Roland GR-20

Considering there are not many options for using this thing, it is pretty simple to get it up and going out-of-the-box with very little setup. This is a good thing for getting going but a bad thing if you need advanced options. The thin manual covers pretty much everything you can do with the GR-20.

Not bad. there are a few good sounds. However, there are no advanced options for layering sounds or editing sounds beyond the most basic parameters. I had hoped for some nice synth lead sounds for jazz fusion improvising ala Jan Hammer, Chic Corea, Jay Oliver, George Duke...

There are some nice sax sounds and keyboard sounds. If you want to expand the sounds further by using this thing as an external MIDI controller, look somewhere else. This thing works well on the patches in the unit but is the worst controller on the market. It sends pitch bend data at +-24 and unless your synth allows you to change this you will get terrible response from the GR-20. No pitch bend, no slides, no hammer-ons... Not good.

I have only had it a couple of months, so I can't comment on this.

Email support is like sending your email off into cyber-space where it will never return. Phone support is a bunch of guys with the manual saying thing like "Well, it says on page 24 that it does this..."

I guess this is about as good a guitar systhesis is going to get after 20+ years. It looks like it will never touch keyboards for tracking anaccuracy. You have to play very cleanly to get this thing to work well. Even then it can be a challenge.

This a follow-up to my 11/05/2007 review in which I had "no opinion" regarding customer service. This has since become an important issue for me and I wanted to post on this matter for the benefit of others.

Still fine, except that the guitar and mandolin patches are extremely bad with no possibility for firmware upgrades to improve them. Shame on Roland for that. The pickup has been mounted as precisely as possible, but some patches still track very poorly.

It has not failed to work or malfunctioned in any way.

This is where I want to comment: I have sent so many email messages to Roland Backstage I truly cannot remember how many I have sent, and have yet to receive a response of any kind. So, based on my experience and that of others who have reviewed this product, there IS APPARENTLY NO ROLAND SUPPORT for the GR-20, so for Pete???s sake, don???t buy one of these expecting to ever hear back from them. You are on your own!

I use it, but not as useful as I had hoped. An expensive toy.

All has really been said about this unit, I just want to add a tip. I bought the GR-20 not as much for the use with my guitar as for the sounds themselves. I connect the GR-20 to my synthesizer (Yamaha SY-85, SY-22) and use the GR-20 as a "sound-box". No latency and perfect pitch. I still use it with my guitar aswell, and it works fine, exept for that annoying latency, especially on E and A strings.

this is a very simple pedal to operate just twist a couple of dials and you can get pritty much any sound you want, there is a patch list in the manual which you may need as there are over 400 different sounds.

for setting up your own settings on sounds there are many different thing you can change, the hold type, the function the glide(pitch effect)button and the exspresstion pedals function, there are also dials for attack, relaese, delay/revurb and chorus.

the reason i marked this 9 was the gk3 pickup it very irritating to install as you have to make shure it is the right distance from the strings, the manual is very helpful and tells you everything you need to know

i use this through a marshall avt50 the sounds are brilliant, you can get anything you want from deep synth sounds to banjo. the sounds are designed to respond in a simalar way to the instroment there mimicing, the piano sounds are all cromatic which mean if you do a bend it will jump pitch rather than graduly bending into pitch, like a real piano.

many of the sounds i cant see anybody using on stage and are there for novelty value but many of the sounds are very useable and mixing them with your guitars tone can get some very intersing sounds, try playing clean with the string sounds or with plenty of gain and a modulation synth sound the possibilities are endless.

well built dials and buttons, a very sturdy expression pedal and solid metal casing make this pedal very dependable for gigging. iv spilt beer on it and it still works like the day it came out the box, take care of it and it will last you a good ten years with no problems

never had the misfortune of dealing with roland the way this built i never will

this is one of the best guitar synths on the market, if you set the gk-3 up right you wont get any tracking problems i use 8 gauge strings and iv had none. the sounds are fantastic, its built like a brick shit house and its as easy to use as your basic guitar amp.

addmitedly only a certain guitar players will want to use this as it is just a keyboard controlled by your guitar, but if you want to add a edge to your playing and have a different sound to your useual guitar player look no further, this pedal is brilliant i recoment that all guitar players should at least cheack this out it realy opens up new musical idears.

This thing is super easy to use. I mounted the included pickup on one of my Strats. I removed the strings to make it easier, as they suggested. Just center the pickup under the strings and mark the screw holes with a pen, then mount it after you take the strings off. Simple.

Changing patches, etc. is very straightforward. The best thing to do is load the ones you use most often into the User bank, then you can save your edits, etc. Plus, you'll have an easier time remembering which patch number corresponds to which sound if you have them set up the way you like within the User bank.

Manual was very good and easy to understand. It is very important to adjust the sensitivity of each string for consistent output. Just follow the instructions, it's easy.

The big sticking point of these things is the latency when triggering sounds. This is inherent to the technology and there is no way around it. I actually measured the latency by recording straight guitar signal to one track, and various other synth patches to another track, and then measuring the latency offset of the note attack. The latency of the low E string is about 70 milliseconds; the high E string is about 28 milliseconds. The way to offset this is to transpose the patch by an octave, and use the first 3 or 4 strings for your sounds. Also, if you are using it for recording, just record a dry guitar track along with the synth track, and adjust the waveform in your multitrack software to offset the latency by using the dry guitar track as a guide. It's really simple and will tighten up your mix.

No noise noticed. Nice, clean digital synth sounds. Yes, the Sax and Organ sounds are what sold me on this unit.

The effects are very basic. You cannot adjust the delay time, only the repeats, and the reverb and chorus are very rudimentary.

I am using this with a Fender Strat. Do not mount the pickup on any old guitar you have laying around; if the guitar does not have good sustain acoustically, or has fret buzz, etc. then your synth sounds and tracking will suffer greatly. Use a decent guitar. In my studio, I am running it through a mixer and out through my studio monitors. Live, I run it into a Crate Powerblock power amp and into a full range Peavey PA speaker.

