Playing by the numbers: Agoura Hills company leads industry in manufacturing of digital guitars, amplifiers as it helps musicians cut costs, set-up time. (Small Business).

IMAGINE pulling the strains of any one of John Lennon's hits, the twang of a classic banjo tune or a screaming Jimmy Hendrix lick, all out of a single guitar.

The Variax, created by Agoura Hills-based Line 6, looks like a traditional electric guitar, but it's digital and has a memory bank of roughly two dozen different guitar tones built inside. With the switch of a knob, a player can grind out the signature sound of The Who's Pete Townshend one minute and slide into the velvety lull of Ravi Shankar on sitar the next.

Instead of traditinal magnetic pickups, string vibration on the Variax is detected by a hexaphonic bridge and converted to digital sound.

Line 6 broke the barrier for the industry in the late 1990s when it introduced the first digital amplifier using the company's patented modeling software. The Line 6 Vetta amp and amplifiers produced since, all house a digital signal processing chip where models of dozens of classic tube amp sounds are stored, offering players what Line 6 calls "tone on demand."

"We think of it not as an amplifier, but a machine capable of producing a palette of sounds," says Line 6 President and Chief Executive Mike Muench.

Before the Vetta, the only way for a guitarist to produce multiple tones was to lug around two, sometimes three different amps, stomp boxes and other gear. Unlike vintage tube amps, which never sound exactly the same way twice, Line 6 amps, which start at around $8,000, allow musicians to also capture the same desired tones, echoes or effects, over and over again.

That aspect alone calls for less time in the recording studio and less time lugging gear on and off the stage.

"Musicians who record are particularly happy with the technology because it cuts down on costs and time spent laying down sounds in the studio until they finally get what they are looking for," said Muench. "Once they get the sound, it's still there for them when they go back again. There's no tweaking the amps and switching equipment around all day."

If it was possible to harness a range of classic amp tones in one box, it followed that players would also love to be able to get multiple sounds from one guitar. So Line 6 introduced the Variax at a trade show in July of 2002 and put it in stores last fall, where it retails for about $1,400.

Celebrity following

Line 6 products are being sought after by a growing list of well-known artists ranging from the Dixie Chicks to U2 and is being marketing in several countries in Europe and Asia.

Traditional amp manufacturers, such as Fender, have recently introduced their own versions of digital amps, but the expansion of the Line 6 family of products continues to outpace the competition. And the numbers show it.

Revenues for 2002 were $38 million, compared to its first operating year in 1996 at $2.27 million. The employee roster has swelled from 12 to 230 - that includes a sales and service team based in Woodland Hills, as well as a marketing crew in the United Kingdom.

"The magic of their own technology has tremendous benefits for musicians," said David Angress, executive vice president for Wesfiake Village-based Guitar Center Inc., one of Line 6's largest dealers. 'They have invented a category of equipment that traditional manufacturers have had to follow. And they've continued to develop new products, which has other companies constantly trying to catch up."

Will digital technology replace the sounds of classic amps and guitars? Not likely.

"Musicians will always want the option of having a traditional amp sound," said Angress. "I see the digital technology and classic amps and guitars co-existing nicely, not one replacing the other."

Muench agreed.

"Of course there's no replacing the feeling of standing in 'front of your amplifier and tweaking it until you get just the effect you're looking for," he said. "And don't forget, there are plenty of collectors of classic amps out there who seek out specific older amps because they are known for producing a sound that is unique all to themselves."

Musician founders

There was no market for Line 6 products when the company introduced its first digital amp. Line 6 co-founders, Marcus Ryle and Michel Doidic, both musicians with engineering backgrounds, had been perfecting the technology for several years while running another company, Fast Forward Designs.

The two formed Line 6 when the first amp was ready to hit the marketplace. But being first meant it was up to Line 6 to lay the groundwork for getting musicians on board with the new technology.

"Clearly the Line 6 technology was received with some skepticism because it was so new and so foreign," said Muench. 'That was probably the biggest challenge for us as we started out."

Today, the challenge and primary goal for Line 6 is keeping up with demand for newer products with similar technology. One of the company's popular side products is the Line 6 Guitar Port, which a player can plug into and, through an audio interface, jam along with their favorite bands on their personal computer via the Internet.

The Guitar Port retails for about $169.

There's also the Line 6 kidney bean-shaped POD and the newer PODxt, both desktop-sized amp models based on the Line 6 Vetta technology. Not only are they hightech, because they are so small they are becoming the amp of choice for recording artists as well as the weekend warnor.

"Artists love the POD because they can literally walk into a studio carrying this thing in a backpack, plug it in and they're ready to play," said Muench. "It's revolutionary, because it's so small and yet it's very powerful."

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Line 6

Year founded: 1996

Employees in 1996: 12

Employees in 2002: 230

Revenues in 1999: $2.27 million

Revenues in 2002: $38 million

Goal: Expand the product line.

Driving Force: Musicians looking to produce a wide range of tones with fewer pieces of equipment.