strat pickup replacement opinions needed

[guitarron]

i gave up trying to use it as midi contrller for tracking in sonar-there again by the time i'd get it working right(if ever), the creative juices were sucked out of me

[SdC]

i gave up trying to use it as midi contrller for tracking in sonar-there again by the time i'd get it working right(if ever), the creative juices were sucked out of me

Yeah i tried that with cubase lite and nuendo and neither could really keep up with the gr-33's pitch bends and even when i managed to record something simple, the resulting midi data was an un-editable mess.

[Sprocket]

The new devices are "VG" devices (Virtual Guitar) which indeed model guitar tones, so you can mix/match different guitar types, fx and amps. I recently tried out the VG-99 and it is amazing. But REALLY expensive.

I dont know if you guys noticed, but the American made VG series has been discontinued(at Musician'sFriend at the least) but they blew them out last month for bout $900...you can find some sick deals on those right about now.
Heres a gentleman at another forum selling 2 of them for $900 each a black one and a burst...somebody ought to scoop one of those up.

[SdC]

I don't know if Fender themselves have discontinued the "Roland Ready" strat, but Roland have finally made the gk pickup available as a DIY build-in kit (introduced at NAAM last year), and a stick-on pup unit is included with the VG/GR units anyway.
There are some alternatives; Godin for instance.

[64Guitars]

A Roland Ready Strat and a VG Strat are two different things.

The Roland Ready Strat has a Roland GK-2A hex pickup and a GK 13-pin output connector for controlling a guitar synth, V-Guitar system, or pitch-to-midi converter. It's been available for over ten years and Fender is still making it.

The VG Strat was introduced in January 2007 and discontinued in April 2009. It had a Roland hex pickup but no 13-pin output (very stupid move by Fender). Instead, it had several guitar models built-in like the Line 6 Variax.

I'm not sure when the GK-3 internal kit was introduced but the GK-2 internal kit has been available for years.

[SdC]

A Roland Ready Strat and a VG Strat are two different things.

The Roland Ready Strat has a Roland GK-2A hex pickup and a GK 13-pin output connector for controlling a guitar synth, V-Guitar system, or pitch-to-midi converter. It's been available for over ten years and Fender is still making it.

The VG Strat was introduced in January 2007 and discontinued in April 2009. It had a Roland hex pickup but no 13-pin output (very stupid move by Fender). Instead, it had several guitar models built-in like the Line 6 Variax.

I'm not sure when the GK-3 internal kit was introduced but the GK-2 internal kit has been available for years.

ah I see, thanks for clearing that up. I guess for  the money the vg-strat wouldn't be a bad deal, but of no interest to me.

[Sprocket]

ah I see, thanks for clearing that up. I guess for  the money the vg-strat wouldn't be a bad deal, but of no interest to me.

Yeah, me neither...I reckon I thought it was similar. 

[guitarron]

i think the vg strat was their product to compete with the line 6 variax