Fender G-5 VG-Stratocaster

The VG Stratocaster is Fender's take on a modeling guitar. Line 6 had a hit with the Variax and Fender fired back with the VG

A friend of mine needed some PA gear. He had the Strat and I thought it'd be worth it in a trade. Used they go for around $900, brand new I am guessing they sold for $1300 or around there.

There is no outboard gear or special cable needed to use this guitar. You can use any old instrument cable. I know how frustrating it is to get to a gig and realize you forgot your specialized midi cable!

The Open G, drop D and Open D tuning modes are awesome. They are very accurate and you don't even have to touch the tuning gears.

The modeled guitars are kind of lame in my opinion. The modeled strat vs. the bypassed strat is not very different. The Tele does not sound like a tele.

The 12-string mode I cannot hear a darn thing when that is on!

The body is ash, the neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard. It has all the regular features of a regular Strat; the 5-way switch, single coil pickups and standard American tremelo. The knobs are Master Volume, Master Tone, Tuning Mod button and Guitar Mod button.

I would recommend buying this guitar to have a Strat and sort of treat the added features as a bonus, other than that I feel you may be a little let down as the modeling effects other than the handy tuning really didn't do anything for me.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com