Boss GM-800

Bilansley · 2023-08-09T12:46:32.667Z

there are a couple of MIDI guitars on the market. Off the top of my head the JamStik guitar has a built in MIDI pickup and I would assume that it would work with the GM-800. From what I have read and underestand there is nothing particularly “special” about the roland MIDI pickup that goes with the GM-800 other than its a really well built nice MIDI pickup. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but MIDI is MIDI and the tracking and processesing of the the MIDI data is done entirely by the GM-800 itself it seems.

Either way there are options for this out there

silent_k · 2023-08-09T13:57:08.474Z

BassesAndPads:

Would be awesome if they sold basses and guitars meant for being used with the synth.

In the old days that’s what they did – the G-303, G-808, G-202 and G-505 were all built as controllers for Roland’s early guitar synths, the GR-300 and GR-700, but doubled as regular guitars, too, with 1/4" outputs and mag pickups that could be blended with the synth. They were manufactured by Fujigen (I believe), who also made Greco, but branded as Roland. They had the synth pickup built-in, and the whole system relied on a proprietary 24-pin connection between the guitar and synth unit. For a long time the GR-300, despite being fully analog, had better latency and overall responsiveness than anything Roland/Boss produced afterwards, although perhaps this new unit is better. I had a VG-99 for a while and the best controller for it was an Ibanez with a 13-pin piezo system – it tracked really well, but my GK-equipped guitars never did as well as the old stuff with the GR-300 in that department.

The GR-300, while limited in comparison to a modern synth set-up, has always (to my ears) sounded amazing. The filter is excellent and the whole thing just sounds massive. I tried a Boss SY-300 a few years back, but was never able to get rid of a kind of high frequency harshness to the sound that didn’t work for me. I’m very curious about the GM-800, though. Looking forward to seeing/hearing more about it on this forum!

PS – If anyone’s curious about Roland’s guitar synth history, check out this site, it’s a treasure trove of info: http://www.gr300.com

woz · 2023-08-09T15:13:31.445Z

This is relevant to my interests for afaik this is the only guitar to midi that might be decent, ie with pickup, that doesn’t require a computer (like fish man).

I want to play this with multi map!

Blending synth w/bass = instant squarepusher

GovernorSilver · 2023-08-10T19:27:23.530Z

Fender made Roland-ready Strats for a few years. If you get one of those used, you’ll have to buy a GKC-AD 13-pin GK to Serial GK converter. This assumes you can live with its neck - 9.5" radius, modern C neck, typical Strat 25.5" scale. Just saying, because some people want flatter necks than that, or rounder, or wider, or narrower or…

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GKCAD--boss-gkc-ad-analog-digital-converter

I’d have to buy a GKC-AD to use a GM-800 with my Parker Nitefly, which has a GK3 (13-pin) pickup installed.

If I didn’t have the Parker, I’d shop for a sub-$1000 guitar to serve as a dedicated GM-800 guitar partner, buy a GK-5 pickup and install it on the guitar. For all I know double-sided tape to secure the pickup might be fine, which would eliminate the need to drill holes into the guitar. This way I could choose a guitar that feels good to my hands, rather than buying a guitar with factory installed GK pickup and hoping it will fit ok.

I understand the reluctance to put a GK-5 on a nicer instrument - hence the role of the cheaper guitar would be for. You’re more likely to accept sticky residue - or at worst drilled holes - on the on the cheaper guitar than on any of your costlier guitars.

FilipNest · 2023-08-10T20:55:14.516Z

Odd not to see any mention of the Terratec Axon AX100 MkII here as that’s meant to be the most accurate of these things. I have one knocking around and a hex pickup on my guitar that I never use anymore as it was a bit bulky and not as fun as it seemed. But then again I also hardly ever play my electric guitar or use any pedals as my favourite guitar sound is the immediacy of my acoustic unplugged fingerpicky one.
Might see if the Axon still works and sell it if this world is coming back again. Was only holding onto it as it seemed the only thing that did this well.

