I think I fucked myself. They took advantage of my greed and inherent stupidity. The way I jumped on that was fucking embarrassing.
Hey man, my finger was hovering over the bass page.
Yeah, I was pretty close and then I thought ‘you know, it only takes a minute to Google sam ash what’s the catch?’ Glad I did.
New (maybe?) topic: has anyone played around with BlueCat Audio’s ‘re-guitar’ plugin?
This is a plugin for your DAW that claims to be able to take the signal from just about any electric guitar and make it sound more or less like a different guitar. Play your Strat and make it sound like a Les Paul, for example. Or even like an acoustic.
I’ve just spent a couple of hours messing around with the demo version, and I’m in two minds about it. Yes, it does allow you to change the sound significantly. But can you seriously get a convincing emulation of a different guitar? Not really, I think. The ‘acoustic’ sounds in particular don’t actually sound like a real acoustic guitar to my ear.
I think it’s quite old now, it first came out in 2019 I think. Not sure if there has been much development on it since?
The obvious comparison is a Variax (alas now discontinued).
If anyone happens to have tried both, it would be very interesting to hear your perspective!
At $79 it’s a lot cheaper than a Variax (if you can find one secondhand!) and I’m on the fence… may just provide enough different tones that it’s worth it as a tool in the box, though it doesn’t quite do all it promises…?
Bias FX 2 has something similar, they call it Guitar Match II. I’m not sure I’ve used the current version, but a year or two ago when I was playing with the feature I thought it worked pretty well. Certainly worked well enough IMO that in a mix it would totally get the job done.
I recall it being a little fussy about the setup, you have to profile each of your guitars by playing a guided series of notes up the neck on every string for every pickup. The closer you got to even, consistent picked notes the better.
ReValver had similar “pickup modeling” tech when it was owned by Peavey, not sure if the current version under new ownership supports it or not.
Having tried the software sims, I find myself preferring the Variax over them all. None of the solutions, including Variax, are 100% there—but I thought it was the “least crappy” option. Ultimately, I landed on buying cheap guitars that had the pickup configurations I wanted and using the Variax for live work. Once it’s in the mix/PA, the differences are negligible to non-players.
Interesting, thanks. I see they have a free version, I’ll have a look at it.
Sigh. Not impressed. No better than the Bluecat one, for acoustic sounds anyway.
And the free version only contains demos which cut off after you’ve tried them.
As you say, the software approaches don’t really cut it.
May have to go searching for a used Variax (if I can persuade my wife to let me)!
A lot of the multi-effects units have this sort of simulation abilities. My Boss unit does and it does an “ok” job at simulating acoustic or changing pickup types. In the group I play with, the lead guitar player uses the acoustic sim on one song and it works in the mix (he has a Helix). It wouldn’t fool anyone playing on it’s own, but it gets the job done enough.
Same with my Tone Master Pro. I don’t use that feature a lot but it does do a respectable job making a Strat-style guitar sound like a hollowbody. It really struggles making my Jaguar sound like anything else, but that because it starts out with an unusual tone that’s hard to cover up.
My lead player is playing a Tele with single-coils so I’m guessing it is similar to your Strat, assuming it is the single-coil “normal” version.
Right, they are OK for a song or two at a crowded gig where the beer is flowing and the crowd is noisy… 
I’m doing recording work though, and I need something that will stand up to slightly closer scrutiny.
Not going for Steely Dan precision, mind you, but I need some guitar models that at least get in the ballpark… I’ve recently started working with a couple of other songwriter / musicians, and we have quite a few different styles in the pipeline…
Any Variax owners: would you say it holds up, at least at the level of a decent demo?
Well, a friend of mine decided he wants to sell one of his guitars so he could finance buying another guitar. I asked about which ones he was considering selling, and an Epiphone Firebird was one of them. It’s one of the set neck ones, not through neck. And it’s got regular humbuckers instead of mini humbuckers, but it seems pretty sweet nonetheless. He put a Gibson truss rod cover on it, though. Silly, but I guess I understand. 
I was in the market for a humbucker guitar anyway due to this room being very electrically noisy and forces me to wave my P-90 equipped guitars around like a madman looking for the angle with the least induced hum. He’s coming down next month, so he’ll even be hand delivering it. I can’t wait.
Nice. I always loved the look of the reverse Firebirds, though I also thought I’d have to be 6’1" or taller to look good playing one. Curious how the banjo tuners are in use. I’d have preferred the brighter mini humbuckers, but I’m sure this still works pretty great.
Yeah, I would have preferred neck-through and minis, but he’s giving me quite a deal on it. I guess I can always keep fresh strings on it if I want it to be really bright, but the humbuckers should still work.
For a decent demo, sure, I think it’d meet your needs. I can send you a link to one in use in a demo context, if you’d like.
In my opinion, where their utility really shines is when integrated with one of the Helix pedalboards, or in my case, an older HD500X.
If that guitar follows the Epi pattern, get ready for a way chunky neck.
Hehe, even Gibson necks are all over the place over the last decade or so. I bought a 2014 SGJ used and expected it to have a normal SG-ish thin neck. Nope, 50s tribute neck for you! Fortunately, I can play either, and I’ve found the chunkier necks are actually more comfortable over a long playing session for me as I grow old.
Meanwhile, the Epiphone G-400 Pro that I convinced my guitarist to buy for his daughter last year has the most comfy and SG-ish SG neck I’d ever played. I didn’t want to hand it back, and neither did either of the guitarists in my current band. Really a sweet guitar.
And if I do end up a guitarist that needs to play for an hour or more at a stretch for live shows again, it won’t be in my noisy home studio (and I won’t care about noise as much, anyway). So even if the Firebrid does have a thin neck, I can grab one of my P-90-ish equipped guitars like that SGJ* if I was worried about stamina.
* Love that guitar. It came to me already loaded with Lollar Single Coils for Humbuckers, the circuit board had been replaced with nice vintage-style wiring, and it had a nice hard shell case. So basically $600 of upgrades on a guitar that I paid $500 for. I’d think it was a steal if it didn’t smell like nasty cologne for a year or so after I got it. It smells like weed and sweat now, so it’s perfect.
It’s personal preference of course, but I find these days I prefer a thinner neck with a larger fretboard radius. I have a classic Strat, but often use a rather cheap Ibanez Roadstar as my ‘working stuff out’ instrument… it’s just so easy to play…
Very cool! I have a Roadstar too and the neck is absolutely amazing – size, shape, feel. Mine doesn’t get a lot of use any more because of non-neck issues, but I would love to have a Strat with a neck like the Roadstar.