At the 2012 NAMM Show, Roland and Fender announced the VG Stratocaster G-5, an electronic guitar that fuses traditional design with digital music technology.
Combining Roland’s COSM modelling with Fender’s classic Stratocaster guitar design, the VG Stratocaster G-5 gives players instant alternate tunings, a wide selection of electric, acoustic and 12-string guitar models and more.
The 20 sounds onboard the VG Stratocaster G-5 include Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster, humbucking, 12-string, acoustic models, and ‘cutting-edge’ sounds plus five alternate tunings.
A Mode Control knob selects one of five distinct modelling modes, while the Tuning Control knob allows players to apply alternate tunings such as open G, drop D, baritone, and others to any currently selected model. In addition, a digital reverb effect is available when an acoustic model is selected.
The VG Stratocaster G-5 is based on Roland’s COSM guitar modelling, the same tone technology found in the VG-99 V-Guitar System and GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer. The onboard COSM engine offers the player a variety of different guitar sounds, including unique “ideal-performance” pickups, such as a humbucker with ultra-wide range and a single coil with full, bold tone at their fingertips, available simply by adjusting the familiar Stratocaster knobs and 5-way pickup selector switch.
As an instrument, the VG Stratocaster G-5 is an authentic Fender Stratocaster guitar. It features a solid contoured body, 22-fret maple neck (with rosewood or maple fingerboard), three American Strat single-coil Alnico 5 pickups with 5-way switching, a synchronized tremolo bridge, a 3-ply pickguard, and chrome hardware.
The VG Stratocaster G-5 is available in a classic sunburst finish with a rosewood fingerboard, or a black finish with a maple fingerboard.
Distributed exclusively by Roland, the VG Stratocaster G-5 will be available in March 2012.
via Axetopia
okay i’m a guitarist, this is cool, but its still pretty pointless and a waist of money
Many guitarists like me need to use several guitars during a gig. The Roland /Fender G5 guitar addresses the issue of not only purchasing many other guitars, but also having to cart then to and from gigs, keeping them all in tune and maintained.
Your comments are probably made from the standpoint of a guitarist that uses only one guitar voice which, I wouldn’t mind betting, is loud and very overdriven, in which case the whole point of the G5 is wasted on you. There are those of us that neither want nor need MIDI and all the extra gear this entails.
Do you really believe that Roland and Fender just wasted (by the way this is the correct spelling not ‘waisted’) many thousands of development dollars just on a whim?
I personally find this guitar very useful and it has become a talking point during my gigs when people ask how I get the sounds that I use. The G5 s also not that expensive and far less than buying all the guitars it emulates. Compared with the Line6 Variax, which I have also owned and very quickly sold, it is streaks ahead and does not suffer Line6 quality issues that they would not address in the JV69 ‘Strat look alike’ which was almost unplayable. The G5 is also far cheaper and easier to service via both Fender and Roland.
I have been playing guitar since 1959 and in all that time I’ve owned many many guitars and have seen almost everything come and go. In my opinion I believe this to probably be the best affordable option to date. The sounds are classic and will not date all the time that guitar music is popular. When I first started playing guitar in 1959 my Dad said that it was a fad and it wouldn’t last more than a year or so. Before he died in 1992 he admitted that he’d been very wrong about that.
Incidentally I have absolutely no connection with Roland or Fender. I’m just a player who has for many years been a Stratocaster fan. I have over 30 guitars including Gibsons Gretch Rickenbacker Guild etc but I choose to use a G5 as my daily gig guitar. It’s comfortable and to be able to change from Rock to 12string to acoustic and classic guitar sounds at the flick of a switch on one guitar suits me fine.
If I have any gripe at all about the G5 it’s these two points:
1. Battery life is way way too short. I need to change batteries after each gig. Phantom power would be good or a mains adaptor connected via the main connection cord.
2. It’s only available in a Mexican built Strat and this technology should also be made available in a USA built AVRI as well for those that want to pay the money. .
Note to binaryeye, xtopher and anyone else out there that wants a midi guitar. Roland already makes what you’re looking for, they have done so for many years now. Try searching EBay for a Roland guitar synth. Even the old ones were very good although latency was a bit of an issue. I had one for many years and it was very reliable, all are midi. Later models are brilliant and can be picked up for relatively low cost these days.
Good luck and keep picking guys
Granddad
I’m not sure I want the sims built into a guitar. Ten years from now, you know they’ll sound dated…
A note to guitar manufacturers: I don’t want a guitar synthesizer. I want a guitar which allows me to control a synthesizer. Get rid of the middleware, get rid of the standard pickups if you have to, put the MIDI conversion in the guitar, and treat the output like any other MIDI controller with USB out.
Spot freakin on, binaryeye! I’ve been watching for nearly 20 years for Roland to get this right, but they have stuck to the same half-ass strategy. It was easier, cheaper and faster to just learn to play a keyboard… I’m glad I didn’t wait around for a guitar controller.
I love my first generation Variax, but it’s on its last legs, so it’d be interesting to see the pricetag on this thing simply because of the modelling features. Lack of proper MIDI is ridiculous though.