Add HSS setup to Variax 700

H

harmaes

New member
Dear forum members,

I've used my Variax 700 for a few years now, mainly for recording. The different models on the 700 make it very useable for studio work.
I've recently bought an Egnater Renegade and want to play live again. I noticed that my guitars with mag pickups sound a lot better in my ears over the Renegade than the Variax. The Variax does have some sustain and can sing somewhat on the lead channel, I still think it should be fitted with mag pickups to be more useable live.
The 700 plays nicely, has a mahogany body and maple neck with rosewood fretboard. I will probably buy a new JTV-69 next year after I've played it personally. I don't want to sell the 700 since it's also a nice guitar with a very useable tremolo.
Enough context here's the question I have:

I am interested in a JB for the bridge and maybe DiMarzio Cruisers for N and M. I might also like more vintage noiseless single coils in the N and M to get a more stratty sound.

Are there members on this forum who have experience with placing pickups on Variax 700? Since this is a mahogany body what SD pickups would work best in a HSS setup? I play pop/rock/blues and fusion/jazz and I'm more of a traditional player.

Please let me know your opinions!

Tx in advance.

Harry
 
Re: Add HSS setup to Variax 700

Asked in a simpler way:

- Anyone ever fitted SD pickups on a Variax 700 with what results?
- Which SD pickups in a HSS setup sound best on a mahogany body/maple neck with rosewood fingerboard?

I want to be able to play rock to heavy rock with the bridge pickup and have some vintage strat tones with the N and M for pop/blues/rock. I like the cruiser that Andy Timmons uses in the neck but I doubt if a cruiser in the middle gets me the vintage strat tones I'm after in the 2 and 4 position?

Please let me know what you think.
 
Re: Add HSS setup to Variax 700

What pickup set is best really depends on your tastes and playing style. Given the body wood, I'd probably go for a dual humbucker config and play with some PRS-style coil splits.

I'm not a huge fan of the stock JB, but you might look into swapping the magnet to A2, a very popular mod (many artists associated with the JB have custom shop pickups that are hotter wound, A2 JBs). For neck, I'd look at a '59n or a Jazz neck.

If the guitar could use some thickening, you might look into the Parallel Axis series. They're designed to beef up a thin superstrat with floating vibrato bridge to sound like a thick Les Paul. But fans of gutsier tones like them in mahogany fixed-bridge guitars as well. They have a lot of great features, I'd look at a PATB-1b (or PATB-3 if you prefer more of a classic hot PAF) and a PATB-1n in the neck.

If you prefer to stick with single coils, I'd look at the STK-S4 (Classic Stack Plus) in middle with STK-S7 (Vintage Hot Stack Plus) in neck.

If you want a smoother neck soloing tone, there's plenty of options. I tend to lean towards keeping a standard single coil [or a noiseless stack variation] in at least the middle, though.

Exposed to something like the Variax, the mad scientist in me urges a Sustainiac...

I have no experience with the Variax, though, so can't comment on success or failure modding it.
 
Re: Add HSS setup to Variax 700

Hey despair, tx for your reply.

I def want to go for an HSS setup. I will like into your suggestions.

Tx, Harry
 
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