Roland Gr-33

[Verbena Reynoso]

Iam considering purchasing one of these guitars. I'm a bass player, but am called to guitar player duties for a 3 month or more gig. I have played guitar since the 70's but not consistently or for the whole night. I like to use my fingers (bass player )so I am intriqued by a classical guitar with a synth output. I don't have guitar steel string calluses, only thicker bass string ones. I have done the search, and learned that there are quite a few of you with this guitar, so I have this question.

I listened to the sound bytes, and they sound cool, but also sounds like it's multi-tracked with drums and bass and other sounds clouding the sonic landscape. I'm sure they do that to sell product, huh?

I listened to the sound bytes, and they sound cool, but also sounds like it's multi-tracked with drums and bass and other sounds clouding the sonic landscape. I'm sure they do that to sell product, huh?

I have a Brian Moore 81.13 with a 13 pin connection that I use with a Roland GR-33. This guitar has the same brand of MIDI pickup that your Godin uses... a RMC MIDI pickup and piezo in one. They say that the GR-20 gives you some newer sounds, but is not as tweakable as the GR-33.

I love my GR-33...matter of fact, I am gonna be doing a sax in a song tonight for our church choir that the GR-33 patch has called a "breathy T.sax" I have found this is a very realistic sounding sax and makes the others I have heard on guitar synths sound like toys.

By the way, somebody mentioned the Roland MIDI pickups...DO NOT get one! They are junk and do not track well. I know, I had a GK2A that you put on any steel string guitar and I traded up to a Fender roland ready strat with it built in, but the RMC pickup beats them both by a mile! The RMC is just more sensitive and I could NEVER get the roland to sustain a note like I can on my Brian Moore..... no matter how much I tweaked the pickup higher or lower on the strings.

By the way, the Axon system they mentioned costs about $800 dollars used on ebay....and it is only for the unit itself which does NOT have any sounds with it, but rather, it is supposed to be hooked up to any keyboard module via MIDI cables that you choose. It is the best as far as tracking, but if I was going to go for the absolute best, it would be a keyboard module of my choice, a steel string guitar with a GHOST MIDI pickup installed and a Axon MIDI guitar interface.

You have seemed to sum it up for me pretty well. I really am looking for a way to augment my meager guitar skills into a more "professional" package, know what I mean? I know the chords, but will be required to play fills and solo's and having a "sound" to step on and make it jump out will really help me. I'd feel better about just playing the melody, if I can get it to sound "different" and not just with a chorus or delay. A vibes patch and a electric piano and a flute will really float my boat. Sounds like I'm convincing myself, huh?

The Axon AX-100 has the fastest tracking and is designed to trigger external boxes. I have one of these that I used to use with my K2500. Haven't used it in more than a year because there are too many parameters to mess with (you can assign different midi channels to different strings as well as to different string "zones" and picking areas - it's pretty crazy.) and a lot of setting up of both units involved. Works great once everything is set up but it takes a while to get there. I'm probably going to sell it.

My main setup for the last few years has been a Godin Multiac nylon string into a Roland GR-33 synth. This is the best nylon string amplified setup as far as I know. The GR-33 just happened to be the latest guitar synth out when I bought it but it is great for what I use it for.

I mostly use it for pads and washes behind the guitar. Most of the patches are fun but not really authentic if you are trying to sound like other instruments. However,since bass guitar and fingerstyle guitar are similar in technique, the bass patches sound very convincing.

I think you would be happy with these 2 products together. The Godin is specificly designed to sound good amplified and is the only commercially available nylon string that works the Roland synth system.

Let me give you a hint on getting a good guitar sound. I tried lots of amplifiers and PA's trying to get a warm musical tone out of the classical guitar. The acoustic amps that are marketed all have that un-natural piezo buzzy false sound. I have gotten a real warm musical sound out of a Fender Blues DeVille ( not the Hot Rod model) I would think a Bassman would sound good too if you could add some reverb.

