Thinking of buying new guitar

LeeW · #1 February 8th, 2007

Hi I not been here for a while but wondered if anyone would help me decide on getting a new guitar.

Its a Variax Acoustic 700 modelling guitar, I have tried it in the shop for a hour or so and like the way it plays plus it mimics so many other guiters well, from 12 strings to a sitar.

The guys offered a good deal on it if I trade in my Gibson Epiphone but just need to know is there any drawbacks with this type of instrument.

LeeW · #2 February 8th, 2007

TY,
it is not the accoustic version btw

allthumbs · #3 February 8th, 2007

You will certainly have a lot of fun with it. The only downside is that you will want to pick up a good amp to take advantage of all those tones.
Some friends of mine who are very good players have commented that they play each guitar in a different manner depending on the type of frets, guitar scale etc but, that really applies to semi pros so should not be of too much concern to you at this point.

Europa · #4 February 8th, 2007

Make sure you've looked at all the options before you buy anything. If you really like it, it plays well, and you've considered all options, then I'd say go for it.

LeeW · #5 February 8th, 2007

I have at the moment a Marshal MG 15 DFX amp so hope that will be good for it.

jasko · #6 February 12th, 2007

Are you trading in your only guitar? If you are, I might reconsider. I fell in love with the idea of the Variax, and almost bought a 500 as my first electric. But eventually, I decided that I wanted a guitar where I didn't have to worry about the computerized innards (I'm a programmer, so I always see the worst of computers!).

But I still want a Variax, and the 700 is really, really sweet. I want the transparent blue hardtail. So if it's not your only guitar, you might as well go for it.

737blues · #7 February 12th, 2007

The Variax 700 is a lovely bit of kit but do you now about the new Fender/Roland/Variax combination? Alias VG Stratocaster, which is due out very shortly. Might even be available in UK now. Probably worth a look.

http://www.fender.com/vgstrat/home.html

jasko · #8 February 13th, 2007

I have to say - the versatility of the Variax far exceeds that of the Fender, especially in combination with a Vetta II or Pod XT Live and the Variax workbench software. You can tell the Variax "Sound like a hollow body in open G tuning with lipstick pickups wired in parallel". And you can switch rigs on the fly with the pedal. One demo video out there shows a guy playing "Dueling Banjos" by swapping between guitar and banjo rigs on an XT Live. Can't say I've seen anything like that from the VG.

The one thing the VG has going for it over the Varaiax is the fact that it's also a Strat. You can bypass the modeling entirely and play with the electromagnetic pickups. But that's sort of defeating the whole purpose of a modeling guitar, right?