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Hi there An update to Mark's post about the GR300 - his points are with >> marks, mine follow. If you want further info, I'll look out the original Roland 1980 brochure (I've got it somewhere !) >> I had a GR300 and a GR808 controller (neck through the body, maple and walnut body and neck, gold hardware) in the early 1980s. I've got a GR300 & a G202 (Strat style body, maple neck/fb & 2 humbuckers) in front of me here. >> Here are the important things to understand about the GR300: >> 1. It is not programmable. You can't jump from a flute patch to a cello patch with the press of a button. Yep. Mind you, arguably you can't make the thing sound much like either anyway. >> 2. There is only one oscillator per string. However, you can get the effect of two oscillators per string by mixing the sound of the string with the sound of the synth. Well, there's a "Duet" mode. With the master pitch shift control, you can shift the base pitch around to get to concert tuning. You then have two sub-oscillators, A and B, which you can set to offsets from the master pitch. These can be latched or unlatched. You can also set a time for the pitch to move between the base pitch and the offset. So, you could have the master pitch at concert, then A as a lower fifth and B as a higher fifth and switch. Or, in Duet mode, you can have both the master pitch and one of A or B as well. Unfortunately, you can't control the levels between master and offset. Why would you want a master pitch shift ? So you can tune the guitar as high as possible for accurate tracking, then use this control to drop the pitch back to concert, of course ! >> 3. You cannot select different waveforms for the oscillators. Also, it only has an Attack control--not an ASDR. Yep. The closest to envelope control you have is with the envelope modulator. The env mod sounds pretty much like a severe, but not hugely controllable auto-wah. Quite handy, but you never seem to be able to get the Rise/Fall time *just* right. >> 4. No MIDI. Well, it *was* 1980... >> 5. The hex fuzz sounds cheesy--at least to my ears. I didn't think it was cheesy - fizzy as hell, perhaps. >> 6. The knobs are large enough so that you can adjust them with your feet. Although I wouldn't try it in the dark on a stage ! I saw someone (Mike Rutherford, I think) with the blue box on a stand at waist height. >> 7. Before I bought the GR300, I had an ARP 2600. The 2600 had an infinite amount of patching possibilities, while the GR300 was very limited. It was easy to get strange sounds out of the 2600, but difficult to get anything strange out of the GR300. <snip> The difference between a patchable synth and a preset synth, although the GR300 is more limited than most in that it doesn't have selectable waveforms (so, no switching between Sin & Sawtooth waves, for example). But if you are playing a GR300, you'll get used to having to stuff the output through loads of effects to get weird sounds. >> 8. There is a slight amount of delay between plucking the string and hearing the GR300. I can honestly say I've never noticed any real delay between playing a string and the GR300 responding. I didn't think there was any, because the 300 isn't tracking as such - it's performing some analogue processing of the sounds fed to it by the guitar controller. Arguably, you could almost say it's an analogue VG8 (that'll get some posts in !) >> 9. It's ruggedly housed in a thick metal box. However, be careful of the bottom edges, they're sharp. I sliced four of my fingertips on my left hand (only hours away from a gig) when I picked up the GR300 by the bottom edge of the box. That's probably why it's got two nice big chrome handles on the top :-) ! >> 10. Here's an example of how responsive the GR300 was: <snip> And therein lies the rub. The guitars weren't that great. Because the GR300 is processing whatever the controller is feeding it, the guitar needs to be pretty good. If the guitar's got a weakness then the 300 will just amplify it. The G202 is pretty lightweight so you don't get enough sustain from it. >> 11. My GR808 was neck heavy. I did not like this. It made me use my left hand to "lift" the neck to my prefered playing angle. Andy Summers said back in 1982 that he preferred the G303 (the "cheaper" one) to the G808 (the "expensive" one) >> 12. The patch cord that goes between the GR300 and the GR808 may or may not still be available. If possible, buy as many as you can find. Good idea - I'm always worrying that my patch lead will go (indeed, it's got a dry joint on the line for the lower E string, which leads to it cutting out intermittently). >> 13. The GR300 produced slightly less gain than the average guitar. >> 14. For additional sonic possibilities, Roland made a box that let you control two GR300s from one guitar. Pat Metheny used this setup. Again, this box may no longer be available. This was called the US-2 (as opposed the US-20 Roland currently sells for the VG8 / GI10 etc. type lead). The adverts in the early '80's showed one of the guitarists from Wishbone Ash with a G505 controlling a GR300 (the blue box) and a GR100 (a yellow box cut-down version of the 300) with the US-2 between them. >> Bottom line: I thought the GR300 was a one-trick pony that did its trick very well considering the limitations of technology in the early 1980s. My bottom line; the GR300 is a good bit of fun, but don't expect sonic miracles from it. Expect to use loads of effects with it. Use a foot volume pedal in the VCF pedal socket. Try it, and if you like the sounds (there really are only two with variations on the themes) bear in mind that nothing else quite makes the same noise. If you can't get to try before you buy, listen to "The Sheltering Sky" on Discipline by King Crimson for the lead, "trumpet" sound, and "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (original version) by The Police for the chordal "wash" sound (it's in the background of the instrumental break). Phew, I'm all out of puff now... Hope this lot helps, Tony Douglas PS. Oh, and don't pay too much for it. As a guide, a GR100 and G33B bass guitar controller are going for a combined price of 200 UK pounds in this month's Sound on Sound. I paid 300 UK pounds for my GR300 & G202 controller three years ago.