Re: Roland GR-500

[Legion <legion@voicenet.com>]

>   Does anybody knows this unit?? itīs a large analog synth attached to a 
>Les
> Paul-like guitar with all kinds of controls for the synth, somebody is
> offering me a MINT unit  for $400.
>   the unit is simply gorgeus, but is the price right???

The GR500 is the first guitar synth made by Roland. The main unit is a 
large
somewhat limited analog synth but has some wonderful tones. the Guitar was 
made
by Hoshino (aka Ibanez) and contains the electronics to trigger the synth 
and
tweak a few parameters.

the main issue when looking at one of these nowadays is to find out if it 
has
the original 24pin cable that connected the main unit to the guitar. 
Without the
cable you have a nice basic guitar and a doorstop as there are no 
substitute
items and roland ran out of their spare parts cables over a year ago. also 
to
note the cable for the GR300 and GR700 system while also being 24 pin is 
wired
differently than the GR500 so ti won't work with it 100%.

If you've got a working synth, cable, and guitar, you've got a nice system 
for
making basic analog synth noises via guitar. it doesn't track as well
polyphonically as the GR300 series but it's better than many instruments 
that
came after it.

$400 for all three items is a very fair price IMO.

I have a web page dedicated to the early Roland analog guitars synth and 
will be
adding the GR500 and other soon.

http://www.voicenet.com/~legion/guitsyn.htm




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