I have a small project recording studio, hidden away upcountry in the hills on the island of Maui in Hawaii. I play bass as my main instrument, but I like to fiddle around on other instruments and I like to have a few of the standard instruments around when different artists pop into my studio. I used to have a Gibson Les Paul to play for fun, and visitors loved to use it. One day I made a comment to a friend, Devin, about needing a wall of guitars and wished that the Line 6 Variax worked.  He responded that the electronic inside the Line 6 Variax guitars were great, but the instruments themselves, lacked the “real guitar feel”. Being curious I checked and the local music store on Maui, Bounty Music, had a great deal on the base model electric variax 300 demo floor model, so I bought it. I took it home and did some tests to compare the recorded sound of the Gibson Les Paul to the Variax Lester #3 WOW, as far as mimicking the real Gibson Les Paul, I was blown away.

So blown away that I sold the Gibson and bought an acoustic 700. Now I had the Variax 300 electric and an acoustic 700, perfect for a studio. When people would come to play they always went for the 700 because it felt better in the hands.

But it only has acoustic models, so I started looking at replacing the Variax 300, with an electric Variax 700. I went down to Bounty Music and tried it out. It just didn’t have that feel you get when you hold a special instrument, like the Acoustic. It looked beautiful and the quality was there, but I wasn’t sold. While I was there, the Store Guitar, Luthier Craig Fujii, was walking by and I told him that I really liked the Variax sound, but wanted the electronics in a Les Paul. He said why don’t we do a transplant. Next thing I know, I’m on google for days trying to find images and information on Transplants converted with Variax electronics into a Les Paul type body. I only found one Les Paul transplant.  It was at http://www.paulmartinvariax.co.uk/lespaulvariax.htm He did a beautiful job, but I wanted to have all of the controls on the guitar without using a pedal.

The other websites that made this project possible were:

http://www.transaxeguitars.com/prssantana.htm

http://www.donmousseau.com/stratiax/

http://www.guitaristjeffmiller.com/audio.htm

http://line6.com/community/thread/2392

Guitar Manufactures

http://line6.com

http://www.epiphone.com

Parts

http://www.graphtech.com

I found that there were at lots of great websites with great images and information for Fenders and everything else but Les Paul’s. So I compiled what I had found and shared it with Craig. I traded some of my old studio gear for a made in China Epiphone Les Paul. I had Rodney K., Sales Rep at Bounty Music, go through all 6 of the Les Paul’s to pick the best they had in stock for the budget. Rodney is a good friend and comes to my studio regularly. I dropped off my Variax 300 and the Les Paul with Craig and some concept images (Below). 2 weeks later with a little bit of input from me and helping hold wires and circuit boards here and there, it is now a real functional instrument, that I can hold in my hands. Wow, what a amazing instrument/tool, it sounds like the variax which I always really liked, but it feels and plays like a Les Paul, which I love.

I have some images from my iPhone from different visits to see Craig when dropping of parts at Bounty Music for him. I’ll be adding more images and Audio and Video in the near future.