I have been using Roland/Boss stuff for years and have never had a failure. No worries. Yes, I'd use it without a backup.

Never had to contact Roland. They have a great website with all documentation, tip sheets and manuals readily available. You can even register your product on line instead of filling out the warranty card. Cool.

I play many styles of rock from thrash metal to jazz fusion. I bought this unit so that I could retire from going through the pain of learning to play various keyboard parts for my recordings. I'm a guitar player since 1975, not a keyboardist, but love having those sounds on my tunes. Using the guitar to trigger these sounds is a blessing.

The latency issues can be worked around by time correcting them in your multitrack. Live, it actually sounds pretty cool, particularly when you play your guitar in unison with the synth. When Jan Hammer and Jeff Beck play a unison part, they are not perfectly in sync with each other. If they were, it would sound like a robot playing. The inherent latency adds a more realistic element when playing unison parts. Many of the pads and orchestral patches have a volume swell built into the attack, so you don't really notice a few milliseconds of latency.

I didn't compare this to any other products. For the price, this is the only game in town, unless you buy a used GR-33. I wish it displayed the patch name instead of just a number, but once you save your favorites to the User bank, memorizing them is a snap. I have found this to be a great compositional tool, as the different sounds lend themselves to different musical styles, ones that you may not normally play with. It is helping to push my creativity into new directions.

Bought this and was assured that it wouldn't take much to set up. Imagine how relieved I was to find that this was the case.

The pick-up itself was on and adjusted nicely within 10-15 minutes but the real time and effort, or should I say the real fun, was in putting my sounds together. I basically went through each and every one of the sounds on the whole machine, making notes of the location (bank and number) of every sound I thought I'd need / use. I later copied them to the user bank and started editing them.

The trick seemed to be setting the right sensitivity (st) and balancing out the volumes across all patches. I also set the expression pedal to be my volume pedal for all patches (more later).

Manual was great: simple enough for when you've just got it out the box and want to sound good immediately. but also in depth enough to tinker once you're more comfortable with the system as a whole.

Most of this has been said so far but I'll sum it up if I can: yes, the guitar sounds are largely useless, but if you want to sound like a guitar, try using the guitar itself, you know, that thing your new synth is attached to???

Yes, the breathy sax is great, but like someone already said, the most amazing sounds on here will be the ones you'll struggle to find a reason to use. Clarinet, steel drums, xylophone, accordion, glock, didgeridoo loop, etc don't always lend themselves to your classic pop / rock covers band - but then again that's not what I do and for my show, this is the absolute perfect tool.

No worries with the sounds. Play your usual chops with bends, pull offs and etc and you'll get the odd problem, approach the thing like you'd approach the actual instrument (play within a certain range, don't bend piano notes etc) and you'll be fine.

Three years down the line and never had a second of bother with the main unit. Stupidly put my guitar in a soft case ONCE and smashed the knob on the pick-up (my mate got me a replacement from a poweramp someone was throwing out at work).

Always gig without a back up. Would call in sick at work the next morning to go and buy another one as soon as possible if it ever broke.

n/a

I play in a comedy trio with a drummer and an acoustic guitarist / singer / comedian. We do comedy songs (a la Bill Bailey) and although some of our 're-worked versions of classics' are more obviously meant to be funny than others, we do some songs quite normally and use this beauty to help us with that.

Our version of My Girl has slower brushed drums, a chorused guitar with strings mixed into the background, our version of the Who's Squeezebox has the banjo in the background and often the sounds come in handy to add a bit of variety to a 3-piece set-up e.g. the accordion in Irish songs and the strings / keyboards to fill gaps in slower numbers.

In terms of the comedy aspects, I use the flute for the whistle in Always Look on The Bright Side of Life, the B5 type organ for a blues parody, the steel drums for a reggae parody, the glockenspiel for a door bell effect during a joke we do, the didgeridoo loop as ambient backing during a longer joke about two Australians, the banjo for a 3 second clip of Duelling Banjos to end a joke about the inbred family at the wedding we played recently, and the xylophone works brilliantly for a version of King of The Swingers.

We do jokes and routines including 'Name That Tune' which use the bass (Mission Impossible, Under Pressure, Grease: Summer Loving, Another One Bites The Dust), the clarinet (Pink Panther, Strangers On The Shore), the brass (Spanish Flea, The opening Rocky Theme / Fanfare) and more, and this really is the heart and soul of the musical side of our show.

This doesn't mean that the sounds can't be used seriously. Like I said above, I happily use the accordion, strings, piano, organs, banjo, bass and a whole host of other stuff in a serious 'I want this to sound good' setting and have even guested with a local blues band using the brass and keyboards to do stuff like Midnight Hour, Mustang Sally etc.

I've seen a few reviews elsewhere and a few people saying that this really isn't a live performance device, but be realistic with it, use it in the right context and play the thing in an intelligent way and it's absolutely amazing.

My first guitar synth ever. I'm 58 and been playing popular music for 45 years.
Actually, the GR-20 is among the easiest guitar toys to use and program I've ever owned. Saving patches in the user area is DEFINITELY the easiest ever. Setting the sensitivity was easy. Setting "Play Feel" is a little tougher, primarily because the pickup must be installed exactly right and the sensitivity must be set correctly. Regardless, the play feel setting is set different from patch to patch, and I think it can be very subjective.
Detailed tweaking of the actual voices of the patches is not an available feature, but I don't mind that. Not for the money I paid.

This is where my review will differ from the others. Other reviewers don't mind the fact that the guitar patches are quite poor. They don't track well either. In my opinion, if the VG Strat and Line 6 Variax pioneer of guitar synths do likewise? I cannot imaging any excuse for this. That complaint laid aside, all the other patches are very realistic. The flutes, harmonicas, and keyboards are just downright spooky good. Horns are pretty good too. The Gr-20 needs a better "rock" tenor sax patch for things like Delbert tunes. I score low on sound quality because Roland has let the upstarts steal the show in the guitar patch area. Evenb more curious, Roland designed the guts to the VG strat!
The unit is quiet. I run it through a Mesa nomad 45. My 82 ESP strat is the synth guitar is use. I did not have to deface my guitar to install the GK-3.

