Scroll down for the FINAL entry in this diary! (December 29th)

What the heck is a 'Variax Bass'?

It's the latest innovative product from Line6, a company that specializes in "Digital Modeling" musical technology. In theory, the Variax 700 can faithfully reproduce the tonal qualities of several different vintage and modern basses.

Watch the video here; Variax Bass.

So maybe the real question is Why the heck does Kennan want one? After all, I'm the guy who firmly believes that the P-Bass is the ultimate electric bass. I believe that your right hand is the best 'Tone Knob' available. When asked what my favorite amplifier set-up is, I've truthfully answered "Rented Backline." Why would I want a Digital bass?

The answer probably isn't what Line6 would expect; I don't really feel the need to have the tone of a high-end Alembic or a vintage Jazz bass at the flip of a switch. Personally, I don't care if the models sound like the real thing or not. However, if I can have reasonable facsimiles of acoustic basses, 8 and 12 string basses, synth basses, and, well...P-Basses that I can toggle around within a given song - without a giant pedal board, 17 9-volt batteries, and a Medusa-head of cords - sounds like a lot of fun!


Ready, Set, ...Wait! (January 21st)

So, there I was, all set to embark on my Digital Adventure. After years of rumors, and at least a solid year of guessing games, Line6 comes out with the announcment on it's web site in September! There it is! And it's...coming soon? Information is trickling in; finishes, samples, models, but no release date. The web site says "Fall 2004".

In early November, a little detective work finds it listed on "Musician's Friend" mail order web site with an "Available 11-15" tag. Plenty of time for the Christmas rush. As the 15th aproaches however, the available date gets changed to 11-31. Okay still time.

Then 12-15...Then 12-20...12-31.

I'm beginning to think there might be a problem. Maybe.

The New Year starts off with a 'Available 1-15', but changed to 1-17 pretty quickly, and I'm getting the feeling that the bass isn't going to see the light of day until after the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers) Convention, Janury 20-24th, when lo and behold, on January 12th, Musician's Friend announces "Available Now"!

A couple of quick phone calls finds that, yes, it is shipping. A conversation with my friend Tony later, and my order has been placed. Black finish, but I need to find a Tort guard to replace the Black Pearl that comes standard. The order is in, but this weekend, everybody at Line6 is at NAMM. Tony said that the only person there was a girl who's job it is to tell callers that nobody's there.

So, it's coming. Then I need to do a series of test's on it. It comes with Nickel Round Wound Strings, but how will it work with my preferred TI Flats? Will making it fretless affect the way the Digital Models work? When I find out, this space will be the first to know.



The NAMM Reports Are In! (January 24th)

And the news is...nothing. The only Variax sighting at the biggest industry show of the year was this report from Steve "Dude" Barr;
"I managed to spot a Line 6 Variax on display at D'Addario/Planet Waves booth...no amp to try it."

On the other hand, for a ton of NAMM photos and eye-witness accounts, The Dudepit is definately the place to be. And let me say this now; next year, I need a pass to NAMM in my name from a reliable source. I don't want to get hosed again.


The P.O. is in, and the Bass is on it's way! (January 28th)

All systems are go! Should have it in my greedy little hands by early next week! The only snag, Line6 can't (won't?) give me a Tort guard in place of the Black Pearl. Seems the basses arrive assembled, and they don't have pickguards laying around. Looks like a job for Jeannie!


So...how'bout that SuperBowl?... (February 7th)

Nothing. Nada. It's coming, but I guess Special Orders placed right after the partying at NAMM don't exactly go flying through the proper channels.

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! (February 8th)

And in my hot little hands! Let's take this step by step.
Out of the box; Ooooo! Pretty! How much more black can it be? None, none more black. The first thing that struck me was the weight - a little on the beefy side for me. The body is pretty thick, about 1 3/4" (as opposed to my No.1 P-Bass' 1 1/2"). I suppose it's because there's so many gears and whistles inside. The body is very Stingray-like in shape; the Fender-with-a-belly look. I'm not a big fan of the Black Pearl pickguard, but the shape is kind of cool. There's a crazy, concave thumbrest running a few inches alongside the E string that works very comfortably.

The neck is fantastic. A real nice Jazz bass width at the nut, with a fairly flat (12"? 14"?) radius. The tuners are Gotoh-ish, with the "twisty" heads that you find on older basses sometimes. The whole thing has a nice amber vintage tint too it. I plan on making this bass a fretless, but now I'm torn between my original plan of buying an aftermarket neck or de-fretting this one. A slight bow came right out with a quarter turn off the truss rod, and the bass was a half step low right out of the box.

