Almost A Cure

The Variax 500. 25 guitars in one, and with the aid of a workbench programme, endless variations are available. So basically the only guitar you'd ever need.

You'd think so wouldn't you?

On the one hand, yes, on the other hand........it's another guitar for my collection.

The Variax 500 was introduced in 2002 by Line 6.

The bridge of a Variax electric guitar has an individual piezoelectric pickup for each string. Each of these 6 signals is converted individually to a digital signal in the guitar's electronics. This allows for separate processing of the signals from each string. This allows two technologies that would otherwise be impossible: the modeling of effects caused by one string on the others, and virtually altering the pitch of each individual string, allowing guitarists to switch between different tunings using a pedal or a switch on the guitar.

The result of this is that you can change from one modelled guitar to another. The technology works well, and the actual tone achieved, well the purist might quibble but they're still bloody good.
The models you can access are :
* 1960 Fender Telecaster Custom
* 1968 Fender Telecaster
* 1968 Fender Telecaster Thinline
* 1959 Fender Stratocaster
* 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard
* 1952 Gibson Les Paul "Goldtop"
* 1961 Gibson Les Paul Custom (3 PU)
* 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior
* 1976 Gibson Firebird V
* 1955 Gibson Les Paul Special
* 1959 Gretsch 6120
* 1956 Gretsch Silver Jet
* 1968 Rickenbacker 360
* 1966 Rickenbacker 360-12
* 1961 Gibson ES-335
* 1967 Epiphone Casino
* 1957 Gibson ES-175
* 1953 Gibson Super 400
* 1959 Martin D-28
* 1970 Martin D 12-28
* 1967 Martin O-18
* 1966 Guild F212
* 1995 Gibson J-200
* 1935 Dobro Alumilite
* Danelectro 3021
* Coral/Dano Electric Sitar
* Gibson Mastertone Banjo
* 1928 National Style 2 "Tricone"
I can't comment on the vintage tones, but I can say that the range available is amazing and probably makes this the most versatile guitar available.

In a live gigging situation this is the only guitar I need, I can switch from acoustic to electric, smooth jazz to dirty rock.

I only recently bought this guitar, I've been intrigued for years but was worried it might be a gimmick. It was only after seeing a mate playing one, and talking to him about it, I decided to buy one. I've never regretted it, I really wish I'd bought it years ago.

The other inovation with the Variax, is that you can connect it to a computer, and using the workbench software you can adjust and tailor the guitar to your own needs. You can programme body shape, pick ups, volume and tone control etc. The possibillites are ( probably ) endless.

A feature that I really like is you can programme in alternate tunings, again this adds to the stage versatility of the guitar. I've even programmed in a Gretsch barritone guitar and a mandolin!

So with all this at your fingertips there's no need to ever buy another guitar...................yeah right!!

I love this guitar to death, but asking me to stop buying guitars is like asking me to stop breathing.

The guitar itself is a joy to play, nice weight, good action and stable tuning. It does everything it promises to do and I can't recommend it highly enough to the gigging musician, but it won't stop me buying the real versions of the guitars it copies, much to my wife's chagrin :-)

The Guitar That Hated Me!

So it doesn't look that bad.
This guitar hated me.
I mentioned it in an earlier post, it's an Epiphone Les Paul. The photo's really don't do it justice, it was a beautiful looking guitar, the grain was a beautiful tiger stripe and I loved the look.
But playing it was like wrestling an alligator.

One of the very few guitars I never got on with, and I do mean few. This honestly was hard work. I bought it in 2000, it was made in 1998. I bought it purely on looks, I was in a shop my mate worked in and as I was leaving I saw it on a stand and bought it there and then, it was only £90!
Didn't try it out or anything, total impulse buy.
From day one it just never felt right. Even the way it hung on the strap didn't feel right. When I played it, it felt like it was constantly wriggling out of my grip.
I'm not superstitious or any of that crap, but looking back, this guitar didn't want me to play it. I couldn't get a decent tone out of it, everything sounded clunky. But because of the look, I persevered with it.
Now I'm not putting down Epiphones, this was an excellent guitar. Well made, excellent set up, I just couldn't get to grips with this one, I've played various other Epiphones since, and even own another Epiphone Les Paul, the only problem was this particular guitar.
I looked after it, I polished it regularly, put lemon oil on the fretboard everytime I changed strings. But it was destined not to be.
Eventually, in 2009 I sold it. For 9 years I persevered with it, but realised I wasn't gonna get anything out of it. So it went on Ebay. I'm just glad there were no kids to worry about :-)
I made a decent profit out of it, and used the money to buy my Gretsch.
Not long after I sold it I got an email from the buyer, he loved it, it was his perfect guitar. Which just shows the vagaries of guitar buying.

For the eagle eyed among you, it IS left handed. I'm naturally left handed, but can play guitar either right handed or left handed, I've played both ways at gigs, just to show off. Cos I'm like that.

The Most Beautiful Guitar Ever Made...........? The Tao Phaeton

Came across this in my wanderings, a truly unnatainable object of desire.

