Roland GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer : Acoustic Sounds Demo 

So glad to have found this. I have this sitting in the corner collecting dust for a decade. I suddenly remember it just when I'm looking for a 12 string acoustic - and I really don't want to buy another guitar just for the sake of one song in a new band.

Thank You SOOOO much for these excellent tutorials on the GR-55! They are by far the best on youtube!!! Your explanations are detailed which is exactly what we all needed. The GR-55 is awesome, but very involved. I'd be lost without your help! Keep up the good work!!

Kennis, this is a great and useful demo of what guitarists like myself really want to know; how the acoustic models sound. While no model of an acoustic will ever match the real thing, this is probably the most realistic sounding unit Roland has produced to date. Thanks for not wasting time and getting to the heart of the matter. I wish more people had your instincts for producing review videos.

Brilliant demo, no gimmicks, just really usable settings that can inspire song dynamics, many thanks. That Guild 6 string has character

I too just want to thank you for putting out this video. The GR-55 is one heck of a 'deep' piece of equipment, and your hand-holding is very appreciated! Thanks again.

I appreciate that you played the same music with each change so I could concentrate on the equipment changes without trying to deal with totally different riffs as well. I recently acquired a GR55 based in large part to your tutorials...also acquired Godin guitars for the same reason. You do a great job of focusing the attention on the equipment instead of trying to impress us with your obviously serious musical skills.

Now THIS is how you make a review! It´s great to able to hear clearly all the types of guitar, I´m really sold with the acoustic models except for the 12 string effect, other than that it´s an awesome pedal, and of course your review was awesome, thanks!

Great job on this, very helpful as I wait for my GR-55! I can't wait to dig into the acoustic stuff.

Another excellent video! I'm very interested in the rhythhm sounds! Also curious about possible percussion stuff. Glad that you're doing these vids. Very informative! Cheers!

I just bought a GR55 and your videos are helping me alot. Thank you very much.

Very helpful Kennis. Thanks for taking the time to do all this..

Very helpful video .Thank you for posting these demos.

Thanks for your reply-I looked again and found what we were discussing,-I bought this amazing unit today after watching it being put through it's paces in my local Music Store,and that did it for me, -now for some guitar fun!

excellent. thanks for taking the time to put this together for us.

I agree with Lion,,,,excellent. thanks for taking the time to put this together for us.

Here is your well deserved LIKE sir ,you are a great instructor thank you for making this video because I didn't know what I was doing before I watched your videos thank you and God bless you

These videos are great! Thanks, Kennis!

Awesome, Kennis! Keep the demos coming. This is what at least I, and by judging from your rave comments, also others want to hear. Man, am I glad I found your channel!

Thanks for your reviews, top notch stuff.

Excellent job! You clearly understand what people need to see and hear from a review. Thank you.

Kennis, this is valuable even today. Thanks a lot!

Thank you Kennis for your quick reply! I am a long time guitarist in New Zealand who has owned a Roland GP 100 I purchased when they first came out and have never had to replace. It was the first unit with COSM and has never faltered for me ever and was used extensively. A gr55 came up on our version of your eBay. The listing was 5min from closing when your reply came through. I made an offer and have purchased. It has cost me under half the price of a new unit and also comes with the GK3 pickup although I may not be able to use this as i use left handed guitars. Again thanks, will be now studying your videos now to master this unit. The GP 100 has midi also as is a rack unit controlled by a midi foot controller so should be midi compatible. Can't wait!

Great series of videos Kennis: I think it's real strength is the guitar and amp modelling as well as alt tuning. It must be a Godsend for live work.

This is a really useful demo, thanks.

Thank you so much for all you work!!

Great demo

You have the best demo videos ever. I want you to know the Vforum really appreciates and have great comments to say about you. If your not a member you should join and become on of our go to guys for questions and what not. Love the video!

Extremely useful thanks! I have now been able to set up banks with different guitars..... and even make a D-28 sound like it should (with a decent pickup) by tweaking a few settings rather than just accepting the default. Excellent! :)

Thanks for doing these. This has been such a frustrating apparatus. At first all I could do was noodle with the different pre-set patches, as the manual didn't seem helpful. With the videos, you can start to get access to the features of this sophisticated instrument.

Excellent demo, can you do some more like this... it was very clear , if only all demos were like this!

This is so helpful.Thanks.

