Guitar synths have had a complex history. But from Casio comes the PG380, a MIDI guitar synth that is delightfully simple to play. Raising the finance may not be quite so easy...

AS WITH MOST things, the electric guitar has come of age. Not so long ago the setup was glowingly simple — a solid wooden body, a couple of pickups, big amplifier. The sounds it could create belied this simplicity, but as man is such an inquisitive beast, changes had to come. In terms of musical instruments, technological progress has manifested itself in the synthesizer. In this field, progress has taken us from ugly ducklings like the Minimoog to the all-singing, all-dancing Fairlight. Somewhere along the line it was inevitable there would be a marriage proposal between synthesizer and guitar.

Although in commercial terms they seem like a recent innovation, guitar synthesizers of a sort have been around for some time. Way back in the '60s Vox developed an 'organ guitar' but its main use seemed to be in publicity shots. Throughout the 70s other guitar synths were developed, like the Synthesar and the ARP Avatar, but although the technology was adult, the instrument was still in its infancy. The designs were monophonic, slow to respond and prone to 'mistrigger' because of the pickup system they employed. Roland remained dedicated to producing guitar synths. Systems like the GR300 boasted some notable endorsees — Robert Fripp, Andy Summers, Jeff Baxter... But still the systems never quite lived up to the manufacturer's promise, and they proved unpredictable in a live situation. Towards the middle of the decade things started to look up. The Roland GR707 was polyphonic and had access to a much wider range of sounds than previously available, housed in separate floor unit. Many guitarists remained sceptical. It seemed possible the guitar synthesizer would remain the unreliable Frankenstein's monster of the industry. But recent years have seen a considerable improvement in "pitch reading" guitar synth systems due to the advent of MIDI. The entry to the market of Casio, a company with an enviable reputation for keyboard synths, has seen the reality of guitar synths move closer to the promise. Casio manufacture a range of guitar synths to suit all pockets, of which the PG380 is the top. Whilst by no means perfect, it is a versatile, simple to use, and attractive system. There's no less than 64 pre-set sounds generated onboard, all of which can be combined in any degree with the signal from the ordinary pickups... and all is controlled from the guitar itself. It's easy... if you can operate a Les Paul, an amp and a couple of pedals, all at the same time, then I'll guarantee that within five minutes of opening the manual you'll be dancing about all over it.

But I know what you're thinking — for this sort of money you could buy yourself a Gibson or similar, and have a real quality guitar. 'Casio' doesn't quite have the same ring to it as 'Gibson' or 'Martin', does it? But fear not — Casio didn't neglect the "guitar" element in "guitar synth". Pick up the PG380 and you'll be surprised, because it's been well set up and really does feel like a quality instrument. The neck is very comfortable, built of maple (Fender style), but actually feeling more like a Gibson with its flat, wide ebony fingerboard. The 22 frets are rather flat-topped but well polished. However, the bass strings buzzed badly, which led me to discover that adjusting the trussrod would mean removing not only all the strings but the entire scratchplate as well..! A small removable panel to allow adjustment might have been a bit better here! The alder body is nearly square-edged, to make room for the electronics cavities, while the neckjoint is your regular four-bolt-and-a-plate type. It occurs to me that this guitar would look much more attractive and high-tech with a through-neck construction and finished black all over, but there you go!

The magnetic pickups comprise two unidentifiable single-coils and a humbucker, finished in matt black to match the scratchplate. The switch is a five-way type, while the three control knobs are — from the bridge — guitar volume, synth volume and guitar tone, combined with a push-pull coil-tap for the lead pickup. The hardware is completed by the vibrato — a Floyd-Rose licensed unit made by Gotoh, (the machinehead people) with tail end string locks and all the usual fine-tuning facilities; the arm can be tightened into place with an Allen key. Such is today's market that non-trem models are not available.

The Casio will operate as a normal guitar, which is great of course, but not the main reason you'll be shelling out £1200. And to use the presets or the MIDI circuitry the first thing you need to sort out is your power supply. For stage use the best thing is to use the option of six, Walkman-sized batteries; when these start to run down the LED display starts to flash — presumably to give you time to fling the thing at the nearest roadie and make a grab for the spare... I mean you will be buying two won't you? Mmm... For rehearsing or recording you can save money and use an AC adaptor, although quantities of sticky tape are needed to stop the starplug from dropping from the socket! High tech indeed.

