Imagine if Paul McCartney never picked up a Höfner. How would “Tom Sawyer” sound if Geddy Lee chose a Fender Precision instead of a Rickenbacker? Weird, huh? Just like us, our favorite players’ choice instruments are essential to their individualistic tone. But as performing and recording bass players, we’re often called on to deliver a range of classic sounds despite our limited access to instruments. Instead of abusing your credit rating acquiring a collection, Line 6 offers a different solution: the Variax Bass 700, which electronically models the sound of a ga-ga assortment of classic basses, offering an unprecedented amount of tone flexibility without buzz-killing complexity.
The Variax Bass 700 uses technology similar to that found in Line 6’s Variax modeling guitar, but the 18-month design process involved a complete reorientation of the technology toward the specific requirements of a bass. Line 6 programmers used proprietary software tools to replicate each of the modeled instruments’ sound-influencing components. By critically analyzing the physical and electrical behavior of everything from the bridge saddles to the pickups of a modeled bass, Line 6 creates a sophisticated snapshot of the instrument’s tone anatomy and locks it into the Variax’s onboard software system. Thus, when the Variax’s piezo pickups sense the vibrating string and send an audio signal through the onboard digital filters, an accurate reproduction of the modeled instrument is output through the bass’s ¼" instrument jack. Because the signal originates like a conventional bass, there are no latency or tracking problems. And the models are deep. For example, the Variax’s blend knob behaves exactly like that of the modeled instrument, and it interacts with the tone knob or EQ as it would on the original. And on modeled basses that have a single pickup, the Variax’s blend behaves as a virtual pickup shifter, allowing the player to hear what it might have sounded like if a P-Bass had a bridge pickup, for example. For the acoustic basses, the blend control controls the distance of a virtual microphone to the modeled instrument. Cool details like this abound on the Variax.
Chameleon
Line 6 didn’t blow its resources on the Variax’s virtual soul. The Variax is an attractive, well-built instrument. The shape of its alder body is a generic representation of several different body styles and, though a bit non-descript, it’s comfortable and well contoured. Our tester’s amber-hued neck had a shallow-C profile that felt great under my thumb. The fretwork and neck fit and finish were good and the four-bolt neck joint was tight and gapless. Hardware quality and assembly were excellent throughout. Line 6 chose a 21-fret neck for the instrument, which may peeve high flyers, but at least access was acceptable all the way to the top. Because the Variax utilizes saddle-located piezo pickups, the conventional thumb anchor provided by magnetic pickups is missing. Line 6 ingeniously addressed this problem with a custom-designed crescent-shaped thumbrest whose thicker ends lie at the outer extremes of conventional jazz pickup placement.
In the tradition of modern automobiles with thick plastic “Don’t Even Think About Opening Me” engine covers, the Variax’s innards are not meant for public consumption. It’s no matter, because unless you’re a MIT-trained hacker, there’s definitely no user-serviceable parts inside. It’s incredibly easy to interface with the guts, however, especially considering their tone potency. This ease-of-use is due to Line 6’s clever multi-function knob scheme. Pushing on the smooth clicking volume knob selects between the two models in each of the bass’s 12 model groups, and the indicator light changes from red to green correspondingly. The concentric tone controls change function with regard to the selected model. For passive bass models, the center detent of the treble knob represents the tone-full-up sound, with counter-clockwise roll-off behaving as it would on the original instrument. Boosting the treble knob on a passive-bass model augments treble response in a way that was impossible on the original instrument. Since the passive basses didn’t have a bass control originally, the Variax’s bass knob is flat at the center detent, but boosts and cuts when moved. For active instruments the tone knobs behave like the original modeled preamp’s EQ controls. Selecting a model is as simple as rotating the groovy model-select knob to the slot opposite the indicator light (which doubles as a knob illuminator for darks stages). The model names are evocative of the modeled instruments, like manta for the Music Man Stingray and Modulus Flea Bass models, clang for the Rickenbackers, and acoustic for a Tacoma Thunderchief acoustic bass guitar and Kay M-1 upright.
Sound Shifter
The Variax boasts good playability. The bass is well balanced and feels just like a conventional solidbody bass guitar. Each of the knobs turned smoothly and was easily accessed.
When I first got the Variax, I had a hard time not being distracted by how cool it was. Early on, it’s tempting to just blithely cycle through the models, entrancing oneself with the marvelous technology at work. When I finally got down to more musical endeavors, I discovered an instrument laden with sonic opportunity. Full disclosure: an A/B test of each model against the original would be ideal, but Bass Player only dreams it had an in-house collection of that magnitude. Instead, my conclusions are based both on my awareness of the general sound of the modeled instruments and on the Variax’s performance strictly as a musical instrument.
