“I recently purchased a Roland VG-8EX from Sweetwater, to use with my Godin LGX-SA. I’m still in the beginning stages of learning how to use it, but so far I’ve had a problem getting good sound from it, even through a stereo system. It sounds tinny and “artificial”, compared to the sound of the guitar without the VG-8EX. I’ve read in the Sweet Notes’ Tech Notes that Jim Miller uses this LGX-SA/VG-8EX combination for recording, which was one factor that influenced me to purchase the VG-8EX. What are some starting points for getting the sound I want?”
According to Jim the main component of getting the sound you want is getting the VG-8 setup so it responds to the Godin pickup the way it would their own GK2A pickup. There is a separate setup page in the VG-8 for this, but it can take some fiddling to get it right. The VG-8’s sound is effected by the character of the guitar driving it and we’ve found that really bright, light gauge strings (.08’s and .09’s) make some of the heavier sounds a little thin (particularly on the G string). On the other hand they work great when getting it to do Rickenbacker 12-strings or acoustic guitar sounds so it’s all in what you are going for. But no matter your starting point you can program around it to accomplish what you need. There is so much flexibility and power in the VG-8 that you can do almost anything if you put the time into it. Once you’re sure it’s set up right spend some time with the EQs.. They are powerful and when properly tuned can radically change the tonal character of some of the sounds.