I’ll be the first to admit that Fender’s announcement of their new digital-modeling guitar, the VG Stratocaster, left me more than a bit nonplussed––I mean, as much as I love Fender’s traditional instruments, the rather short history of digital guitars is littered with badly planned, badly executed, or just plain lackluster attempts to bring the next big thing to electric guitars, and I didn’t see much reason to expect that Fender would get it right either.
But I have to say that having just watched the VG Strat demo from Winter NAMM, well… I’m actually pretty impressed. Not that I necessarily see one in my future, but I can certainly imagine a number of circumstances where a single, highly versatile instrument like the VG would come in handy. And for the traditional low-income, starving artist-type guitar player this thing could really be a godsend.
While perhaps not everything is shiny and bright on the VG Strat (that so-called “acoustic” tone sounds a little useless to my ears,) the Tele & Humbucker settings seem pretty damned good (at least as far as I can tell from the noisy showroom demo,) and Fender definitely dodged a bullet by packing absolutely everything onboard and requiring just a traditional 1/4″ audio cable for output (Digital Les Paul anyone?)
Oh yeah, and those instant alternate tunings could be a lot of fun as well, provided the sound reproduction is good (once again, its hard to hear any nuances in the demo.)
Anyway, you should definitely check out the video if you’re at all intrigued by the VG Strat. Unfortunately, Fender doesn’t seem to be using permalinks, so while I originally wanted to link directly to the page on Fender’s Frontline Live where I came across the demo, I’m posting the link to YouTube instead.
I’ll be interested to hear what you think…
- Hear The Fender Super-Sonic 112 In Action!
- Hear Amplitube Jimi Hendrix In Action… Courtesy Of Guitar Player Magazine
- See The BOSS/Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Pedal In Action
- Holy Crud! Fender Introduces Digital Stratocaster!
- See & Hear Gibson’s New ES-339 In Action
- Hear The Fender Princeton In Action!
- See & Hear The Electro Harmonix Germanium OD In Action
- See & Hear The Line 6 Floor POD Plus In Action
March 19th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I agree with you. The 1/4″ jack is great. The only cosmetic difference from a standard Strat is the smaller third knob. A minimum of alteration to the appearance was extremely wise.
Of course, when the “Relic VG” comes out, we’ll certainly have moral issues to tackle…
Then, there’s still that Bassman stompbox. Cary, are you planning a 2nd follow-up post on that little enigma?? LOL;))))))
March 19th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Hehe… nope, now I’m just waiting for Fender to produce a Virtual Audience so I can gig from the comfort of my easy chair : )
March 19th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Spend time with a whole Line6 signal chain (Variax, Podxt Live, & a PC or Mac with the software installed)…. and you’ll see why it’s a much better system for less money than the VG itself.
March 20th, 2007 at 5:31 am
Well, posted under the wrong section so second time round…
Hey, just checked out the vid link for the VG Strat. Have to say from a person who uses alternate tunings to a rediculous degree, I think this is the beginning of something phenomenal. The sound of the humbuckers and Telecaster sound great, although I do slightly disagree that the “acoustic†tone sounds a little useless to the ear after all, this is a solid body electric guitar not too bad but this guitar aint for playing acoustic is it eh!! Starting at around $2400 or £1,499.00 here in the UK. Great guitar, so much to offer but a staggering price I must admit!
Check this out, [EDIT: Dead Link,] just over 200 bucks and almost offers all of what the VG does for a fraction of the price!!
April 14th, 2007 at 1:40 am
This guitar has to be better than line 6 variaxes as they only make the sound deeper or higher tone this guitar changes the actual sound. And plus its a roland pickup its gotta be good!
April 15th, 2007 at 7:14 am
So heres the basics – i have never been into fender guitars – let alone strats (atleast at the price level that i have been shopping for the past few years). When i heard about Fender releasing this new “digital” guitar i was even less excited – most digital guitar i have heard (if not all) have just sounded like that…digital. This guitar however, is not.
I went to guitar center to check it out a few days ago – they told me that every time they got in a new shipment they sold out in the matter of 30-40 min. Damn. So i went over to a local guitar shop and was lucky that they had a few. I plugged it in. The tone was just sick! I played through all the imagniable settings – and left me very impressed. The versatility of this guitar is phenominal – and that is really what i need for an electric guitar. I play everything from Jazz, Rock, Blues, Classical, Metal – etc. The tone on the guitar is just killer – for most of the settings it does not sound like a machine is playing with the sound – it sounds like someone is just chaning the pickups all together. Needless to say, my birthday was in a few days – Happy Birthday Me. I have a new electric guitar.
