"VG-88 - The perfect one stop solution"
Feature:
Amp Modeling, Virtual Tuning, Polyphonic Transposition, Editable guitars, Moveable Virtual Pick ups, Sitars, Acoustics. All are fantastic. it expands on the VG-8 as it lets you blend in your normal pickups and also has an expression pedal as standard.
The synth settings are a little weak as are the bass guitar emulation.
Quality:
Excellent.
Value:
Best investment I have made to date - I bought this new years eve 2001 and have never regretted it.
Desirability:
the unit is the most advanced of its kind. the virtual tuning alone proves that. The nearest you can get to this set up is a variax and an PodXTLive. even then the VG-88 is more versitile.
Sound:
Well the unit sounds great but Boss branded Gt-6 and Gt-8/GT-Pro have overtaken this unit in the COSM modeling stakes. That is not to say this unit is not a great sounding device, merely it is no longer at the forefront of bleeding edge technology.
However, it IS still the most complete guitar system ever conceived. with more flexibility control than any other modeler on the market.
Whilst the acoustic settings sound a little thin live they are very convincing and sound wonderful for recording purposes. I play all my stuff on a Ibanez RG470L but my recodings are mainly acoustic sounds. Provided you play the guitar as you would an acoustic, the result will sound authentic.
Tracking is virtually flawless and there is no delay whatsoever (Steve Vai has one - go figure).
Support:
I upgraded VG-88 via a rogue patch that was released on the Roland Netherlands web site. and although I followed the instructions - I fried the unit. I phoned roland (UK) and told them and they said they'd get back to me. They phoned 2 days later and said they got the patch removed from the site and thanked me for alerting them to the problem. They also tried doing the patch themselves and fried 3 more VG's. So they said send it back and they would replace it. They did just that and upgraded it to version 2 as well. All free of charge.
Overall:
I am beginning to doubt that Roland will ever make a successor to this unit. But if they do, then I might consider upgrading. For now it is the perfect solution.
Thanks for your vote. Can you specify what about this review did or did not help you?