Fender VG Modeling Stratocaster Guitar In Depth
February 18th, 2007
A big announcement at this year’s NAMM Show was that of the release of the Stratocaster VG, Fender’s first modeling guitar. After spending a few days researching Gibson’s digital guitar, I figured I might as well take a look at what Fender is offering.
The Guitar
This guitar starts off like any other American Stratocaster. It has an alder body, maple neck, and rosewood or maple fingerboard. It has 22 medium-jumbo frets and three American Strat single-coil pickups in the standard fashion. You get your familiar master volume and tone as well as a 5-way pickup selector switch. The bridge is an American 2-point synchronized tremolo. The hardware and pick guard are all in standard Strat form. Like I said, it is exactly what you would expect from a regular tried and true American Strat. The sound is output through a standard 1/4″ analog jack on the front of the guitar.
In addition to all that normal Strat stuff, there are a few extra components which make this a modeling guitar. First there is a Rolland VG hex pickup right between the bridge pickup and the bridge. This hex pickup allows for each string to be individually sensed and processed. There are also two additional 5-position knobs; one for selecting a modeling mode and one for selecting a tuning. The last difference is a little blue battery indicator light. That’s right… I said battery. The VG requires 4 AA batteries to power the internal processing unit. So what does all this jazz do? Well, each string is individually processed and modeled depending on which tone and tuning you select, then that modeled signal is output through the 1/4″ analog jack just as it always has. This means that you don’t need any extra equipment to use the modeling features, just plug it into your amp and go.
The Mode Control Knob (Modeling)
Mode Control allows you to modify the sound of your VG before it is output to your amp or effect pedal. There are 5 different positions on the Mode Control knob and for each position you can move the 5-way pickup selector to change settings for that model. The following selections are available on the Mode Control knob:
- (N) Normal Guitar – This setting allows you to play the Strat without modeling using the standard 3 single-coil pickups. The 5-way switch selects the pickup.
- (S) Modeled Stratocaster – This setting uses the hex pickup to give you the sound of a Strat but with a slightly different tone. The 5-way pickup selector emulates selecting a pickup while still sensing through the hex pickup.
- (T) Modeled Telecaster – This setting uses the hex pickup to model a telecaster guitar. The 5-way selector changes between two virtual single-coil pickups. Position 5 or 4 is the neck pickup, position 3 is both pickups, and position 2 or 1 is the bridge pickup.
- (H) Modeled Humbucking – This setting uses the hex pickup to model humbucker pickups. Since there are only 2 virtual humbuckers, the 5-way switch acts the same as for the Telecaster mode.
- (A) Modeled Acoustic – This setting uses the hex pickup to model an acoustic guitar. Each position on the 5-way switch models a different tone of acoustic guitar.
The Tuning Control Knob
The second dimension to the VG Strat is it’s ability to alter the guitar’s tuning without changing the tension of the strings. It does this by digitally altering the pitch of the note through the hex pickup. All of the tuning modulation is set with the expectation that your guitar is in standard tuning. If your guitar’s tuning is changed, the Tuning Control will not work as expected. The following settings are available on the Tuning Control knob:
- (N) Normal Mode – This mode applies no modeling to the tuning of the strings. Through the amp each string sounds the same as it does on the guitar.
- (D) Drop D – This mode simulates tuning the low E string down to D. If you play the guitar unplugged, it will have no effect, but the signal that is sent out to the amp will sound as if the guitar is tuned down.
- (G) Open G – This mode simulates tuning the guitar to open G. (D G D G B D)
- (d) D Modal – This mode simulates D Modal tuning. (D A D G A D)
- (B) Baritone – This mode simulates baritone tuning. (B E A D F# B)
- (12) 12 String – This mode simulates a 12 string guitar in standard tuning.
Any tuning mode can be used with any modeling mode except for Normal. If your model mode is set to normal the tuning mode is bypassed. This is probably why they included the Strat model even though this is a Strat guitar.
What Fender did Right
I think for what Fender set out to do, they did a pretty good job. For the most part I would say the average guitar player wants something simple, they want to plug in and play and not have to worry about a whole lot of configuration. To use this guitar you wont need to buy any extra equipment, just take it home and plug it into your amp. I think that for someone who plays a wide variety of music and doesn’t want to own or transport more than one guitar this will be very appealing. From what I have seen in videos, the sound is very good through the hex pickup. Rolland has been in the business developing hex pickups for years and they make high quality gear.
Where Fender Fell Short
Fender has sort of done a 180 with this product. I have a Fender box in my basement that Guitar Works gave to me to transport my Line 6 Spider II in. Ironically the tag line on the box says “Innovation… Not Emulation”. Now maybe this is just a slogan for their amp department, but either way modeling is just another word for emulation. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, something about hypocrisy or something.
It should be known that while playing with the alternate tuning you have to play through an amp and you have to play loud enough that the amp overpowers the acoustic sound of the strings. Otherwise you will what you are playing in the wrong tuning and it might throw you off. I guess this is not really a shortcoming of Fender, but more a result of the technology.
The only other issue I find is the 4 AA batteries. They say you can get about 12 hours of play if you get the higher quality rechargeable digital camera batteries. That is not too bad, but I really don’t want to have to worry about my batteries being charged so that I can play. I just like to pick it up and play whenever I want. At least the batteries pop out in an easy to load cartridge.
The Bottom Line
From the specs it looks like a great product. They didn’t mess with the original design of the American Stratocaster, they just built on it. At the same time as saying that, I have yet to see what kind of market exists for this guitar. Line 6 seems to be doing ok with their Variax modeling guitars, so maybe Fender is trying to tap that market. Personally if I were to buy a Strat I would probably get this one. I prefer Gibson guitars for all around playing because the tone is more akin to the type of music I play. However, if I were to buy a Strat as a second guitar, I think the added functionality of the VG would make me want to pick it up all that much more. At the same time, I could see myself using it like a multi-effect pedal, I’d leave it on one or two different models and never use the guitar to its full potential. It all comes back to that just wanting to pick up and play factor.
The Fender VG Stratocaster is available in stores now and is retailing for about $1,699. It is available in both black and 3-color sunburst. A non-VG Strat comes in at about $1000, so you are paying an extra chunk for that added functionality. It might be a hard sell for me at that price difference, but I really like the added features. It is sort of like having all of Fender’s greatest guitars all in one.
Tags: digital-guitar, fender-guitar, guitar-review
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