It plays quick and tight. I hate the Roundwounds. "Kink kink zing". Let's plug it in and see what all the fuss is about.

You can either load it up with 6 AA batteries, or use the supplied powered direct box and special cable. The how's and why's and what's of the different models can, and have been, argued to death elsewhere. How close do the models sound to their intended basses? I don't know, or care. I just want a cool useful and fun palette of tones. These are just my observations on the bass I have.

Personally, I don't know that the differences between a model of a 1961 Jazz and a 1971 Rickenbacker 4001are significant enough to sell me on one over the other. Each setting on the Model Select knob has two models; a Green and a Red. You change between the two by pushing the Volume knob. Running through the models, it seems that the Red models suit me a little better, but when you switch the Model Select knob, it automatically goes to the Green model. Picky picky picky.

I really really hate these roundwound strings and the TI Flats go on real soon.

As I figured, the funnest models are the 8 and 12 string basses. Really cool and full and trippy. These will get a lot of use behind guitar soloes and certain intros.

The acoustic models are going to take some work. The Thunderchief seems a little zingy (stupid roundwounds), and the Kay Upright has sound strange goings-on with the decay, but nothing that technique can't adjust for.

The Synth models are crazy. Useable? Maybe for fun.

I think I need to take off the rounds and then really check these tones out. My 'wish list' for Line6 is this; A Wal. Nice tight burpt fretless Wal. I know a couple of guys who have nice ones you could model. A banjo. Bass banjo. And a Dobro. C'mon! It'll be great! You could replace the Warwick! Nobody's going to buy a Variax Bass to get the sound of a Warwick!

Okay, back to the lab. More to come.


Day Two. (Feb. 9th)

Ahhhh. Flatwounds. Mmmm. I feel much better now.

The strings, at least to my aged ears, don't change the parameters of the tones that much. Afterall, the 'Brain' is reading string vibration. It certainly takes out all that crappy string noise, so at least it sounds like there's more fundamental.

One thing I'm definately not used to is the concept of built in decay. The Hofner and Kay models have a very fast decay, and it's counter-intuitive to a caveman P-bass player like me! I grew up thinking sustain was king, and palm muting was the way to reign it in. Also, on some preliminary E-Bow testing, the decay patches make a mess of things. To be expected.

Each model has a lot of tonal flexibility with treble and bass boost and a sort of 'virtual pickup pan/move knob'. One real nice feature is that once you find the settings for a model that you like, a push of the Select knob stores that setting, so the next time you come back, that's where it is. Very handy for live situations so you don't have to dial it in every time you switch.

I'm going to load it up with batteries and take it to rehearsal tonight. 6 AA's last 10-12 hours according to the book. Or, in emergencies (battery emergency?), one 9-volt will give you 1-2 hours of power. I've been using the powered direct box.

The manual is kind of "Gee, isn't this keen!", but does cover most things you'll need. I think there's a much more comprehensive manual available for download from Line6.com, but I'm not sure. The gig bag that it came in is excellent! One of those 'hard-bag' types, with a couple of nice big pockets.

Okay, I'm sold. (Feb. 10th)

After three days, four different amps, and several hours of playing time, I'm convinced; this is a cool bass.

Here's the part that surprises me; I think most of the models of Electric Basses are really really good. The Thunderbird has that growling, grinding thing just like my '65 T-Bird. The Dano sounds a lot like my old Dano. The Stingray sounds like I picture a 'Ray should sound. Vintage J's? Tight, burpy and funky.

It's not perfect, mind you; I've got some suggestions for Line6 and some plans of my own. I wish it wasn't so heavy. I wish it didn't have that Black Pearl pickguard - I can't warm up to that at all. I wish the acoustic models were better. I really wish Line6's web-site was better. I was trying to Register the bass and kept getting "Your serial number doesn't exist" and "You're not registered" messages. Apparently you have to register for every page. Convenient.

The next step is to get a fretless neck on there and start gigging the bass. I'm shooting for a Feb. 19th debut, but it depends on the neck I've got a line on. A new neck and a few gigs will give me a real good idea of what's right and what's wrong.


Fate and Serendipity equal Lack of Sleep. ( Feb 11th)

There are times when the planets converge, or the Gods smile down on you, or you're just damn lucky, that all is right with the Universe, and it leaves you as giddy as a little girl with a new pony.

Yesterday, a beautiful fretless neck fell into my lap, and now, the monster lives.

