In the second part of our Line 6 James Tyler Variax Preview Dave Lenat walks us through the assortment of acoustic instruments this solid body electric can imitate. And if you think it only does does acoustic guitars, well then boooooy HOWDY you didn't read the above headline.  

Guest Blogger Seth Chapla offers his step-by-step setup guitar for electric guitar; read it and save yourself some time and cash.  

Don Boomer from Line 6 explains the differences between traditional analog wireless systems and the digital wireless transmission technology employed by the new Line 6 V30 and Line 6 V70 wireless microphone systems, and what it means to never need a clear channel.  

We talk shop at Pitchfork Music Fest 2010 with Josiah Wolf, drummer for WHY? and burgeoning analog recordist, about the evolution of the band and the learning curve on the Tascam 388.  

Philly-based classic rock outfit Free Energy recorded their debut LP Stuck On Nothing in NYC. If you've heard their record, you may wonder how they got those reverberant 70s drum tones in such a real estate-challenged city. The answer: New York may not have a lot of living space, but it sure has a lot of empty elevator shafts!  

Guitarist Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction now has his own signature Epiphone guitar, the Dave Navarro acoustic / electric guitar, which is just as versatile as he is.  

How much can one say about an iconic instrument like the Rickenbacker 4003 electric bass guitar? About 2,200 words-worth*, apparently.

*Five years have past; five summers with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These bass tones, rolling from their single-coil hearths
With a trebly pick-attack.—Once again
Do I behold these deep and punchy notes,
That on a wild venue stage impress
Thoughts of more classic rocking; and connect
The listener with the banging of the head.  

Check out two new plugins released by Minimal System Instruments: Synthetic Pro, a dual-oscillator wavetable synth; and UltraComp, a simple, back-to-the-classics compressor effect.  

No worries if you don't know how to hold or play a guitar -- that's what Sugar Bytes Guitarist is there for. The new virtual guitar lets you "play" as you would on a real guitar, or sequence patterns and chords to be played for you.  

Future Loops did all the dirty work for you, by collecting all its favorite jungle music, breaks, and drum 'n' bass sounds and putting them all into the comprehensive Jungle Guerrilla pack of construction kits, loops, and beats.  

With fond thoughts of sunny Southern California, Fender decided to re-issue its classic Villager 12-string acoustic guitar and update its 1965 features to appeal to today's players.  

The newest version of the "modeling guitar" may just be the one guitar to rule them all. The Line 6 James Tyler Variax combines boutique electric guitar luthiery with some of the most impressive electric and acoustic guitar models we've heard. Hear it for yourself in this part one of two in our preview of the James Tyler Variax.  

Like some scene out of Inception, Michael Ross gets lost in a layer on top of layer of stereo loops generated using the DigiTech JML2 JamMan Stereo. This impressive looper pedal is capable of up to 6hrs of record time, which is equal to weeks of loop time one dream down, or decades two dreams down. And you don't want to go further down than that, trust me.  

When your basic live setup includes sending your snare drum through an envelope filter at the mixing board, it's a good idea to find a sound person willing to tour with your band. Neon Indian learned that lesson the hard way, but at least they learned it before playing this past Pitchfork Music Festival. Owen spoke with drummer Jason Faries about some of the other tricks the band employs live.  

Luke Temple and Kristina "Tini" Lieberson from Here We Go Magic speak with Owen at Pitchfork Music Festival 2010. The band started as Luke's solo project and evolved into the full band it is now, but they haven't stopped making albums on Tascam tape machines.  

Our regular contributing reviewer Markkus Rovito likens the KRK Rokit Powered RP6 G2 Studio Monitors to Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski. See, sometimes, there's a monitor, well, it's the monitor for its time and place. . .  

The Boss BR-800 digital, battery-powered multitrack recorder is now shipping and ready to help you record on the go.  

If you want a hardware-quality reverb with a software price, check out the latest from Relab Development --LX480 Lite, a new plugin that emulates a hardware reverb's features and adds some new ones too.  

Made for live performances, the Blue enCORE 300 condenser microphone will help land you scores of encores. The mic was designed to deliver vocal clarity with consistent tone and low noise, regardless of the cable length on stage or how the mic is held.  

Learn the important fundamentals of audio engineering and how it applies to home studio recording, with Ask Video's latest DVD tutorial with the longest title ever, The Studio Edge: Pro Audio Recording Series, Studio Concepts, Gear & the Physics of Sound.  

Make your lineup of NI software instruments, samples, and effects "komplete" with the soon-to-be released Native Instruments Komplete 7 Elements bundle of all of the above for Kontakt, Kore, Reaktor, and Guitar Rig.  

Ever wonder how that tune that's stuck in your head* got written in the first place? More likely that not it started as a gleam in some chord progression's eye. Steve Kirk -- our non-resident, regular blog contributor -- offers his thoughts and advice in creating melodies from chord progressions.

Is that tune Black Sabbath's Iron Man? It is now.  

A DAW just ain't a DAW these days without some dedicated hardware arm candy. Logic has its Apogee gear, Live has its APCs, Pro Tools has Digis and M-Boxes, and now Sonar has the Cakewalk A-300PRO Controller Keyboard. Brian Smithers gives it a test drive.  

Allen & Heath has officially released its iLive Tweak app for iPhone and iPad, which provides real-time, remote control of Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing software. The app is now available for free.  

Image-Line has updated its Deckadance DJ mixing software to version 1.7, which provides support for more audio file formats, support for additional controllers like the Hercules DJ Control MP3 E2, and much more.  

For Strum Electric GS-1, Applied Acoustics Systems released its exclusive Oh My Funkness! loop bank of funk guitar grooves. Oh My Funkness! is also the phrase of the day. Pass it on.  

The new Cinesamples CineCrash sample library is the percussionist's dream stash of nearly 3 GB of crash cymbal and cymbal sounds.  

Later on in the year, Focusrite will be adding to its ISA range of gear the new ISA428 MkII, a four-channel mic preamp and analog to digital converter with many of the same features as its predecessor, the ISA428, as well as many improvements (like a lower price).  

Prepare to crack those glow sticks before opening up Planet Trance, the new Elastik sound bank / sample library by Ueberschall made up of nearly 1,500 trance-ified loops and samples, 30 kits, and much more.  

Users of Digital Performer who happen to own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch can download the free MOTU DP Control app to get wireless control over DP software.