The Pit Rig Quest 2 – the solution

So, after an hour playing with a GR-33, and realising that my technique (after a decade of playing with my fingers as Lindsay in Fleetfoot Mike) really wasn’t as sloppy as I thought, Chris (whose GR-33 it was) suggested I borrow it and his Godin, and use it in the show. Which would be fine for the ‘extra synth lines’ problem, but was still going to require some form of multi-effects/amp sim for the various guitar sounds I needed.

Time to do some research……which actually didn’t take long at all, as the Roland GR-55 sort of smacked into the middle of my radar in about two Google searches.

For those who don’t know, the  GR-55 is basically a GR-series synth and a VG-series COSM-modelling guitar/FX/amp unit in one box, using a GK-3 or similar pickup. You can blend the original guitar pickups, a modelled (à la Variax/VG-99) guitar sound, and two PCM synth sounds (voice generation circuitry from the Roland SD-90), and control the result with the control and expression pedals on the floor unit.

Perfect.

So I bought one.

Usefully, Chris had a spare GK-3, so I didn’t buy one of those. So you can imagine my surprise when the parcel I’d ordered arrived, and proved to contain the version with the GK-3. Even nicer, Dolphin Music, when contacted, basically said ‘keep it’. So I have my own GK-3 and a spare when I want it.

Next time, first impressions.