Guitar Gear Forum

Boss just dropped this new synth pedal.....


ALL THE SAX SOLOS ARE YOURS

Shit I may look into this for Kimmi. We've been using the SY1 on her bass and it's great but it'd be cool to have more options

Demo is pretty damn good too!

I predict he will post in here that there's one particular thing he doesn't like about it or that it's not necessary and then a week later he will have bought it

Devin wrote:I predict he will post in here that there's one particular thing he doesn't like about it or that it's not necessary and then a week later he will have bought it

100%


I watched a few more demos and it sounds great BUT it requires a Roland pickup. Not a deal breaker but not ideal. One thing I like about the SY series is they track off of the regular pickups.

Obviously the GK pickup opens up a lot more possibilities but I think it might be overkill for our needs..

Looks like there is a new GK format. Kind of cool. Seems like it uses a regular cable. I have a lot of questions. Sweetwater has 13 pin converters on sale but im not seeing the new pickup at all. Still this is nice and a good companion for the SY-1000 which has no PCM sounds. Billy, You can find an SY-300 that does a lot pretty inexpensively. I really like mine. they vary in price quite a bit though. anywhere from 350 to 800. For cool bass synth stuff or synth string pads it works really well. Minor chords get just a bit wobbly but you don't notice in a mix.

thermionic geek wrote:Looks like there is a new GK format. Kind of cool. Seems like it uses a regular cable. I have a lot of questions. Sweetwater has 13 pin converters on sale but im not seeing the new pickup at all. Still this is nice and a good companion for the SY-1000 which has no PCM sounds. Billy, You can find an SY-300 that does a lot pretty inexpensively. I really like mine. they vary in price quite a bit though. anywhere from 350 to 800. For cool bass synth stuff or synth string pads it works really well. Minor chords get just a bit wobbly but you don't notice in a mix.

Yeah I've been looking at the SY300. Seems to be the ideal unit for us. Although it could be a bit much still. I wish the sy1 had just a bit more control over the tones since we don't really need presets or anything like that. We're still working on tweaking the sy1. It's been slow because we have to do it at practice to hear it within the band mix but we've only been practicing once a week now. So yeah it's frustrating lol

I wish I could find the SY300 for $300 though. Lowest I've found was $500, which is not awful, so we're definitely considering it.

Not to hijack the thread, I'm just going to give my unsolicited opinion. It looks like the pickup is pretty much the same, but the box mounted on the guitar does some digital conversion. Cool because its much smaller and uses a TRS cable. They say its a special cable but i have my doubts. IMO one of the things that keeps the Roland GK stuff from being more popular is the special cable and the ugly pickups and warts attached to the guitar. Plus not everyone who plays guitar wants a spot on sax emulation.

I am glad on the day I have a bazillion hour meeting, a new guitar synth got released. I have videos to watch and specs to b!tch about!


Sooooo many thoughts.

Do I swap out my GK3s for a GK5? If not; I'd need one breakout box to connect to the GM. If I swapped up to a GK5; I'd need the other box to connect to my GR and SY1000. How is the tracking/performance of the GK3 vs the 5?

Biggest issue with GR55 is how big it is compared to how pretty much useless I find the onboard switches. If they had a GR55 Core; I would be in guitar synth heaven because I could abandon my dumba$$ pedalboard Jenga sitch I have going. GR55 is just wayyyyyyy too big for how I use it live. If I kept the GK3 pickups on my guitars; that added breakout box would make everyting about the same size as what I already have. Ugh.

Zenology paid preset app is kind of a "jury still out" thought process for me. The sounds are RICH and that is a good thing. But there are also a bazillion "oh hey the 90s!" sounds in the demos that I can't get behind. No biggie; but still a thing. The fact that you can do piano is a definite flex as that instrument is always the tough one to translate playing technique wise. I am complaining; but I am sure I will get one


I'm going to need to hear the sax emulations first though

I do like the included GK out. I think they caught on to using multiple devices finally. Even though this is the only GK-5 device so far. The breakout boxes are cheaper than a US-20 to run multiple devices. A couple of TRS cables is way cheaper than 2 additional 13 pin cables too.

I was looking at getting an SH4D, but I'm already reading the manual for this. Changing plans and I know i'm going to buy it eventualy. I spent way too much money on gear last year. I didn't need this.

I have a US20 that I never use. The trs is supposedly a twisted pair so I believe that means you can't just grab a hosa TRS for $10 off Amazon? I think the Boss serial cables are around $50 so you are not far from just buying a GK cable anyways as you can't repurpose the Boss cable for standard guitar cable duty.

For me; the "oh the gk cable is so delicate" thing has never been a thing. They are bulky and expensive. But kind of part of the deal if you are going down the guitar synth road. I will end up with one of these; it's mainly a question of how deep I want to go to get everything up to speed or if I want to grab the converter box and stick with my GK3s. Which requires power for another box and more cables and blah blah blah.

I haven’t delved into this world but that shit sounds really good.

Ostinato Rubato wrote:I haven’t delved into this world but that shit sounds really good.

Guilt by association

JiveTurkey wrote:I have a US20 that I never use. The trs is supposedly a twisted pair so I believe that means you can't just grab a hosa TRS for $10 off Amazon? I think the Boss serial cables are around $50 so you are not far from just buying a GK cable anyways as you can't repurpose the Boss cable for standard guitar cable duty.

For me; the "oh the gk cable is so delicate" thing has never been a thing. They are bulky and expensive. But kind of part of the deal if you are going down the guitar synth road. I will end up with one of these; it's mainly a question of how deep I want to go to get everything up to speed or if I want to grab the converter box and stick with my GK3s. Which requires power for another box and more cables and blah blah blah.

I mean, you can buy any TRS cable and twist one side of it. You just have to stay away from cables with sealed plugs. But as long as you can open the plug, it's a 10 second mod.