Here's the official blurb, goes into enough detail for everyone. Check out www.taoguitars.com

This project started out as a cure for a friend & customer who was diagnosed with a very acute form of the G.A.S (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome).
We offered to make him a unique masterpiece that would both calm his illness and at the same time bring us the opportunity to build our dream guitar with a “carte blanche”. The whole idea was to build a hollow jazz – guitar that could handle high volume feedback in a more compact rounded ergonomic body with a solid body style sustain…

With its anthropomorphic visual and its experimental crafting method made it the most exotic vintage guitar in our eyes – some kind of mythical piece of craft, a milestone in Guitar History. This gave us the guiding conceptual direction for our “Phaeton”.
As explained by Lewis Williams in the first 1903 catalog “front and back made in swelled shape by being carved, leaving the layer grain of the wood in the same position as in its natural growth, thus insuring strength, free vibration, and unusual sympathetic resonance” or “special relatedness and agreements of parts”.

In all its forms, car styling aesthetics are obvious here, from the two tone color scheme to the sound – holes bearing air intake visual reference, the whole thing breathing our love for the golden years of American Car Design.
The “Phaeton” name has always been synonymous with class and luxury in the automobile history.
The models from the 30’s & 40’s are the most striking examples with the likes of Cadillac, Chrysler, Cord, Packard…
After several brainstorming sessions, and the drawings that resulted, we could finally take to our workbenches with heart. As mentioned earlier, we decided to build the guitar as were built Orville’s style 03 : hand carved out of two solid slabs of wood, spruce for the top & mahogany for the back ( most of Orville’s were in walnut ).
Here we are embarked on a long and exciting journey,carving the top in this nutshell fashion. The shape of the top’s face that was quite a challenge, as we couldn’t easily work around it with our caliper, we decided to bring the piece to correct thickness using the spotlight technique : reducing differences in color shades by checking the top over a light source. From scraping to the final sanding, this process took us almost 200 hours to complete and a thousand more to finish the whole instrument… putting our love & passion in the slightest details, from the custom made pot buttons, the handmade ebony carbon layered tailpiece to our magnet locked lexan back plates. Every single part was either custom made or at least customized to our standards ( see specs ).

A YEAR AND A HALF LATER

We were finally able to hear the thing ! This was the most emotional moment of all ! The Phaeton’s sound was as bold as was striking its looks, leaning toward Gretsch character but with a real voice of its own, smooth sparkling highs and super tight and rich basses, the tuning – fork – bar design giving amazing sustain. Although the Phaeton comes in a hot jazz drapings, this guitar could also unleash a more rockin’ attitude when pushed, which was really pleasant to us!

One piece Spanish cedar with ebony fingerboard & headstock cap featuring Tao custom fretting : we start with medium jumbo to the twelfth fret, and finish with smaller ones, giving your fingers more space to play up the neck ; our single bar double action “carbon flex” truss rod ensuring neck stability and superior playing comfort.

One piece Honduran mahogany back with 2 pieces alpine spruce top

Gotoh “Stealth” tuners with matching color buttons and custom short brass bushings ; Compton solid brass compensated bridge with custom made height adjustment wheels

Polished “vintage style” CTS pots, WCR push – push pots (client request), 3 way Switchcraft with custom made button & ring, Russian paper in oil caps, polished electro – socket output jack, custom wound Bare Knuckle Pickups featuring our trademark hand made covers

Automotive DuPont colors (Rover, Bolero Red /sandalwood beige), clear

nitro lacquer top coat.

.....................sigh.....................one day, one. day.................

Guitar Project

I wanted to try building a guitar from parts bought on ebay, not exactly custom built, but as close as I could get. The photo above shows the ( almost ) finished version.
The body was an excellent hardwood body, I think the original guitar was made by Vantage or Vintage. Had a beautiful maple top in cherry sunburst. The neck was from an unknown brand. I fitted a wilkinson roller bridge and tailpiece as well as wilkinson tuners, all in gold.
The pick ups were GFS Dream 180's, described as a cross between a filtertron and a PAF. The electrics consisted of a single volume, single tone and an Artec 5 step distortion switch.

If you look closely at the photos above, you can see how high I had to set the bridge ( and bridge pick up ) to compensate for the angle of the neck. The angle was one thing I didn't check before I finished the guitar, consequently it remained very steep, not unplayable but felt weird when playing.
Anyway, I was pleased so far with how the guitar looked and wanted to make it a bit more personal. I came across a seller on ebay who custom made guitar headstock logo's. I didn't want to pretend this guitar was something it wasn't, so I had a personalised logo made.

Using as close a font as possible he put my band name as the logo in a Gibsonish style, and my name in a sort of Les Paul style font. This was a waterslide full face decal. I was very pleased with the result. I can't remember how many coats of laquer I put over it, but I would think at least ten.

The finished guitar was used for about a dozen gigs, as well as rehearsals. Although it had a great sound, very full and rounded with excellent sustain, I never really used the Artec 5 Step switch that often. Also it always felt to me to be a bit fragile, the steep neck angle had a lot to do with this.

The guitar looked good, a lot of people commented on it, even non guitarists liked it, but I never really bonded with it, mainly because of the neck angle, but also the small body.

So it was retired while I had a rethink.

I have decided to change the body, and am currently trying to source a Les Paul body that looks as good as the one I used. Obviously the wood would have to be as good quality to ensure I get as good a tone out of it.

One day the Spitfire guitar will return!!

Not exactly sure of how much I spent on it, but a ball park figure would be £150. Not too bad, wife didn't mind and it kept me quiet for a week or two :-)