Roland GK pickups

[pagemalicious]

hey guys. I'm pretty interested in getting the new GK-3 synth pickup for my guitar. I already have a Roland VGA-3 combo so i won't need to buy the VG box.

Are the sounds really good?

Is it easy to use?

I play in a death metal like band and would like to make songs more interesting, so this seems like it could be a good idea.

any feedback is appreciated

[markD]

Re: Roland GK pickups

i had HUGE tracking problems with the GK-2A. i haven't tried the GK-3 so i can't comment, but the GK-2A was more trouble than it was worth. i use a guitar synth live and the ghost notes and double tracking were hideous with the GK. i bought a piezo pickup brian moore instead and the tracking is DEAD on. look into an RMC or shadow system where the hex pickups are built into the saddle. it will be much more accurate and worth the cost in the long run.

the pickup by itself won't give you any sounds. you will need a synth module to do that. i still use a GR-30. i like the stock sounds and it is flexible machine. i can use sustain pedals for the pianos and organs, pitch bending for synth solos...it's got the JV series of sounds in it, and it isn't that expensive used.

[hippietim]

Re: Roland GK pickups

MD - this isn't the same thing as you are talking about. The VGA-3 isn't a MIDI synth. It is a variant of the VG-8 COSM family of products. It will work great with the GK pickup. There are no tracking issues with the VG-8/COSM units because it isn't doing a pitch to voltage conversion for MIDI note detection. The VG-8 actually takes the output of the GK pickup as the sound input into the modeling engine so the tone of the pickup matters. Roland added a mode to these units for piezo pickups but they still don't sound as good as the GK magnetic pickups.

I've had a bunch of piezo and GK guitars over the years and the GK equipped guitars always sound better than piezos in the COSM stuff.

The piezo pickups can track better or worse with MIDI depending on your playing technique. I had a Godin LGXT which worked quite nice with the GR-30 but sounded like ass with the VG-8 - it's definitely a tradeoff. As for the MIDI stuff, I never really liked my GR-30 so I got a GI-20 and an SRV-5050 which sounds amazing.

[pagemalicious]

Re: Roland GK pickups

well i placed an order on a GK-3. Should be here within a week. can't wait [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[pagemalicious]

Re: Roland GK pickups

Well i got it through and installed it. The tracking is dead on, i'm surprised. Though it was a pain in the arse to get the pickup in the right position and make it stay there. The only thing im not happy with, is that the sounds that i can use from my VGA, is not the sounds i want. I want more of a orchestral synth type sound. Which means i'll have to look out for a GR-20 or 33