Roland GR-500/GS-500 Synthesizer System

via this auction

"Includes:
- Roland GR-500 Guitar Synthesizer
- Roland GS-500 Guitar Controller
- Roland 24-pin connector cable
- Guitar Case

This is THE first guitar synth ever made & it came out in 1977! As used by Mike Rutherford of Genesis and Alex Lifeson of Rush.

GS-500 Guitar:
* 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 GR-500 module. 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
* 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.
* 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!
* 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."