Roland GI-20

Actually surprisingly easy to use. Had toyed with MIDI guitar for a while, and opportunity arose to use it. I had some old synth modules laying around doing nothing. Found a GK-3 pup on the Bay cheap enough, then set about getting the cheapest GI-20 I could find. All up, it cost me about $650. About the cost a good 80's MIJ guitar, so it's all good.

It is quite easy to manipulate out of the box; though I had extensive entry knowledge from playing with MIDI a while back; so patches and the ergonomics of how it worked were not a mystery to me. I did have to tweak the vintage modules I was triggering, but expected that.

The manual is surprisingly good, but if you are synth/MIDI novice you are going to get confused.

The sound is going to be as good as what you are triggering. I don't find it adds appreciable noise to the guitar chain through the box. The tiny 3m long 13 pin cable supplied is a bit of a joke, but it gets you going. Am going to need a 30 foot one to do any moving about with this baby. The cables are expensive, and quite rare.

The real quality of the 'sound' is going to be how well you've set the pickup. I was expecting this to be a real pain, but it wasn't. It only fitted on a vintage Roadstar, not on many of my others. It has to be no more than 20mm from the bridge saddles, and about 1mm below each string. This was surprisingly easy. Just two small holes in the pickguard and used the provided springs with the pup. Easy! The little screwdriver also provided adjusts the radius of the pup. All easier than I expected. It tracks beautifully!

The pup itself attaches firmly to the guitar without any further holes with a holder and all screws and clamps provided. All-in-all it just looks like a violin chin-rest. The pup has volume and up/down buttons that can be assigned on the GI-20. Pretty good.

I was expecting this MIDI guitar stuff to be a lot harder to set up than this. Yep, there is latency, but not as much as I expected. I will look at the attacks and so-forth of what I'm triggereing later on to see if that's augmenting. But not as much latency as I was expecting.

Yep, you do have to play precisely, as it will interpret everything it hears as a MIDI note/event. Was expecting that.

I think it would stand up live, easily. It's a pretty simple setup, and typical Roland MIJ well-made (the pup is made in Taiwan, but it's as tough a plastic thingy as it could be).

You are gonna need a longer cable for it - the 3m is not enough.

Pretty good.

Haven't dealt with Roland for a long time, but haven't needed to as yet. This is a second-hand unit anyway.

Haven't tried the other main brands, like Godin, Shadow or the rest. For about $650 Australian I now have something solid added to my arsenal; strings, choirs, brass, piano etc etc. Wow! I am a terrible keyboard player, so this is very exciting!

Fitting the GK-3 pickup to my SG was a ***** and tweaking the sensitivity settings and height adjustment on the pickup to get the tracking right took a couple of hours. However once i got there it was definately worth the effort. Manual could be a lot better.

My setup is GK3 (mounted on Epiphone SG) -> GI-20 -> FL Studio. I mainly play jazz and I have been using the setup to compose full band jazz arrangements with Garritan Jazz, Saxlab and Pianotek VST plugins. Im very happy with the results...i have some great sounding double bass, sax and piano parts. Yes there is a bit of latency and the odd random note but with a bit of micro-editing in your midi scores you can create great sounding parts. The reviewer who moaned about using it as a composition/transcribing tool should be ignored, even with 'clean up' of the midi data you still save hours.

I probably wouldnt use it for live performance unless the latency issue is a matter of using a better DAW/computer. For recording purposes it seems solid as a rock.

Havent needed to speak to Roland.

This unit is as powerful as your synths/libaries are. With realistic sounding virtual instruments and some creative playing any instrument part can be composed on your guitar. I have been playing for over a decade and am currently writing a jazz album using the GI-20 to compose sax, bass, trumpet, piano and cello parts. It cant replace a real horn/piano player...but it can produce good enough results to get talent involved.

It wont be right for every musician though, some styles probably wouldnt track that well. This unit demands a greater degree of precision in your playing than just plugging in to an amp...definately demo it first.

I use this with a Ghost Hexpander Preamp (by Graphtech) and some piezo pickups by the same brand on a strat. I use Propellerheads Reason 3.0 as a secuencer... It's quite easy too use overall,there are some complains though. The first is that I cannot send note messages from the foot controller, somehow the notes may only come from the GK input... Then, the Program Change mask (to avoid changing patches from these kind of messages) does not work... And last, the midi channel for the foot controller won't work, the GI-20 will always send my controller's data through the same channel the notes are.

Good tracking, but not perfect. The other reviews are right; this thing interprets "clicks and clacks" that don't mean anything. The bending function really slows down everything, and again, interprets things you do not want.

No reliability issues whatsoever. It works the way it works always.

