1984 Roland G-700 Guitar Synth with LEFT-HANDED GR-707 Guitar Controller

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Here's something special for our left-handed guitar-slinging friends out there. It's a 1984 Roland G-700 Guitar Synth with GR-707 Guitar Controller which not only is in the cooler black finish (silver was standard, red was another option) but is also left-handed. I don't think I've seen a left-handed example of one of these before; unfortunately I am unable to tell you how many were made, but you can bet it wasn't very many.

Isn't it crazy to think that this gear is now 30 years old and in the guitar world that seems to qualify as "vintage"? I remember when these first came out and we all thought "What the hell are Roland doing putting out such a crazy design?" But then, along came the SynthAxe and we thought the Roland controller was relatively normal. Today it has a retro-futuristic vintage charm, but it does feel very strange to be getting nostalgic about stuff like this.

Whilst the synth unit looks rather bulky by today's standards, I'll say this for it: at least it is labelled with LARGE numbers and has LARGE easy to read displays. I can't be dealing with the teeny tiny display screens on modern-day equipment. It's like, excuse me whilst I get a magnifying glass out so I can read this.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $1,999.

G L Wilson (with thanks to David from Barcelona who posted it first on Facebook)

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Handmade guitar with built in Roland Synth

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This hand built guitar doesn't really blow me away where quality or design is concerned. It lands somewhere between an average job by an experienced luthier or a good job by someone with some tools in their garage. I do like that they were trying to build a guitar with the built in Roland pick up, and the neck through design could lend itself well to the over all sound of this guitar.

All that said, at $300 this thing is a great deal. If it's not a player, it's easily worth that in parts.

R.W. Haller


© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

TC Matic in 1983: what's that guitar?

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Can anybody identify the guitar played by Jean-Marie Aerts, the excellent guitarist of the excellent early 1980s Belgian band TC Matic? It looks like an archtop walnut Yamaha SG with the control plate of a Les Paul Recorder and I think that it might be a luthier's one-off (as is the bass of the bass player with its German carve) - what do you think?

Aerts was (and is) quite an unique guitar player, who could compare with Magazine/Banshees/PIL John McGeoch when it came to reinvent guitar playing in the new wave era... Being Belgian (and singing in a bizarre mix of English, French and Flemish dialect), TC Matic never achieved the international fame they deserved, but they are told to have been quite influential on the then newly relocated Birthday Party (this is not obvious with this song, but it makes sense) and they are still highly valued in this strange part of Europe that is on the other side of the Channel... 

Bertram

Edit: It's a Greco-built Roland G-303 synth controller (thanx JD) - I always associated Roland's early controllers with the LP shaped G-500 but I should have known this one that has been used by renowned players such as Pat Metheny and Andy Summers. Since it is not only a synth controller but a good guitar, it has been often used without the GR-300 synth - the way Aerts does. 

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Dalek's Handbag: Roland G-707 Guitar Synth controller from the mid 1980s

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(We've looked at the bass sibling of this guitar a couple of times already - here and here - so it seems only right we look at the guitar too.)

From Roland's first guitar synth to its last with dedicated guitar controller, the guitar being known as the Roland G-707 and partnered the over-sized stomp box making up the GR-700 synthesiser itself.

To think that these guitars are approaching "vintage" status seems crazy. I remember well when these first came out; we all laughed at the shape and the peculiar "handle connecting" body to headstock (to eliminate deadspots, supposedly, to allow for better tracking); we called it the "Dalek's Handbag".

They were produced from 1984-86. I'm guessing the example pictured above is one of the earlier ones, being finished in silver which over the years has started to turn gold. Later examples were optionally available in red or black finishes.

This example (guitar only - no synth unit) is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $699.99. I don't really see the point of buying the guitar without the synth, not unless you are really into the shape or else you want to buy something for your pet dalek's birthday.

For more information see Vintage Synth Explorer.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Roland GR500 guitar synth with GS500 guitar controller, circa 1977

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Often incorrectly cited as the "world's first guitar synth" (it wasn't - the Innovex "Condor GMS" system predates it by seven years), the Roland GR500 guitar synth and GS500 guitar controller was certainly a first for Roland. The synth module "was a simple analog affair with Bass, Solo Synth, and String sounds based on previous Orchestral and analog mono-synths from Roland" (see VintageSynth.com). It was my understanding that the pre-MIDI era synth used some kind of 5-note polyphony (I know, weird on a 6-string guitar!) which unfortunately was not known to function fantastically in practice.

The guitar controller itself was, I believe, built for Roland by Ibanez (but feel free to correct me via the comments section below). On the example pictured, the original guitar humbucking pickup has been replaced by an open coil unit. Note the hex pickup (essentially a housing containing individual pickups for each of the strings) which is situated between the guitar pickup and the bridge. There is no neck pickup. These Roland guitars have this strange black plate in the neck pickup position (covered in this instance by a hologram) which looks like it ought to have some purpose but probably doesn't. I wonder if it was just to conceal a pickup hole that had been drilled before the Les Paul style body was destined by become a guitar synth controller.

It's not too often that these guitar and synth units come up for sale together. (There was very recently a GS500 guitar in original condition up for sale on eBay but alas it was without the synth unit). This guitar and synth pair is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a starting price of $1,050. It's an interesting museum piece, but a cumbersome piece of kit, and it's not going to be especially useful for the guitarist interested in playing guitar synth, unless they are more or less content with producing simple sound effects.

For guitar and/or synthesiser historians only!

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Roland G-77 Fretless Bass synth controller

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Here at Guitarz we previously looked at a Roland G-77 Bass synth controller in May 2009. However, this one currently being offered for sale on eBay (the auction has less than 12 hours left as I type this) is fretless. Now, I never knew that a fretless version was an option. It doesn't look like it's a later modification - not unless the entire fingerboard has been replaced.

What I'm wondering is, as a synth controller, how well does it track? I had been under the impression that you needed to be very precise with these synth controller guitars and basses, and any "in-between" notes would result in glitching. Anyone out there got any experience with such matters?

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

pre-MIDI Roland guitar synth GR/GS 500

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What I like with the guitar controller GR 500 of this very first guitar synthesizer proposed by Roland in 1977 is that it's a very classic wooden Les Paul model in sunburst finish, not a Star Trek prop. Not that I don't find the Roland G-707 that came later one of the coolest guitar design ever, but this one looks as good as a late 60s Czechoslovakian LP copy (I love writing Czechoslovakian, don't you?) with even more knobs that a vintage Eko and really weird pickups (it's actually also equipped with an early sustainer...).

The perfect companion for progressive rock's debuts!

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Roland G-77 Bass Synth Controller

Back in the day (the mid 1980s), my friend Paul had one of these - a Roland G-77 Bass Synth - complete (unlike the one for sale here) with the hefty synth unit that sat on the floor and which this thing plugged into. We nicknamed it, the Dalek's Handbag, and Paul found a hologram of a dalek which he stuck on the front between the two jazz bass pickups.

This of course was the bass companion model to the Roland G-707 guitar synth, although the bass was superior in a couple of ways. It had individual analogue to digital converters for each string unlike the guitar which had one for all the strings and so the tracking was much better, and it had a slightly more sensibly-designed shape so that you could actually balance it on your knee when playing it sitting down.

When Paul sold the bass, somehow I ended up with the hard case, which I used for many years for my bass that I had assembled myself from parts bought from Brandoni guitars.