Practical MIDI

Normally my column is not about promoting any specific instrument or brand name of a product or company. But when it makes what I do easier, I figure I have to pass this information along to the rest of you who may be considering doing a solo MIDI gig. I told you in the past about my Yamaha keyboards and how they made the job easier by being so user friendly that you almost didn't need the manual to get up and running. I think I have found the ultimate guitar to help my MIDI act run smoother and with less effort.

When I was with my band the motto that we lived by was, "Minimum input for maximum results," meaning that if we could do the job with less equipment, fewer roadies (if any) and fit into smaller venues, we could play more places, make more money and not work as hard at it. This guitar I bought helps me with that in my MIDI act.

When I started doing the solo act, I had my MIDI keyboard to play the files that I played along with. I had a Digitech vocalist to harmonized my voice. I carried along my American Telecaster for the electric guitar songs, my Martin acoustic/electric for the acoustic guitar songs, my Rickenbacker 12-string for those Beatle songs and even sometimes, my Gibson SG for those heavy humbucker-type songs. Too much equipment for an old guy like me to be schlepping around. Besides, I had more than $3,000.00 invested in those four guitars.

Last month I sold all those guitars and took the plunge and bought Fender's new VG Stratocaster with the Roland electronics onboard. In addition to the three Stratocaster pickups, there is also a Roland synth pickup at the bridge. And there are no special cables needed--just a regular 1/4" guitar cord. Not only does it duplicate the Telecaster and humbucker sounds, it has a setting to make it sound like an acoustic guitar as well as a 12-string guitar. There are two knobs on the front that handle these settings.

Crank the mode knob to A (for acoustic) and the tuning knob to 12 (for 12-string) and you've got an acoustic 12-string sound at your fingertips. Turn the mode knob to H (for Humbucker) and now you have an electric 12-string sound. Not only does it replicate the 12-string sound, but you're still only playing 6 strings. That means you can bend the strings in solos like usual while getting the 12-string sound. I found it invaluable for Beatle songs.

The Mode knob (M) has setting for:

A - Acoustic
H - Humbucker
T - Telecaster
S - Modeled Strat
N - Normal American Strat

The Tuning knob (T) has setting for:

12 - 12-string
B - Baritone tuning [B E A D F# B]
d - Modal tuning [D A D G A D]
G - Open G tuning [G D G D B D]
D - Drop D tuning [D A D G B E]
N - Normal tuning

You can see by combining the settings on these knobs that you can get 37 different possibilities. For example, combining the (T) knob setting with the (12) knob setting gives you the sound of a 12-string Telecaster. With the acoustic setting, the 5-position switch gives you 5 different acoustic sounds, including dreadnaught and Dobro.

The electronics run on four AA batteries and even if the batteries die during a song, the guitar reverts to the default setting of a normal American Strat, so you're not left holding a dead guitar.

This guitar cost me about half of what I had invested in those other four guitars, so although you have to shell out around $1,500.00 initially, it'll save you money in the long run if you need to get all those other sounds. I highly recommend the Fender VG Strat for you MIDI solo artists. Check it out at the Fender site or on YouTube. You can see and hear a demonstration of this marvelous invention.

©2008 Bill Bernico for CYBERMIDI.com Downwind Publications