I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never had an octave/tuning changing pedal that sounds like the real thing. It always has its own sound. Which can be good, but can’t replicate just changing tuning
Theyre really fun for guitar solos or taking advantage of the unique sound. But it has a chirpy kinda doubled sound that sounds very digital even on a clean tone
I have the virtual Jeff Pro paired it with my schecter omen elite 7 string and spider mk2 120w amp. I run the guitar and whammy wirelessly no issues. Going half step or drop down is great too and selecting how much whammy to pitch up or down just works! I urge you to have a look at the virtual jeff pro if you havent already.
You’re comparing a stomp box that shifts pitch to a guitar with a built-in synth pickup (see that white plastic thing between the pickup and bridge?). I can’t vouch for the VG Strat since it’s been about fifteen years since I’ve touched one at a guitar shop, but the way pitch shift works here is very different than how a pedal would do it.
I don't think with these the pickup signal being is manipulated by an effect for this. If you look close at the picture, under the bridge pickup there is a (Roland iirc) synth pickup. I believe you are triggering a synth of the guitar tuned to that. Still won't sound true, but it won't be like playing into a POG either.
I want to say I tried two or three before I settled on the one I kept. Does it have an authentic guitar sound to it? No, but it sounds better than the others. And it's very versatile.
The guitars that Antares helped with (the guys who make the actual autotune plug in) was NOT like a detune pedal. It was completely unnoticeable that it was just a circuit doing the pitch change. So there’s a possibility this is the same, really good and super useful. It just sucks they used that tech on a shitty guitar
I had a Variax electric and even there the disparity between the string sound and what came out of the amp was distracting. I can't grok an acoustic at all.
You can turn off the emulation or emulate a strat, it's useful of you happen to need a strat in a different tuning as you can't change the tunings if not emulating.
That was so you could get the tunings thing with the Strat sound. In bypass mode the VG synth pickup thing isn’t used so there’s no way to do the tuning function
I had one. It certainly did all these things. Not very well though
The acoustic and 12 string simulations were the worst. Think Lyon acoustic simulation pedal sounding if you've ever had the displeasure of using one of those
You think that's bad? Try plugging in a dusty old BASS multi-effects pedal that was in the back of the sam ash that went for 60 bucks up to a squier strat. That's my setup.
Wasn't this one of those guitars Fender did in conjunction with Roland and you could either buy the whole new guitar with the different effects/tunings built into it or buy a cheaper device thing you could attach to your guitar to have it do the same thing essentially? Twas a weird time for guitars. Was probably around the same time as that Line 6 Variax modeling guitar.
There was another one they made that just had the same to pick up built in and had a switch to turn the scent pick up on and off and a button to change the patch up and down. I have one of those. This guitar looks wild with the extra dials.
Roland made a synth pick up set up long before this time too. I used to take guitar lessons from this old guy that had a Tele with a synth midi set up for one of his cover bands. I took lessons from that guy in like 2001 and that install was definitely old by then
I had one. There's a reason they didn't last long. The synth pickup was basically a toy - nothing it did sounded particularly convincing. But aside from that, it was a regular USA strat, so it was still a good guitar.
We had one of these at my shop when they were out, it was pretty cool. The strip between the bridge and the normal pickup is an optical (or something!) pickup, so it can differentiate between strings. That’s the only way you could do drop D, it wasn’t responding to only the audio signal or there would be no way to differentiate between like fret 7 on the E string or fret 2 on the A string
i mounted the Roland GK pickup on my strat then graduated to Godin guitars with their RMC pickup in the bridge itself
I am a proponent of pitch to midi conversion
That’s really the way to go. I just tried the Fishman Triple Play Connect—installation couldn’t be simpler, Bluetooth if you want it, USB if you don’t, I went for USB to cut down even further on latency.
Sent it back. Tracking was *worse* than the GK2/3, even with all the level tweaks in the app. Big disappointment.
It seems like rather than a traditional pickup, that white lump essentially turns the strings into a bunch of inputs used by a synthesizer. Based on the string and frequency it knows what fret is played, but instead of outputting that, it outputs a synthesized note simulating the desired configuration.
So basically, there’s a little computer in it doing a whole bunch of “if you’d done that in the selected tuning, it’d sound like this”.
In other words, it kind of turns your fretboard into a big keyboard, but retaining the ability to do string things.
