ROLAND GR55 Guitar Synth

with GK3 Pickup

Secondhand / Excellent Condition

The GR55 features two independent synthesizer sound engines, each of which can access the same 910 voices, including pianos, organs, orchestral sounds, various synths and percussion. A useful degree of sound editing is possible, but this is far more basic than you'd expect from a keyboard synth: Roland clearly intend this product to be as unintimidating as possible.

A third sound source is provided by the COSM section, which offers amp and speaker modelling, guitar modelling, and a handful of more abstract sounds based on heavily processed versions of the guitar-string waveforms. Unlike the synth sounds, which require the string pitch to be tracked, COSM sounds have no latency or tracking issues, because they work directly on the string sound, but integral pitch-shifting means that it is possible to use alternative tunings or to emulate a 12-string guitar. A patch can comprise up to two synth sounds layered with one COSM sound.