Non ADA Gear > Effects

ADA Gear Combined with Guitar Synth?

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Harley Hexxe:
Richard,

   To reply to your post in the New Speaker Day thread, I'll say that was my original idea was to get a guitar synthesizer module and run it separately from my guitar amp rig. It seems like the CG-1 Strat I bought would give me that ability. It's basically a standard MIM Stratocaster with the magnetic pickups and 1/4" output jack, but there is only a volume and tone pot for the guitar. What would normally be the 2nd tone knob is actually a volume for the synth. There is a three-way mini toggle that lets you select guitar, synth, or both. There are also two push buttons under the guitar volume knob that lets you scroll up or down the synth programs. On the side of the guitar, under the jack is a 13-pin socket to connect to your synth module. No wireless on this guitar, you're on a double leash.

Connecting the 13-pin plug into the GP-10 gives me a blend of the guitar and synth effects, albeit a limited amount of synth programs. A few of them are cool and kind of useful, and there is a good version of the GR-300 synth in this. The problem here is that if you only use the 13-pin plug, the guitars are mostly the virtual guitars that are in the pedal. There are a few programs that allow the actual guitar pickups through and have added effects with it, which is kind of why I bought it. I wanted to see how this might work as a fly rig kind of thing. It's not too shabby, but it certainly can't replace my ADA rig, or any other actual guitar amp for that matter. That is my initial impression, and that could change as I get into the editing and experiment with it more. Last Thursday, when I got it, I had my guitar plugged into my GK 250ML, and the 13-pin plug into the GP-10. The speakers in the GK were shut off, and I was running both the amp and the GP-10 into my audio interface. I found it difficult to get a good mix, since the GP-10 effects and synths were set more as background sounds to the default guitars in the pedal.

I have a feeling the GR-55 is going to be much the same process since in addition to being more guitar synth based, it is also a guitar processor like the GP-10. Essentially, it's the synth module and a VG-99 system with the COSM amp modeling and IR processors too. However, Steve Stevens uses one with his rig and it sounds killer. I've been a longtime fan of his for his imaginative use of effects in his music. What I may have to do is run these processors out to their own power amps and cabs and blend them with my guitar amp rig.

The SY-1000 seems to be a dedicated guitar synthesizer though, and of course, it's the most expensive one of the GK pickup family that will work with this guitar.

I'm probably going to pick up one of those next and give it a go. In the meantime, I'll keep experimenting with this little box and see what I can get out of it and determine what kind of application in the real world it's best suited for.

Dante:
I had a guitar synth for a while, it was fun but more trouble than it was worth for me. We used it for horn parts and keyboard parts, but I found myself playing the guitar entirely different when it was a piano or organ. No strumming down the strings, that sounded wrong, had to pluck multiple strings at once to emulate a true piano chord. It was a pain. As soon as I was out of that band, I sold that damn thing. The best solo patch I had was actually a harmonica.

It was a GR-30, I had the midi pickup attached to the top of my guitar with double sided velcro (didn't want extra holes in my guitar). I have a great story about that unit:

Playing on St' Patty's day, we had a great gig despite our rhythm guitarist having waaaaaaay too much green beer. After the gig, I'm tearing down my stuff, and he spills a FULL cup of beer on top of my pedal board, causing a puddle of beer to gather on the top of the GR-30 (it's shaped just like a tray, and it was full of beer). I cringed as I watched the beer quickly drain down into the GR-30! Ahhhhhhh, I felt like I was watching it slowly die.

Next day,  I plug it in, yup....it's dead. Nothing happens.

I pulled it apart, found out it was a giant PCB with knobs and buttons attached that simply poked through the case. The whole inside stunk like day-old beer and it was sticky all over. So, I took the PCB outside, literally hosed it off with water and left it in the sun to dry. Came back later and found some sticky spots of beer residue, washed them off with a damp rag, let it dry for another day.

Next day, I plug in the PCB (still not in it's plastic case) and it comes on! It seems to work!!!

I put it back together and it never gave me any more trouble....I think it worked better than before - haha!

Pic below of the unit I had

Harley Hexxe:
Dante,

  It sounds like you converted it from a work horse to party animal! You should have kept it at that point.  :lol:

  I know what you mean, and it's true, you do have to change the way you work the synth for certain instruments. I knew that going in. I'll figure out how to do what I need to get the textures I want.

  The GP-10 has a harmonica in it. I don't have a use for it just yet, but I'm just getting into it. So far, some of the useful non-guitar sounds in it are Synth Bass, Dual Sync, GR-300, (which you can play chords with), Sequencer Tap & Hold, Synth Pedal Blend, Clean Bass, Slow Pad Filter, Hyper Wah, Synched Sequencer, Oscillating Crystal, Crystal Bell, Soft Brass, Chorus Strings, Synth Mix Solo, Strings, Expression Pedal Follower, Rotary Crystal, Fretless Bass,  and the Heavy Funk Drive.

   Three of these I listed have modeled guitar  mixed in with the synth effects, and several of the others I didn't mention also have that, but the synth sounds are so far in the background, you barely hear it. In most cases, I'm not interested in the modeled guitars it offers. Then this also offers a wide variety of guitar oriented effects, but half of them don't use your actual guitar pickups. There are some patches that do use your guitar and you can set up your effects chain the way you want it, (I think), so that could be useful for using this as a stand alone fly rig.

   Overall, if I had to rate this pedal at this early stage, I would say there's about 40% of the things I hear that I can actually use as a guitar player. If I have a gig where I can't use an amp, and have to go into the mixing desk, this could be a very good tool for that if I edit it correctly. As a fly rig, If I go to Best Buys, and get a small zipper case for it and its cables, I can put it in the glove box of my car or truck, and go. That's pretty cool.

    So far, that's all I can say at the moment. I've been having fun with it though. The manual is rather brief on each topic, but it may be enough to guide me through it. I'm counting on my experience with multiple signal processors to be able to figure out editing parameters in this. I'll be posting more on this GP-10 as I gain a bit more experience with it.

   When I get any of the other Roland guitar synth modules, I'll probably post them in this thread rather than start a new one.

Harley Hexxe:
Okay, an update on this set up so far.

I've been doing a lot of experimenting with this GP-10 and trying different ways of combining guitar and synth sounds. I'm really not too impressed with just going with the 13-pin connection.

It seems the best sonic blends I'm getting are using the guitar jack to a dedicated amp, and the synth effects into its own system. This means a separate stereo amp and speakers for the GP-10, with the blend switch on the guitar set to synth only. You can use the "both" position on this switch, but I find that the V-guitar tones will often drown out the synth tones behind it. Plus, when you mix that V-guitar with your guitar tones coming from your amp, it sounds weird. This isn't really going to cut it IMHO as far as a fly rig goes. Apparently, I'd need to bring an extra power amp and speakers for the synth sounds. That's the kind of rig I expect to use with the GR-55.

As a straight up effects pedal, bypassing any synth effects, it gives you the Boss quality type of effects you'd expect. Not bad, but nothing spectacular. For that matter, I could run it through the effects loop of my rigs. I haven't tried that yet, but that's next.

rnolan:
Hey Harley, very interesting journey.  BTW I'm also a big Steve Stevens fan.

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