fatandugly
Experienced
I was on 1.81. newest is 1.82. I'll check out the tone tonight as it took me 2 HOURS to locate and install the new firmware on the Line 6 site. Talk about an impossible to find and confusing way of updating they have...terrible! No easy to find links to download the update and their image of the screenshots that show what buttons to click in no way correspond to what was on my screen. The total opposite of what the Fractal experience is. I wish I did not ever have to deal with Line 6 again, but I do love that Variax.
I don't remember what the new Variax FW is, but it's probably newer than what you have, if it's been that long. Check it out!
I've noticed that I tend to roll off the volume knob on the Variax to be able to get some good dynamics from it. I also roll off the tone.
On the Variax acoustics, the volume and tone controls don't actually control those functions, but DO change the timbre.