Roland MIDI on 7-strings? - ...your experiences

[revsharp777]

I was curious if any of you used the Roland GK-2A divided pickup on your 7-string axes. * Since the pickup only comes available for 6-strings, which set of strings did you mount it under? *B to B? *E to E? *Your thoughts?

My quick rant:
I'd really love to use the Roland GR-33 Guitar Synth on a 7-string since that's all I play. *Why don't they make a 7-string GK-2A pickup? *Anyone else share this dilemma?
RANT MODE OFF.

[darren wilson]

There's a lot more to the Roland synths than just the pickup. The whole architecture of the pitch-to-MIDI conversion is based around hexaphonic input. To get it to work on a 7-string would require extensive changes to the hardware and software architecture to support a seventh input.

[Getthis]

i've seen pictures of them mounted(E to e) on a few universe and Rg7's on the internet so it obviously works for some people.

[Scott of Actual Time]

the Roland pickup tracks better on thinner gauge strings. *that's why people like Holdsworth use really tiny strings for all 6 strings on his Synthaxe midi controller guitar. *i think that's partly why most midi 7 stringers put it under E to E and leave the low B out.

[Skarekrough]

I purchased an RG7420 for cheap cash off of eBay a few months ago. *It was posted without any pics and when it arrived I figured out why: someone had mounted a Roland MIDI pickup to it and there was a copious amount of mounting goo on the body and a screw hole in the face of the body right where the Rolands tend to go.

On the upside the guitar was almost completely untouched aside from this modification. *The frets looked barely touched and the bridge had no wear on it.

From this fact I kind of assume that it was a failed experiment.

So....on a side note....if anyone knows how to get that mounting glue off of a guitar body I'd really like to hear it. *I've used everything I can think of and it hasn't budged even slightly. *My most drastic measure has been nail polish remover which did nothing to it.

[Two hands31]

I think you should be more concerned about how to get the TRS off.

[diek]

There are some people that will string up a guitar with nothing but thin strings and just use the guitar as a controller. I use the Yamaha G1D, G50 and Korg N1R. I use the G50 so I can control any Synth module. Utilizing a Korg TRITON Rackmount through the G50 is absolutely amazing. It makes the rolands look like a 286 chip compared to twin ghz computer. But back to the point, a 7-string output would require a totally different hardware interface. Using a peizo bridge/ MIDI controller, you could sum the MIDI to a mono-interface and use all 7 strings. The problem though is that it is mono and you lose all of the hexaphonic capability. There are some company's that have a onboard convertor that terminate to a 5-pin MIDI as opposed to the 14 pin hexaphonic output. The Parker MIDI fly comes to mind. Also check out the iGuitars from Brian Moore. They have a 7-string guitar with MIDI ouput that terminates to a 5-pin MIDI interface. The 7-string is MIDI is possible, just not through the roland 14 pin interface. good luck.