Roland GR-300
The Roland GR-300 is a guitar synthesizer manufactured by Roland Corporation.
The GR-300 was considered the first "playable" guitar synthesizer. (Its predecessor, the GR-500, was plagued with tracking problems that rendered it virtually unplayable.) The GR-300 had no MIDI and could only be played through a GR-300 series guitar controller.
The actual synthesizer module sat on the floor and had the rugged appearance of a large guitar-type foot pedal (complete with carrying handles). It featured 6-voice polyphony, one voice per string and 2 oscillators per voice. Each pair of VCOs were harmonically locked to each string but could be tuned separately to play different pitches. The GR-300 also featured a VCF with variable lengthsweep up and down, and an LFO. Each string had an enable-disable switch as well as a string sensitivity switch (basically audio compression). Built-in footswitches controlled the VCO mode (single/dual), the VCO harmonize pitch (detuning of the VCO's), and the VCF mode (on, bypass, or inverted). There was also a pedal control input for the VCF. The GR-300 could output either the guitar, the synth, or a mix of the two.[1][2]
Notable users
- Pat Metheny
- Chuck Hammer
- Robert Fripp
- Andy Summers
- Adrian Belew
- Charly García
- Shawn Lane
- Kazumi Watanabe
- David Byrne
- Paul Cradick
- Pete Townshend[3]
References
- ^ "GR-300". synthmuseum.com. synthmuseum.com. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
- ^ Joness, Wayne. "Return of a Legend: Does the VG-99 Live Up to the GR-300?". premierguitar.com. Premier Guitar. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
- ^ "Pete's Gear: Pete Townshend's Guitar Gear History – An Equipment Overview". thewho.net. thewho.com. Retrieved 9 June 2018.