the sound modeling is more like the two strings as one, and on an acoustic 12, there is a lot more subtlety involved. If you've played a 12, this guitar won't replace it. If you don't, you'll have one that will be around when needed (as opposed to buying one and not playing it much).

Also, as a deciding criterion, there isn't a need to precisely reproduce the sounds of all these guitars anyway. In many cases, you just might want a sound that is just a bit different when recording or composing. If the Variax gives you 95% of the sound, that's more than close enough for a creative player to make his or her sound.

There is one big factor to think about. This is a Swiss army knife guitar, based roughly on a Strat copy shape. If you've never played many of these other guitars, you may not miss anything. However, you do have to take into account how the shape of the Variax will make you approach technique.

In many cases, though, the look and feel of the guitar does affect technique, which in turn creates the sound unique to that body type.

One good example is using the ES-175 setting. Jazz players rarely bend notes, and there's a reason. Historically, it was because they felt they weren't like the Chicago blues guitarists. Also, they often were emulating horn lines. They used thicker strings to get a fatter, and more even sound across the spectrum. Some players used high E strings as thick as .16 gauge.

On a Variax, a player may set it to the ES-175 guitar and wack away on .08 string and bend like Jeff Beck. No law against that, of course, but the player may soon find that he doesn't exactly sound like Kenny Burrell, no matter how he adjusts the amp. Technique, and the historical hardware counts, and the user has to take some time to learn a bit about the guitar being modeled to take full advantage of the sound (unless the person just wants the tone only).

I found that playing a 12 string and/or banjo gave me insights on my guitar playing. Also, I found that the differences between my old Telecaster and Les Paul made diverse ideas possible, giving me the ability to think outside the box so to speak.

One can certainly take the Variax and just try to bend it to your technique, but most of the critics of this nice guitar come from this very group. If you approach the Variax as an opportunity to really learn these varied and classic instruments, and how the masters got their legendary sound, you will not only have a nice guitar, but become better guitarist as well.

Most importantly, a Variax is not a Strat or Les Paul and the player has to learn it like any other guitar.

- Al HANDA

2006

Note: This review first appeared on the ePinions.com site in 2013. This and other reviews were short takes that accompanied the link to a business that sold the guitar. As a rule, the guitar had to be at least examined and played by the reviewer (and ideally owned). In my case, a severe case of GAS made it possible to have at least owned the reviewed instrument for a short while. I'm reprinting these as having another source on a guitar never hurts, even if the reviews aren't definitive. Other than minor corrections, these short takes are unchanged from the original text. I figure that it might be helpful to keep the older perspective.

The Quitturz by Al Handa