Roland Guitar Synth Pickup and Modules

[louderthangod]

I'm thinking about making or having made a kind of crazy guitar. Fretless with a sustain pickup in the neck, bridge humbucker and maybe a Roland Synth pickup. I've never used a Roland synth pickup but I remember seeing Zeni Geva years and years ago and it was pretty cool. It would be nice to have more conventional-ish tones through the regular pickup and then crazy space synth tones from the Roland. What are your experiences with the roland synth stuff for guitar? I'm not looking too fool anyone with authentic flute tones, I'm more into crazy sounds that aren't really recognizable as something familiar.

[backwardsvoyager]

I'm more into crazy sounds that aren't really recognizable as something familiar.

if that's the case then I think you'll like the Roland synth stuff. trying to cop an authentic instrument tone it just sounds cheesy and let's face it, even if the synth sounds pretty legit if you're using a guitar as a controller it's going to have a completely different feel to it anyway.
I use a GK-2A with the GR-33 and it tracks great when set up properly, editing on that unit is pretty deep and you can do even more on a GR-55. Those newer dual pedals for the synth pickups look cool too. It's pretty surprising the kinds of sinister synth and drone sounds you can coax out of the stuff.

The only thing i'd be concerned about is whether or not it will work well with a fretless guitar, but it would probably be fine as long as you were able to nail specific notes on it. I think roland might have made a fretless synth guitar at one point anyway.

[Gone Fission]

Look around the sub forums for the Boss GP-10 over here: http://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php#c22
The GP-10 isn't about guitar to MIDI rompler stuff like most of the prior Roland GR line. It's conceptually like an entry level VG processor, more of a signal-processing model using COSM modeling. COSM isn't a tech that set in stone back at the first instance, so prior experience being unimpressed with COSM gear should not rule this out. The GP-10 can do some insane stuff, along with some more conventional sound-alike tricks.

I will say a bunch of the guys there are into the GR-300 analog synth sim mode (which is basically the original guitar synth circuit rebuilt in COSM) for emulating vintage Pat Metheny. It might get the sound right, but that sound blows. I'm quite sure that mode can do better sounds.

By the way, their group-buy pricing deal is ongoing and is better than I would expect most of us could get through other means, so if you want one, do their process to request the info. Still a bit pricey, but one of these days I'll stop splurging on other things and have the bucks to get one.

[louderthangod]

I'm more into crazy sounds that aren't really recognizable as something familiar.

if that's the case then I think you'll like the Roland synth stuff. trying to cop an authentic instrument tone it just sounds cheesy and let's face it, even if the synth sounds pretty legit if you're using a guitar as a controller it's going to have a completely different feel to it anyway.
I use a GK-2A with the GR-33 and it tracks great when set up properly, editing on that unit is pretty deep and you can do even more on a GR-55. Those newer dual pedals for the synth pickups look cool too. It's pretty surprising the kinds of sinister synth and drone sounds you can coax out of the stuff.

The only thing i'd be concerned about is whether or not it will work well with a fretless guitar, but it would probably be fine as long as you were able to nail specific notes on it. I think roland might have made a fretless synth guitar at one point anyway.

Is it picky about pitch? That was one of my worries that it would be like some harmonizers where you have to tune and into are to the unit and play with no vibrato or it'll get glitchy. I was hoping the newer stuff and the specially designed pickups would be able to continuously track those between notes which is what the fretless is all about.

[rfurtkamp]

GR-55 handles the trem well (I have a GK3 on my Classic Player Jaguar - IT WILL NOT FIT A STANDARD TREM POSITION EXCEPT ON THE CP/MASCIS SQUIER).

COSM modelling is 100% trem-friendly, and the synth tracking is very trem friendly providing the instrument allows pitch-bending (or you switch it to be so in the patch).

You actually have to work to make it mistrack to be honest, I've spent a lot of time getting it to make unholy sounds beyond the intent of the processor and it takes genuine work to get it to glitch.

You can make many, many weird sounds regardless though - the 55's deep editing is beyond a little insane. Get the PC editor for it as well, it's doable in the unit but you can do deeper editing still in the computer. *Everything* is assignable - you want a LFO-controlled delay setting and LFO-controlled amp distortion level? Sure!

There's also a ton of internal signal routing options - dedicated guitar out if you want to run that to the pedalboard, and can run either/both normal mag pickups and the vGuitar out through it. There's most of a GT-10 in there as well for effects, and they're solid if not amazing. Electric sitar model is amazeballs once you learn to use it, and the alternate tuning in the vGuitar settings is just ...insane.

There is literally nothing else like this box. Nothing.

Instant fake band to impossible instruments to regular guitar.

Traditional bleeps and synth stuff:


More standard synth stuff, not Pat Metheny.

[backwardsvoyager]

Yeah if you're playing the pitches right and sliding between them it should track fine. If i set the pickup up right and make sure the guitar is tuned i do have to almost 'work' to get it to glitch.

[Greenfuz]

one of those was used on this entire album for some octave doubling