Danny Click called me about a parts bass that had shown up a E St. Guitars, and he thought I should have a look. The bass is an unfinished Warmoth PJ body, with gold hardware - nothing special - but the neck is a Warmoth (I think) Rosewood neck with Rosewood fingerboard, Jazz width, and it's absolutely gorgeous, and plays like the Autobahn drives.

Needless to say, my evening plans changed on the spot, and the next few hours were spent in surgery, of a sort. The results were even better than I had hoped. This bass is stunning to look at and to play. The tones are fantastic as a fretless, all right there at the flick of a switch. I stayed up way into the wee hours just...playing.

The models I keep coming back to are MODJ Green (2004 Fender deluxe Jazz), for it's tight, burpy Jaco vibe, then CLANG Green (1971 Ric 4001) adds some boom to the sound, and to get really deep grinding snarl, THUMP Green ('63 T-Bird). For a more acoustic feel, it seems the Hofner or the '66 Gibson EB-2 work better than the actual Acoustic Models. Also, the 8 and 12 string models seem to do the 'freak' tones better than the Synths. The 12string on a fretless with a E-Bow is worth the price of admission itself, practically!

The Variax will ride along as a backup this weekend, just to give me some time getting to really know it. I'll try her out a lot next weekend and then report back.


Gig Report! (Feb. 22nd)

I used the Variax exclusively on two gigs last weekend, and after a bout with the flu, I'm ready to try to arrange my thoughts.

Friday night was Classic Rock with Ellis Isle at The Huddle in Fremont. I hadn't played at The Huddle for some time, and after a few tunes I realized that it was going to be a very bad place to analyze a new bass. It's a fun enough club, with nice people, but the stage is a wooden box sitting on top of another wooden box. All bass frequencies drain into the stage and swirl around you until you feel like a mud-slide victim, while the highs get out of there as fast as they can. On stage all you hear is "FMM FMM FMM" while in front it's all "GINK GINK GINK". I couldn't hear the Variax enough to judge how it sounded. Even on the 12 String patch, I couldn't hear the top end.

The next night was the same band at Vinnie's in Concord. Much better! Big open room with a big open stage. My amp set up is a GK 1001 RB through an Avatar 2x12, and provides all the bottom end in the world. The Variax really shined. I used a lot of T-Bird for the rock stuff. The growl and sustain were perfect. Another tone that got a lot of use was the Danelectro; a huge airy sound! For more "acoustic" type of tunes I used the EB-2; good thump. And for real ravers - AC/DC and Audioslave - I used the 12 string, which just killed. As a three piece, the 12 covered a lot of ground, especially beneath the soloes.

Here's the thing about the Variax overall; It takes a little more thought and prep than I'm used to. This isn't a bad thing, but it is different. The bass can confuse me because I'm not used to "programmed tone". The fact that things like sustain and decay are pre-set within the patches is counter-intuitive to a "P-Bass, set and forget" player like me. I'm an old dog learning new tricks. It's going to take time to work up the experience with the different tones, so that when I reach for a certain feel, I'll know just what I'm getting. The CLANG settings I enjoyed goofing around with at practice volume, didn't work for me at Gig Volume; The Dano tone worked surprisingly well; things like that.

So, is it "The Last Bass You'll Ever Need"? No. Get real! For the money I have into it, it's the last bass I'm going to get for a while, I can tell you that!

Is it my new Number One? I don't think so. I'm not close to having the kind of empathy I have with my Antigua P; I know exactly what kind of noise it will make when I play it a certain way. However, the Variax is definately a solid Number Two right now, and that means it skipped way ahead on the depth charts right out of the gate.

The technology is exciting, and I'm curious where it will go. Will I be able to replce tones that make no sense to me (synths, Warwick)? How 'smart' can this bass get? It's 'open ended' design means that the evolution of the instrument is just beginning.

My wishlist is growing. I wish it was lighter! I think I'd like a magnetic pickup to blend with the Variax, especially for EBow work, as there are a few effects that won't work with the Piezos. Tort pickguard!

It's a 'Wishlist'.

So I highly recommend the Variax bass. But don't buy it because you think it's the only bass you'll ever need, or because you think you'll get to sound like a bunch of cool vintage basses. I recommend it to the player who want's the expanded pallette of tone in an easy to use package. Or better yet, buy it because it's a brand new intsrument, and tucked away somewhere in there is a brand new voice waiting to be let out. This is a bass for Explorers, not Historians.


Yet Another, Different Gig Report (March 14th)

Last night I used the Variax at a weekly Blues gig I've been doing (plug ON) from 6 to 8 on Monday Evenings at JJ's Blues Lounge in San Jose with The Sinners (plug OFF). I thought this would be an ideal chance to try out some of the models that wouldn't get used in a Rock situation.