Great job man. I think it sounds great. It mocks well. Appreciate the look see.

nice demo!

I'm very impressed !I want one.

Great Job! Thanks!

THANK YOU for the demo. I am interested in hearing how a guitar sounds when modeling Bass Guitar sounds with the GR-55. It's pure HECK waiting for my GR-55 to ship.

very helpful, thanks!

Thank you for posting these demos. Very helpful. Also, if anyone hasn't said it in the last 5 years, I think "Reso," is Resonator Guitar.

Hey man, very useful video, really helped me to make an accoustic guitar patch.... its my request to you if you can post a video showing what parameters should I use to make a Chorus tone, distortion power chord tone and a lead part playing tone.Thanks in advance.

Great stuff, Kennis. I appreciate the hard work you've put into these. I play lead in our church praise team and am thinking about getting one. By the way, "reso" probably means "resonator" or "resophonic" both terns are used to describe Dobro (a Brand name) and other resonator guitars, which have an aluminum resonator cone that's attached to the bridge.

Hey Thank's for all the tutorial type video's you have been doing on the GR 55. I am an intermediate player who is interested in writing my own song's, not so much covering other's music and this machine, so far with your help, is allowing me to have the ability to create all sort's of musical styles even though I have yet to make any serious progress with it so far, but that is because of my time constraint's ,not the machine's ability. So far the drum and percussion portion's of the patches, I, even with your help, have gotten nowhere, they are pretty confusing to a person who is a new guitar synth user basically, and have NO drum experience period. I now however, have gained a whole lot of good understanding about the acoustic guitar's and body styles and how to adjust them to get the sound I am looking for, I really love the flute and cello patches to go along with acoustic guitar and the rain effect. With the looper you can really create some great soundscape's . I'm happy I invested into this piece of equipment and thank you for helping me navigate it.

Gibson J-45 and the Guild were the best sounding 12 strings. Neat machine, would help a lot of café players with cheap equipment.

Love my GR-55 and Godin xtsa and hollow body nylon string model aswell.

Hi thanks for your reply, though don-t know what Graph Tech ghost system is, but I already spoke with the company seller in my country "Costa Rica" and I will for sure review it with him. I will continue learning from you. Blessings

thnx... nice work...

Thanks for another great video. I know this post was years ago but I've just ordered a GR55. I'm assuming that there will be no latency or tracking issues on modelled acoustic (or electric) and amp sounds as you are not using the synth part of the GR55. Is that right?

Firstly, thank you for these very detailed videos! I was interested in hearing the banjo modelling to see if it was any better than the vg-99. Overall, I'm a bit underwhelmed by both. I get the impression the guys at Roland assigned to the banjo modelling didn't have an actual banjo to play around with as it sounds more like they modeled a GM banjo patch. The acoustic guitars sound awesome, its just as a banjo player I was hoping to be able to use this in place of my acoustic when gigging

I also own a GR-20. The piano and string patches are devolving with each new iteration,

Great videos Kennis, you do the GR community a great service! I have a question, and that is could you do a video demonstrating how to use the expression pedal on the GR-55 to achieve a Digitech Whammy-esque pitch shift effect? I've heard on VGuitarForums that it's possible, but I do not yet have a GR-55 to test it myself. Thankyou :)

Very good demos. Can you tell me how to make the accordian patch sound like more an accordian or melodian

Great!

Kennis, your denominations are extremely helpful. I am having a areal problem making the acoustics sound like yours. Yours sound great...all of mine sound like a classical. I am using a Godin Multiac nylon string. Can you give me some help here?

Thank you for sharing :-)

Thank you for the helpful video! Can you connect an acoustic guitar to GR 55?

WOW! Talk about an impeccably informatiive set of tutorial videos ! If you have not recieved some sort of award for your vids then someone @Roland needs to be made aware of your contribution to thier sales .I had to mess around for about an hour just to get my u tube acount established so i could respond / subscribe .Well worth it ? You betcha,your chanel rocks ! First post. THANX A LOT ! jason D

Reso is for resonator guitar! Much used in country music!

sounds really legit

RESO is a resonator guitar, like a Dobro or a national guitar. Great overviews of the GR-55.

Thanks. BTW Reso is Resonant guitar. Big metal disc on the front. normally used by slide players.

