THE UNIT

This unit is refurbished, updated to V.2, super clean AND has been pro serviced, Internal battery replaced, Upgraded plug for noise mitigation, No circuit defects, Bright Hi-Con screen. Externally it looks brand new, there's a small knick in the bank up pedal hard to notice, and from inspection was maintained regularly or has very very low miles, all inputs & outputs have been cleaned are are functional including MIDI!, we've cleaned up a few of the VG's and this unit is the lowest noise yet, possibly from the power plug upgrade mod.

We're leaving our user presets we made on there, or you can easily flash it on the menu.

OUR TAKE

Roland's follow up to the acclaimed VG-8, The VG-88 is a powerful full chain and instrument modeling system with no noticeable latency. We found the VG-88 as a budget way to get into the vast guitar synth world, all the same COSM modeling tools as the VG-8 for a fraction of the price, head to head it beats out the VG-8 modeling on acoustic style instruments. We found we could get most of the popular VG-8 tones - but it takes a little more patience modeling them out into presets, These push you and make it really easy to explore drop & alt tunings and save to preset better than any modern pedal imo, overall it's a really easy intuitive interface (Same and VG-8, better than VG-800) and really hard to put down.

The VG-88 still holds its secrets, while the VG-8's presets are fun - they're well explored. There's a lot of room here for sculpting new original signature tones... while also getting to dabble in the super fun established tones.

MODELER REVIEW

The Modeling process is broken into, Instruments, an extensive FX chain & Amps - including all the impossible ones like Prince style Synth (with editable waves), Brass and Violin guitars, create a tele with piezo pickup and a humbucker, you can really go crazy here and get some familiar-yet-impossible tones, and shines layered with your dry signal and modern FX so it feels modern, futuristic even.

There's an FX chain that covers most of Rolands staple stomps and popular late 80's and 90's tones, some of our favorites are lush panning stereo analog choruses & phasers, drop & alternate tunings, Rockman style per string clean distortion, the circuits hold up to Rolands stomp boxes and are relatively low noise if you really stack up FX and instruments there is an onboard noise suppressor. If you've heard about the 8/88 VG series, theres a lot of value here with not just the synth engine, the drop and alternate tuning engine and programmable vol pedal to bring effects in and out something the VG-8 lacks, the audio quality works really well with digital or DAWless recording - it can be harsh like the VG-8 and works well with a end chain plug-in to soak up the saturation - doesn't have to be a Tascam, just like anything even an EQ does the job.

The AMPS are a bit dated imo aside from the acoustic and a really spot on JC-120, but overall we preferred going clean out and using modern pedals to sculpt tone and bring into today, but has a really powerful EQ engine that helps engage pedals.

NOTES

Requires a Roland/Boss GK-2a or 3a hex pickup & GK cord. We tested it with the GK-5 and the BOSS GKC-DA converter which was cleaner, but we like the onboard volume and blend controls on the GK-2a & 3a.

OUTSIDE THE US? Contact us for availability & shipping cost. All sales final outside US.