Once you've succeeded in hooking up the power supply, the tone number II flashes up automatically on the LED display. Selecting a different preset, say, preset 61 ('Space Orch') means simply pressing button 6, followed by button 1. An accurate changeover does mean craning your neck to see over the vibrato bridge... careful positioning of the hand is also required but speed is bound to come with practice. Balancing the two volume controls lets you decide on pure preset sound, ordinary guitar sound, or any mixture of the two.

Using the Chromatic key you can select either 'normal' status (in which the preset/MIDI sounds rise smoothly in pitch when string-bending, like the sound from the ordinary pickups) or 'chromatic' status, in which the preset notes move in semitone increments only — useful for vibes or organ-style lead lines. The 'Octave Up' and 'Octave Down' keys do just that — alter the pitch of the preset sounds (not the guitar sounds) to give an extra octave at each end of the fretboard's range. The Casio also features electronic tuning circuitry with two miniature arrows on the panel that indicate sharp or flat tuning. Play either an open string or a 12th fret harmonic, adjust the tuning according to the indicators, and when the two arrows light up simultaneously the tuning should be accurate to within plus or minus three hundredths of a semitone. Even better is the integral cellphone with built-in electronic directory and... well, not really.

One of the reasons that so many people find guitar synths initially so difficult to get on with is that the pickup sensitivity on demonstration models hasn't been set up for their playing style. You can set up each string on the Casio individually, and to stop the adjustment procedure from being something of a hit-and-miss affair they've included a 'check' function which gives a numerical readout, via the LED display, of just how light a touch is triggering the preset sounds. You can also do clever things like compensating for uneven response caused by your bizarre taste in string gauges! It's worth spending some time experimenting in this area because getting it 'right' makes the transition from playing a normal guitar to the Casio so much easier.

You can buy a RAM card for the Casio which, when slid into the slot at the back, increases the number of sounds available to 128. Not enough for you? There's a ROM card which will bring the grand total to 192 — all of which can be recalled in the same way as the ordinary presets. Alternatively, you can programme your own sounds on the Casio VZ1 keyboard and transfer them, via a RAM card, to the PG380. All very well in theory, you might be thinking...

Thankfully, the impression is underlined in practice. The ordinary pickups show a good tone range, even volume levels and a pleasant overall sound. No surprises here, but a glance at the preset list in the manual shows some rather, er, superfluous sounds. Teardrops, Ambulance, Cowbells — who needs this stuff? The best of the presets, though, sound great — strings and brass for providing lush washes of backing, funky percussive tones for those noodling little lines and synthetic screaming for over-the-top solos — with preset names like 'Harmo Lead' and 'Dist Guitar' you get the picture...

The handful of bass sounds is good, but slower tracking in the lower registers makes exact timing tricky. The imitation Hammond (Warm Organ) is excellent but the sax is a disappointment; I would willingly trade all those dratted clavicords for one decent acoustic piano sound, although a good Fender Rhodes can be had by selecting Piano Bass and shoving it up an octave. Some sounds are very attractive, some are made surprisingly subtle by tricks like the addition of a faint higher octave note with a touch of vibrato, while others would set even a home-organist's teeth on edge! As you'd expect it's a pretty mixed bag, but the strange thing is that even the oddest of sounds can become very effective when mixed in with the normal guitar pickups.

In terms of personal preference, it would be nice if the Casio had better sounds... and less of them. I realise that the appeal here lies in simplicity, but if we were given just twenty good tones and it were possible to assign the half-dozen you need for your live set, in order, onto a separate bank, then switching would become a one-button job. Can you imagine the shame of forgetting the number for your favourite string sound in the heat of the moment... and hitting church bells instead?

Still, the Casio is no toy; it's highly enjoyable to use, has expandable sounds and happens to be a perfectly good guitar in its own right. At £1300 it might seem rather steep, but you don't have to buy anything else to use it, so there are no hidden costs. Church bells 'n' all, there can be few better introductions to the world of MIDI guitar.

CASIO PG380: £1299 inc VAT; no left-handers, no case.

INFO: Casio Electronics, (Contact Details)