HARDWARE
Electric guitar players are the Amish of rock and roll: They lug heavy analog equipment wherever they go. I can still feel the weight of that dinosaur-sized tube amp - several of us would wrestle it from the bed of a pickup, then I'd scramble up to snatch my duffel bag full of cables and vintage guitar effects. Sure, there were lighter, more portable digital frills, but who wanted to sound like an Atari?
Now there's no shame in digital. Roland's new VG-88 V-Guitar System offers a self-contained processing system that incorporates sound models of guitars, amps, pickups, speakers, and microphones into a box no bigger than a hardcover dictionary. The VG-88 may make people wonder where you're hiding your rig.
The VG-88 provides its own amplification and emulates sounds that you can tweak yourself. It's the next generation of the VG-8 unit that Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels used to fill arenas with technometal squall during the 1997 Earthling tour. Plug in your guitar and plug the box into a set of speakers, and you'll get sound that's pretty close to whatever amp/guitar combo you've chosen to mimic. Plug in headphones and it sounds like a CD.
Unlike a guitar synth, the VG-88 takes the actual vibration of your string and modifies the sound in real time - a brilliant design ensuring that even synth-like sounds react to every scratch, slide, or scrape. The VG-88 leapfrogs its MIDI/synth predecessors, whose failure to follow players' fingers faithfully often sent them straight to the pawn shop.
But enough theory. Does it rock? Yes. Is it better than a 7-foot Marshall stack? Yes. No. It sounds close to a Marshall, but comparing these very different beasts would be pointless. Its new nylon-string guitar sounds - all its acoustic sounds, for that matter - leave something to be desired, but the classic rock patches are nearly good to go. The fine reverb and delay obviously pleased Roland's programmers, so be careful with those knobs. As a general rule, if you roll off the effects and pump up the bass, the presets start sounding pretty good.
But the real nitrous button on this General Lee is its Martian sounds. Step on the built-in foot pedal and your notes leap up two octaves - they sound like a heavy-metal dentist's drill. Rock your foot back and you're scuba-diving two octaves below Sabbath. Roland's factory settings are notoriously tame, but a steadily widening array of custom sounds and programming advice is available free from indie Web site VG-8.com.
Roland VG-88 V-Guitar System and GK-2AH synthesizer driver: $1,295 and $275. Roland: +1 (323) 890 3700, www.rolandus.com.
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