I have no concerns about reliability.

The jury is still out on this. I sent an email awhile back to customer support that still has not been returned.

Let me first further explain my gripe regarding "no good guitar patches": If the GR-20 had good electric guitar patches I would do less dancing on my pedalboard because I could assign guita patches (if it had clean/compressed Strat, LP on rear pickup thru a JTM 45 set on 8, etc.) to my midi pedal and just fly between them without having to reach back and throw the GK-3 selector switch and push buttons on my pedalboard. Just one example, for instance: On Neil Young's "Old Man" I use the 5 string banjo patch (incredible!) but then have to reach back and switch to straight electric and punch my compression pedal to do the slide up at the chorus. Sometimes I don't make it. If there was a steel guitar patch on the GR-20 I would have no problem. Also, sometimes I'm playing a distorted lead through my Mesa and need to switch to horns. I have to go to the amp's clean channel first, yada, yada, you get the picture.

It took less than 10 minutes to unpack and setup the GR-20 to work with my GK-3 equipped Epi Les Paul. The GR-20's string sensitivity adjustment is much easier than the AX-100 method. The negative, the AX-100 can be setup for four separate guitars (8 with the new firmware)--the GR-20 only stores settings for one guitar, so you must recalibrate it for each guitar you play.

The manual is short and sweet and covers the GR-20 features and configurations very well. The GR-20 is a dumbed down unit, and thus lazy folks like me should find it quite user-friendly and easy to setup and use.

Patch editing is simple, unfortunately, there is not much to modify.

By way of comparison, I also own the Axon AX-100, considered by many as the best guitar to midi converter available. Though it was relatively easy to setup, the GR-20 is even easier.

Internal Sounds
I have not had time to work through all of the sounds, but the pianos, organs, strings, brass, and wind instruments sound great. They are significantly better than the throw-in internal sounds of the Axon.

I have read that the unit is noisy. Not mine. Evidently, some are , some are not. However, like all effects boxes and synths, you want to make sure you don't have ground loops and the like. All my boxes get clean AC from a power conditioner.

I run the L/R outs into a Mackie mixer and send that to my recording interfaces and a SLP power amp with PA speakers. Sounds great.

Tracking and Note Recognition
For my style of playing (bare finger fingerpicking) the GR-20 tracks just as well as the AX-100. It keeps up with my fastest alternate picking as well. Shredders may reach its limitations, but frankly, shredding and most synth sounds are not a great combination.

External Synths
I connected the GR-20 to my Yamaha S03 synth and it triggered perfectly well. I could sense a slight amount of latency, but certainly not a show stopper. I had both the GR and S03 outputs in the mix and they sounded perfectly in sync with each other.

The one negative is the GR-20 pitch bend range is fixed at 24 semi-tones (two octaves). That's great for its high granularity/resolution, but my S03 patches range from 0 to 12. Thus I have to set each S03 patch to PB range of 24. I knew this going in, but wish the GR allowed a flexible PB range or a chromatic option.

Sure, I would (will) depend on it. Just don't toss it in the back of the van unprotected.

I called Roland/Boss several times before purchasing and had no difficulty getting a hold of real human being that knew what he/she was talking about. Plus, my dealer, Sweetwater.com, stands behind everything they sell.

I recently purchased the Axon AX-100 from Sweetwater. According to most reviews, it is the best guitar to midi converter available. And I agree, it works very well. However, it is not (for me) very portable. So, I took a chance and purchased the Roland GR-20 through Craig Wilson at Sweetwater.

I say chance, because there are quite a few reviews that state the GR-20 tracks noticeably slower than the AX-100 (especially on the lower strings) and does not trigger external synths as well.

After owning and playing both, I believe most guitarists would be perfectly happy with the tracking, note recognition, and external synth triggering of the GR-20. Can't wait to play this unit live!

I definitely would buy this unit again, and frankly, probably would not have purchased the Axon if I had known the GR-20 performs as well as it does. Of course the Axon has a 1/2 dozen cool features not found on the GR-20 (layering, arpeggio, pick/string splitting, etc.), but those are features I would use more live and the Axon just is not as portable as the GR-20.

It takes a fair amount of time to audition all of the patches available but moving your favorites to the user bank is easy enough.

I use the GR-20 to fill in quite a wide variety of pads, licks, and accompanyment. Going just by the display (numbers) can get confusing in the heat of the moment, especially when impromptu playing.

Be sure and keep a copy of the patch list (from the Roland site) in your gig bag for future reference. A cheat sheet taped to the pedal board has been handy too when dialing in impromptu patches.

Nothing's worse than bringing up the wrong patch...

Prior comments are pretty much on...

Having a variety of picks helps. I keep a bunch of the 0.38 flimsy Dunlop picks or in a bind, will use a matchbook cover as a pick for some of the more "delicate" voices (i.e. flute soloing).

Sometimes, simply the pulloff will trigger a note which could be very inappropriate if you're providing solos or accents. You can either practice your technique for these but sometimes, slapping on a capo to the correct fret so that the pulloff will produce a compatible (root, harmonic, whatever) sound is a quicker and safe way to proceed. The pads are sufficiently broad to occupy the sonic space.

I don't use it's stringed instruments for lead sounds but as a backing to the guitar. This has been alot simpler than getting lead quality sounds for the stringed instruments (which earlier posts observed as a GR-20 shortcoming). Works well...

Prior posts suggested using a keyboard monitor. Didn't have one so I sort of cheated:

For most playing, I run the GR-20 into a Fender Acoustasonic Jr. DSP amp. It's a dual amp so one channel gets the synth signal and the other channel gets the guitar feed from the GR-20 (after running through the pedel chain). The amp with it's tweeters and ambience effects complement the synth outputs well.