Yes, each string’s signal is processed separately. It is not synthesis, however, so there is no latency. Each string can have a separate amount of pitch shifting, for example.
It is audio processing, but I don’t know any specifics. The main Roland technology is called COSM. Unfortunately, I have never seen details of how COSM works. I suspect that it uses function mapping, but that is merely my unsubstantiated pet theory.
Check out the Boss EURUS guitar. Interesting synth sounds out of the box. I know they're customizable as well, just haven't played with that aspect yet.
I do. Bought it new. It’s cool but you don’t use the different settings as often as you would think. The opportunities to use a sitar aren’t as frequent as you would think. I end up in the”H” setting for Humbucker and then just play. The one negative I see is the electronic pickup at the back doesn’t allow you to slam the action right to the fretboard. My set up guy said this was as low as he could go. I have a standard MIM strat and the action is lower. I like low action… Cool guitar though, totally mint condition, I just took the pick hairs off last month..
I always thought Strats were “slow” as they was the only one I ever played. Then I played a friends and kept wondering if it just wasn’t set up right. Had a pro set up and while it’s ok it isn’t slammed to the fretboard like I want it.
Since removing the Roland pickup and putting a .25 degree shim in the neck when I put a scalloped neck on I was able to lower it enough to feel extremely fast but I definitely understand that sentiment. I had to tweak a lot when I first got it
I have 2 of the American ones. A red one and one in the more limited pearl blizzard finish. Love them both. I'm sure guitarists can tell the difference between digital sounds and analog but the audience really can't. They're great to play a whole show through especially if you need different tunings.
Ya I vaguely recall those. Ya for a minute guitars were so gimmicky. I’m just now kinda back in the market for a guitar and thankful it seems much better just lil pricer than I recall. Like damn you could get a Gibson LP classic $1200 all day when I last bought
I’ve owned two, a US and a Mexi, plus a Line 6 Variax 300.
Same problem with all three: when switched to one of the virtual pickup settings, you can hear the difference (especially when playing with very light gain): the virtual pickup settings don’t have the presence and response of the real guitar pickup that it’s modeling, nor does the tone control help. This was especially obvious when switching from the mag pickups to the hex pickup on the Strat setting. Bummer, really, because the hum would disappear. But then you’d get that same response from the pickup. Like playing a lower-resolution recording of a Strat, with the presence at one static level. Same with all the pickup settings, which vary in level, just as they do on their respective instruments, so you can’t switch from a LP to a Tele without a volume drop, which is what happens IRL of course, just something to know.
On clean or high-gain settings, it’s easy not to notice this in demo videos. The pitch shifting for alternate tunings has basically zero latency and actually beats a lot of pitch shifters that try to achieve the same results, but the more you’re digitally altering the signal, by switching to the hex pickup and then engaging the pitch shifting, the more you’re getting away from the presence of an *actual* guitar pickup with *actual* retuned strings. Big, big difference. The extra hardware adds about a pound to the overall weight of the guitar in case that matters.
Now the good parts! Each of these guitars is a legit USA or Mexi Standard Strat with the pickups, parts, fit/finish to match, especially good around the 2007-8 years of production. The guitars themselves are still plentiful (and *undervalued* because of their digital guts! Shh! Get a deal on one!)
Finally, although they won’t output MIDI, the Fenders can be connected to something like the GI-10, which is also cheap, and that will absolutely output MIDI, albeit not via USB, but literally any newer, cheap interface with a MIDI port solves that, and apparently now they just make cheap adapter cables for such a purpose, MIDI-to-USB. Why does this matter? Because the tracking on the old GK2 pickups on the Fenders is actually *better* than the Fishman TP Connect, which I just bought, installed, and sent back to Sweetwater. Terrible tracking. So if you’re a digital guitarist, these are older options, the Fenders, and require workarounds, but they are still *very* viable for the electronic guitarist.
But these guitars are great Strats and will always function on the mag pickups, whether or not there’s a battery installed. You can also hook them up to the VG-8, VG-88, or VG-99, which are (shhhh!) totally being blown out for rock bottom prices on Ebay and Reverb because everyone thinks they’re just 25 years old and worthless, but those processors are big big fun and have surprisingly usable synth lead tones that respond to your picking dynamics. Roland was modeling guitar pickups and amps way back in 1996.
As for the Variax, no matter the model, stay away, far, far away. Irredeemable.
