Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

[gemini8026]

Im curious who has one, and if it is a Piezo equipped one?

Im VERY interested in getting one, but I would likely skid the MAg style ones like Roland makes and go with a Piezo style unit. But I only see Brian Moore guitars with this feature, and they dont have the config Id like.

Im very curious how the tracking on these newer units are!!!!!!!!!


Post experiences please [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[gemini8026]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

as well, how does the new Roland unit track, is it so good and "fast" that one wouldnt need to go with a Piezo eqiupped unit?

[Accept2]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

I've had a few MIDI guitars and controllers, the Ibanez X-ING, the Roland G707, and quite a few GM70s........None of them were actually any good, and the new ones on the market didnt offer any real improvement.....And then I bought my VG8.....I used to love the idea of MIDI guitar, but ever since I got a VG8, I cant see buying another one of those POS.................

[hippietim]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

I've got (and had) several MIDI guitars. For starters, don't get some old used hunk of junk setup from the 80's or something (like a GM70 or something). All of the newer stuff is much better.

I had:
</font><ul type="square">[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Fender Roland Ready Strat - this was a standard strat with the GK-2A internal kit preinstalled. This was a cool guitar. A lot of folks rag on the Mexican made stuff but I was very happy with this guitar.</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Godin LGXT - this had Wilkinson style whammy with Piezos in the bridge. It used LR Baggs electronics. Very nice.</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Roland GM-70 - old MIDI convertor. pretty much sucked</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Roland GI-10 - old MIDI convertor. replaced by the GI-20. Tracks fairly well. These can be had pretty cheap these days</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Roland GR-33 - MIDI convertor and synth all in one.</font>[/list]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I have:

</font><ul type="square">[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Fender USA strat w/ GK-2A internal kit installed</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ibanez RG420GK w/ GK-2A installed by the factory (I'm actually getting ready to sell this one)</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Godin Multiac Nylon string. This uses piezo's and the LR Baggs electronics.</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Roland GI-20 - tracks pretty good, better than any other Roland offering to date. More flexible, USB, etc.</font>[/list]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">
Things to consider:
</font><ul type="square">[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've played through an Axon AX100. That works really well - I've been thinking of getting one of these.</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yamaha G50 - uses a bit older version of the Axon technology -known to have tracking issues with piezo bridges.</font>[*]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Don't buy a piezo setup with a whammy - you get glitches from the springs and random string scrapes.</font>[/list]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[ September 13, 2003, 04:43 AM: Message edited by: hippietim ]

[gemini8026]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

Thanks. I was thinking of getting the GI-20 with a Piezo solution.

Could one play at the "speed of light" with a setup like that?

Or will there always be limitations?

[Jerry From Ghana]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

IMO the best synth/midi guitars available today are made by Godin. the LGX-SA is the fixed bridge solidbody, the LGXT is the tremolo version and the Flat Five X is the synth access hollowbody(along with their other acoustic and jazz offerings). These models were actually built for accurate tracking.

[hippietim]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

Originally posted by gemini8026:
Thanks. I was thinking of getting the GI-20 with a Piezo solution.

Could one play at the "speed of light" with a setup like that?

Or will there always be limitations?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There will always be limitations as long as you are doing pitch to voltage conversions. The delay and tracking problems is due to the fact that MIDI and such work off of a number assigned to a note and to come up with that number you have to figure out what the frequency of the note your playing is and map it to the corresponding MIDI note number (this is an over simplification). The problem with that is that the frequency of low notes is much slower than the frequency of high notes so the delay and tracking issues are roughly proportional to the frequency of the note.

The way I used to get better performance out of the GM-70 is to string the guitar with all G and B strings and tune them higher. This improves the accuracy because you're playing at higher pitches. Then I would transpose the strings on GM70. Transposing is really fast for the MIDI gear because it is simple addition. I haven't tried this on the GI-20 yet - theoretically it should work the same. The problem with this approach is of course that you can't use the guitar "normally" (well you can, but it's gonna sound funny).

[hippietim]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

I had an LGXT and would not agree. The problems I've experienced with every piezo/trem combination is that you get bizarre ghost notes from the whammy. This happened with my Godin, a Brian Moore, and a Mike Lull installed RMC system. I've never had that problem with a hard tail piezo (like my Godin Multiac) or a GK pickup. My Roland Ready Strat tracked as good as the Godin. My USA Strat w/internal GK tracks really nice. Also, systems like the Yamaha G50 and early Axon systems work horribly with any sort of piezo rig. The LGXT worked really well with the VG-8 - but that's not doing MIDI guitar.

[Jerry From Ghana]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

I have a LGX-SA and I've tried a Roland ready Strat. I much prefer the Godin. It's a great guitar with the other two voices as well. Haven't tried the LGXT, some interesting comments there.

[rEs]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

Have you tried a Ztar?

[jgcable]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

The GK2A tracks as fast as you can play. I have experienced a few very minor ghost noises but they have been so rare and so minor that they aren't even worth mentioning. The Brian Moore I-13 is really nice. I bet the Godin stuff is great too. Everything from Godin is pretty nice.

[Trypp Powell]

Re: Anyone own a MIDI enabled guitar?!?

I've been thinking about the VG-88 or a used VG-8, but I will go with one of the Roland GK-2 internal kits. I've got a PRS SC that would be the perfect candidate for installing one of those. It looks like it would also be incredibly easy to install the internal GK-2 kit on any strat style/pickguard equipped instrument.