Roland VG-88 Version 2 update

I've just finished updating my Roland VG88 today. I will have brand new tones from this unit as the brain of the VG 88 is running V2 now.

What is the VG88?

The Roland site says the VG 88 is a "self-contained guitar processing/modeling system which recreates a wide variety of guitar, pickup, amp, speaker cabinet and microphone sounds using a standard electric guitar equipped with GK-2A or compatible pickup"

Just a reminder...

I really like this equipment as it is VERY versatile. Changing tuning within a song without physically tuning your guitar. Delaying pitched notes. Plugging a Nylon string guitar into a Hi-gain amp...Almost anything can be done with this unit!

Updating the VG88

The update procedure is not that difficult to carry through. It only requires patience and...patience...and patience as well . The update guide shows a way to build a plug needed during the first step of the update process. Soldering a 47kOhms resistor to the tip and sleeve of TRS jack as shown below:

Unfortunately I didn't have any 47kOhms resistor on hand, I had to build my very-own update plug connecting a standard 500kOhms pot to a TRS plug.

I connected the probes of my digital multimeter to the jack plug and turned very slowly the pot until my DMM reads exactly 47kOhms..

Doing some soldering stuff, adjusting the Ohmage, sending MIDI files sequentially to the VG88...The whole update process took around 1h30.

Tone

I heard a big "Bang!" when I switched the VG 88 on and it started to burn! Just kidding!   I browsed the VG 88 tone editing functions and found some new amp names such as Mesa Boogie Rectifier...Looks good (and will sound good )

I created a patch from scratch using a full Mesa Boogie Rectifier stack, all EQ set at noon, mic position being slightly off-center...I was really surprised to notice the amp tone coming form the VG sounded nearly like my Carvin V3 amp, but with more low-ends. Well-known Rectifier tone...

The improved Nylon string guitar sounds really great! It will be part of my tone arsenal now! There is absolutely no latency, all real-time modeling.  

The warranty is probably void now as I did the update myself. It worth doing myself. Risky business.

I reject any liability if the update of your VG goes wrong. This blog is just informational. It doesn't mean to be full and detailed tutorial.