The better way to play is to send both L/R synth outputs to the Acoustasonic (adjusting the ambience for each channel separately) for a broader sound and run the guitar out through the pedal chain and into (in my case) a Fender Princeton Reverb II. I'll drag this rig out for special events where I've enough setup time.

On stage in smaller venues, you can place these amps apart and really fill the room nicely.

Earlier posts warned of it's plastic construction. I concur...

In the moment once, I really stood on mind and could feel/hear plastic giving way. It was a scary moment. Also, the jacks in the rear weren't as secure as I would've liked for all the setup and teardowns a week the unit had to go through.

Fixed both by sticking the GR-20 on a dual level pedal board (22" x 44"?) -- The cables in the rear working loose have no longer been a problem and the upper deck is such that I can't carelessly stomp on the GR-20 pedal, rather approach it with a bit more control.

Been solid since...

This is not a review for Roland - We all know about them. This is a plug for the place I bought the GR-20 and that would be Danny's Guitar Hacienda in League City, Texas.

The folks at Danny's have been nothing short of friendly and helpful to area players over the years I've visited them (And there's a G-C down the road to boot) Every town should have a place like Danny's.

Manny got me an incredible deal on the unit as it was to replace a stolen Marshall. I believe we're well beyond even see below).

Few have done so much to help me improve as a player.

Been quite a ride...

Had a Marshall stolen and about that time, our keyboard player was thinking of moving on so I picked up the GR-20 to replace the Marshall and to fill in the pad the keyboard player provided. That was about three years and alot of GAS ago.

Following prior advice, I stuck the pickup on a cheap instrument (my Ibanez strat clone) and found that my better sounding setups not getting any use -- A wierd frustration. Fixed that by picking up a synth ready Godin Fireway SA (though the Fender synth ready Strat was a close second).

Got a bit tired of playing electric guitar out of the acoustic amp. It wasn't bad but it was solid state. So I fixed that by picking up a Fender Princeton Reverb II for the guitar feed.

Wasn't pleased with all the setups / teardowns on the plastic unit so I built a huge pedal board. Made the mistake of building such a large one that I simply *had* to fill the spots with more pedals.

Despite all of the above, things have honestly worked out musically well. Even my wife likes what she's hearing and throughout all of this, there's a GR-20 somewhere in the middle...

I bought it on ebay and everything was in good shape. I had the local music shop install the GK3 pickup on my PRS Custom 22. The plate wouldn't work with my bridge and I didn't want to tape it since it's harder to adjust and maintain. They did it in 2 or 3 hours.
I think I have software version 1. Version 2 is an update for bass support, so I'm not worried about it.

The controls and layout are very user friendly by any standards. I played the old GR-1 back in the day and that thing had a learning curve. The manual is helpful surprisingly. I wanted to hook up the GR-20 to my computer so I can play Absynth and had no trouble whatsoever. I expected it to be more complicated...go figure!!! Patch editing is easy but not very deep but not a concern given what I will say about the sound quality in the next section.

I talk about the sounds later, but the biggest barrier for guitar synths has always been with tracking. The GR-20 isn't so bad actually. I haven't played the GR-1 in well over 5 years now, but the Gr-20 is definetly an improvement. After reading some articles and playing with it for a few days, I have to agree with the consensus that you do have to adjust your playing a little and realize some of the sounds are not appropriate to "shred" with...even if playing a keyboard. If you set it up properly and play with precision, you can play just about anything. Remember, you are no longer playing "guitar" and you are playing guitar synthesizer. Dynamics are different regardless of tracking. With that said, tracking isn't perfect nor can you expect it to be, but I'll go on the record as saying the tracking is good using the GR-20 by itself or with soft synths..

Ok. As far as the sounds in the GR-20 go, I wish I had nice things to say. Unfortunately, the patches seem to serve the purpose of showing that " hey look, I can play synth sounds on my guitar". Flutes and trumpets etc sound ok, but I have little use for that. In the modern era of advance synthesis, these patches are a joke and I can't imagine any serious keyboard player using and especially basing their rig around these sounds. That being the case, why would anyone settle for them.

I originally bought the GR-20 assuming that I would use it by itself and just mess around with it hooked into my computer. I expected latency using Absynth, etc, but this turned out not to be the case. After being very disappointed with the sounds and discouraged in general about incorporating cool synth sounds in my rig, I decided to try hooking it into my computer. Let me say, it was a whole different world. No noticeable latency and the sounds on Absynth and Rapture are amazing to say the least and so much fun to play with and actually useable. I'm sure most of you that played these programs know this, but it still rings true when using it thru a Gr-20.

Right now, I'm in the process of rack mounting my home PC and adding it to my guitar rig. Ableton Live can be used for guitar and or synth looping in a live setting, it can host vst synths, and has amazing effects to add to your soft synth..or guitar I suppose if you wanted to.

I have an AMD X2 4200 processor with 4 gigs of RAM for those of you who may want to try this. Using a few effects in Ableton Live 6 with Absynth uses about 10% of my CPU which leaves alot of headroom! I have the buffer size all the way down to 64 samples too!

No foreseeable problem and see no need for a back-up. If there was a for a back up processor, etc for fear of it crashing, I'd be looking for something else that u don't have to worry about.

N/A so I'll give them a 10.

I play hard rock mainly, but play almost everything. I've been interested in electronic/computer music lately which is why I've been interested in guitar synths. I've played guitar for over 15 years now. I play a PRS Custom 22 thru a Diezel VH4 head with one open back and one closed back Mesa cabinet. My effects are a Mutronics Mutator (hooked into a Boss Line selector), TC G-System, EHX Big Muff Pi, EHX HOG, a custom Dunlop Wah pedal (roger mayer upgrade enclosed in a dunlop hi/lo volume pedal with a custom led and on/off switch), the Gr-R-20, and now my computer with a M-Audio sound card.

