Best Graph Tech Ghost Hexpander Preamp Kit Alternatives

Based on 8 reviews

The pickup is very light (you will not feel any difference in weight of your guitar) and easy to install even though it does look complicated at the beginning. You will find in the package more than enough accessories to attach the pickup to almost any sort of guitar without drilling or any sort of modification. The sticky tapes are very good and once you attach the pickup it will never go anywhere unless you decide to remove it or you are not really gentle in handling a guitar. Few things could be improved and I am surprised that the pickup has not been redesigned at least once in all these years. The radius is a bit limited. You can increase or decrease it but if you have a guitar neck that has a small radius or no radius, you might find the pickup not so suitable as it has to be...

Based on 10 reviews

If i had to choose only 1 MIDI pickup, it will be the Roland GK kit. Their price to quality ratio is the best. Sure you might have to drill some holes for the volume knob, up/down buttons, etc. But, if you choose a smart luthier/installer, the entire kit will blends seamlessly within your guitar (especially if you have a black coloured guitar). The result is a very clean looks and almost unlimited sound possibility to explore. But, if you want to sell your guitar in the future, the GK3 external pickup would be a better choice.

Based on 8 reviews

If you are considering installing this instead of the external one, bear in mind: As a bass player, you still need to change strings for loose vibration to track better but just enough it doesn't catch any fret buzz, clicks and clacks. I settled on the DIY pickup kit because it was the cheaper option. Took me a while to measure, drill holes, hide it to an active bass and get this signal sent to Roland GR55 successfully. It gives you loads of options and sustainability over the external pickup since it's a split signal and doesn't affect your clean tone since you are going to use an extra proprietary cable. It's not a regular 5-pin MIDI OUT, but a 13-pin that only goes to Roland devices. However, you can pretty much send it literally any synthesizer in the chain with MIDI IN. Your...

Based on 5 reviews

My first effects pedal was a Boss PS-2 Digital Pitch Shifter Delay pedal which I bought in 1987. I also owned a Boss SE50 & SE70 effects units during the 1990's. I loved the range of effects that these units produced but now that I own a Roland-GR55 my playing and sound has been transported to a whole new level way beyond anything I could have possibly imagined! I am blown away by the seemingly endless variety of effects, models, instruments and combinations that are now at my finger (and toe) tips. It's like a whole new dimension of sound has been revealed to me, I'm in Tech Heaven! I also purchased a Godin XTSA guitar which is the perfect match for this amazing piece of technology. The sound is immaculate, the response is instant & my adventure into a new world of sound...

Based on 4 reviews

I've owned the GR20/GK3 in the past, TWICE. The GM800/Gk5 combo has better tracking (NOT perfect, far from it, it's just the nature of the beast, triggering sounds via hex pups) and less glitches in general. In my humble opinion, this has nothing to do with the Gk5 vs Gk3 debate as a hex pup, is just a hex pup, a passive component. It has to do with the fact that the GM800 is a computational beast in comparisson. More that 1000 sounds available (and as always, not all are good), great customization, small size but it doesn't have a built in expression pedal which is good in terms of modularity and size, but bad because chances are you will need one and that means you have to pay for it. Great PC editor via USB but a bit slow for my tastes, it gets the job done. The front...

Based on 2 reviews

This is not my first Guitar Synth rodeo as I used to own a GK3 and a GR20. So, the GK5 not only lacks the basic controls the GK3 has (vol, mag/hex/blend selector/preset next/previous etc), but it also lacks the radius adjustment the GK3 has. Also, the manual lacks important information regarding the installation, that wasn't a problem for me since I already had the experience with the GK3 (two different ones, installed in several guitars), I really don't know what Boss were thinking...for a newcomer this can be a problem. Now, the tracking IS better but I doubt that has to do with the hex pickup itself (GR20 vs GM800, the latter is a computational beast compared to the first one). Qualitywise, not much has changed since the GK3 era, so nothing to comment. Ditching the 13pin midi...

Based on 7 reviews

For context: I use this as a pure pitch-to-MIDI adapter. The dinky little proprietary plugin/app is irrelevant to me, because I plug it into either a hardware synth or my Linux DAW. It _does_ register pitch-bends, but only transmits them in semitone steps. The good: it works quickly and reliably, once you get it set up. The less-good: - It's fiddly to install. At least you expect that, so it doesn't come as a surprise. - The aforementioned pitch-bend issue. As long as you think of it as a way to get a guitar-shaped keyboard, it doesn't have any real competition. If you want guitar-like expressivity with pitch-bends and vibrato _and_ multi-string pitch-tracking, you need to look at Roland/Boss or Sonicsmith and spend a lot more. I rated it "average" for sound, because that's...

Based on 15 reviews

I have had 3 of these cables over the past 8 years and there have been a few things I have learnt. You really need to take care of this cable! I use this cable for my VG99 effects processor and had it break on me, possibly due to carelessness on my part (Not storing it correctly/abused on stage) but what i had found was that the cables inside must have torn/worn out at a certain point in the cable which meant that certain strings themselves would not ring out whilst the rest of them did. It made it very difficult to discern what the problem was but also made it clear that this is a delicate cable indeed. You need a backup! Buy two or more of these things as if one goes you will be unlikely to be in a in a situation where you can easily go and buy one. Even shops that sell the VG/GR units...

Based on 5 reviews

I wrote the entire back catalogue for my uni band on this thing, you can literally record every instrument, even drums! Tracking is amazingly accurate, and play a sax solo on your guitar can be really fun, but even the 'boring' guitar models on this are excellent! The build quality is solid, and it has literally every effect you could dream of built in, with enough tweakability that I didn't even delve as deep as this pedal can go. The presets are often so good that you can plug and go, and play a whole set with them. For performing live, I would recommend a midi footswitch to switch between banks, as the three patches that you can load at once may not be enough at times, depending on your genre. Honestly, I personally wouldn't use this to record string/brass sections etc. to my...

Based on 9 reviews

This is such a great little tool. I wish I could give it top markings but unfortunately it's a bit flawed. I got it to be able to play synths directly from my bass. Basically doubling bass lines with synth bass. First of all, I would not use this live. The triggering is far too quirky. I only use this for recording and even then it requires quite a bit of midi-cleanup for a good result. I can do as many takes as I want and play everything 100% perfect but there's still midi-junk that needs manual editing. This means that recording the midi track at the same time as the actual bass is pretty much hopeless. The midi track needs to be done separately then edited into something useable and THEN re-record the synth part. It requires quite a bit of work to get a good result but in the end I...