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Most reviewers see MIDI guitar just as if they were playing common guitar and complain a lot about traking issues latency... I remember reviews from Roland from the 80's when they introduced MIDI guitar about Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew from King Crimson... Back then, tracking and latency were REAL problems, yet those guys played it amazingly. You must realize this MIDI pickups and interfaces will make ANOTHER instrument out of your guitar and you must learn how to play it the way it must be played; some "vintage wannabe" type guy playing some surprisingly dirty blues will be extremely angry at MIDI guitar, but believe me, you CAN play complex, fast, difficult (and whatever you want) music if you know how to use the setup correctly... Set sensitivity to identify tracking problems and program well the rest of your setup to avoid latency. Good luck.

Installation is easy. Operating the unit too provided you take the time to read the manual which explains everything quite well.

I'm using the unit with a Yamaha TRB-4 (GK-2B pickup) and a Yamaha TRB-5 (GK-3B) bass. I use it to control both software and hardware synthesizers/sound modules.

The tracking is great, the unit detects the right pitches. BUT: it detects more pitches than you want. Every little rattle or noise will be translated to notes by the unit. I play finger bass and my technique (which is quite common as far as I know) is to play f.e. the A string and then gently touch the E string to dampen it. This (normally inaudible) touching will result in extra MIDI events loud enough to hear. You can lower the senitivity, but the difference in velocity between the soft (not-real) tones and the hard (real) tones is not big enough to discriminate them. As a result, I have to experiment (a lot) with velocity curves etc on the sound modules/synth receiving the MIDI events to counter this effect.

Solid as a rock.

Don't know.

I've been playing for 12 years. Mostly rock and metal. I play in two bands (rock cover band and a metal band). I love the freedom that the unit offers me. I use it at home to jam and as a automatic transription tool (don't expect a perfect transcription, but the imperfections are easy to recognize/edit out). Ip until now it has never left my house. I'm afraid to use it in live situations because of the tracking problems outlined above. For me, it could be used live for interludes and parts where I don't play bass, but not while I'm trying to play a steady bass line.

quick start type dvd is included that covers enough info to get started w/o having to read anything. the manual is excellent, as are most roland manuals - good organization and thorough. the unit itself would have been better with a software editor, as someone else pointed out, but as it is, it is very easy to use. the rotary selector and other buttons make a very transparent interface, and the remainder of the info you need is printed right on the top of the chassis. you just about screw this one up

N/A - controller only

big points here - i was having trouble installing the driver and found a utility on the roland website to cure the exact problem i was having. i registered for the warranty online, which was easy

This is a good controller. I've been interested a MIDI guitar setup for about a decade, but every one I tried before this seemed unwieldy, so i just stuck with keyboard controllers, which has never been ideal. This one provides a plug-and-play [more-or-less] interface with the computer, which is the biggest value for me. If you are a guitar player who is still limping along on the keyboard skill from that one harried semester in college, this is for you. Works perfectly with sibelius 4.

Simple knob-based menu system. All menu items are clearly labeled on the face, and all of the values are listed on the top of the unit, as well as a signal path diagram. Settings are pretty intuitive. One quick read through the manual and you'll know all you need to know. A software patch editor would have been a nice touch, but editing on the unit itself is easy enough.

It has no built in sounds.. however, I find that if I run my analog guitar signal through the GK-3 and out of the GI-20 into my amp or processor, there is a significant amount of noise added. Because of this, I run a seperate high-quality 1/4" cable directly from my guitar's output into my rig, and keep the MIDI path seperate. I have always found this to be the case with any GK-type pickup system.

I just picked it up a few days ago, so I can't comment on its long-term reliabiliy. I've generally had good luck with Roland products, and this seems well built and sturdy. The case is all metal, the face plate is brushed aluminum. The knob and buttons don't seem cheesy, and the GK input jack is attatched to the metal face of the unit, instead of to a circuit board. I have no second thoughts about gigging with it.

No experience.

I've been through quite a few MIDI guitar setups over the years. Roland GR-30, GR-33, and Yamaha G50.. using a Roland GK-2a or Yamaha G1D pickup on various guitars, and a Godin multiac with built-in piezo pickup.

Right now I'm running a GK-3 on my custom electric and Tacoma acoustic. The GI-20 is hooked up to my computer via USB. I'm using it to control several software synths - Absynth, Atmosphere, Reaktor, Trilogy, FM7, Pro-53, etc.

This is the best tracking setup I have ever had. I find it to be much more reliable, consistent, and playable than any of my past setups. The GR-33 tracked pretty well, but I found the internal sounds really limiting. The G-50 I could never get to work reliably.. there were always blips, incorrect notes, missed notes, etc. However, the Yamaha had some great configurability options like string split and the ability to send CC data based on picking position. The GI-20 is lacking all of that, but it actually works.

