A Powerful But Maybe Overpriced Modeling Guitar
Written: Mar 30 '07 (Updated Sep 22 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A Strat with modelling? Who can ask for more?
Cons: I'd ask for less cost and more modeling
The Bottom Line: The VG Strat is a versatile modeling guitar that offers Tele, humbucking and acoustic models with six tuning options. It sounds great but is somewhat overpriced.
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| buffoonery's Full Review: Fender Vg Stratocaster |
In recent years, Line 6 has been leading the way in the modeling guitar field with its popular and versatile (although flawed) Variax electric and acoustic guitars. This is an interesting development because it was Fender who joined forces with Roland some years ago to produce the one of the first modeling guitars ever. That guitar included a Roland pickup that could be used to connect the Fender with Roland’s guitar synth system.
Fender and Roland have considerably improved the product since then. The new Fender VG Stratocaster combines a garden variety Strat with some powerful modeling features from Roland. It’s a guitar that is really designed for the performing guitarist who plays a variety of songs that demand different guitars and tunings but doesn’t feeling like lugging them around with him. The guitar retails for $1750 at Musician’s Friend, so it ain’t cheap and the question is: is it worth the money?
The Line 6 Variax guitars were designed from the ground up as modeling instruments. In contrast, the VG Strat is an American Standard Stratocaster with the modeling attached. This is one of Fender’s great strengths over the competing Variax: the Strat is a great bluses/rock guitar while I personally find the Variaxes to be rather clunky. The instrument is the usual 22 fret, three single-coil pickup Stratocaster with five-way switching. The body is alder, the neck is the standard “C” shape available in rosewood or maple, and the colors are black or three color tobacco.
So far, so good: it’s a cool guitar but you can buy it for $950 new so what are you getting for your extra $800? If you look closely, besides the usual volume and tone controls, you’ll see on the bottom right of the guitar two new controls as well as an LED light. The first control is a six position tuning control, the second is a five position mode control. These two controls are the guts of the VG Strat.
The “Mode” control allows you to select five different guitar settings: 1) The Strat without modeling 2) The Strat with modeling 3) A modeled Telecaster 4) A modeled humbucker, and 5) A modeled acoustic (five varieties). The first question that arises is, why two Strat settings? The answer is that you can play the guitar in standard setting when your (four AA) batteries are running down, a major advantage over the Variax competition, which requires you to either have batteries or to use a clunky special connector into an adapter box or the Line 6 amplifiers (which will power the Variax). Unlike those guitars, the Strat only requires a standard guitar plug, which I think is an important advantage.
The modeled Telecaster gives you a nice country twang that you can’t get with a Strat. The humbuckers give the guitar a nice, fat and overdriven Gibson SG or Les Paul sound that the fat Strats I have played really can’t deliver. The acoustic setting gives you five settings, which you can pick by using the pick up selector. The Fender manual doesn’t tell you what models they are, but they sound nice and seem to include a Resonator, so you got that going for you.
The “Tuning” knob permits you to select six different tuning varieties: 1) Standard 2) Drop D 3) Open G 4) DADGAD 5) Baritone BEADF#B and 6) 12- string. The advantages of this are obvious, as you can switch from one tuning to another on the fly and even in the middle of a song if you need to.
One extra advantage that the VG Strat has over the Variax is that you are still able to switch pick-ups, using the neck/mid/bridge on the Strat and the neck/bridge on the Tele and humbucker models. This gives a nice ability to play rhythm and lead tones. Combined with the baritone and humbucking selectors, you can play just about everything from country to down-tuned heavy metal in a single set without switching guitars. You should understand that the modeling varieties are a little weaker in output than the non-modeled Strat. Also, there seems to be a very brief gap when switching models.
On the whole, the VG Strat is a quite versatile guitar that is ideal for performance and recording. However, as I raised at the beginning of this review, is it worth the money. You are paying $800 for the VG Strat’s modeling abilities. The Variax 700 electric is $1400, so you’re paying another $350 against the competition’s top-of-line guitar. What’s the difference.
The Variax’s strengths are that it models a lot more guitars, is connectable to Variax’s cool Workbench computer program (which allows you to model almost any guitar you want), and has a lot more tuning options. It’s also cheape and as a recording guitar is far superior to the Strat.. The VG Strat, on the other hand, doesn’t require the inconvenient patch chord and has both electric and acoustic models. It also allows you to use different pickups. Finally, it plays like a Stratocaster and a heckuva lot better than the Variax.
So, for the Variax, you get a lot more models and enough money left over to buy yourself a first-rate multi-effects board from Roland, Korg, or Digitech. The Strat, on the other hand, is a much better performance guitar at a premium price. I like this guitar a good deal, but frankly think it is overpriced by at least $200-$300. As always, you’re paying a premium price for the Stratocaster name. For that amount of money, they really could have given you some extra models to choose from. So I'm giving this excellent guitar four rather than five stars because I really think it's expensive for the modelling you get.
3-Color Sunburst, *add $50.00, (
Black, (Polyurethane Finish)
Body Alder
Neck Maple, Modern “C” Shape,(Satin Polyurethane Finish)
Fingerboard Rosewood (p/n 011-7500) or Maple (p/n 011-7502), 9.5” Radius (241mm)
No. of Frets 22 Medium Jumbo Frets
Pickups 3 American Strat® Single-Coil Pickups, 1 Roland® VG Pickup
Controls
Master Volume, Master Tone,Tuning Function Control (5 Rotary Positions),Mode Control (5 Rotary Modes)
Pickup Switching
5-Position Blade: (Functions in All Modes)
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Middle Pickup Position 3. Middle Pickup
Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup
Position 5. Neck Pickup
Bridge American 2-Point Synchronized Tremolo with Stainless Steel Saddles
Machine Heads Fender®/Schaller® Deluxe Staggered Cast/Sealed Tuning Machines
Hardware Chrome
Pickguard 3-Ply Parchment
Scale Length 25.5” (648 mm)
Width at Nut 1.6875” (43 mm)
Unique Features
Roland VG Circuitry,
Five Guitar Tone Banks Deliver 16 Sounds from Humbucking to Acoustic,
Five Tuning Banks Allow You to Change Tunings Without Physically Retuning - You Can Use Multiple Tunings in One Song,“Parchment” Knobs and Pickup Covers,
Original Headstock Shape,
Original Body Shape with “Original Contour Body” Decal on Headstock,
Rolled Fingerboard Edges,
H/S/H Pickup Routing
Strings Fender® Super Bullets® 3250L, Nickel Plated Steel, (.009 to .042), p/n 073-3250-003
Schechter Diamond C+1
PRS Single Cut
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Recommended:
Yes
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