Who owns a JTV 59 Variax?

[Jhatem81]

I have one and I love it but i cant help to think I am playing a gimmicky guitar lol. It looks great...feels good and sounds great but in the back of my mind..im always thinking what if the CPU dies and I am left now with a good but expensive les Paul type guitar.

I do use the modeling quite a bit Live and not the magnetic pickups. In fact, i have yet to use the magentic pickups Live. Just in practice at home. I like how there is zero noise when using the modeling and i find myself drawn to the Strat and Gretch model and occasional the Les Paul.. I also like the acoustic models.

But still....it dosent feel normal lol. I dont even use a guitar cable...i use an ethernet cable....i use the alternate tuning only to make a B into a C once ina while...when you go down a whole step..it starts to sound a little weird but 1/2 step is fine. But then i think how embarrassing it would be if i change the tuning and the computer died...i would be screwed. I am always nervous using the thing but in the end...I love it...but it just dosent feel right sometimes

Here is a picture of it

https://twitter.com/jhatem/status/494165759900540928

 

[bluegrif]

I owned one for a short while. If I could have afforded to keep it just cause, I would have. As it was, I tried it as a possible solution to an ongoing problem, my need to do fly-in shows with 2 or 3 guitars. I'd owned a Variax 700 and an acoustic 700. So I knew the alternate tunings worked well. But I use alternate tunings for slide and the pitch shifted tuning just didn't seem to respond to the slide naturally enough for me. So, since it was bought to solve a specific problem and wasn't working quite like I'd hoped, I had to sell it.

That said, I found it well made and the modeled sounds very good. Loads of fun. I especially liked the hollow body sounds. Really great to be able to get these from a solid guitar. Especially if, like me, you always have to make the decision which style of guitar to take to a particular gig. One guitar that does it all is an attractive idea. If I had a little money to burn I wouldn't hesitate to add another to my toolbox.

 

[germanicus]

I own a 59p as well as a 69. I love them. It makes playing many pieces possible that I simply could not otherwise do without an army of guitars on stage.

The tunings are incredible, really offering almost limitless creative potential through experimentation.