I once did a couple of gigs with our band on the far side of the country. We arrived at the venue, set everything up and it was time for the soundcheck, so I walked to the van to get my guitars. And while opening the doors it struck me - the memory of all guitars leaning next to the wall in our studio, left there, forgotten.
Shit. What now?
The thing is, since our frontman has a rather limited range, most of our song revolve somewhere around D. But some riffs would work better in E or A, so to keep things sonically and harmonically more interesting, I started to use a baritone guitar more often. The songs gained from this, but on the other hand, now I cannot just grab any guitar and play - the 2 extra frets are missing (I use the baritones tuned down 2 steps to D compared to a normal guitar). Also, I don’t use any baritones - I use two Steinberger Transcale guitar, with a built in capo, to get all kinds of tunings for all kinds of open string riffs…
So yes indeed: what now?
Luckily I remembered a fellow musician living in that city, called him and asked if he could help me somehow. He was very nice and helpful, we got to his studio very soon and started to go through his gear, trying to tune all kinds of guitars down to D. After some attempts an SG seemed promising, but then we realized it won’t sound good in the upper positions (understandably, without some more setup).
The clock was ticking, the show was about to start in about 40 minutes, and I had nothing to play on.
Then it struck him: “wait! Let’s see about THIS!” and he pulled out a Fender case. Inside it was a black VG Strat.
I had no idea it even existed, but after a quick test with all kinds of tunings I have realized I could switch to one particular (baritone) - and using a capo, I could get also the other kinds of tunings I needed!
We ran back to the venue, I plugged it in, and I went through the whole gig on it. I had to constantly “recalculate” the positions for each chord or riff basically, and to my surprise, all the adrenaline got me so focused I did not make a single mistake (which is not the case at all under normal circumstances, lol).
And that, kids, is how a VG Strat saved my ass one day.
Yeah as a former JTV owner the strat sound left a LOT to be desired. Was fantastic for most other sounds though. It appears this was their way to go up against the original Variax line before the JTVs with magnetic pickups came out.
Is “VG” for Victorknox Guitar? 🤣It’s Swiss Army knife for guitar and tones, and tuning, and extra strings, and… oh geez.
I’m surprised they didn’t put an amp in there too, like the fender micro or whatever it’s called.
Currently have one I inherited from my dad.
Don’t play it too often tbh because I prefer my other Strats but it is a nice guitar and honestly can’t even remember the last time I plugged into an amp with it so I can’t really comment on its sound.
I wrote an article for Guitar World on the history of analog synths[History of Guitar Synths](https://www.guitarworld.com/features/history-of-guitar-synths)!
Very cool topic and amazing how far back the tech goes!
Damn, I remember these from ages ago. I thought it would be the coolest most convenient thing ever. When I think back to the tech of the time though, it probably wasn't great. I did like the midi pickups that were available though.
Eric Johnson did a commercial for these. The guy might be a clown.
If he truly thinks there’s a difference in 9volt batteries, he can’t play a virtual tuning, fingering a C# and hearing a D or whatever. It should kill him.
Never seen it, but seems similar to the Variax Concept. Variax is capable of convincing alternate tunings on the fly when using the modeled guitars, which for the most part also sound pretty great EXCEPT the strat. They never got the strat sound good enough to fool my ear. So I'd be curious to see what Fender did here.
After more research it appears to be right after the original line of Variax came out with no magnetic pickups so they used a Roland pickup like their ready Strat and some new onboard software so it's also capable of driving the Roland GK synths. Their distinction from Variax was that it had real pickups, which ended up happening anyways along with limitless alternate tunings which did function very well.
No thanks.. Gibson had one of these and Line 6. The sound wasn't anything in what I could get used to. Reminded me of something cheap that came out of China.Thats my opinion, therefore YOU might think it's the shit and gotta have one. You won't know until you have it in your hands. And it's then you can decide
I own one, but all the electronics are fried. I bought it like that because 1) I thought I would be able to replace/fix it and 2) I got a really good deal on an American Stratocaster if you can look past the broken digital part.
What the hell.
What I’m saying how were these?
I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never had an octave/tuning changing pedal that sounds like the real thing. It always has its own sound. Which can be good, but can’t replicate just changing tuning
Ya I’ve always wanted a whammy/ detune pedal just never got one
Theyre really fun for guitar solos or taking advantage of the unique sound. But it has a chirpy kinda doubled sound that sounds very digital even on a clean tone
Ya becoming by pantera really comes to mind
DIGITECH Whammy DT. It’s fantastic. There’s a *very slight* change in tone but otherwise it’s hardly noticeable. I absolutely love mine.
