Your next project axe....

[sumgai]

Check this out:

www.fender.com/vgstrat/home.html

Fender and Roland are teaming up to put the smack down on the Variax with a new model of the Strat. Plus, at the same time, they bombed Gibson's new 'digital' guitar clear back to the stone age. (No more proprietary cable or needing a computer just to hear your axe).

How long do you suppose it will be before someone hacks in a 13-pin board, and uses this to feed a Roland or Axon synth unit?


And if you are into that kind of thing, then get set to salivate even more heavily:

www.roland.com/products/en/VG-99/index.html

Bet you don't need any more caffeine for the rest of this day, do ya? ;D


sumgai

[ux4484]

More money and time than I have currently.....

...but none the less... very cool.

[spitfire23bc]

sumgai said:

Check this out:

www.fender.com/vgstrat/home.html

Looks a bit too much if you ask me, though. Frankly, we can already add pickups and switching options; and the tuning thing put me off - I'd far rather have the strings actually giving the right sound, and I quite like the different tensions of different tunings. It also relies on the guitar being plugged in. I practice unamplified quite a bit on my Strat.

And would the scratchplate have to be removed to replace the battery, requiring all the strings to be removed?

That said, if I had the money, or someone bought one for me, I wouldn't complain ;D

[ChrisK]

So if I took one of these Mexi-Strats with the Roland hexamag pickup:
www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0134660380
and added in a DSP engine (digital signal processor),

with different (software read) switches than the Variax,

I could get a guitar that does almost the exact things that a VG-88 will do with the same Roland'ed Strat guitar. 'Cept that the Roland magnetic hexaphonic pickup is a distant fifth compared to the better tracking piezo solutions available (RMC rules).


Now, to be fair, Fender have integrated everything into the guitar (oh, yeah, just like the Variax) to produce something that does modeling in the familiar form of the Strat (whoops, Warmoth have offered Variax replacement bodies/necks in the familiar Strat and Tele form for some time www.warmoth.com/guitar/line6/line6.cfm), that delivers a consistent output level rather than the varying output levels of the Variax WHICH MIMICS THE GUITARS THAT IT IS MODELING (which ain't a flaw, but a feature).

Wow, Fender even broke out the modeling selection to enable choices of models (Tele/Strat/etc) and tuning.

And, Fender have included magnetic pickups as well (Oh wait, you could already do that with the Warmoth Variax 500 bodies).


Uh, oh yeah, the Variax Workbench already enables one to "build" custom guitar models and download them into the Variax guitar (with consistent output levels if desired). You could even group them by body response and model (Tele/Strat/etc), pickup choices, and tuning.

And there are mods a'web about adding in a 13 pin interface to a Variax (from the pre-Workbench days).


The only thing that really impresses me is the scope of the legal wiggle that they must have gone thru to get around Line6's IP. But then again, aside from the software model selection switches, "there ain't much new here under the sun".


I'm sure that Fender being Fender (after once again inventing something again for the first time [wow, ya kin add a switch to a geetar volume knob and get more a'switchin' stuff]) will do real (maybe) well with these since folks have lined up for years to buy the Variax (uh, when on clearance) in lieu of them there myriad old fashioned crappy passive models (that for some reason seem to perennially popular).


(semi) yawn. I expected more.

I currently feel somewhat empowered with my Godin three-voice guitar (magnetic, piezo, and hexaphonic) and my VG-88. And my Nashville Power Tele (with the Roland hexamag pickup).

And with my Variax 500 with the Workbench.

At the GC's this January I've seen the Variax 300 going for $315 to $350.


When the Fender solution gets there in price, give me a call.


Now, if Fender could just get to work on the tremo'Leo (which it ain't) and turn it into a vibrato('Leo) (which it is), I'd be more impressed (or at least content(er)).

[sumgai]

Chris,

The only thing that really impresses me is the scope of the legal wiggle that they must have gone thru to get around Line6's IP.

I don't think so. This rig is entirely Roland's fault, if you will. Fender merely provided a guitar into which Roland shoehorned a Variax-wannabe.

Where Fender had the 'say' was that the system had to be absolutely dirt simple. IOW, anybody who could pickup up a guitar could understand, and just as importantly, use the rig without an operator's manual, 25 cents, a health card, and a note from their mother. Any feature that was left off the Variax list was done for the specific reason of simplicity and reliability.

In point of fact, one of the larger complaints against Variax over the last several years has been the complexity of the thing. Even the 300 and 500 models can do more than this new Strat, but at what cost in terms of time and effort will the player be rewarded?

I'm of the opinion that price was not a high-priority consideration in the marketing strategy sessions. So the Strat will be more expensive, but it's American made. Surely you of all people don't think that this will be a deterent, do you? ;D


sumgai

[sumgai]

spitfire,

The battery is in a standard box on the back of the axe.


unlunf

[ChrisK]

The Fender Price List lists the American Series VG Strat for $2,478.56. The typical Musicians Friend (and Guitar Center starting) price (at the typical discount of 0.700 of list) would be $1,735.

Note that the typical American Series regular Strat lists at $1,350 to $1,400. The typical Musicians Friend (and Guitar Center starting) price (at the typical discount of 0.700 of list) would be $950 to $985.

The VG kit adds $785 to the cost. More that the cost of a VG-88 and the Roland pickup.


Hmmmmm, I hope that it's a very good (chocolate) mint............................

[sumgai]

Chris,

The Fender Price List lists the American Series VG Strat for $2,478.56. The typical Musicians Friend (and Guitar Center starting) price (at the typical discount of 0.700 of list) would be $1,735.

Note that the typical American Series regular Strat lists at $1,350 to $1,400. The typical Musicians Friend (and Guitar Center starting) price (at the typical discount of 0.700 of list) would be $950 to $985.

The VG kit adds $785 to the cost. More that the cost of a VG-88 and the Roland pickup.


Hmmmmm, I hope that it's a very good (chocolate) mint............................

No, you didn't have to add the 'chocolote' qualifier, that's a mint as in 'golden', as in, it costs like there was never gonna be another guitar ever sold again. OUCH!

I have to concur with your figurin', which means that the poor thing will see the light of today for only one or perhaps two years. The only thing that will save it will be if either Fender gets its schiesse together and lowers the price into the realm of reality, or they manage to get several big-name players to gig with the thing visibily. (Not just one or two dudes, and definitely not 'endorse' it, then use something else - it's gotta be obvious that the players exclude all other axes, or the cachet will fail.)


sumgai