@@the-engneer thats one of the reasons why i would call him a musician and not a guitarist, guitarist is like a dirty word as many are not musical at all.
I saw Jimi and have a very good idea of what he would do with this equipment, and that's not much. Back then, synthesizer tracking was horrible, no string feel, just pushing strings for a lot of noise. You can see it when he uses just fingers on the frets, moving them around to get continuous sound. That "not much" was for onstage. "Jimi Hendrix" was a corporate response to the British Invasion.
That is actually one of the features of the GR-500 - hexaphonic distortion. Each string gets its own distortion circuit and is processed separately, so you get chords which are harmonically rich. IIRC, you can also pan each string in the stereo field. I know the later GR-300 and GR-100 boxes featured a similar hex fuzz circuit.
I have two of these in nearly brand new condition. I wanted one FOR YEARS! Saw Steve Hackett and Genesis both using these live. What a surprise when your video popped up. 😄
Two parts I absolutely dig are the sustain system and the idea that the synth bass section seems to be lo-note priority. The second part makes it like the Minimoog or an ARP Axxe. Andy Summers played this model during *Ghost in a Machine* and *Synchronicity.* I like imagining him attaching it to the Police’ Oberheim OB-Xa.
3k$ used on ebay. That's actually a lot less than I expected for a freaky, made-in-the-70s guitar/synth thing. A current 2019 Les Paul Standard is more expensive then one of these.
You can get this capability any guitar for £300 nowadays with the Fishman triple play. While it's an awesome relic, it's definitely been surpassed now.
Very cool piece of kit... I was only familiar with the GR300 that people like Pat Metheny used. Really impressive tracking speed and accuracy for such an old unit.
Thanks for the demo! Never heard audio of that model. I’ve had a G707/GR700 for the last 30 years. It sounds like 80’s cheese. When I use the board, I get lost just playing with the sounds. In the last decade, I’ve picked up 2 more G707’s - so I’d have one in each color (red, black, silver). Then I bought the fretless bass version with floorboard, in a pearl-banana color. Almost bought a red fretted bass version a few years back but the seller couldn’t do my offer. It sat unsold for 6 months before he pulled the ad.
There’s a guy who makes new cables cheap 3D printed connector get em on eBay. Picked up one of these baby’s a couple of months ago it really is an amazing instrument as a guitar and a synth and together. Hadn’t figured out the sustain though! Thanks!
Any Rush fans out there- Alex Lifeson had one of these around 1978 and used it on Hemispheres Book II I think! He even appears to have played it live during the brief period in 1978-79 that they played the entire 18+ minute long Book II! Always think he is so underrated as a pioneer of boss chorus, Roland jazz chorus amp and this- as well as a rare instance of a guitarist playing the Moog Taurus
Daft punk's song "Rock 'n Roll" now makes a lot of sense after watching this video. That's an impressive hardware right there! You will have lots of fun poking sounds out of that!
I love this guys attitude to old vintage gear. Yeah just build a midi keyboard in a les Paul. Yeah let's just open up a vintage guitar controlled synth like it's nothing! Brilliant
I’m a massive Rush and Alex Lifeson fan. I’ve seen alot of photos of Alex during that era between 1978-1980 using that guitar. My guess is that he used it live for Hemispheres during that era. It’s a really neat looking peace of gear. I think he might’ve used his ES-355 for the studio and the GR-500 as well, but maybe for live he used the GR-500 for the song between that 1978-1980 period. That’s my theory.
its hexaphonic fuzz, each string its own distortion circuit - you can play it by itself, a little nasty sounding, or you can run it through the filter, which sounds great. Later Roland guitar synths each string gets its own VCF its a little prettier.
I have a Roland MKS-7 which is basically a Juno-7 midi module. I had to replace the VCA/VCF filter "chips", which are known to fail and this thing appears to have the same or similar parts. They are the unusual epoxy-covered single in-line parts that he mentions there are 6 + 2 extra (1 per voice). There is a fellow making very good replacements of these chips for a reasonable price (not affiliated, I bought several of them) at www.analoguerenaissance.com . It's a bit of a labour to replace these things, but you might not have to calibrate it like you would a synth after at least lol. This thing is wild. The giant cable suggests that all the guitar controls are just "off-board" wiring for the synth, it's basically a bunch of pots and switches that are directly in the synth signal path, no digital controls or anything!
I remember seeing the guitar by itself in a pawn shop in the mid 90s...no idea it has that fantastic board! Really, really cool! Your energy and excitement with this analog tool is palpable through al these ones and zeros. Thanks for sharing...looking forward to more!
The very first time I ever heard the GR500 Roland Guitar synthesizer was on the Emerson, Lake & Palmer album titled "Love Beach." Greg Lake plays it on the intro of the song "For You," and on the song "Canario."
@@kirkmckim2685 great show. 38 special opened for them, and I was tripping my brains out not more than 30ft. away form Geddy & his massive Oberheim wall of modules.
I've seen one of these things in person. It has to have a separate pickup for every string and whereas later Roland and Casio guitar synth controllers would have a single device with six coils, pole pieces, etc. this one actually has a row of what look like cassette deck heads and to accommodate that, the string spacing is crazy wide. I don't know if later Roland controllers used the same cable as this one but to reproduce the same controller front end in a different guitar you'd be stuck with the different guitar's closer string spacing and you'd have to either fabricate a new hex pickup or use some other one which may or may not work with a copy of the original's electronics. Not worth it IMHO.
@@hubbsllc The cables stayed the same through the GR-300 and GR-700 and the GK-1 and GM-70 (guitar to MIDI converter). The cables are stupid rare and expensive and nobody makes the connectors anymore. (Note: I had recently heard somebody was making the connectors but only selling the cables fully built)
I've been playing guitar for 15 years. This is the first time I've ever heard a guitar pick called a plectrum. Damn, I need to get out from under my rock more often.
Cool! The GR-500 was also used by Laid Back on "White Horse" - the sustained chord. John Guldberg of Laid Back even brought it on stage in the late-90s.
