Well, now the Luddites have a new enemy of the state to vilify, the Variax Acoustic 700 guitar made by a company called Line 6, which for years now has been briskly selling digital modeling amplifiers that mimic the sonic characteristics of venerable guitar amps.

NPR: The Variax: Many Sounds from One Guitar

But given a bit of tweaking with a series of sliders that simulate mike placement and compression, the Variax becomes the Rich Little of the guitar world and does convincing impressions of instruments that might set you back 20 grand if you had to buy them all separately.

NPR: The Variax: Many Sounds from One Guitar