I'm 55, playing rock since I was 12 and new to midi. This thing is great. I came home after buying this thing, stuck on the pickup and plugged it in and out came the most amazing sounds. There really isn't much editing of the sounds, but there are some great ones in there. I look at it like this is for a midi rookie that wants to use it without a long learning curve. Manual is ok, but it leaves a few things out. I have not updated to the bass version and I probably won't.

Smokie sax is unreal, as soon as the rest of the band heard it, it was being used in several places. Voices, horns, organs, pianos, all just amazing, but as you read this you have to remember I'm new at this.

I ended up doing a hard mount on my Parker Nitefly, the pickup is too tall for a clean mount on that guitar and my action suffered; had to cut the pickguard. I made an amp out of a VOX 2-12 combo amp box, Crown DC75 power, Crate acoustic preamp, and a pair of Emenance 12's with horns and X-overs, going for that full range sound. I use this amp for the acoustic side of the Park also. I send the electric side to a VOX AD120VT, quite a wall of sound.

It's a Roland---they seem to last. I guess we will see, had to replace the power supply already, but under support I fill you in on that one.

Here is all the positive stuff on the company---got the unit home that the power supply was intermittent. Called GC and they didn't have another one so I called Roland--immeditely faxed them a letter stating what was wrong along with my receipt and within two days I had a new one--no questions asked, and no need to return the defective one. They also have an email support team--when I can't figure something out, I email them in the morning and by noon I have an answer. I have used them three times, and the same thing everytime. They are great!

I happy, the band is happy, the audience is happy, even my wife is happy. I spend more time playing than I use to and that's a good thing. I will have one for along time. Playing three different sounding guitars all the time can get confusing, but it good for your consentration.

This thing is great. I've had it over a year now. Editing is a breeze (after you do it a few times). There's ample space to store the sounds you plan to use live for quick access. In the user bank, you can edit and store the sounds you like. I keep about 20 of the possible 99 in that bank at the ready. In the studio, it's a valuable tool. I've done three independent film scores using the GR20 and a Tascam 2488.

I have two synth setups. I use a GK3 pickup with a Schecter C1 Classic and a GK2A with my D'Agostino Benchmark. The guitar feed goes to a fender Cyber Champ and the synth goes into a Peavey KB/A100 keyboard amp. For solo work, I run the whole mess through the keyboard amp and dont use a PA system. The sax sounds are great. The "dread nanosecond" is still alive and well, but this device triggers much faster than those I've used in years past. I'm very pleased with the strings and piano sounds. The guitar sounds leave a bit to be desired, but I just turn the damn thing off and play guitar.

I use it on the gig with no backup. I bought an extra cable and I have two GK equiped guitars. If the module failed, I'd play guitar.
After over a year...no problems.

NO experience. I was able to download this and other Roland manuals on line before I made the purchase.

I play whatever I want. I've been playing 50 years and found unemployment in every field of music. I'd buy another, or maybe even upgrade to the GR33... The GR33 has words in the display instead of numbers. I love the fact that I can play 3 instruments at the same time. I hate the fact that I play 3 instruments when often one would be more tasteful (My fault, not Roland's). I've been in and out of guitar synths for about 15 years. This thing is the nuts!!! Great live, great in the studio. I heartily recommend this effect.

Brain-dead user friendly with all of it's limitations compared to my
Yamaha MU 100 tone generator and Yam. G-50 guitar midi converter, bought 'prox '99, which is a headache to utilize on a regular basis, with me as a hobbiest with tons of eq., as well as me having less and less of a tolerance for "getting back to a particular play mode". As Boss pedals go, including the RC-20XL looper and surely the Boss RC-50 new looper, this is a simplistic, go-for-it, type synth of the Steve Morse type applications, with some gravies and sauces for your choices of applications.

For $595, excellent and I agree w/ a lot of the evaluations. The Yahama's quality is to die for, esp. with the pianos w/ a sustain pedal and others; however, I'm satisfied with the Roland. Pads, overall and in general, were/are shockingly good and the tabla drum/sitar are much better than the "world" music aspects of the Emu
versions I checked out 3 years ago. Guitars do suck, but the slap bass is more than usable in a Stanley Clarkish kind of way (do I hear strings coming)? I'll re-evaluate perhaps in a year. The guy on page 4 has the right idea, with utilizing a mixer! Then, you can add the spices and ginger to the mix. Marshall eq. for majors.

I'm a hobbiest so it's cool. Wouldn't imagine that it would hold up on the road very well, but otherwise, it doesn't appear to be fragile. Other than the rack units, arent they all that way? Treat it with respect.

Never had a reason to deal with them.

Strictly instrumental/improvizational/experimental ala Jerry Garcia's Dark Star, John M'cLaughlin, Rachmananoff, dash of Soft Machine, Miles Davis, Hendrix, Trower tones, Peter Green's End of the Game, David Torn, Beethoven; whatevers. I'm going to isolate this thing and rape it for everything's it's worth, w/ processors and select pedals w/o breaking down main system, run thru Rode K2 variable mike to Superscope cd/rw recorder...very inspiring first stage w/ lots of headroom...thru pignose 40 and Laney 30; later to Marshall 1960ax's/TSL60 to Pro-tools or Sonar 5. Lots of fun with the former! The mike is to die for! Will review again next year.

The manual for installing the pickup was too detailed for me, I just concentrated on the instructions in italics and then had enough confidence to install it. I didn't take the strings off like it says. Maybe a helpful tool to have before you begin is a thin steel metric ruler that measures fractions of millimeters found at most hardware stores.(mine is in inches and I had to convert to millimeters as I went).

I am using it with a mexican made strat and I plug the synth into a Yamaha PA. It generally doesn't sound as good through a guitar amp, because of the more limited range of the typical guitar speaker. Guitar amp will still sound good as long as you have a very clean channel to play it through. I think this unit sounds very good. The pads are fantastic, and worth the price of the whole thing. Instruments with a sharp attack (piano, mostly) have to be compensated for with your playing style, and can also be adjusted by trying some of the different built-in tweaks. I feel that the compensation I am making for sharp attack instruments is no big deal at all, and is actually making me a better and more precise player. Bottom line: This unit tracks very very well when the pickup is placed in the right spot on your guitar. And the technology should only get better.

