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I've been looking into midi guitars recently as a way to control my synths and whatnot. What do y'all use if any?

The ghost pickup system is cool, but it seems to be limited to 13 pin system's. At that point I'm spending at least $700 to do the midi upgrade and I'm tied to a pedal to an external interface to make it work.

Everything else seems to be beat up old 80's stuff. Is that the path I should go down?

The Roland thingamajig Furtkamp uses is neat.

The current gen Roland stuff is as good as it's ever been - going back to the original 13-pin stuff will *not* get you what you want.

Tracks well, latency is decent, vGuitar stuff (not MIDI) rocks, and the GR-55 has actual editable synth parameters (it's not just "here's piano 2, and you can't do anything to it!") and plays well with other MIDI stuff. Additionally, it lets you actually adjust the guitar/pickup settings (and save 10 in the unit) for different guitars with the pickups if you have more than one so it's not "set it up and cringe if you have to use a different thing with it" - it's painless to switch from the Jaguar with a pickup to Bass VI with one for me.

GR-55 puts out straight MIDI data both USB and on a standard cable - it's not crippled in any way (the GP-10 puts out MIDI but only over USB!).

If buying pickups themselves, look at Japanese ebay sellers. They're $100 or more below US dealers shipped for NIB models! And on the pickup, you want a NIB one for your first unit, trust me on this. You will want all the dongles and options that let you hook it up on LP or Strats or some Fender offsets without drilling, and buy a package deal that includes the GR-55 and the pickup. 13 pin cables are *not* cheap and you don't want to cheap out with them.

Thanks, I was hoping you'd chime in. Is there a cheaper interface than the GR-55 that compares to it's tracking? I was hoping to avoid paying for the synth stuff baked in to that beast.

And have you tried the ghost pickups vs the roland pickup? More discrete since they're built into the saddles and avoids the drilling. Seems to cost about the same. You do have to have a bit of exposed wiring though.

Look at Brian Moore i-series guitars. You can get a used one with integrated 13-pin via the saddles for ~$500 nowadays.

There's nothing that compares in the tracking department, it is what it is.

And I didn't want to have to switch guitars to use it, so haven't gone down the Ghost route. And it's more invasive than the GK on things that take it in terms of installation - assuming I'd hack up a LP to do it when it's a no-mangle install on a TOM bridge (hang the bulb off the rear strap post, and the pickup itself goes on a mount that attaches below the TOM without screws or adhesive. Remember the Ghost isn't just the saddles - it's the circuit board and 13 pin jack, and everything else too.

Was even able to use the LP hanger on a Classic Player Jaguar due to the trem being moved up a hair for break angle - the bulb fits behind the trem on the body (which it *doesn't* on the standard Jag/JM/VI rout).

I can see that point although I'd much rather have an instrument professionally made to run MIDI rather than a guitar with an extra pickup taped or velcroed on or whatever with cables running on top of the guitar.

If you go that route, shell out to have a pro install a Roland internal kit, not an aftermarket maybe.

Dr - are you using a computer? I have a VST app called "Midi Guitar" which can used as a stand alone or VST and uses your guitar's signal and converts it to MIDI. Works really fucking well and is polyphonic. I haven't used it in years but was the best $100 I have ever spent in terms of software.

At the time it only worked with standard pitch but I think they were constantly updating it to use with other tunings or below the Low E on a guitar. Something to look into.

I agree with rfurtkamp except if you go with old 90's/80's rout a Yamaha G50 is really good