Despite Shuriken's success, Line 6 maintained its primary focus on their flagship Helix product line, exemplifying a common strategy in established companies. This approach, where resource allocation decisions favor proven products over newer, potentially disruptive technologies, starkly contrasts with the agility of smaller, private companies. While small firms often have the freedom to innovate rapidly in response to market shifts, larger corporations—particularly those answerable to investors—tend to prioritize risk mitigation and maximizing return on investment.Interestingly, Line 6 itself was born out of experimental innovation, leveraging technology to serve guitarists' needs in unconventional ways. However, as the company became absorbed into a larger corporate ecosystem post-acquisition, departing from high-level corporate objectives became increasingly challenging. This evolution illustrates the tension between maintaining current success and investing in future potential, often resulting in a separation between teams managing established product lines and those involved in innovation. 

Through private investment, I developed a line of Shuriken guitars without Variax technology with the goal of justifying further R&D by proving the Shuriken guitar concept (i.e. guitar first, tech second and not the other way around). However, the COVID-19 pandemic bottlenecked manufacturing, causing significant delays, price increases and quality control challenges. Additionally, the Variax project was retired after key components in the Variax technology became obsolete (namely the SHARC DSP chip). Currently, the Shuriken Guitars project is on hold until an appropriate partner can meet the required manufacturing, quality control, and distribution standards. I have one prototype of each model, which I continue to use. If you’re interested in collaborating, please reach out to me here.