Roland VGA-3

[Antonuzzo]

As far as I can see, there's very little that's been written or said about this device and having picked one up for £75 (!) I'm now in a position to review it.

So, first impressions: It's a heavy beast, weighing in at a smidgeon under 40lbs. Interestingly, there's no option to attach castors (as on the VGA-5 and VGA-7), which it would really benefit from. It's a nice-looking amp, with Roland and V-Guitar badges on the front, and a slight angle to the top of the cab.

There are five preset buttons and a bank switch, giving you ten presets available from the front panel. Here's a major irritation: there are more banks on the amp, but you can't access these without a now-discontinued Roland foot controller. That's frankly ridiculous and hard to see as anything other than a cynical marketing grab by Roland; an additional bank up / down button surely couldn't have been that hard to include?

Out of the box, the first five presets are standard, the second five are COSM, created with 13-pin users in mind.

Testing via the 1/4" with a Telecaster, the sounds are very satisfactory. The amp models might sound a little dated compared to what's available now - I'm guessing it's all based on the VG-88 - but the lower bit rate actually imparts a nice bit of grit to the distorted tones. There's definitely a lot to be had here and you can dial up anything from warm blues to full metal racket with ease. The clean tones are Roland through and through - you can't quite get the classic Jazz Chorus tone, but you'll get close.

Hooking up via 13-pin is a mixed bag. The sitar tone is pretty poor to my spoiled-by-the-VG-99-ears, and the synth patches are a bit 'meh'. The 12-string model sounds nothing like a 12-string. However, the Strat and Les Paul models are not bad at all, and the latter is capable of a fair imitation of Zep's 'Since I've Been Loving You'.

Tweakability - well, this was the entry-level amp in the range, so it's limited with the amps having the same controls - gain, volume, bass, middle and treble. The effects are okay - Boss for sure, but with limited settings that change slightly as you twist the knobs. The only real customisation on the table is a tap delay function.

But it's important to remember that we're talking about an amp that was released in 2002, when the concept of a modelling amp was still relatively new. Limitations aside, this is a fantastic-sounding amplifier, and extremely loud too - I think the 50w rating is a little conservative.

I used to wonder why the VGA-5 didn't incorporate a 13-pin input and now I feel I understand it better. The V-Guitar implementation on this is limited - a handful of okay-ish options, no alternate tunings etc. Chances are, if you own a GK-enabled guitar, you probably also have some VG kit too.

But as a 'normal' amp, it's just great. You can easily store enough presets to get you through a fairly varied gig and it's got that tight Roland sound to it. I'd take it over a Cube any day of the week.