Line 6 James Tyler Variax
The Line 6 Variax guitars have become my main instruments for live performance, and their incredible versatility makes them great for studio work as well. I would have used them even more normally, but this project had a special connection to my past, and I grew up playing nothing but the Telecaster for many, many years - hence all the Telecaster and Fender instruments in general used on this recording project. Nevertheless, I used this Variax for the electric guitar work on Fourty Niner, as it allowed me to get a Telecaster type sound with a custom tuning (although the instrument itself was still in standard tuning) to get the voicings I wanted.
Line 6 Variax Original
I’ve had this Variax for a very long time now - it’s one of their original model versions of the Variax. I used this for the “Alison” style guitar work on the Elvis Costello version of Mr. Moon, mainly because I have used it quite a number of times when performing his song Alison in live concert situations and that was the sound and style I wanted for this song. It perfectly captures the sound I got on my old Telecaster on the original recording for the My Aim Is True album.
Line 6 Variax Standard
This is the model of Variax that I’m currently using for my live performance work. Again, the versatility of the Variax instruments is fantastic. I used this to layer different sounds on Love Is Gone.