What do you think of the Roland V-Guitar System ?

holdenhinkle

holdenhinkle

Inspired
Haylo!

Curious to know what people who own/have tried the Roland V-Guitar System think of it. I'm interested in the guitar/pickup modeling and the guitar synth capabilities, not amp/effect models (nothing can beat the Axe).

Thanks!
 
I played a demo at GC. it was ok. the guitar sounds sounded really fake...nothing like the Axe. Granted, the morons at GC outfitted the demo with a pair of ten dollar sony headphones. The synth sounds were fun; but the same as Roland has had for 10 years now. What I ultimately did is picked up a Brian Moore I-guitar and a Roland GR-33 on e bay.

The guitar (Less Paul style) cost 740 and the GR-33 was 300. The best part about the set up is you don't need to use a Roland synth pick-up. The GK pick-ups in short...stink. They produce bizarre unintentional notes. I think they are the downfall of any Roland guitar synth product. With the Moore, these notes can occur; but to a much less degree and the tracking is lightening fast.

What I'm ultimately going to do is intergrate it with the Axe through an FX loop block, using one of the expression pedals on my FCB1010 to fade in and out synth tones at will. Luckily, the FCB can control up to two midi devices operating on different channels.
 
I used to have a VG-88 for several years and I played a week on the VG-99. Both used them with GK-2A.

Both can't tip in any way on the amp, cab and FX sounds of the Axe-Fx.

But guitarsounds and synthsounds are very well done IMHO. Only the nylon guitar was really disappointing.

Tracking was great! But then again, I didn't use an external MIDI-synth, only the VG.
 
I just bought a i9F (Brian Moore) and installed a Graphtech Ghost Floyd Rose, Hexpander and Acoustiphonic system.
I combine it with a VG-99.
I don't have a lot of experience since I just started using it.
My first impressions seem to confirm Prince Patrick's findings.
Tracking is good and acoustics, alternate tunings and so on, work fine.
Synths are ok as well.
I kinda like the clean sounds but amp simulations are not on par with those of the Axe-fx.
I see it a s a replacement for the Variax.
 
Though this may be in the wrong thread, I'll reply anyway:

I've used the VG-88 for years, mainly for pickup modeling, acoustic simulation, and altered tunings. I've never used the amp models.

The pickup modeling does not sound "real" compared to the real pickups it simulates, but it will allow you to approximate a wide variety of guitars in a live setting. My main guitar is a dual humbucker, but I can get much closer to the sound of a Strat's 2nd and 4th switch positions, Danelectro, Rickenbacker, etc. using the VG's GK pickup and modeling than I ever could with my regular pickups.

The acoustic sims aren't great, but then again, they are much better than you will get with a standard electric guitar. The nylon sim in V2.0 isn't too bad. The sitar is fun. With the right post-processing, they are very usable live.

The open tunings and 12 string sims are a huge benefit for me. I use the wah/volume pedal as well. The VG allows per-string compression and distortion for some interesting effects. You can assign the pedal to bend only certain strings by certain amounts for some cool pedal steel type effects.

Before I had the Axe, I used some of the VG's effects as pre-distortion effects before my Triaxis, especially eq.

Overall, I really like it despite its shortcomings. They go really cheap on Ebay and you can always re-sell it for what you paid for it.

One major bug is that you can't mount the GK pickup in 'reverse' mode or you will get cross talk between the strings that destroy pitch tracking and string balancing.
 
Thanks for all your input. I might pick one up on ebay, we'll see ;-) I was originally just looking into midi/synth guitars and then discovered this. It would be cool if Fractal comes out with a guitar sim system someday. But I know lots of people have already suggested this.

Thanks again.
 
I posted because the comments that you got were not as good as I felt the VG Systems are. I have owned and played the Roland GR-1, GR-9, VG-8, VG-88, and VG-99 (and the older shadow pickup system midi controller). I also own the Axe-FX Ultra (and have owned and used ADA MP1 pre-amp, Mesa Triaxis, Line 6 AX-2, Roland JC 120, Peavey Bandit, Marshalls, several computer amp simulators, etc).
I have never had a problem with the Roland GK pickups or the Roland Ready strat pickups.
Nylon sounds are not too good.

My opinions:
Roland VG-8
I loved it. Still own it. It can do sounds that no other processor that I know of can do. As far as the amp sims: some are good, some I don't care for. Most of it is in your fingers. I used the VG-8 into the amps that I played. So, I used the distortions and cleans of the amps and used the VGs as effects units. I love sounds & I get bored easily, so I like to add synth sounds at times. The VG-8 also has a Carlos sound that every guitarist that I have ever jammed with turned around & was amazed at the tone & sustain.

Roland VG-88
I got it & sold it 2 weeks later. I felt that it was a step back from the VG-8.

Roland VG-99
I use it now. The alt tunings are better than the VG-8 in that there are less harmonic overtones that sometimes sound out on the VG-8. The amp sims are better than the VG-8. The acoustics are way better than the VG-8. I mainly got it for the midi controller aspects. I use the VG-99 to control a Roland JV-1080 and they go into the AXE FX Loop. (The VG-99 has a built in mixer so I can send just the guitars pickups to the AXE FX Loop, or the VG-99 sounds to the AXE FX LOOP, or the VG-99 controlled JV-1080 sounds to the Axe FX Loop. All works great & I love the mixer aspects of the AXE & VG-99.) Overall, the synth sounds of the VG-99 are not as good as the VG-8. Also, you can reverse mount the GK pickup if you need to.

AXE-FX:
Great effects, great mixing, great updates & support, it can be a beast to fine tune. Most of the patches that I download are either harsh, brittle or piercing. Some even max out the ultra & I get clicking (so I am not sure how others can use the same preset). I like the AXE. It does take time to program it. The VGs seem to be quicker to get a useable tone for me. I control all with the Liquid Foot Pro.
 
I only heard good things about the VG-8. Unfortunally I never had the chance to play it.
It's strange that the VG-99 can't compete with an old technology like the VG-8.
 
The VG series is the only processor out there that can get those "in between" polyphonic synth sounds. Pretty cool but also kind of limited as to what you can actually do with them. The horn like lead sounds can be pretty cool if you're into that kind of thing but they also tend to sound really cheesy.

I used a VG-88 in the loop of the Axe for some time, it's pretty cool but eventually I decided to simplify my setup and do without, which works out for me as well with some creative programming in the Axe.

The idea behind the "synth" side of the VG series is awesome though, I wish Roland would just get off their lazy asses and update the technology to create some killer new sounds. The potential is definitely there, but they just decided to use 15 year old technology for their newest VG series, lame!
 
voes said:
I only heard good things about the VG-8. Unfortunally I never had the chance to play it.
It's strange that the VG-99 can't compete with an old technology like the VG-8.
Click to expand...

To my ears, the amp models in the VG-99 sound the same as the models in the VG-88, VG-8, Boss GT series, GX-700, GP-100...........

The nylon model improved in v2.0 of the VG-88. That's about it. The products still rule however. Pickup and acoustic modeling ain't easy from what little I understand.
 
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