You Rock Guitars YRG-1000 MIDI Guitar

In all the time I have been using Amazon, there have only been a handful of times when I wrote a review. However, I had to comment that I am EXTREMELY pleased with the YOU GUITAR. Within a half-hour of use, I had figured out how to produce all the effects of my normal guitars, with the added bonus of playing with a "classical" sound, if I felt like it, or like a metal "shred head", with lots of "guts" and "feed-back" if I was in the mood. So, let's address some of the comments made in other reviews. 1. "The YOU GUITAR doesn't allow me to do hammers/pull-offs" : WRONG. I noticed that if you had a finger on a string, you COULD hammer or pull-off a higher note. SO, simple suggesttion would be to mechanically capo the first fret so the guitar considers the strings "closed", allowing you to hammer/pull-off on the fret-board. 2. "The plastic construction seemed somewhat fragile, and if I dropped the guitar it would probably break": Well, folks, if you're a drugged-out rock-aholic that regularly walks in to walls, or drops your guitars, ANY guitar would break. 3. "The Whammy seems a little flimsy" : True. Just don't hammer the whammy. It is quite sensitive, and doesn't need much of a touch to produce a strong whammy effect. 4. "The pre-recorded tracks are not so good": Have to agree here. I also noticed that the rhythm's don't always stay consistent. But personally, I will be running the main tracks/beats/rhythms out of my comp software, with the guitar as the solo leading instrument, so I can disregard this feature with ease. 5. "Tapping out on the fret-board is not as fast and crisp as with a standard guitar": This was the only weakness I found to be true. Tapping out does not respond as quickly as it should, so occassionally, some notes will drop out. However, unless you are playing "Flight of the Bumble-bee", fooling around with a few changes in playing style should be workable. The only thing I have left to figure out is how to get the best string "action" on slides. But I am confident that I will be able to find a solution to this as well. All in all, the plusses of the YOU GUITAR are far greater than its minuses, and for a couple hundred bucks, I don't think you are going to do any better. A FEW MORE NOTES, AFTER 24 HOURS OF MESSING WITH THE YOU ROCK GUITAR: 1. I have noticed that YOU ROCK offers a web-site where additional tracks and synths can be purchased. Different grades, from "regular" to "Professional" seem to be available, so this may address some of the initial weaknesses found in the stuff that came with the guitar. 2. I REALLY like the style of this guitar. I prefer smaller-bodied instruments, and the "no-head" and simple black body and design greatly appeal to my "minimalist" nature. 3. The somewhat "heavy" action needed to pluck or pick the input strings was o.k., by me (although I may alter them *slightly* in the future). I am an advanced classical guitarist, and an intermediate rocker shred head, with a fair amount of strength and technique in both hands. Figuring that most of you out there are in roughly the same category, the heavier action won't be a strain. NOTES ON PLAY: "Classical Gas": No problem. The guitar is up to the technique of Parker, Segovia, Montoya....etc, with a clear classical synth. More stately music such as Vivaldi or Bach... again no problem. "FOTBB" is problematic, as the speed and fingering of this piece seems to over-power the capabilities of the guitar at times. For classical fun, try running "TAP" mode while pluckiing and playing with the fingers as normal. This gives a rather interesting out-put reminiscient of a rather funky guitar duet. "Rocking, Metalicity and Shredding": Speed shreds are problematic. But if you go for more plaintive, slightly slower progressions, and don't look to pump out ten notes in 1.5 seconds, no problem. The "guitar" synth quality is great, with some really fun set-ups, such as "Dirty electric" that sounds like a 25-year old Stratocaster run on an amp soaked in beer... "The Blues": Good Blues and/or R&B guitar synths. I like to play in the style of Diana Krall, and this guitar is great for that. Again, I could see that speed might be a problem if you are a blues "scatter".... "New Age": Hey, man its a guitar/synth, so new age stuff is "cream cheese" to this rig. I spent a several hours playing around with ENYA and VANGELIS derivatives with no problem. A FEW THINGS I WOULD CHANGE: I would put the ear-phone/head-phone jack on the butt of the unit. Having it poking out on the underside of the guitar gets in the way sometimes. Same with the other I/O jacks on the under-side. I would make the set-ups and designations of the synths, and instrument styles more intuitive. "Stacking" the applications is a bit confusing. For veterans of the PC and Microsoft, figuring this type of stuff out is "old-hat", but there are a lot of APPLE people out there that are used to their computer instruction manual consisting of one sentence: "Turn on the machine...". So, in deference to those of us lacking degrees in computer science, take mercy on us, YRG! : - ) OVER-ALL SUMMATION: A great guitar/synth/comp/game that is worth the money. If you are an amateur player of any skill level, and even up to a "Semi-Pro" maybe playing quiet classicals in a small coffe-shop or cafe, or a NYC street-corner nickel-and-dime player making enough money for a couple of burritos and a cheap flop-house, you are good to go. If you are a seasoned traveling professional musician, who needs a guitar that can take some hard traveling, needs super-high-quality synths, ....etc, this 200 buck set-up won't hack it. But SHAME ON YOU if you ever expected it to, to begin with. You'll have to spend $4000.00 to do it on this level....

First, let me say that I love the concept of this product and some YRGs probably work quite well. But, someone considering this purchase needs to be aware of the following: (1) though Amazon listed the product it came from another seller and it was poorly packaged, which may have caused damage, I don't really know ... there was no cushioning, it just came in the original box ... (2) the volume knob did not work... (3) the sound stopped suddenly w/out warning and the guitar needed to be turned off and put down for a while before it could re-start... (4) the guitar patches were all worbly sounding as if they were stuck on some truly awful effect... This could have happened from a bump during shipping, I don't know. But I had to return it (Amazon was very helpful with this) because I either cannot trust the workmanship of the product (fault of the manufacturer) or I cannot trust how the product is shipped (fault of the seller and/or shipper), either one is a deal-breaker for me. The YRG company itself offered to fix it; I decided to return it because I didn't buy a remanufactured product but a new product -- if it needs to be rebuilt ten minutes after I receive it then that's not the quality I'm looking for. I suppose if YRG had offered to double-package a new YRG and send it to me as a replacement I might have considered that option.

I read several clear and focused reviews of this instrument (the yourock guitar) and decided I needed one. The reviews were truthful and the guitar has fulfilled my expectations. I am pleased with the purchase. I have two concerns and they needn't be deal breakers for anyone. First is the inability to bend the strings. Yes there is a whammy bar that can produce the same sound, but I found the lack of bending to be unfortunate. The second concern is the feel of the strings that you pluck. They are all the same gauge and tension and you get no feedback regarding how hard you have struck or plucked them. I find that when I am putting some expression into a classical piece I suddenly find missing notes. I have to remember to pluck with a right good will. The fact that you can break down this guitar into two easily transported light pieces is a real plus. I intend to take it wherever I go - Greece this summer for example.