Hey, thank you for showing us these demo/reviews. Can you please show us some Violin, Fute, Orchestral sounds? I want to use this unit to make orchestral songs

@kennisrussell I'm glad for the help.I'll go easy when adjusting the sensitivity of the p.ups.I'll probably buy the GR-55 with the GK(it's woth the xtra $100)and i'll put it on a backup guitar.I'm waiting on delivery of a Carvin AllanHoldsworth Signature Series HFS2 Fatboy with GraphTech piezo&Synth access.Living in Montreal Quebec I could've easily got a Godin.But my gut said go with Carvin-so i figure my intuition's steering me well.Thanks again and God bless;Glenn

Hey man, thanx for these videos. Will you do some with the bass guitar. Especially COSM stuff as well as synth and tracking issues like eliminating unintentional ghost notes. I've been using guitar synth for years (GR-33), but for bass only a few years. Currently using the Roland GI-20 midi interface with the Roland XV-2020 synth for my bass, (that has Piezo pickups). I'm checking out your vids while waiting for my GR-55 to be shipped. Thanx

I simply want to use my MIDI controller to play really good acoustic sounds. Base on THIS video, this seems like the device for me to get. What other MIDI synthesizers might I consider for that one simple function of playing acoustic guitar sounds? The BOSS SY1000? What is the most affordable MIDI synth that can play really good acoustic guitar sounds?

Perfeito!timbre original

Thanks I have been checking the GR55 out and I am selling my VG99 to get it only because I travel and its more convenient to have a smaller yet extremely powerful ubit in the GR55 than VG99 with FC300 controller when flying Internationally. I will make come compromises in some respect with things I can do but gain in many other ways. I am very impressed with the acoustic sounds and the Reso sounds for the Dobro will come in handy for slide guitar in my country and blues show. I'm still exploring

Hi Kennis , I'd like to know what sort of amplifier you choose for of an acoustic tone or do you start from another patch with an AG and you Isolated the acoustic guitar tone after !? ( sorry for my language , may be , it's not quite correct ,message from France )

Thanks man for the great DEMO; you must work in Roland jeje; you help me to decide to buy one! I need please to know what version is the firmware of you GR55; 1.02? Thanks again! Alex (Colombia)

can you set the tempo's delay, does this thing have a phaser, tremolo, chorus, etc?

Hi thanks for the explanation. I have a Yamaha acoustic guitar. I want to get a Roland Gr55. Can it be used with any type of acoustic guitar? Thanks

@kennisrussell Hey Kennis, thanks for this and the other demos.It really helped me make a decision about purchasing the GR-55 over the VG-99.It has more of what i'm looking for in sound application, and I've already ordered a guitar with Synth access built in.Do you think it makes any difference over using a GK pickup?

ok... Im new to all of this... Im getting my head around how what works and the different sound... but..... I want to set up an acoustic guitar sound from scratch. I notice this video starts with Acoustic Demo... how do you set of that paramater...after that I think Im gonna be ok ??

Reso is Resonator Guitar like a dobro etc.

I've had a GR-55 for a long time but never really delved into editing it. I'm triggering mine with a Godin spectrum acoustic model. I have to say that the modeled guitars sound better than the on board piezo system in the Godin and I feel the Godin is VERY good. So I feed the Godin to some effects while sending the model essentialy clean with EQ. I would HIGHLY recommend though sending the model to the full range AMP effect, dial in some mic settings and also to the Chorus effect (2nd one in the effects list) use Stereo 2 at very low rate and depth settings but it will amazingly split your guitar left and right. Add your on board pickup in the middle to your own preferred mix level. Program the CTL switch to turn on and off an additional chorus (6th one on the effects list) if you want extra, I use mono chorus here, high depth low effect level. You will have a sparkly beautiful acoustic guitar patch. Of course you can add compression if you play hard or want that sound. Also play with ALL the settings and compare to dry signal often as you're programming. It takes time but is well worth it. These videos are a great start. Thanks to Kennis for all his hard work. THIS MACHINE IS VERY WELL WORTH GETTING. I used to not like it because didn't put in the time necessary.

Very nice! Do you know if the GR-55 has acoustic instrument sounds like "cavaquinho" or Bandolim? Thank you!

Are these acoustic sounds synth or guitar effects? I understand that the GR-55 does both. Thanks!