The manual lets you know that this unit will not take too much abuse. That's fine with me, since I am very easy on stuff anyway.

Hope I never need it.

This is a great unit for me. I play jazz-classical fusion, and jazz-folk fusion. I also play folk music, and it isn't as suited for that. I really hate smooth jazz (where's my frontal lobe? and how long have I been stuck in this dentist's chair????), but it is extremely suited for that, since the unit is midi. If you are creative enough, you can find an application for the GR-20 in any music. Using the guitar to trigger a pad makes playing and practicing extremely enjoyable for me. The sax is great for playing jazz lines. Now when I play an arpeggio, it sounds like a piece of heaven, and not just a geeky guitar run. If you have even a slight "experimental" edge to your music, then I whole-heartedly recommend this unit. If you are extremely straight ahead (punk, rockabilly, classic rock covers) then I don't recommend it as strongly.

Very easy to get into this. A simple synth for technical dummies but with enough possibilities to make your mouth water. The cabling together with an effects pedal like my Boss GT5 is very cleverly organised. I mix on board, no technicians screwing up my sound.

Top machine with very good patches. I'm looking forward to expanding on this when a new version comes out.

It's a Roland, it's made of very robust plastic. Sometimes I wish they'd use more roadworthy power cables at Roland/Boss though.

I've used Boss/Roland for nearly 10 years and never needed them, that says enough.

I play christian music in a very wide range of styles, I like many of the ethnic sounds and the harmonica, sax, horns and synth patches are very good.

The GR-20 is very easy to use, especially if you have past experience using effects pedals or processors; especially if they were a Roland or Boss product. I have been a big fan of Roland products for many years and have owned numerous pedals, rack mount gear and currently own a Roland VS-1880 among other products. Perhaps my experience using these products enabled me to adapt quickly to the features and functionality of the GR-20 but I was easily able to navigate throught and edit patches without using the manual.

The manual is not overwhelming in any way and is easily understood. I feel Roland has done a great job of dummying down all there manuals for the non-technical. The layout of the front panel is well thought out and easy to use. Whether you want to adjust the sensitivity of the pick-up or edit a patch it is quick and easy.

I installed the GK-3 on my 96 USA Fender Strat, it was literally a breeze, 15 minutes top. I had to raise my bridge slightly for clearance and then adjust my neck angle as well. Other than that, nothing. I had considered installing it on my Les Paul but will leave it as is for now. I am running throught a Traynor YCV80 with 2 X 12, not to shabby. Currently I am not running any other effects in my live rig, but plan on purchasing the GT-8 as soon as possible. I saw a Roland clinic at my local music store and the guy was using both the GR-20 and GT-8 and blew me away.

It is absolutely noiseless, but I do not have the output level set to max either. For recording it's a dream, especially for composing original material. What a songwriting companion. To be able to basically do every instrument from beginning to end is so cool. I can complete a new song and bring it to the band for their input. To be able to add keys and a horn section is great.

Is it the real thing ... no, but after really learning or better understanding how to play properly there will be many who won't be able to tell the difference. There is a learning curve, especially with some of the piano and keyboard patches that will pick-up unwanted sounds if you accidently hit other strings, If you mute a string you lose notes too. Finger style as opposed to strumming works best for piano. I especailly love combining strings to fill in behind my guitar playing, just watch the balance / levels. The guys in my band are just blown away. We do a lot of covers from the 50's, 60's and 70's and the GR-20 is a great addition. It is basically an enhancement of what I did before I had the GR-20. It does everything I could hope for, I have demo'd guitar synths many times over the past 15 + years and the tracking and price is finally where it needs to be. Most day I really love new technology, the GR-20 is one of the reasons I feel that way.

It's a Roland product, of course. I have a great relationship with my local music store, and anytime I have a problem with any product by any manufacturer he takes care of it for me. My best advice is to find someone you can trust and build a relationship. It really pays off. It also helps if you have spent a good chunk of change over the years. Also don't be difficult to deal with.

My Roland rep is A-1. I don't phone or e-mail Roland directly, I go throught my music store and let him deal with the rep. I have never been disappointed.

For a guitarist in a cover band it really opens up a lot of new options for song selections,and has been very useful for song writing and composing / recording. I feel it has helped in the creative side of song writing as well.

I have been playing guitar for over 25 years, I have never been real big on effects. For many years it was just me and my guitar straight into my amp, but this is something that really feels right. If lost or stolen I would get another.

I love the hold pedal but I don't see any real benefit, for me personally, for the glide pedal. Kind of wish the expression pedal was not plastic, but I take care of my gear. I transport it in a road case when gigging, and I don't lend out my gear to anyone who wouldn't treat it as good as I do. Overall a great designed product from Roland. I certainly recommed it. It not magic, you still have to play it to make it do what it is capable of doing.

It's very easy to use. I suppose because it doesn't have as much function to customize or edit as the Gr-33 model.

the Manual is ok. all my effects unit are either boss or roland.. and from my experience they tend to put a little bit less info on the manual when the product is capable of much more.

i use an Ibanez SA 420 DX or is it 420 X??
and a peavey classic 50-50 thru a custom made cabinet.

it noisy sometimes when i use the guitar out to my GT-6.. but it's probably interference noise from the monitors (TV, etc) coz when i move it gets louder or softer.

the effects sounds the best when put thru a tube amp i sounds awful thru a solid state.. although it does sounds decent thru a keyboard amp.

the effects dont really do much. i used extra fx ( reverb and eq between the gr and the amp). but not anymore.. sold the extra fx to buy pickups.

love sounds.

here we go...
i had it for 6 months and the band selector started to go balistic...
changed patch on its own like it was possesed....

i tried to perform and exocism but it didnt work..