I play jazz and fusion. When I bought this I planned to use it only for background chordal ambience.. pads, strings, noise, etc. When I got it home and hooked it up, I was pleasently surprised by the tracking accuracy. I'm able to use it as a lead instrument - both blended with the guitar signal and sometimes on its own. I wasn't expecting that after my previous experiences with MIDI guitar. With a properly setup GK-3 pickup and a clean playing technique, the tracking is virtually dead-on, and very predictable.

A cool feature of the GI-20 that the G50 was lacking is the "Hold 2" mode. When you press the pedal, whatever notes you are playing are held, and further notes are ignored by the synth, allowing you to hold a chord and play over it with your analog guitar signal. With the G50, you couldn't do this.

Overall, I think this is a great product and a good value. It's lacking some bells and whistles, but I'd gladly trade those for a simple, reliable setup. The USB connection is a great feature for those of us who use it to control software synths or record MIDI data directly from the guitar. Built-in expression pedal and dual footswitch support, along with the ability to change the fuction of the GK volume knob and up/down buttons really allow you to customize your setup.

On the downside: The power supply is massive. The unit introduces a significant amount of noise to the analog guitar signal if you choose to run it through. No included software patch editor. Lack of configurability options like string split, picking and velocity CC data control, etc.

If it were lost or stolen, I would buy another one.

n/a Midi interface only. No matter how wonderful this unit is, it's reliant upon a good set of signals from the Roland divided pickup (which was a real bear to fit to my Warrior). Setting the parameters on the unit is reasonably modular, but not intuitive, since the names of the settings don't necessarily seem to match what the settings do.

n/a Midi interface only.

I would not try to use this unit on the road. It's far too fiddly faddly.

n/a - only had the toy a few days. Let's see how they are when I return it because it does not do the job I bought it to do.

I use a fingerstyle technique with a bunch of clicks and clacks. The pickup sends these to the GI-20 and it tends to try to interpret these noises as music. It's not equipped with any useful filtering in this respect. In the hundred or so years I have been playing, I had not bothered to venture towards any kind of guitar synthesis in the past, and now was not the time to start. When you're taking something analogue and trying to convert it to a list of instructions that a midi synth will understand this box does an OK kind of job, but the nature of the technology involved does not track fast or accurately enough to record midi on a PC for transcription purposes. As a toy for making your guitar sound like a piano, a phone or a bunch of birds chirping then bravo Roland you have done what you set out to do. As a composer's tool for transcription, you have a way to go.

I started on a godin LGX-SA plugged into a GR-30. This would have been april 1997. Then in 2001 I got the GR-33. I became tired of the roland sounds which im sure are grand in their keyboards but the GR sounds were very 2-D. So I got this gi-20 and a Yamaha Motif Rack for my sounds. getting the GI-20 to talk to the yamaha wasnt plug and play. I spent a lot of time going through the manuals to do simple stuff, like using the up/down switch to move patches on the motif, or plugging in a footswitch to get sustain or a expression pedal to get the leslie to start/stop. I finally got all that crap to work but it was a hurdle that me 3 weeks to work out the bugs all the while I am gigging.

totally noiseless!

I use this thing as my steady gig rack along with the motif. two things that bug me. One is the power supply is a huge hoonking roland wall wart like their sp303 sampler has. This thing falls out of the AC slot in the rack from the sure weight of it. The other is the 12 pin cable falls out of the jack on the front. I'll look over and the cable will be lying on the floor not connected.

Previous experience with roland is they will fix your crap but you will be charged. Had problems with a GR33 which had to be sent back to their factory to be refurbished. Sucked!

This box is a cool answer for those doing guitar synth who dont want to play the floor board GR models. However, be prepared to spend time making it talk to other shit.

Great unit I have used a bunch of these units GR-09 GR-30 and they worked but, I got tired of the builtin sound modules and went for a stand alone convertor.

No Sound Module thats what you are buying and it is worth it if you want to use alterantive sound modules including PC Synths

Great works flawlessly

Never tried them never needed too

Great if you want excelent tracking that reply to Nala Regeork must be from someone who never tried a Yamaha out I have and there junk. Someone sold me a pathetic Yahmaha G50 and I had it for a while overlapping the GR-30 what pathetic tracking I say yeah go with the Roland and I have no opinion on the Axon stuff wouldn't spend the money to try it when the Roland works so well.

Quite easy installation of the sensors
GK2A (on a Lag Roxanne guitar) and GK2B (on a Fender JazzBass Special)

No sounds - I've connected it to a Roland XV2020

No problem - 10 months use, in live conditions

No need to contact this company

I play rock in a power trio as a bass player

Now this unit is a part of our music (organs, guitars, harp, cello, ...)

The tuner included is very usefull

my only regret: the unit doesn't track slap bass lines