Roland GK-3

Great Piece of Equipment

You plug this to your guitar, connect it to GR-55, then you have a whole lot of sounds and Synth under your finger tips. However, this comes at few cons:

- It does not look very pretty on your guitar

- it is not the easiest to plug, adjust and setup onto your guitar

- Needs a particular cable with 9 pins to plug to the GR-55

However ,huge benefits:

- You can switch between synth and guitar sound or Mix them

- You can control the volume of your Synth

- Switch sound banks without having to touch the GR-55

The GR-55 is a great unit by itself, and the GK-3 is the only way to connect your guitar and it works perfectly and as expected.

Almost perfect

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 positioned very close to the strings. However, you could still solve that problem by adjusting the sensitivity of all six individual pickups in the setup of your Roland synth device. Also, if you have a guitar with a space between the bridge pickup and the bridge less than 8mm, you will not be able to attach the pickup.

To use guitar synthesizers such as Roland's newer GR series or VG series this pickup is probably the only way to go and it does the job pretty well.

expensive little toy but worth it

This does not convert your signal directly into MIDI, but needs an extra expensive Roland synth with it to do so. This should be explained better on the website.

Setting it up can be a bit tedious but once you re good to go it's really fun to play your favorite virtual synths with it. The two buttons on it allow you to change the built in presets of the synth as well without having to use the synth/pedal , which is a big plus.

Fabulous

Superb midi pickup system, easy to install and very responsive.

Great stuff

It is something important to use with the rg-55 so you should really get that.. it is quite easy to brake but once is attached to the guitar is fine. Sounds great and it's easy to control. The plastic is vey easy to scratch with the plug from the lead. I still have it and after over a year works perfectly.

GK3

Allways fit a GK3 to all your guitars. Easy to install and the benefits are enormous provided you have a VG99, GR55, GP10 or whatever. If you don't mind cannibalising them and voiding warrentees, they make a great pickup for eCellos and suchlike.

This thing is AMAZING

Bought it a couple of years ago,

works perfectly if you take time to set it up.

This opens up a new door to guitarists.

Haeven sent.

You really need to take care of the cable, it is quite fragile.

The only tool for the job.

I bought this to replace my GK2, used with Roland GR55 and VGA-7. The GK2 lasted me for years, and the GK3 is built just as well so should see me through the next decade. Works perfectly, of course, as long as you set it up correctly. Most mis-tracking problems are the result of poor setup (and right hand technique!).