It's no secret that most electric guitar players are reluctant to move beyond vintage, or even vintage-looking gear. For many guitar players, anything newer than a 1959 Les Paul or '57 Stratocaster, and a mid-1960s Marshall amplifier is suspect.
However, for those who are a bit more adventurous, the Roland VG-88 Guitar Modeling System is both a great tool for the working guitarist, and a glimpse into the future of the electric guitar itself.
The unit comes with 160 presets, and more are available to download into the unit from various Websites, including the VG-88's wiki. Flipping through the unit's presets is much like dialing up various patches on a keyboard synthesizer, except the emphasis of course is on various guitar sounds. But like most keyboard synths, there are some truly exceptional presets, some extremely good ones, some offbeat sounds, and a few "what were they thinking?" clinkers.
For the full impact of the VG-88, a guitar equipped with a Roland GK-2A MIDI pickup is required, available as an aftermarket bolt-on device, or built into guitars such as Fender's Roland-ready Stratocaster. A nice touch on the VG-88, however, is the presence of a conventional quarter-inch input jack, thus allowing electric guitarists who've built up a collection of instruments to at least use the VG-88's electric amplifier modeling patches and effects. On say, the "Fat 1959" patch, plugging in a conventional electric guitar produces a nice roaring lead sound.
However, a conventional electric without a synth pickup won't be able to play some of the more advanced patches in the VG-88, and here's where the unit really shines.
Many Tonal Colors For Recording, Playing Live
Of the exceptional presets are the nylon string guitar, the 12-string acoustic guitar, electric sitar, and several bread and butter electric guitar tones. The 12-string acoustic has a really sweet timbre; think Melissa Etheridge, or The Sundays. Additionally, it also has a huge stereo spread, which is a marvelous touch — when recorded in stereo, arpeggiated pans move from across the stereo field for a beautiful, liquid sound, somewhat akin to the ping-pong stereo effects the Fender Rhodes electric pianos of the 1970s could generate.
Article comments
1 - Darren
It is interesting to see a review for an item that is nearly four years old, but it is a misnomer to call the VG-88 (or its predecessor, the VG-8), a guitar synth. It is in fact a guitar modeller and not a synth at all. For guitar synths, check out the GR range, such as the GR-33 and the GR-20. Sorry to be a pedant. ;-)
2 - Mark Saleski
i have a GR-50, though when i bought i the outboard pickup wasn't using midi, but some proprietary Roland signals.
works pretty well, though doesn't track nearly as well as this thing supposedly does.
3 - Connie Phillips
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4 - mike ferr
The author seems to think that this thing is a MIDI device that can control synths etc. Wrong - this does not output MIDI note-ons at all. It doesn't transform guitar notes to MIDI, it digitally recognizes the waveform and modifies it. A basic misunderstanding of the difference between an effects box (which this is) and a MIDI guitar synth
5 - Van Ng
Great article! I don't see where the author had indicate the unit as a guitar synth or midi device. It was clear to me that correct references to synth patches do exist on the VG, and the GI 20 or other hex/GK to Midi device would provide true guitar to midi conversion for connecting to synths. This review is well written and highlights the age-defying and technology innovator such as Roland VG. I still use my VG 88 today, version 2, sometimes as a standalone, and other times in serial/parallel with my valve and solid state amps. I would separately control my synths via a midi controller, but in my opinion and playing style would prefer bridging my VG with a GR or similar through a Roland US20, GR would connect to midi distro box to synths, without having to leave my guitar to play synths.