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Guitarist magazine gets hands on with the first MkII Variax to arrive in the UK. For even more pictures and info check out Guitarist issue 333, on sale now

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• Review

There's little doubt that Line 6's Variax was one of the most talked about guitar introductions of the past decade - the world's first digital modelling guitar. But a major criticism of Variax wasn't the technology, but the guitars themselves.

While they were perfectly functional, they looked odd without magnetic pickups and felt rather ordinary - a stark contrast to the onboard technology. Over the past three years, however, a new 'Mark II' iteration of the Variax was being slowly planned.

This time the guitar side of things has been designed by noted LA boutique luthier James Tyler, leaving Line 6 to improve and update the technology. This is reflected in the guitar's name, James Tyler headstock logo and a more prominent gold-edged, black Variax logo - the only Line 6 logo appears on the battery compartment's cover.

The result is seven guitars: four USA-made models (of which we have a pre-production JTV- 69US on review) and three Korean-made models.

"Tyler's superb neck work is well known. Here a one-piece quarter-sawn maple neck is topped off with a dark slab of rosewood."

Tyler's guitars are some of the most sought after in the world, but these USA-made guitars aren't made by James. "The necks and bodies are made by Wildwood Manufacturing in northern California," he explains. "They get painted by Fausto at Reyes Painting in southern California, then assembled, set-up and QC'd by Tim Wilson, who ran the Jackson shop for 17 years."

Stylish and close to a Strat in overall length and width we get an off-set Jazzmaster-ish curve on the lower bout with a more angular forearm contour on the face - it's no belly cut, just some generous rear edge radiusing. The heel area is nicely shaped and chamfered, the neck firmly held with four recessed screws.