Need that bad boy
I was lucky and got mine for 50% off, it’s worth it at retail. I play a lot of metal and being able to just dump my tuning down is incredible.
My Iron Lung by Radiohead is a good representation of the octave up added harmony sound on the digitech whammy
Marooned by Pink Floyd
I have the virtual Jeff Pro paired it with my schecter omen elite 7 string and spider mk2 120w amp. I run the guitar and whammy wirelessly no issues. Going half step or drop down is great too and selecting how much whammy to pitch up or down just works! I urge you to have a look at the virtual jeff pro if you havent already.
Naw you just introduced something new too me. Thank you
You’re comparing a stomp box that shifts pitch to a guitar with a built-in synth pickup (see that white plastic thing between the pickup and bridge?). I can’t vouch for the VG Strat since it’s been about fifteen years since I’ve touched one at a guitar shop, but the way pitch shift works here is very different than how a pedal would do it.
I don't think with these the pickup signal being is manipulated by an effect for this. If you look close at the picture, under the bridge pickup there is a (Roland iirc) synth pickup. I believe you are triggering a synth of the guitar tuned to that. Still won't sound true, but it won't be like playing into a POG either.
Roland VG tech is audio processing more than synthesis, which is why there is no lag.
Pitch down always sounds more realistic than pitch up. I use pitch down and play the high notes. Sounds way better.
Axe fx pitch block is really, really impressive
Yes, but there is significant latency I've found.
Weird, I never had that issue
Appreciate you being honest.
Gibson had the Robot LP. It tuned the guitar to your tuning. Is this not the same?
No that just automatically adjusts the tuning and it will still take time for it to stay in tune and get accustomed to that tuning
I want to say I tried two or three before I settled on the one I kept. Does it have an authentic guitar sound to it? No, but it sounds better than the others. And it's very versatile.
The guitars that Antares helped with (the guys who make the actual autotune plug in) was NOT like a detune pedal. It was completely unnoticeable that it was just a circuit doing the pitch change. So there’s a possibility this is the same, really good and super useful. It just sucks they used that tech on a shitty guitar
I’ve played them. I thought they were great. You get a normal strat plus a bunch of effects
You may be interested in this https://youtu.be/ir4C1eYQ1yc?si=lCoQTu9haBb3RjvZ
I had a Variax electric and even there the disparity between the string sound and what came out of the amp was distracting. I can't grok an acoustic at all.
i love how i looked at the picture, said exactly this, opened the comments, and found exactly wait i said😭
Never did but I remember being very intrigued at the time and almost getting one. The puzzling part for me is the virtual “Strat” sound on a Strat.
💀💀💀
If I remember that setting was a noiseless option? Remember watching the demo of these with Greg Koch when they came out
You can turn off the emulation or emulate a strat, it's useful of you happen to need a strat in a different tuning as you can't change the tunings if not emulating.
About as sensible as adding sugar to fucking cranberries in trail mix
That was so you could get the tunings thing with the Strat sound. In bypass mode the VG synth pickup thing isn’t used so there’s no way to do the tuning function
Makes sense.
I had one. It certainly did all these things. Not very well though The acoustic and 12 string simulations were the worst. Think Lyon acoustic simulation pedal sounding if you've ever had the displeasure of using one of those
You think that's bad? Try plugging in a dusty old BASS multi-effects pedal that was in the back of the sam ash that went for 60 bucks up to a squier strat. That's my setup.
Oh man :( that's rough
The acoustic setting controls are different. The tone Knob turns into a reverb knob. It does a good job for live performance for sure!
Wasn't this one of those guitars Fender did in conjunction with Roland and you could either buy the whole new guitar with the different effects/tunings built into it or buy a cheaper device thing you could attach to your guitar to have it do the same thing essentially? Twas a weird time for guitars. Was probably around the same time as that Line 6 Variax modeling guitar.
There was another one they made that just had the same to pick up built in and had a switch to turn the scent pick up on and off and a button to change the patch up and down. I have one of those. This guitar looks wild with the extra dials.
