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Digital Sound for Guitar

Guitar amp modelers from Johnson, Roland, and Line 6 go head-to-head

by Emile Menasché
September 6, 2000

VG-88

All the Sound, All the Time

The Roland VG-88 models amps -- and the guitars that play them (click for a close-up)

If your gig demands a complete array of guitar sounds, the VG-88 may be your ticket to the end of the rainbow. Think of this as a complete guitar ecosystem, a Bioshpere for the six-string. When driven by a Roland GK-2AH polyphonic pickup (or compatible) the VG-88 can make your guitar sound like almost any other kind of guitar available, playing through a wide range of amplifiers and running through a complete arsenal of effects.

How deep is the option well? Guitar models include a number of electrics, acoustics (including nylon string and banjo), basses, and synthetic texture-mills, such as the analog synth-flavored brass, bass, and bowed sounds, a fun organ sound, and the ethereal-sounding Crystal. You can determine body type, shape, and size, and control various parameters that determine how the body affects the overall tone. You can also choose from a wide menu of pickups, including stalwarts like Strat, Les Paul, and Tele simulations, plus slightly less ordinary options designed to sound like P-90s, Rickenbacker pickups, lipstick tube models, piezos, microphones, and more. You can choose the position of the pickup (you can even place it on an angle, Fender style), and select which pickup -- or combination of pickups -- is active at any one time.

The pickup simulations range from moderately convincing (the P-90s) to dead-on (the Strat, which literally had me checking to see if my Stratocaster's pickups were indeed active). There were a couple of disappointments: The Telecaster sounded thin, more like a caricature than the real thing, and the banjo, while interesting, never made me think I was playing anything other than an electric guitar.

If the guitar modeling stopped there, the VG-88 would be pretty cool. But it goes quite a bit further. Because the GK-2K pickup reads each string individually, the output of all six strings can be processed separately. This allows the VG-88 to do some very interesting tuning effects, such as a "true" 12-string simulation (the top two strings are unison, the others paired in octaves), open tunings (Open D, E, G, and A are offered), Drop D, and Nashville, which keeps the top two strings as they are and shifts the bottom four up an octave. You can also create your own tuning maps. This is way beyond what even the most sophisticated intelligent pitch shifter can do with a conventional audio signal. You can even create "B-bender" type effects, where the foot pedal changes the pitch of one string while leaving the others alone -- perfect for Albert Lee-style country licks. The pitch effects were cool enough that I wished for more, especially in the bass department.

You can combine the GK-2A with your guitar's standard pickups -- especially cool when the VG-88 is doing its synthy thing.

Next Page: VG-88: Amps, Effects, Setup and Operation, Final Word....