Anyway, his setup was completely vintage, from his Casio PG-380 guitar/synth controller (Man, I'd like to find one of those cheap!) Driving (among other things) a Roland U-220. He had a Midi-pedal that resembled the Roland, organ-type bass pedals and an Oberheim DX drum machine. All of it was funneled into a Studiomaster mixer. (Haven't seen one of them in almost 15 years. )

Thanks for the input. Glad you find the guitar and synth workable. I'll probably get on the horn to Musicians Friend any day now. I will probably be playing through a Bose PAS that belongs to the piano player. I have grown fond of that clean and clear sound. It won't be warm, but I think that I can live with that. How do you trigger your patch changes? I am planning to use a Ozone and type in the patch numbers, and not have to bend down to change patches. Do you like the hold and glide pedals. Are you using the arpeggiator at all?

Boy, it is a beauty. Godin really makes quality instruments. It is surprising loud acoustically, with only small sound holes on the upper horn, and plugged in it sound terrific. The action is superb, this guitar really does sing.

It is very happy with the GT33. Tracks very well on most patches, except the ones that are heavily processed, and I think that is a function of the patch, and not the tracking capabilities. I am having fun bringing in different sounds when I play fills. This really is a great guitar, and with the Roland sythn, a really good match.

Remember to go into the settings in the GR-33 and adjust the sesativity for each string. This will eliminate most of the glitching problems where some strings sound louder than others and even make wierd noises on some of the patches.

I did go through the sensitivity drill, but I still ran into the glitching problems. Those RMC pickups are sure HOT! I keep spinning the dial, but it doesn't really seem to be doing much to roll off the strong signal from the guitar. But after trying a couple times, it seems to be doing okay.

I'm having fun using the hold button, and trying to play over the chord. I've found it is very sensitive to my hand pressure. If I grip the chord too hard, it pulls it sharp and the hold chord sounds way out. After playing bass for so long, I need to learn to relax my left hand.

My favorite patches are more the atmospheric ones that I have going on behind the guitar. Soft Pad and Hollow pad with a very low volume that you don't even notice on a concious level but add a bit of harmonics to the mix. Then I use the Total Eclipse patch and the Romantic Pad where I tweaked them to lessen the white noise factor some. Each patch can have 2 synth voices which can be blended with the footpedal which is really neat.

Those 4 are the only ones I really use regularly. I do mess around with some of the instrument patches though. I made a patch that combines the Kalimba and the Angel Bells where I can blend the Bells out, that sounds really cool. The steel drums are fun. I use a couple of the organ patches where you can add the vibrato with the footpedal too. Another favorite background patch is Fine Wine, its kind of like an organ but really high register.

I never quite liked the horns and most of the straight instrument patches. I suppose you could sound good on these if you really spent the time to learn to phrase like say a saxophone. So much of that sound is breath which I imagine you could emulate with the volume pedal. But I bet you could probably learn to play a saxaphone before you could really sound great on it.

I got to use the guitar on a gig last night, and found out why I was having trouble with the volume pedal. I kept adjusting the patches to use the expression pedal as a volume, but forgot that it was "common" and I was adjusting ALL the patches. I wanted to be able to use that organ patch that features the leslie windup, but couldn't assign that to another button. Oh well, it still sounds good.

My favorite patches are more the atmospheric ones that I have going on behind the guitar. Soft Pad and Hollow pad with a very low volume that you don't even notice on a concious level but add a bit of harmonics to the mix. Then I use the Total Eclipse patch and the Romantic Pad where I tweaked them to lessen the white noise factor some. Each patch can have 2 synth voices which can be blended with the footpedal which is really neat.

Those 4 are the only ones I really use regularly. I do mess around with some of the instrument patches though. I made a patch that combines the Kalimba and the Angel Bells where I can blend the Bells out, that sounds really cool. The steel drums are fun. I use a couple of the organ patches where you can add the vibrato with the footpedal too. Another favorite background patch is Fine Wine, its kind of like an organ but really high register.

When I was playing my electric some really cool lead sounds could be had by mixing a distorted electric guitar with some synth patches. The synth lead patches or mixing guitar in with a bass sound.

I never quite liked the horns and most of the straight instrument patches. I suppose you could sound good on these if you really spent the time to learn to phrase like say a saxophone. So much of that sound is breath which I imagine you could emulate with the volume pedal. But I bet you could probably learn to play a saxaphone before you could really sound great on it.

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