I have a Red Variax 300, over all the guitar is a korean guitar. I had to set the damn thing up out of the box. I went to Ms Music and did as you are, asked around. They had a Variax 700 in Jackson and sent it down to Biloxi. This was a black guitar and the thing about the Variax is that this type of guitar it does not matter what of wood or those things like a normal guitar because of the way it produces its noise. I also own a Line6 PODXtlive which allows me full access to all the variax has to offer. I made a bid for the guitar in Biloxi but Ms Music would not budge from their price, so I purchased mine from American Music Supply (online). When the guitar arrived it was a blem but for the life of me I am unsure where they get the rating I can not find any cosmetic issues with this guitar. I also save over 800 purchasing the guitar online, I am all for buying item in the area but sometimes the retail enviroment feel they can charge above listed price. I do not pay retail for many items, and will not pay what is marked on a guitar. Anywho, the guitar is totally different from a regular guitar in how it makes its signal. You have three options, batteries (eats them like they are going out of style), a special 1/4 jack that looks like a normal stereo headphone jack(one portion provides power, another for the signal) and you can also use a cat5 (standard network cable) and plug into either their PodXt Live or their high end Vetta amps. I purchased it after doing allot of research and here is what I found out.
It does not matter what version you purchase they all have the same computer inside it.
Do not purchase the version with the tremlo/whammy bar loads of issues with that guitar because of the whammy itself.
I have used the guitar without the Line6 PodXt Live and all things considered without the POD this is just a novel idea, it really helps to have the Pod to organise all sounds.
I would be more than willing to speak with you on the phone this week and it would be better to discuss this oer the phone. I hate typing. But like I said go to myspace account and listen to "Sandman" that song is all variax. On God of Thunder its all Variax except for the leads which are my Ibanez RG Guitars or SA Guitars. I purchased this guitar not for the Gibson sounds or the fender sounds but for the acoustic, banjo and sitar. If you listen to Indian on myspace this is all Variax. Now remember when you decide to purchase this guitar, wood quality does not matter at all. This thing has a built in computer and it uses the fishman mic to pick up the string sounds which are converted to something usable by the computer inside the guitar. There is a very slight legacy issue with the guitar (slight delay depending on the program your using). But over all I would spend another 399.00 for another blem guitar of this type. I have heard that Line6 sucks on tech support and take forever, this is not true. The only real issue with living in Ms is that our nearest Line6 warranty center is no where near us so our stuff has to be mailed directly to line6. There is also a issue with the volume/whammy pedal on the POD XTLive and the tune around is almost a month, so I opened the box myself and repaired the pedal (voided the warranty) but I will not wait a month to have the thing returned when all they are doing is loosing the nuts on the whammy pedal to reduce the squeeking sounds.
Send me a pvt mssg with your phone number if you'd like to chat about the guitar.