Getting roland midi guitar pickups to control either digital or analog synths??

[ListenCharles]

I borrowed a friends custom built 'midi guitar' which he never really played. I had hopes of getting it to connect via midi to my computer or synth... only to realize he meant it was a 13-pin GK output which I have never tried messing around with. It has this Roland pickup system installed into the guitar

It seems like the only units that take that specific 13-pin cable are FX units like the Boss GM-800 or an A/D converter that converts the 13-pin to 1/4 in. I thought there would be some sort of converter from the 13-pin to a regular midi cable but wasn't able to find anything

If anyone knows whether or not it's even possible to connect as I'm thinking it is please let me know! or shut me down, either way there is very little info out there on these types of pickups

 

[sadfield]

The roland GI-10, GI-20, Axon AX-50, AX-100 all do the job you want.

 

[Bob Womack]

I've controlled my Behringer Poly-D (Mini Moog clone-ish) with my Roland GR-20/GK-3 combo. I had to go into the MIDI menu and switch the mono/poly mode away from the factory setting. I don't remember which I switched it to but think it was mono. It did fine.

Bob

 

[AAT65]

Yeah, they aren’t “MIDI guitars” and the 13-pin cable isn’t a “MIDINcable” although people will say that.
However you certainly can use a GK-3 guitar to control MIDI synths. The newer BOSS SY-1000 guitar synths take a GK-3 input and have MIDI out direct.
The older (and cheaper) GP-10 (which is what I have) does convert guitar to MIDI but doesn’t have a 5-pin MIDI out, and it’s USB MIDI support isn’t quite compliant so you need to go through the BOSS Tone Studio PC app or get one of the third-party converters. However the built-in synths — an emulation of the classic 1980s GR-300 (the fastest tracking guitar synth of all time), a simple wave synth and a dual-oscillator synth — are what the GP-10 is primarily designed for (& guitar modelling, and fx and amp models… it’s a powerful beast IMHO).

BOSS - Guitar Synthesizers - 13-Pin GK System

Guitar Synthesizers: Explore the exciting range of guitar and bass synthesizer products from BOSS and Roland—cutting-edge technologies for modern sound creators.

www.boss.info

There’s a helpful VGuitar Forum for all manner of guitar synths including the GK-3 pickups and related pedals: https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php

 

[Alaska Mike]

I have a "Roland Ready" Fender Stratocaster with the rack-mounted synth. User interface takes an engineer's degree to navigate, and I usually spend as much time programming it as I do playing. I mainly use it to control other synths for B-3 sounds on my Emu B3 and the like, and to be honest, it very rarely gets played. Just easier to use my Electro-Harmonix B9.