Question about the Tyler Variax

[pitseleh]

So I'm as interested in these new Variaxes as I was in the originals before I owned one and came to the conclusion it wasn't particularly useful or impressive for my needs (but still a cool piece of gear! I could see how others would have a use for them), but no stores around here carry them, and I don't want to drop $1200ish on one at the moment if I'm just going to end up not liking it.

My question for those of you who have played or bought one is, how do the models compare to actual decent sounding guitars? By this I mean that, in the original you could get a variety of sounds, but aside from them all kind of blending together, they just weren't very GOOD. The 335 sounded more like a Epiphone Dot than a real Gibson with a decent set of PAFs in it. So how do the new Tyler Variaxes compare in sound to a guitar with a set of relatively nice pickups in it? I can imagine the Strat and Les Paul models might give a MIM Standard or an Epiphone LP a run for their money, but will they compare to a Strat with CS69s, or an LP with Antiquities? I ask this because if it can't get to that level of tone more or less, I know it'll always leave me wanting and I'd be better off with individual guitars with good electronics.

[Gtrman100]

They're not available for sale yet... but I've tried a JTV69 beta version. It's a nice guitar, played well, sounded great, had a fairly pronounced "C" shaped neck. I have a 700 and I'd say it's on par with that quality, but the new electronics and the fact that it has mag pickups blows the old version away. Obviously, guitars are very subjective, but I think it's more than adequate for most players. It's not an Anderson or PRS but very decent IMO.

[slotools]

could be christmas before they are available -
as per sweetwater rep.

[javajunkie]

Originally Posted by slotools

could be christmas before they are available -
as per sweetwater rep.

Last I heard (2 days ago) was mid november.

[pitseleh]

Oh, really? I saw the reviews on Youtube and the guitars listed on Musician's Friend and I assumed they were available! I guess I'll just touch base with GC/Sam Ash around here periodically to see if they're in yet.

[slotools]

Sweetwater confirmed late Dec. on friday - as mine was going to be here Nov. 15th-

[thrashmetl]

I played a new JTV-69 at Line 6 last week, if I was informed correctly it was the import model and judging from the youtube videos I've seen it's probably the one they've been taking around to show off. It played great and is an absolutely amazing guitar. When you switch between the Les Paul model and the real humbucker in the bridge there is a very slight difference. The real pickups are definitely more articulate and hi-fi, but only slightly. When you switch between the strat model and the actual neck pickup though, the first thing you notice is how much hum the real single coils have. All the models definitely sound exactly like what they're modeled to be.

I also got to handle the JTV-59 too, that's the one I'm going to buy. It felt amazing. I'm a fat neck guy and the '59 has a '59 neck on it.

I believe though that Line 6 hasn't actually changed any of the guitar modeling from the original Variax to these new guitars. The only thing that's changed is, and I have no idea what any of this means so if it doesn't make sense I'm sure you'll still get what I'm trying to convey, that they have higher DSP power and the existing guitar modeling benefits greatly from it as well as allowing alt. tunings on models it currently didn't have the power to do this on.

I had actually never played a Variax before I went down there and had written them off because they just didn't look right, never gave them a chance. Before I went to Line 6 I had a list in my head of my next few guitars, but by the time I left all I could think about was the Tyler Variax. Unfortunately at the moment my guitar buying activities have been frozen as I'm getting married in April and the woman wants to make sure we have enough money for everything, BOOOOOO!