That beings said, i am still not a HUGE fan of the acoustic settings, they dont reallly sound like an acoustic gutiar for my ear. However, it is an interesting sound that they give forth – and so for those of you that like to play arond with timbre its a cool feature (however if this was the only feature i wouldnt have gotten the guitar). The tunnings’ tone arnt as amazing either, i mean they are ok and i am using it all the time just because of the convenice, but it could have been a little better, however if you play in a band, it is so minimal you couldnt tell. Finally, one thing that you have to keep in mind when buying this guitar is also! buying !!REally Good Rechargable Batteries!! I change them about every other day – but i play 5-8 hours a day, so yea.
Other then that the tone on the strat, tele and humb. are just amazing. And considering you are getting 4 diff. guitars in one, it really is worth it. I have a Boss GT-8 and have been less then impressed with the tone that i get when “emulating” a bunch of these things, and have played through many Roland, Line 6, Crate .. you name it ive played through it – they all come down to sounding a little digital. This my friend – does not!
I recomend this for anyone. Just go out to youre local shop and try it out!.
And also, dont buy it online. Buying relativly expensive guitars online isnt the smartest thing to do. Every guitar will feel, sound and appeal differently. Even if the same model and everything.
Good Luck!
April 21st, 2007 at 7:47 am
The great thing with the VG Strat is, that you don´t need a lot of cables…. just one guitar and your “normal” equipment” – I think the possibilities are great !
July 29th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Hey,
I really need some advice. Had played…getting back into it. Went into guitar city to look at the Strats. I also looked at the Tele and Les Paul, but liked the Strat with humbucker. Well, this guy pulls down a black VG with maple fret board and shows it to me. I didn’t plan to spend this much (notice I used past tense…it’s here). To my novice ears, the Tele sounded right on. I liked the sound of the Humbucker also, though there was a difference from the two humbucker Les Paul.
Here’s the deal. I got it for $1598 plus tax. Am I better off spending less on an American Standard with the Humbucker and get off $600 less…then go from there? Was I just rationalizing by saying…I’ve got alot of different sounds for the money…I love music. I want to express myself with different styles, but haven’t gotten to the point of really knowing which sound I’ll ultimately like best? Please help.
Scott
September 8th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Played a VG today. Very impressive. It’s basically a good Strat with awesome tonal variations. I thought the Acoustic tone sucked and I’m not too sure about the alt tunings but the Tele, Humbucker and Baritone were “balls to the walls”! I’m trading a a guitar and effects rack in and getting a better more versatile unit.
October 18th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Saw the demo vid, played one at the music store, liked it well enough to buy, but after a week I returned it. For me, it’s just a novelty guitar for sitting around @ home playing.
There is a tiny bit of absolute silence when switching between active settings; cannot tolerate this. A slight electric pop sound also occurs.
The active strat sound sux (imo). Sounds like the tone knob turned down, or rather like a slightly compressed (fake) sound. Switching back & forth between non-active strat & active strat while sustaining any cord reveals this. Since one of the active guitar modes are required to use the multi-tuning/12 string mode knob, it’s downhill from there if you want a real strat sound too
The Tele sound is much more accurate than the humbucking, which only slightly leans towards a humbucker. Roland should’ve taken notes on how PRS effectively does Fender/Gibson sounds w/o a battery. Also, the non-active strat sound from the pickups aren’t as “strat sounding” as other regular strats I’ve played.
The neck is ok, but feels inferior to other American strats, & with less sustain too. My feeling is that Fender’s most expensive factory strat should not be inferior (neck, bridge, nut, tuners,pickups) in any way to their less expensive strats. It appears they shaved off some quality to help compensate for the Roland cost, & it shows. It’s not a bad neck, mind you, just not as good as say the American Standard or Deluxe models.
They advertise battery life to be 8-10 hours, but from the store they lasted only 3-4, as with Duracell rechargables too. So no, I’m not about to wear out the input jack unplugging it every time I put it down (just imagine over the years how many times you’d be doing this than w/o the battery), let alone the hassle. And the fiber optic strength blue light battery indicator is just plain hokey.
Nope, yesterday I brought home an American Deluxe Ash Strat, & it *far exceeds* the VG in every “non-active” way; Many differences too (Locking tuners, better neck, better sustain, push in tremolo bar,better pickups, & strap locks), so for me the VG Strat stands for Very Gone Strat, which it has done…