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Virtual Guitar Round Two
Watch out Line 6. Fender is jumping into the guitar-modeling ring. I’m talking about the VG Stratocaster. If you haven’t heard, Fender has teamed up with Roland to put the guts of their VG system into a Strat. This promises to offer 37 different guitar sounds and five alternate tunings in one guitar. The concept is cool: one guitar that sounds like several. But I’m not sure I would like it even if it works perfectly.
Part of the fun of playing is using different guitars for different sounds. I like the feel of playing different guitars. A Les Paul for great sustain; a Strat for its clucky tones; an acoustic for (duh) acoustic tones. I know it would be convenient for the working guitarist playing weddings or Top 40 gigs to only need one guitar, but I’m not yet convinced. Wouldn’t the audience get confused? Who wants to see a guy holding a Strat and hear an acoustic? Not me.
Probably the worst thing, in my opinion is the need for batteries. I wouldn’t have a problem if you could pop in a 9 volt every six months. But this beast requires four AA batteries and promise less than 10 hours battery life. Cost aside, what a hassle. You have to change them (or recharge them), basically, every couple of days.
Well at least it’s a Strat. I still can’t get used to the electric Line 6 Variax “no-pickup” look, especially with its “run-of-the-mill” body design. Although I do think the acoustic Variax is quite cool looking. The good news is, the VG Strat it will still work like a Strat even when the batteries go dead during a gig. It will be interesting to see how well it sells.