In typical fashion, Line 6 provides an excellent manual with the Variax. It’s one-part “Pilot’s Handbook” and one-part bass-history textbook. Each modeled instrument is described in detail, as are the related function of the tone and blend knobs—important, considering that with 24 models on tap, it’s easy to lose track of what’s happening. Line 6 chose a savvy assortment of basses to model, with Fender instruments receiving the most attention. Calling up vinj accesses ’60 and ’61 Fender Jazz Basses, the latter strung with flatwounds. True to the originals, the models have a gurgly bridge-pickup tone and rotund neck-pickup tone with the tone rolled off. Dialing in some treble adds sheen and sparkle without sacrificing bottom. These models also display a common trait of the Variax: I thought each model had a subtle hollowness to the upper-midrange, which I attribute to the piezo-pickup signal delivery. Since the electronics reside in a large body cavity, the Variax is more resonant than most solidbodies. This resonance, which was easily perceived when I played the bass acoustically, translated to a slightly woody plugged-in sound across the model groups.
In each of the live and rehearsal settings where I played the Variax, I was enamored with the ability to change tones dramatically, but quickly. A few favorites quickly arose, and it was easy to save my preferred settings by pressing the model-select button for two seconds. One welcome crisis with the Variax: There’s so many cool tones, choosing the right one requires a good deal of introspective decision making. For pop tunes and the like, I was drawn to the big, warm prebass P-Bass models and the modj model of a fretless ’61 Fender Jazz Bass. Rightly, Line 6 did not endeavor to capture glissando mwah, rather modeling the sound of “fretted” notes on the fretless original. Pickstyle rock had me calling up the Gibson Thunderbird model in thump or one of the two Rickenbackers available in clang. For rootsier tunes, the Höfner model in hollow was perfect. It’s one of the Variax’s most impressive models, capturing the quick decay and throaty thump of the original. Overall, I was slightly underwhelmed with the way my slap technique translated on the Variax, due in part to the the bass’s slightly slow leading-edge attack and tendency to sound a bit clacky on G-string pops. But the manta models, the MTD model in modern and the Alembic in the alchemy group had a nice sizzly funk to them, and are perfectly capable of producing competent slap sounds.
The Variax’s show-all-your-friends barnburners are its 8- and 12-string models, the acoustic models, and the synths. The octave-stringed instruments sound great, but the digital pitch shifting made the synthesized strings sound slightly artificial. It never get old, however, playing the intro to Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” on the 12-string Hamer B12A model. Acoustic holds the ’49 Kay M-1 upright model, and it’s super fun. I discovered that moving the virtual mic with the blend control was the key to dialing in a good sound, and I eventually ended up with a thick, airy tone that would be totally passable in a bluegrass or country band. The synth models are killer, with both a Moog MiniMoog and Line 6’s own more modern creation represented. In synth mode, blend controls the mixture of two different synth tones, while treble adjust the filter amount and bass controls the filter sweep speed. Everything from astoundingly authentic Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock tight-bottomed bass to proggy interstellar space pads are available, and each tone is polyphonic and extremely well tracking. In the manual, Line 6 vaguely references future plans for the Variax’s RJ-45 jack. Here’s one vote for expression pedal control of the synth models.
The Variax is particularly apt for studio work. The benefits of having 24 classic bass tones in one instrument are obvious. The only challenge will be convincing skeptical producers and engineers that the Variax is worth a shot. The included XPS-DI doubles as a power supply and direct output, and it’s a great bonus. Rather than a bare-bones afterthought, the XPS includes a ground lift and mic level and line level switch. In my home studio it proved quiet and full-sounding.
Due perhaps to its impressively convincing sound, the Variax bass suffers from an unavoidable dilemma. Part of the original basses’ appeal is their unique physical construction—I physically interact differently with say, a Steinberger, than I do a Gibson EB-2, and because of that, I tend to morph my playing to suit the instrument. Each classic bass’s idiosyncratic shape and feel contribute to its magical uniqueness. The Variax can’t offer this, and that’s why it won’t be an unequivocal replacement for the originals. What it can offer, however, is a extraordinarily value-packed method for authentically evoking the sounds of 24 trophy basses. And it accomplishes this mission with elegance, presenting itself as an easy-to-use tool for creative musical expression, and not just as a tool.