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.
The nylon string sound is certainly the equal of dedicated acoustic/electric nylon string guitars, such as the Gibson Chet Atkins model Classic Electric solid body nylon string guitar.
And the electric sitar patches are also rather nice. In fact, the VG-88 saved me the purchase of real 12-string and nylon string guitars, and an electric sitar. I like having examples of all of those available for their tonal colors when recording, yet none are instruments that I would normally play. But I actually wandered around the annual Dallas Guitar Show last April seriously looking for a good Classic Electric Chet Atkins model or affordable 12-string. And I've given serious thought to purchasing an electric sitar from time to time.
In other words, for the serious home recordist or working session guitarist, the VG-88 would be a great tool to have in the arsenal. As Kevin Shirley, who's engineered albums for Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Aerosmith once said of the unit's immediate predecessor, the VG-8, "As far as newer equipment that's come in, I love this Roland VG-8 guitar synthesizer. That's fantastic. I've used that for a while, and I've always introduced it to guys in the other bands, and they always say, "You'll never see us touch them." When we did the Aerosmith album, I showed Joe Perry my VG-8, which I put a little pick-up on one of my Strats. He was like, "Nah, I'll never use that. If I use a 12-string, I'll use a 12-string." But if you see him live now, he's got a VG-8 hooked up. I love that. And Neal Schon uses it. And this new band with Jason Bonham, Healing Sixes, uses it." (For our Blogcritics interview with Shirley, click here.)
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
Congrats! A link to this article now appears at our Myspace Profile page.