the Fly Clone Project

Hello. The Adrian Belew guitar really tweaked my brain. It makes so much sense to replace the Fishman with a Variax and retain Acoustic sounds as well as many other tones.

I picked up a 2003 Variax 500 to check out. I'm surprised these didn't catch on more, its a really neat guitar and great tech! The tracking is superb.

The body on my Nitefly Mojo Flame has a lot of room for routing and the huge back cover plate. I'm toying with routing and moving the Variax to the Nitefly. However both guitars are in gorgeous condition and I'm concerned about it.

I've read on the 'net' others have tried this, not with Fly guitars. Has anyone here tried to make this swap?

Thanks for any info!

@alembicman5, We had someone on the old Parker Guitars forum transplant a Variax into a Nitefly - So it can be done (just rout as much room as you need, and make sure the bottom bout of the body is wide enough for the T/R/S-RJM-45 combo jack plate assembly). How are you powering the 500? I ask because you can save a ton of room in the transplant by using the external "XPS" T/R/S power supply - But they're very rare, nowadays, unless the Variax you purchased included one or you're willing to make one yourself.

I had all the parts to attempt a Variax 300 transplant into an Ibanez project many years ago, but lost the Variax parts at some point in multiple cross-country moves after having put the idea on the backburner. Being as I own a Belew model for reference, I'm happy to help to whatever extent I can.

Do you even need the fancy jack? You could Belew that as well (with a 1/4 jack instead of 13 pin). I think I remember hearing back in the day that you could connect with Workbench from inside the guitar if necessary on the Belew.

mockchoi wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2024 8:18 pm Do you even need the fancy jack? You could Belew that as well (with a 1/4 jack instead of 13 pin).

This is true - But you end up losing the relative convenience of the power and digital-out options unless you perform Belew-level mods to re-route everything.

mockchoi wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2024 8:18 pm I think I remember hearing back in the day that you could connect with Workbench from inside the guitar if necessary on the Belew.

Yes: That was a thread discussion between myself and Dennis on the old Parker board. The connectors for the missing RJ45 assembly are shrink-wrapped and set aside inside the control cavity. I’ve considered tracking down the part so I can update the firmware or use the Workbench software - But I’m at least ten years too late for getting any sort of support from Line 6 or Full Compass for such a mod. I would essentially have to buy an old used Variax just for the parts.