Variax Workbench Software
Jun 29, 2010 Line 6 General
Posted by
Line6DP
We decided to hang on to the Virtual Capo video for the moment, to spread the news that every James Tyler Variax® digital modeling guitar will be shipping with Variax® Workbench™ software!
Variax Workbench is your virtual custom shop. Choose from famous guitar bodies, pickups, pickup placement, tone and volume controls, and tweak away until you’ve designed the guitar of your dreams – without choking on sawdust!
This combination USB interface/software package for James Tyler Variax guitars allows you to see and hear the physical changes to your custom guitar in real-time. Ever wonder what a single-coil pickup would sound like on a hollow-body guitar tuned an octave down? Probably not. That’s because it wasn’t a reality – until now.
Currently, Variax Workbench is an indispensible tool for many power-users of first-generation Variax guitars. Coming soon, these power-users will post their Workbench secrets so you can get their tones!

Variax Workbench
Tags: guitar, guitar body, James Tyler, modeling guitar, pickups, software, usb, variax, Variax Workbench, workbench








June 29th, 2010 at 8:42 PM
I don’t see a Series/Parallel selector on that screenshot for how the virtual pickups are wired with each other. It is in the current version of Workbench – I trust you’re not taking that feature out?
June 29th, 2010 at 9:26 PM
Will it work on Mac OS 10.6 ?
June 30th, 2010 at 10:41 AM
Workbench is unchanged for the James Tyler Variax. We added just a pull down menu item for backing up and restoring your alternate tunings from the alt tune knob.
Yes, it will work with all OSs.
June 30th, 2010 at 7:35 PM
Thanks Rich. But the screenshot does not match the old Workbench – look in the gray panel where the pickup settings are made, right in the middle. There is a single “Phase In/Out” switch, and NO “Series/Parallel” switch, like there is in the current Workbench.
Is there an explanation for this? Has the control been moved to another tab?
July 1st, 2010 at 11:46 AM
Nevermind! A poster on the Line 6 forum showed that this screenshot was taken from a very old version of Workbench.
July 1st, 2010 at 4:43 PM
When may we see a 5-string Variax bass again? !!!
July 16th, 2010 at 9:26 AM
I am considering purchasing the 59. I have never used a variax before, so am unfamiliar with Workbench etc. But here is my question. I do an acoustic show now that requires me to split my set base on the tuning of my guitar, Half-step down for first (Eb), One and a half down for second (Db). I see the 59 has the half step down and the 89 has the 1.5 down as “defaults” on the alt-tune. Also above it says that if i select Standard I can use any tunings I set up in Workbench.
My question is, can I use workbench to change the tunings for the other Alt-Tune selections. I will never us about half of them, so would rather beable to customize one of those. If I understand the models correct, if I had to say tune a 12-string 2 different ways for 2 differnt songs that are not available on the alt-tune, that would “burn up” 2 model banks? Hope that makes sense.
July 25th, 2010 at 7:14 PM
“Variax Workbench is an indispensible tool for many power-users of first-generation Variax guitars. Coming soon, these power-users will post their Workbench secrets so you can get their tones!”
You mean the people who have been yelling at you for well over a year that your software support is lacking? Who have been hounding for you to release a 64-bit driver? Who have complained about the requirement for an outdated of Java instead of bringing it up to speed? Who gave you $100 only to discover the interface/software wouldn’t work on their operating system? Who have volunteered to spend their own time writing the software for you if you’d only give them the necessary information needed to do so, met with deafening silence? Those people?
Nice to see how you really view your early adopters without whom this Tyler series would never exist. Anything else we can do for you?
August 2nd, 2010 at 3:23 AM
Will the Workbench software and USB interface that come with the Tyler Variax also work with the other Variax guitars, in particular with my Variax 700 Acoustic?
August 5th, 2010 at 8:08 PM
Once again ..
Is new “updated” Workbench will work on today MacbookPro without java issues etc..