Roland GR-500 Guitar Synthesizer

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"Roland GR-500 - the first guitar synth produced by Roland. Used by Genesis (and Steve Hackett solo), Rush, Boston, and others, the GR-500 was a revolutionary product. Some called it "the ultimate musical instrument."

Includes the GR-500 guitar controller (sometimes called the GS-500), the GR-500 synthesizer module, the connecting cable, the Roland case for the guitar, copies of the owner's manual, service manual and ads/articles, and extra 24-pin connection sockets (2 male and 2 female plus the pins).

The GR-500 lets you play just the straight guitar sound (pretty good in its own right), or select one or more synth sections to play instead of or along with the guitar. The external synth section allows you to use the guitar to send CV/Gate signals to other analog synths, too. It's enormously flexible. Each audio section can be routed to one of 3 different output jacks; any of the synth sections can be enabled and controlled from the guitar (or play all 3 plus the guitar for a "wall-of-sound" effect). Each synth section has basic envelope controls; the bass section has separate sliders for percussion, hard, and soft sounds; the solo melody section has a nice resonant low pass filter; and, the poly ensemble section has a mixing section for low, middle, high, and fundamental. The poly ensemble output can be run through the solo melody filter for a nice sound. There's even an LFO and remote control over the LFO routing to the filter from the GR-500 controller.

The guitar, guitar electronics, synth electronics, cable, and manuals are all in great shape. The guitar and synth engine were professionally calibrated in 2008. When used recently, it worked but sounded a bit glitchy (I haven't had time to investigate having it calibrated/services, so it's being sold "as is"). The guitar case is in good condition, but the tolex shows signs of wear. This is a 110 volt unit. It will be shipped in 2 boxes to protect the synth and the guitar.

Size and weight info: when boxed-up, the size and weight will be approximately:
GR-500 synth: 30x15x10 inches, weight: 25 lb.
GS-500 guitar: 42x20x10 inches, weight: 25 lb."