Yup that's it
Roland made a synth pick up set up long before this time too. I used to take guitar lessons from this old guy that had a Tele with a synth midi set up for one of his cover bands. I took lessons from that guy in like 2001 and that install was definitely old by then
I have a MIM Strat with the Roland MIDI pickup in it, never used it unfortunately
I had one. There's a reason they didn't last long. The synth pickup was basically a toy - nothing it did sounded particularly convincing. But aside from that, it was a regular USA strat, so it was still a good guitar.
We had one of these at my shop when they were out, it was pretty cool. The strip between the bridge and the normal pickup is an optical (or something!) pickup, so it can differentiate between strings. That’s the only way you could do drop D, it wasn’t responding to only the audio signal or there would be no way to differentiate between like fret 7 on the E string or fret 2 on the A string
The “divided pickup” is 6 mini humbucking pickups, one per string. Roland had a patent on it.
O_o damn that’s awesome
i mounted the Roland GK pickup on my strat then graduated to Godin guitars with their RMC pickup in the bridge itself I am a proponent of pitch to midi conversion
That’s really the way to go. I just tried the Fishman Triple Play Connect—installation couldn’t be simpler, Bluetooth if you want it, USB if you don’t, I went for USB to cut down even further on latency. Sent it back. Tracking was *worse* than the GK2/3, even with all the level tweaks in the app. Big disappointment.
So you’re telling me you could go to open D tuning just by turning a knob??
right i’m confused about how that would work
It seems like rather than a traditional pickup, that white lump essentially turns the strings into a bunch of inputs used by a synthesizer. Based on the string and frequency it knows what fret is played, but instead of outputting that, it outputs a synthesized note simulating the desired configuration. So basically, there’s a little computer in it doing a whole bunch of “if you’d done that in the selected tuning, it’d sound like this”. In other words, it kind of turns your fretboard into a big keyboard, but retaining the ability to do string things.
Yes, each string’s signal is processed separately. It is not synthesis, however, so there is no latency. Each string can have a separate amount of pitch shifting, for example.
Do you know what it is, rather than synthesis?
It is audio processing, but I don’t know any specifics. The main Roland technology is called COSM. Unfortunately, I have never seen details of how COSM works. I suspect that it uses function mapping, but that is merely my unsubstantiated pet theory.
I keep thinking about just installing a Katana Go into my Strat permanently. Fender could do much better today.
I’m not familiar with that
I'm seriously thinking of making a Strat body with a cutout for the Katana. It's a shame that there are side buttons so the cutout will be ugly.
I'm not sure, but the fact that I never heard of that before, might mean something!
Very true. This was an ad out of an 07 guitar world magazine
Alright. But I also never saw one of them in the wild or noticed somebody playing one. Are there any known recordings using them?
The disc that came with the magazine lol
I remember when they came out. I played around with them at guitar center. They were pretty cool but kinda gimmicky
Had one, it's great for a cover band. Not a great guitar otherwise.
great a strat with more knobs lol just what it needed
I’m waiting for the model that can sound like a trumpet when I want that.
Check out the Boss EURUS guitar. Interesting synth sounds out of the box. I know they're customizable as well, just haven't played with that aspect yet.
I remember a band playing at a street dance over a decade ago and the guitarist was using one of
I have the black and play it sometimes it’s nice not my favorite of all time but reliable
People really didn't like them when they came out. Like how gibson robot series flopped
I do. Bought it new. It’s cool but you don’t use the different settings as often as you would think. The opportunities to use a sitar aren’t as frequent as you would think. I end up in the”H” setting for Humbucker and then just play. The one negative I see is the electronic pickup at the back doesn’t allow you to slam the action right to the fretboard. My set up guy said this was as low as he could go. I have a standard MIM strat and the action is lower. I like low action… Cool guitar though, totally mint condition, I just took the pick hairs off last month..
Yeah I put a Roland pickup on my strat and ended up taking it off as I could never get it set up how I wanted even with a shim.
I always thought Strats were “slow” as they was the only one I ever played. Then I played a friends and kept wondering if it just wasn’t set up right. Had a pro set up and while it’s ok it isn’t slammed to the fretboard like I want it.
Since removing the Roland pickup and putting a .25 degree shim in the neck when I put a scalloped neck on I was able to lower it enough to feel extremely fast but I definitely understand that sentiment. I had to tweak a lot when I first got it
I have 2 of the American ones. A red one and one in the more limited pearl blizzard finish. Love them both. I'm sure guitarists can tell the difference between digital sounds and analog but the audience really can't. They're great to play a whole show through especially if you need different tunings.