i called the tech or the guy who sold it to me.. and told me theyre going to fix it..
he had one and said the bank selector is a potensio not a switch.. and it's pretty wierd to use a potensio instead of a selector switch.so i said hmmm okay man...i like to know a thing or two about my fxs and guitars

so it seems that i can't depend on it like i can depend on my gt-6
i wish it was built like the gt.. you know tank solid..
gig without a backup.. why not.. i like the rush when you're playing and something went wrong, and you have to find a solution.. (as long as it doesn't happen too often)

well the guy who sold it to me repaired it for me so that's cool but once upon a time i tried to contact the support to ask about something and didnt get a reply... so ill give it a...

i play everything from world music to heavy metal.
it is a good match when im playing in a trio or trying to impress people.
but it worked really well in world music and contemporary music.

if it was stolen i wouldn't buy it again.. i'll find the bastard that stole it.. and take it back.. (simply coz i dont have any money)
of course i'd leave something behind for the thief to remember me by.

i wish it had the edit capability of the gr 33 and sturdyness of a gt6.

oh yeah a better tracking on low notes

overall it's well worth the money.. it's GOOD

The unit is very easy to use! In fact, my 11 year old son has no problem moving around in it.

The sounds are for the most part pleasant with the occasional cheesy patches. I am using an american standard strat with this unit. Get this, I got the unit and the $1,100 strat for a total of $799 used. a guy bought the two as a package and couldn't figure out how to get the thing working, his loss! I am using a Soldano SLO-100 head. Since the SLO has poor switching between the crunch and clean channels, it becomes very volume sensitive. However, the pickup unit for the GR-20 has a volume knob that does not alter the sound of the patch, so this helps my situation. The unit is very quiet with no noticeable loss in signal when switched to guitar only. The tracking of the pickup is fantastic! It took about 3 hours of playing to get used to it. I see many reviews on this site stating it takes getting used to due to tracking and inadvertent noting. I personally do not have this problem. If you are a fairly accomplished guitarist with accurate finger/pick coordination you should not have a problem. My guess is the guys with the problems may require a more disciplined method to enhance this area of their playing style. Regardless, it still is a lot of fun to play with this unit.

I have experienced no problems with the unit. I plan on gigging with this unit.

Have not dealt with them.

I play in a cover band where we play everything from Van Halen to VAn Morrison so this unit is a welcome addition to the band. the guys in the band have been after me for over a year to invest in one of these. I kept putting it off but now that I have one I'm very excited. I've been playing for 26 years and the equipment I own is quite extensive plus I won't bore you with it. I strongly reccomend this product. You will have a Blast with this unit!!

The Rolland GR-20 guitar synthesizer is not actually difficult to use but you need a very good picking technique to get the best sound out of it. Although the tracking is very good, there are still some problems getting fast notes to sound with lower notes (E and A strings). Changing patches quickly is also not very easy since you only have two choices on the guitar switches, up and down. The best thing is to connect a midi footswitch or multi effects processor to get easy access to the patches.

I use it with a Fender Stratocaster Deluxe and a Fender Blues DeVille amp. The GR-20 has got a huge variety of sounds of excellent quality. I previously had a GR-50 and a Gr-9 and this is really a great improvement both in the quality of the sounds and the tracking speed. The editing of the sounds is very easy. You can adjust some parameters with knobs without having to go into patch edit mode, which is really handy.

I don't know since I bought it recently

Never had to deal with them

I play for more than 30 years, rock, blues,new age and my own stuff. I find that with aguitar synthesizer I can explore different types of music and also use it as a midi controler to record songs in a sequencer. The Gr-20 is the best synth I've had so far. I haven't tried the axon which claims to have a superior tracking. But I'm quite happy with my GR-20. I would by it again if stollen, definetly.

Too much easy to use, Edit the patches: it's a simple pressure on a button after setting the Gr-20. The manual explain clairly how to use it, how to install the devided pickup, how to set your machine, but i don't have found how to update it. For now, it's upgraded, I see no difference between befor and after update (the update is meanly to play bass with the module), to select patch you select a category of instrument wanted, you select the instrument you want to play and That's it!

Other things cool with the Gr-20 it's when you put a midi cable from the device to your computer and you could play instruments of a midi software used

I haven't notice any background noise, It's a midi device... so the only sound you hear is the instrument selected.

I know it's a midi device so don't be surprised if it sounds... midi. For a midi device I think the sound is great.

I use it directly to a input on my computer soudcard (audigy2) and it works well.

The option on the divice such attack, release, chorus, delay/reverb, level all are working properly. And when you store a user patch, the Gr-20 remember the option you were using... so when you change from a preset to an other you don't need to reset all Gr-20 options.

Ok here starts the problems

Your guitar MUST always be tuned well or a sound one tone higher or lower could be played instead of what you realy play. I dont suggest it on tremolo guitar. With this device you will be forced to play with precision cause now you must forget technics on guitars like sliding, hammer on, pull off It wouldn't sound great at all

Some time when I play fast (real fast) some notes are forgotten by the Gr-20

And the BIG PROBLEM I GOT: ok, the Gr-20 is made of plastic and the inputs/outputs are not fixed in any metal base, so it's easy for someone who don'T take care at all to push the backside connectors to a wall or a desk or also walking on the conectors, mine was broken after 1-2 month of use. So take realy care of your device.

Ok It was broken after two month of use

So I tell my sellman about the problem, He wasn't able to joint the company for 3 months, after the guy of the company don't take my device at this moment cause he was supposed to join the company about how to handle the problem. so 5 months laters they contact me to drop my Gr-20 to the sellman. In the same week, my sellman drop it to the repair shop as suggested by the guy of the company (like if to repair something you take it else where :S ). Two months later, my device was returned in my hands. Cost of reparation 200$ CAN. Cause the machine is build stupidly and over I paid this item 1/3 more than is value in big guitar store

so for 10 month of none use a garanty with 10 months to forget and for a 1000$ for the device, taxes included and 200$ of reparation I say If you would like to play midi juste bought a midi keyboard (usualy there is more presets and techno and other style presets)

All about the sound is number one if you are expecting what you should expecting from midi sounds

Playability is ... good but not excelent

The device conception made it fragile. NOT AT ALL SOLID

And the service from the company sucks totaly

Cake!!