Very tastefully done. Thanks for the simplicity. For something that appears so daunting and confusing, it appears that Roland has made it 'monkey-easy'! Now just to save up the $$$$ to get me one!!

Hi Kennis11 a question I have the gr55 and I use it with a classic guitar with pikup RMC, when I put acoustic guitar patch the sound is quite bad, the reason could be because it uses a classic guitar?( I see that you do not answer the questions I hope to be lucky) thank you!!

regards I would like to ask you if the r gr55 can work with an instrument other than the guitar that has a microphone. for example a bandit with a microphone. A bandola is an instrument similar to a banjo or an electrically amplified mandolin.

Hi there, very nice video. What about the sound if i use with PA system? Cause i'm playin every night and don't wanna carry amp with me.

I have to say that Line6 has it over Roland with acoustic guitars. I struggle to come up with anything usable with my GR-55 and my VG-88 for acoustic sounds. Guys at my church all play the Line6 Variax. The acoustic guitar emulations are gorgeous. The Strat clean sounds on the Roland are just amazing though. I am currently using mine for a high school musical in place of a mandolin. I play a REAL mandolin in the show but use the GR when I don't have time to switch from guitar.

HI Kennis. I really like the way you explain the GR55. I am thinking about getting one myself. I lead worship at my church also and think this could be a great tool to use! So when you play at your church are you going direct to the board and using a keyboard amp as your monitor ? Or just direct to the board ? Keep ROCKING FOR JESUS!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi. I just got in my country the GR55 but having problems cause I have acoustic guitar with nylon strings. We are working on it. Any suggestion!!! 😩

May i ask u something about the gr55?Is possible to personalize a patch in this way: 6°string(thicker):electric guit. + piano+ chorus 5°&4° same as aboce 3°string:el.guitar+ chorus and a pad 2°&1°:tune change + chorus all wih a reverb ?? I made that question because no demo says which are the limits of the gr55.

Hi there. I have the opportunity to purchase one of these units. Am curious how you find the latency.

Hey, Help ok on this acoustic sounds demo are you on a acoustic guitar or electric ?? Would you need the gk 3 pick up on your acoustic guitar ?? this is good stuff ..thanks

Can you put the GR 55 directly to the P. A., withoutt using a Guitar Amplifier?

@kennisrussell Are the acoustic sounds processing your guitar signal to sound like an acoustic, or is it a completely new synthetic sound?

Hi got another question can you play your guitar in a alternate tuning like DADGAD or open E would the gr-55 play in that ?? or does the gr-55 have any settings in it ..? Thank's again

great! after editing how can we save the patch that you edit?

Reso is short for Resonator, which is a bit like a Dobro. It's to do with the direction the cone goes in.

Which guitar is that you are using? Can we use it with out gk3?

Sound pretty decent Alot of high end though, I would say it sound more like a hybrid Electro accoustic with a little dry microphone signal in there.

When u play it sounds same as an acoustic guitar, but when I connect it to the main PA (I use the line out put setting of the main out , not using an external amp ) it sounds synthetic , not sounding like a natural acoustic guitar as I hear ur guitar tone, can u get me the full setting of ur tone? Do u use amp modeling , equalizer or any effect connected to the main acoustic tone on the 2nd page or just use the tone of the 1st page? Can u pls get the parameters to get the natural sound ? I always get a low hitting sound when I add body to the guitar sound , when I reduce it , it sounds very thin ......... Hope u can understand the question, tnx

can i use this with a midi keyboard? Kind Regards, Nathan. P.S You are good at playing the guitar :)

In term of the quality and the tracking speed of simulating the acoustic guitar sound, which one do you prefer? electric guitar Piezo or Roland GR-55? I just worry about Roland GR-55 doesn't have a good response to the string bending and vibrato.

I just ordered the RMC opt-1 subsonic filter for my gr55, cause I'm using a Godin XTSA. if this works out the way I think it will, I'll probably retire my individual pedals.

@kennisrussell Sorry, but I'm not sure that I understand your answer. Are you saying that the sound we're hearing is the gk-3 pickup through the gr 55 only?

Not actually the sound of the guitar being modelled, but to be fair with this gear, it actually sounds very nice.

could you please do a reiew of the roland rg-20. its an awsome pedal i want to buy it but i dont know it good. i've only heard a couple sounds of it.

Reso refers to resophonic , an entry point to resonator and steel body and others.