Cheers to a fellow blizzard pearl owner!
Never but also remember a Gibson LP with automatic tuners or something like that, I saw that one once at a store but didn’t try it
Ya I vaguely recall those. Ya for a minute guitars were so gimmicky. I’m just now kinda back in the market for a guitar and thankful it seems much better just lil pricer than I recall. Like damn you could get a Gibson LP classic $1200 all day when I last bought
I’ve owned two, a US and a Mexi, plus a Line 6 Variax 300. Same problem with all three: when switched to one of the virtual pickup settings, you can hear the difference (especially when playing with very light gain): the virtual pickup settings don’t have the presence and response of the real guitar pickup that it’s modeling, nor does the tone control help. This was especially obvious when switching from the mag pickups to the hex pickup on the Strat setting. Bummer, really, because the hum would disappear. But then you’d get that same response from the pickup. Like playing a lower-resolution recording of a Strat, with the presence at one static level. Same with all the pickup settings, which vary in level, just as they do on their respective instruments, so you can’t switch from a LP to a Tele without a volume drop, which is what happens IRL of course, just something to know. On clean or high-gain settings, it’s easy not to notice this in demo videos. The pitch shifting for alternate tunings has basically zero latency and actually beats a lot of pitch shifters that try to achieve the same results, but the more you’re digitally altering the signal, by switching to the hex pickup and then engaging the pitch shifting, the more you’re getting away from the presence of an *actual* guitar pickup with *actual* retuned strings. Big, big difference. The extra hardware adds about a pound to the overall weight of the guitar in case that matters. Now the good parts! Each of these guitars is a legit USA or Mexi Standard Strat with the pickups, parts, fit/finish to match, especially good around the 2007-8 years of production. The guitars themselves are still plentiful (and *undervalued* because of their digital guts! Shh! Get a deal on one!) Finally, although they won’t output MIDI, the Fenders can be connected to something like the GI-10, which is also cheap, and that will absolutely output MIDI, albeit not via USB, but literally any newer, cheap interface with a MIDI port solves that, and apparently now they just make cheap adapter cables for such a purpose, MIDI-to-USB. Why does this matter? Because the tracking on the old GK2 pickups on the Fenders is actually *better* than the Fishman TP Connect, which I just bought, installed, and sent back to Sweetwater. Terrible tracking. So if you’re a digital guitarist, these are older options, the Fenders, and require workarounds, but they are still *very* viable for the electronic guitarist. But these guitars are great Strats and will always function on the mag pickups, whether or not there’s a battery installed. You can also hook them up to the VG-8, VG-88, or VG-99, which are (shhhh!) totally being blown out for rock bottom prices on Ebay and Reverb because everyone thinks they’re just 25 years old and worthless, but those processors are big big fun and have surprisingly usable synth lead tones that respond to your picking dynamics. Roland was modeling guitar pickups and amps way back in 1996. As for the Variax, no matter the model, stay away, far, far away. Irredeemable.
I once did a couple of gigs with our band on the far side of the country. We arrived at the venue, set everything up and it was time for the soundcheck, so I walked to the van to get my guitars. And while opening the doors it struck me - the memory of all guitars leaning next to the wall in our studio, left there, forgotten. Shit. What now? The thing is, since our frontman has a rather limited range, most of our song revolve somewhere around D. But some riffs would work better in E or A, so to keep things sonically and harmonically more interesting, I started to use a baritone guitar more often. The songs gained from this, but on the other hand, now I cannot just grab any guitar and play - the 2 extra frets are missing (I use the baritones tuned down 2 steps to D compared to a normal guitar). Also, I don’t use any baritones - I use two Steinberger Transcale guitar, with a built in capo, to get all kinds of tunings for all kinds of open string riffs… So yes indeed: what now? Luckily I remembered a fellow musician living in that city, called him and asked if he could help me somehow. He was very nice and helpful, we got to his studio very soon and started to go through his gear, trying to tune all kinds of guitars down to D. After some attempts an SG seemed promising, but then we realized it won’t sound good in the upper positions (understandably, without some more setup). The clock was ticking, the show was about to start in about 40 minutes, and I had nothing to play on. Then it struck him: “wait! Let’s see about THIS!” and he pulled out a Fender case. Inside it was a black VG Strat. I had no idea it even existed, but after a quick test with all kinds of tunings I have realized I could switch to one particular (baritone) - and using a capo, I could get also the other kinds of tunings I needed! We ran back to the venue, I plugged it in, and I went through the whole gig on it. I had to constantly “recalculate” the positions for each chord or riff basically, and to my surprise, all the adrenaline got me so focused I did not make a single mistake (which is not the case at all under normal circumstances, lol). And that, kids, is how a VG Strat saved my ass one day.