Instead of leaning on the 12 String and T-Bird tones, I went with the more Hollow body options. The EB-2 patch worked really well; lots of "Boom Boom". The most interesting one was the Hofner - very whump-y, with a fast decay. I could get a real 'doghouse' feel using this one, and then for the big finish, hit the Red/Green selector and close out with the Dano tone; boomy, butwith a slightly grindy edge to it. Oddly enough, I never got around to the acoustic models because I was having too much fun with the ones I was using!

Even on this stuff, I was having a hard time staying away from that T-Bird patch. It's a great tone on the fretless with the flat wound strings. Definately my favorite.

I got a lot of compliments on the tone of the bass, especially from the singer. I suspect he secretly wishes I'd play upright.


Hey! Where ya been? (October 4th)

Okay, so it's been pretty quiet around here lately, and thanks to a little prodding (David!), I thought I should do a bit of catching up.

First off, the Variax got another new neck. I put a Moses Graphite fretless neck I picked up second hand on the bass, and even though I'm not a huge fan of Moses Graphite Neck tone, it does seem to improve the quality of the "tracking" on the Variax. I'll add a new picture.

I have to say that, frankly, I'm not playing the Variax very much lately, and I'm contemplating selling it. There are two reasons; one logical, the other petty and selfish. The logical is that I'm not using it as much as I thought I would. The Variax lends itself brilliantly to Cover Band or Classic Rock type gigs, where a variety of tones at your fingertips are an advantage. However, I'm not doing as many of those gigs as I was. The majority of my gigs are Blues and R&B gigs, where my fretless P-Bass just fits better. Plus, I'm lazy, so less cords to set up and less gear to lug, not to mention the weight of the Variax, all come in to play in deciding which bass to grab as I head for the door.

Secondly, the petty issue. I don't expect a lot from music companies. They make and sell me what I need and I'm fine. I was pretty jazzed about the Variax, and went out of my way to deliver an honest yet positive review to anybody who asked. I got, and still get a lot of hits on this site from people who have searched the web for info on the Variax. Frankly, I've probably sold a few of them. So when I wrote to Line6, and asked if I could be listed and linked on the Artist page of their website, I didn't think it was totally out of the blue. I didn't ask for any money, gear, or discounts. I told them I already had a nice Line6 Bowling Shirt from one of their reps, a friend of mine who would vouch for me. I figured, the worst they could do is say 'no'. But it wasn't really. They just never bothered to answer. Nothing. Not a peep. Deleted.

That to me signifies a pretty crappy company, without much consideration for their customers. I'm not really sure how much I want to promote this bass anymore. I still get a lot of hits on this page, so I'll keep it up for a while, until I decide what exactly to do. Tell me what you think; drop me a line.


November 9th,

I recieved an E-Mail from Thomas Gotthard of Copenhagen, and we had a short exchange about the Line6 Variax and different things about the Line6 company. Thomas had written an E-Mail to Line6 asking if they were planning a Bass version of the Workbench, which would allow tweaking of the parameters and models. Line6's response was this;

"Response (Michael Murphy) - 10/25/2005 03:56 PM
Thomas- unfortunately it is against company policy to talk about future products. If Workbench becomes available for the Variax Bass there will be an announcement on www.line6.com."

Wow! Hows that for customer service! Well Thomas, at least they answered you!

November 29th

Well, I've put the Variax Fretted neck back on the bass, put the bass in the gig bag, and haven't even thought about it the last two weeks. Seems like it's on it's way, slowly, out the door.


December 9th

The Variax has been sitting in it's bag for almost a month now, and I had forgotten about it until someone mentioned it last night. I'm feeling guilty; it's not a bad bass. In fact it's pretty good for what it does; it's just not for me. Dang...so close.

So it's on the block. Offers? I'd love to trade it for a Fender Roscoe Beck five. That'd be great.


And so, the end. December 29th.

It's over. The Variax has been shipped off to Texas, and a Shoreline Gold Roscoe Beck Five is winging it's way towards me as I write. Maybe you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Maybe 'simplicity' is my mantra. Maybe I'm lazy.

A little advice for Scott, the new owner; the most common complaint is that the G string doesn't track as well as the others. This can usually be remedied by loosening the string, "Seating" it securly over the saddle, and re-tightening the string. Not that Line6 would listen, but this would be helped greatly by making the bridge 'string-through body'. Also, check how the ball-end is seated against the bridge plate.

I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to read all these mini-rants. I hope some people got something out of it. I've been amazed by the traffic on this page.