Most very good... Guitar stuff bad. But if they made the guitar stuff sound good there wouldn't be a reason to buy a GT-8 ... right!??Think about it.

Just don't use your waffle-stompers!!

Roland offers that?? I thought they were just to damn big..lol.

With the shortage of descent.. or should I say non-flakey keyboard players out there. This is a godsend for cover bands. Plus you can still have two guitar players for the rock stuff. Real keyboard players are so left hand happy that this setup sounds cleaner anyway.
Don't use the tape for the GK3... mount the thing... just put it on a cheap axe.

Practically plug and play. The GK3 pickup attached easily to the tone-pros bridge on my guitar with no need to drill holes. There's the trauma of taking off all the strings and readjusting the bridge, but I was prepared to spend a couple of hours getting that done and it was time well spent... Not a lick of trouble since. The instructions are easy to follow and assume you know nothing. I know nothing about synthesis, so that's right up my alley.
The GR20 is very intuitive. Anyone who's familiar with the ME33 or similar Roland pedals will find it a breeze to navigate.

I use several different setups.. depends on the application. For solo work, I use a Peavey KB/A100 keyboard amp. The pickup is mounted to a Schecter C1 Classic. For band gigs, I send the synth to the KB/A100 and the guitar to a Fender Showman Reverb. In the studio, straight into the board. I don't hear any excessive noise. AS with any synth, there are lots of useless sounds. Those I moved into the user library are awesome. Everybody's drooling over that moody sax sound. I agree !! Dozens of sounds in every bank.
I've had the unit 3 weeks and have not even begun to scratch the surface. The nylon string guitar with strings is especially good for Willie Nelson material... The Flute for Herbie Mann. Moody Sax is great for nailing jazz solos. I'm a big fan of Jimmy Smith. With the Jazz Organ and Tenor Sax sounds I can bring that stuff to life in a trio context.

As with anything new, it seems good now. For $600 I'm not carrying a backup. Roland products seem to hold up well enough. Throw gently.

No experience.

I guess I play jazz oriented blues. solo work leans more toward "acoustic fare", while band work leans more toward stuff like James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding et al. It's a good match if the operator (that's me) can learn to develop a little restraint. The problem with being able to play Sitar in "Misty" is that you might!! Lately, I'm writing soundtracks for an action film and a documentary. The "ethnic instruments" section has already shown me significant value.
I've been playing guitar 46 years. I have a Strat, a D'Agostino Benchmark, a '74 Gibson Howard Roberts Custom, a Gibson LG0 flat top and a lowly (but nice) Galveston Jumbo A/E. I also own an Alvarez bass and a room full of assorted amps, speakers, effects and recording gear I like to call the studio.
I'd buy a replacement. I love the sounds and the simplicity. I'm an old guitarhead who grew up with off/on and volume for amp settings... please dont ask me to scroll through menus for answers. I hate the fact that you need that special 13 pin connecting cable to send the data to the sound module. (That reminds me... I need to buy a couple of spare cables.)
I owned a couple of prehistoric Rolands and 3 Ibanez midi guitars with Kawai sound modules. I chose the GR20 because of the great reviews it got on Harmony Central from people who bought it and had nice things to say. It tracks quickly, but the dreaded nanosecond delay is in there. You have to learn the restrictions of the instrument.......just like any other instrument.

Mounting the GK-3 pickup to my Eggle LA Pro was easy even with the adhesive tape. My guitar man was not prepared to drill into this guitar and frankly I agree. (I replaced the sticky with a high quality d/s tape after about three months when it started to lift taking care to degrease the area well - since then it had stayed firmly put a further 6 months and counting)

No, you can't edit the patches much other than attack/decay and reverb/delay. Once you have tweaked the dozen or so patches you desire (and there are piles of them to choose from) you can easily drop them into a user array that holds up to 99.

The manual is comprehensive and easy to get to grips with.

I have the original firmware - I can't see me needing to update it, so I cannot comment on how easy it is to do this.

I tried it for a spell on my strat but it didn't suit the tremelo system - pushing the bar a little lowered the strings onto the hex p/u. Back on the Eggle it will stay because it fits next to the bridge fine. You have to experiment for comfort.

Running the GR-20 direct into a guitar amp seems wrong to me because guitar amps aren't meant for keyboard type sounds. Would you let your keyboard player crank his act through your amp too? No, I got some powered monitors with 15 inch cones and horns designed for all purpose use and set them some ways off to each side of my regular combo and they handle all it can give. Now we are talking about making a substancial further investment in your sound reinforcement if you want to gig with it or you can route it through your bands PA of course. Putting it into a guitar amp at gig levels will blow your Vintage 30 as soon as look at it so don't go there IMHO.

Once you have selected the patches you want and done what honing you can you have to practise your technique to avoid unwanted notes errupting - you mustn't be sloppy with your fingering because you won't get away with it.

Yes, some of the patches are "pants" but consider the unit as having a library for you to check out the ones you need, load to your user space and you'll be fine. Somebody somewhere will want a Chinese new year street party going off around them but not your humble scribe thank you.

There are two non-latching stomps on it that can be defined. Out of the box they are assigned to hold and shift pitch respectively. So you can play a note or chord and hold that sound as long as you wish or wizz up or down an octave (or a designated interval) at the touch of your toe.

At the guitar you have a volume control, a selector for guitar only, for synth only or for guitar plus synth and two buttons to advance or regress the patch number without bending over to do it. Therefore you have all the permutations at your fingertips. Your regular guitar output is routed through the sturdy proprietory 5 metre midi lead supplied. There is a master volume control on the front panel for extra fine tuning and a sturdy power supply unit. Finally there is a Kensington security port to lock it down i