Anyone have one of these? They seem to be Fender's answer to the Gibson "Dark Fire" for half the cost. Are they made in the U.S.? When played as a "regular" strat do they sound like any MIA strat, or does the sound suffer because of the extra electronics?

I do not own one but I have played it. I considered buying one for the acoustic sound but acoustic simulator blows to be honest. I was hoping it would sound like the Line 6 variax but not even close. The 12 string setting was pretty cool. The alternate tunings, i don't care for. I ended up buying a regular American STD because those extra bells and whistles were not worth it. Try it and form your own opinion. Tell me what you think.

I've had one for over a year. It is a great american std strat. I find myself using the open G and drop d a bit. As far as the acoustic module goes I don't care for it too much however as mentioned above the 12 string effect is nice. The Tele and moduled strat sounds are okay.

Try it out. While I like it if I had to do it over again I'd skip it. However now that I have it I'm not giving it up either. Guess it breaks down to how much you plan on using the different tunings.

Good luck.

I've had one about 3 months and it comes in handy for my Church gigs. I like the options available to me. No need to carry two or three guitars for different tunings or sound. The acoustic sound is OK. A trained ear can tell the difference but most in the audience don't know the difference. The Humbucker model on baritone is fun to shake the rafters with The twelve string option is fun also. The darn thing will eat batteries so unplug the cord when not playing... It sounds just like a normal Strat when not in a modeling mode. One drawback I found is the tremelo is drop down only. The Roland Pup needs to be so close to the strings that if you pull back on the tremolo the strings will hit it.

I bought a VG as soon as it came out. It is a really fun guitar and a really cool toy. Sure it doesn't completely sound like an acoustic, but it sounds fantastic. If you threw on really heavy strings it would probably sound more like it though. You could definitely gig with it, but it's more of a toy for me because the neck never felt right with me. That obviously isn't a VG specific issue. The only VG issue I have is that the stock pickups don't sound nearly as loud or as good as the virtual pickups. They also hum louder than any other single coils I've ever heard. I always make sure I have batteries because of it. That is it- everything else is the same as an AM strat.

The VG came out at the same time as Gibson's HD 6x Pro, which was a digital recording guitar. After that tanked, Gibson shot out the Robot Guitar, which physically did what the VG could do minus the "mode" effects, and soon after that came came the Dark Fire. So Fender isn't responding to Gibson, it is the other way around. Gibson noticed the success of the VG and pushed the Robot Guitar out prematurely only to release an upgraded version in a few months called the Dark Fire.

I have one that I won right here. I've written about it - you can see my last post about - less than a week ago - http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20457

I like it, it does have some short comings, but overall, I like it alot - and it's not just because I got it for free.

I love the neck on it - the rolled edges and feel - are just great. The acoustic sounds aren't that great - but the Strat, Tele and Humbucker model sound really good. The various alternate tunings I haven't made much use of - but they work as advertised. As a plain American Strat, it plays very nicely and sounds good to me. And yes it does hum, more than my Squier Strat - but that's life.

The only real bad thing is the battery life - it could use an on/off switch for the electronics.

Gil

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1998 Ovation 1861 Standard Balladeer Natural
Taka - 2005 Squier '51 Black
Yume - 2006 Squier Strat Cherryburst
Houbi - 2008 Fender VG Strat Blizzard Pearl - won here
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I had one for about 6 months because I wanted the emulated sounds, mostly the humbucker sounds. I liked the guitar but the bells and whistles became a novelty to me and the humbucker sounded weak. I eventually traded it in for a SG.

I had a chance to play with one a few months back in the music store.. I found it kinda’ cool. I almost bought one but I think I may go with a Roland ready and pick up the Roland VG99 processer so I can do much more. The only thing I don like is it is a MIM.. not that that is bad but rather have MIA…I could go with Gk 3 pick up and the 99 but I don’t really like that big strap on pick up on my AX…..any body know if the VG has the 13 pin hook up to run straight into a processer? I never look at it that close I just played with the different sounds…….thanx, Bill

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The VG is the best

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Squire Strat
Jasmine Takamine
Cherry Red American Standard Strat