Hello all. Im thinking of picking up a used Fender VG strat. Can any one tell me the high's and the low's. I have only been taking lessons of about 6 months.

Welcome to the forum! I was waiting on someone who owns one to answer you. From what I've heard they are a fine guitar(plus). They are not produced anymore, that's another plus. Have many different sounds and I hear the acoustic sound is good. The one bad thing is that they eat batteries and if you have a problem with the Roland component it may be a bit of work/time to get replacement parts.
You need to talk to member ZZDoc about it as he bought one of the last new ones just because....?
Not much help but Doc or another member will help you. Good luck!!

Likely the VG Strat will soon become an orphan as far as the availabilty of some proprietary electronic components. The model saw only limited production for a very brief period and Fender will only support the guitar for a given time frame (usually the term of whatever specific warranty covered the instrument). Beyond that, you're on your own.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Forum member giljanus won one right here on this forum.

I haven't seen him around much lately.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I've had one since October. It's a great guitar. Basically it's an American Standard with the Roland stuff. As an Am Std it sounds great -- love the pickups. Neck feels great. It runs the fender pups with no batteries -- I usually play it that way. When I feel like something different I put in the batteries and have fun. Telecaster, humbucker, acoustics, 12 string versions of all those, it's great to experiment with. It also has those other tunings but I don't use them. The Roland emulation is pretty good -- it's not exact of course, but they generally sound good. I like the tele and 12 string settings a lot. If the electronics die someday I've still got a good Am Std strat.

I've had mine for several years. Its not my first guitar but it does get played. It works fine as regular Strat and if you are doing a wide variety of music in your sets it beats carrying 2 or 3 guitars. I learned quickly to use rechargeable batteries with backups and even went so far as to buy an extra battery cartridge so I just drop in a new one if my little blue light starts to blink. The drop D and open G tuning come in handy for certain songs or slide work. The 12 string adds a new dimension to your leads without tearing up your fingers and the acoustic models are passable in a pinch. The Humbucker is ok but it doesn't sound like my humbucker guitars. The Tele model is ok but I don't use it. The Strat model actually sounds very Stratty and if you want to add or use any of the effects you have to have the other knob set on a model of a guitar.

I've never had any problem with the electronics on this guitar but I don't play it every day either.

Hi agree with tdanb2003's assessment. My buddy has one and it's pretty impression with the range of tones it can create.

Thanks for the input guy's. One more question, how fast does it go thru batteries.

re: batteries

I use my vg strat at home so I can't say how long they would last in a gig. I also don't use top of the line rechargeables, so I'm not getting the best performance. I use some batteries I had for other devices with an older recharger. That being said, the batteries last a few hours. the main thing is that the batteries are drained as long as the guitar is plugged in, even if you are using the standard pickups. If you like to have your guitar sitting around plugged in, the vg strat isn't a good choice. I actually use the standard pickups mostly, and only put in the batteries when I feel like having a different sound. I feel a little annoyed when I see that blue light glowing and I'm using the regular pickups, so mostly it's no batteries for me!

With good rechargeable batteries over 2400ma I get about 3 to 4 hours. That is if I unplug between use. Regular non rechargeable batteries will not last more than a couple of hours.

Fender needs to bring out a VG Strat II with no batteries. then i can be in tele mode with standard tuning

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Musos can be a pain!!!

But if you have 15,000 they will give you free Fenders

Where can I pick up a spare battery cartridge?

Shaker I don't think they are available from Fender anymore which is where I got mine thru a dealer. You might keep an eye on E-Bay or other auction sites.