Roland GR-500, GS-500 and PC-50

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Details:
"Roland GR-500 and GS-500 Guitarset including controllers and cables. very rare because you won't find this combination anywhere! only a few where made in the past. As used by Mike Rutherford of Genesis and Alex Lifeson of Rush.

Here is a description:
''This is THE first guitar synth ever made & it came out in 1977! It came with an Ibanez made Les Paul type guitar with tons of knobs to control various parameters of the 3 separate synth's that were built in to the module. The synthesizer module included Bass, Solo Synth, and String sounds based on previous Orchestral and analog mono-synths from Roland. There are plenty of sliders to adjust the VCO, VCF, VCA, and LFO sections. The guitar utilizes a special pickup system that is connected to the synth module via Roland's own 24-pin interface and controlled it using CV/GATE signals generated by the guitar's pickup system while playing the guitar. In addition to the modified pickup, there were magnets under the face of the guitar that could increase its sustain''


This is the complete set including the guitar, the PC-50 Preset Controller footswitch, 24-way cable and the synthesizer unit (GR500). The guitar has a very nice honeyburst finish.

The playability is very good, with a nice comfortable neck and low string action.

The sound is very very very versatile as you may expect. You can create anything with this one, Because of the Les Paul style body this guitar sustains for days and has a nice warm tone. I'm sure the guitarsynth experts know what i'm talking about.

The condition is good. Just light playwear. Some scratches here and there, but nothing serious. A hardcase is included for the guitar.

Here is another description for the high tech guitarplayers among us:

The GS500 was a heavily modified Ibanez guitar, with a single humbucker plus a hexaphonic pickup for driving the GR500, individual on/off switches for each of the four synthesis sections, switches to select the sound of the guitar itself, the synthesizer, or both simultaneously, plus EQ. All this appeared as a beautifully crafted, but very heavy instrument whose body contained magnets that fed the audio output back to the strings, thus creating an 'infinite sustain' system. The GS500 really was far more than just a guitar plugged into a sound generator!

If the GS500 had a limitation, it was that you could only connect it to the outside world using a heavy, multi-core cable unique to the GS/GR500 combination (shown in the above picture). Without this, you owned nothing more than a large, heavy paperweight. Given that there are now no spares left, you cannot even build a new one, and the similar-looking cable used for future Roland guitar synths was wired differently and does not work correctly. While players were to find this very frustrating, it had a huge benefit for Kakehashi and Roland when the prototype was stolen — and then returned as 'unusable' — just hours before its world launch in Australia.

The synthesizer module (shown below) was amazing, with five sound generation sections — G, P, B, M and S — that you could play individually or in any combination. These were the straight-through Guitar, Poly-ensemble, Bass, Melody, and an 'external synthesizer' section designed to interface with and control an SH5, System 100 or System 700. The Poly-ensemble, which treated the independent outputs from the 'hex' pickup, was interesting, and produced what would later become Roland's signature 'bowed guitar' sound, but it was the Melody section that captured players' imagination because it was here that the real synthesis took place.

Sounds were generated by a conventional VCO/VCF/VCA architecture reminiscent of the earliest SH-series synths, but with a number of very important bonuses. For example, the VCA was 'touch sensitive', and the output from the Poly-ensemble was an input in the solo synth's mixer, so you could inject the polyphonic sound into the VCF/VCA signal path. Another superb innovation was the output buss system that allowed you to direct the sounds generated by each of the sections to any one of three outputs as well as a global 'Mix' output.

In addition, the PC50 Preset Controller was a floor unit that allowed you to set up three mixes for the P, B, M and S sections and select between them using stomp switches. A fourth switch returned control to the guitar. I have never seen mention of the PC50 in any of Roland's documentation"

via Johan