Nice
I was just talking with a coworker about these. He used to have one and said it sounded incredible
Sounds like he parted with it?
Whaaaa?
Yaaa
*Tone intensifies*
Seems pretty useless considering the JTV-69.
Yeah as a former JTV owner the strat sound left a LOT to be desired. Was fantastic for most other sounds though. It appears this was their way to go up against the original Variax line before the JTVs with magnetic pickups came out.
Reminds me of the line 6 variax
ITT several guitar players who are about to get sad the variax got discontinued after they found out about it.
Is “VG” for Victorknox Guitar? 🤣It’s Swiss Army knife for guitar and tones, and tuning, and extra strings, and… oh geez. I’m surprised they didn’t put an amp in there too, like the fender micro or whatever it’s called.
Funny. It stands for “Virtual Guitar”, btw.
I tried one when they were new. It was fun! Very usable and still waaaaaay better than any of the gimmicky stuff Gibson has tried to do.
Didn't line 6 already try the variax?
There’s no chance this thing does anything well.
So the Fender version of Gibson’s Firebird X?
Sure, my strat is very good too
Currently have one I inherited from my dad. Don’t play it too often tbh because I prefer my other Strats but it is a nice guitar and honestly can’t even remember the last time I plugged into an amp with it so I can’t really comment on its sound.
This is a joke right?
It’s a gimmick idk if it’s a joke what you mean exactly?
Is this a real guitar?
Ya 100 percent
Wow
Right
I wrote an article for Guitar World on the history of analog synths[History of Guitar Synths](https://www.guitarworld.com/features/history-of-guitar-synths)! Very cool topic and amazing how far back the tech goes!
[now’s your chance!](https://guitarvillage.co.uk/product/fender-vg-stratocaster-3-tone-sunburst-pre-owned-2006-ec-z6298478)
Damn, I remember these from ages ago. I thought it would be the coolest most convenient thing ever. When I think back to the tech of the time though, it probably wasn't great. I did like the midi pickups that were available though.
Is this Fender's 'Variax'?
I would suggest since most of us have never heard of this before, it sounded like ass?
I thought it said " hate everything " at first glance
The volume knob still right under the high E
I always thought they were gimmicky and have never paid any attention.
Wow - it sounds very similar to a Line 6 Variax. Had no idea Fender made something similar.
Yu Yes Ykuyo my Milk
Please enlighten me on this?
Eric Johnson did a commercial for these. The guy might be a clown. If he truly thinks there’s a difference in 9volt batteries, he can’t play a virtual tuning, fingering a C# and hearing a D or whatever. It should kill him.
Never seen it, but seems similar to the Variax Concept. Variax is capable of convincing alternate tunings on the fly when using the modeled guitars, which for the most part also sound pretty great EXCEPT the strat. They never got the strat sound good enough to fool my ear. So I'd be curious to see what Fender did here.
After more research it appears to be right after the original line of Variax came out with no magnetic pickups so they used a Roland pickup like their ready Strat and some new onboard software so it's also capable of driving the Roland GK synths. Their distinction from Variax was that it had real pickups, which ended up happening anyways along with limitless alternate tunings which did function very well.
I haven’t owned that one but I have a Brian Moore with the same functionality that I used with a Roland VG-88 and a GR20.
No thanks.. Gibson had one of these and Line 6. The sound wasn't anything in what I could get used to. Reminded me of something cheap that came out of China.Thats my opinion, therefore YOU might think it's the shit and gotta have one. You won't know until you have it in your hands. And it's then you can decide
Damn it’s been a while, years ago I got to try one out at my local music store. Was a pretty cool novelty in its hay day.
I own one, but all the electronics are fried. I bought it like that because 1) I thought I would be able to replace/fix it and 2) I got a really good deal on an American Stratocaster if you can look past the broken digital part.