CASIO DG1/10/20

The DG stands for DIGITAL GUITAR in case you had not guessed and you are likely to find all of the above models on Ebay though the DG1 is a rarity  (there are others!!) and the other two are getting rarer so expect to pay high prices -a DG10 can bring £80+ and I have seen the DG20 around £300 - the reason being that the DG20 has a MIDI port and can thus trigger other synthesisers. You may also see the MG (MIDI GUITAR) series on Ebay which are real guitars (Ibanez) with CASIO MIDI electronics - the last one I saw was £245 and didn't sell,but someone missed a bargain.

The DG series are not real guitars but have nylon strings and a rubber fretboard which is used to trigger electronic sounds - though having heard one - I can tell you that they are impressive and are worth the prices.
Both the DG10 and 20 have a PCM drum system which seems largely similar to the MT/HT series of keyboards.

TONES

Tones cover Acoustic Guitar and Electric and Distortion as well as some keyboard and organ types. There is a MUTE button that shuts up any overhanging notes and a sustain control as well as a solo button to make only one note sound at a time.The DG20 has more tones than the DG10 as well as 4 drum buttons.

RHYTHMS

The Rhythm unit is a PCM type similar to the MT keyboards. There is a fill button to break up the beat.

Good Points: I have heard this instrument and although some of the presets are cheesy,some are quite good and have effects built in,and you cannot really complain about something that mimics a guitar so well in its control.The strings are independent and can be strummed and there is an on board PCM drum unit,the overall sound is impressive and is even better through an effects unit. The casing is solid and how cool do you look with one of these babys?

Niggles: I have found that the DG10 at least has a complex power on system which on mine has failed - CASIO are not overly interested in fixing them,but the sound generator components seem to have stood the test of time. I am hoping to get the one I have to power up - but this maybe one of those things that the model suffers from,so be careful to ask when purchasing that it DOES in fact power up and function correctly - the niggle about the DG10 is it has no MIDI OUT socket - this is solved by getting the DG20 - but that costs a lot more for the privilege of being able to trigger your more modern synths with better guitar sounds.

Note: I have now fixed the power on problem which cost 19p to fix - the PDF manuals for these machines can be found at [templarseries.atspace.com/dg.html] along with a description of how to fix the power on problem.

Expect to pay: DG10: £65.00 +       DG20: £100+