GovernorSilver · 2023-08-11T00:45:29.780Z

that brings up an interesting experiment. Which performance/feel would you like more?

a. Axon AX100 MkII -> MIDI cable -> GM-800 (MIDI in)
b. hex pickup (assuming it has 13-pin jack) -> GKC-AD -> GM-800 (GK in)

blipson · 2023-12-13T11:53:50.943Z

I’m considering the GM-800 for my little-used guitar that sits lonely in a separate room. I had planned to plug it into my Axe FX, but I like that thing so much that its inputs are all taken up by non-guitars! I’ve been sold on this guitar synth tech since the GR-300, but the various devices I’ve tried in the past just never felt right for my limited guitar technique, which consists mostly of rhythm guitar, comping chords. Any thoughts on that? All the demos really emphasize playing lead lines with a pick, but I don’t use a pick.

I never had issues with tracking in the past, including bends and such, so I’m confident on that count. I had an Axon AX100SB and a VGuitar pedal (or whatever it was called). The VGuitar was fine, but as I recall, it was only amp/cab sims (with maybe some basic FX?), and then I went to a Variax after that, which was interesting, but long gone. But I haven’t messed with this stuff since around 2001 as I’ve mostly only had bass duties since then, and am pretty partial to P-90’s through various amps and cabs. I’m deciding, though, if it’s worth drilling holes in my Les Paul Special (production, not custom) to install the hex pickup.

That new hex pickup does look much nicer, more streamlined than the one from back in the day. Can it be wired to pass through the mag pickups’ signal as well so that you only have one cable coming out of the guitar to the GM-800?

blipson · 2023-12-14T11:32:58.977Z

According to this:

tracking is touchy at the first few frets of a bass. That’s pretty much a dealbreaker for me when it comes to playing bass because I really like playing in first position. I wouldn’t like the workaround of tuning the patch down, then playing higher up the neck.

I expect guitar won’t have this tracking issue because first position is an octave higher than bass. Still, not being able to use the GM-800 with bass as well as guitar makes it a lot less worthwhile for me.

Wolf-Rami · 2025-02-11T15:12:26.080Z

Two or three things rocked the boat in favour of the GM-800:

The price has come down to a more reasonable level (around 600€ on Thomann)
The thing can be played through midi like a normal desktop synth module.

I picked one up today and just finished installing the GK-5 mic on my Fender Jaguar. I used to have a SY-300, which I loved but the thought of a Zencore-synth engine that can also be controlled via my MPC just made me swap the SY for the GM. Instead of getting a Roland MC-101 to work as an additional sound module, I bought the GM-800 and it works also with my guitar and as a guitar to midi converter for all my synths. A win/win/win/win/win -situation if there ever was one.

I also love how it’s the same form factor as my SDE-3000D. Beautiful!

IMG_32084032×3024 2.61 MB

Juniper_Steels · 2025-02-11T15:18:36.545Z

How’s the tracking? I had a VG-88 back in the early 2000s with whatever GK pickup was available at the time and the tracking wasn’t great, but it was serviceable…

Wolf-Rami · 2025-02-11T15:20:12.891Z

I’ve only had it for maybe 2 hours and of that I spent one hour installing the GK-5 mic. Some weird trigging happened when I played for 15 minutes, but I’m sure that can be addressed through adjusting the string sensitivities etc.

Laser · 2025-02-12T10:38:04.674Z

Thanks for the feedback!

Please keep us updated as you use it more!

How’s it for fast runs? Legato and or sweeps?

Wolf-Rami · 2025-02-13T09:47:34.427Z

The more I tried playing the more I realised that I had installed the GK5 pickup too low. It trigged normally only after I adjusted every string to 100% sensitivity. This morning I took it apart and installed it again with an extra slice of plastic spacer underneath the mic and what a difference it made. Now I have the string sensitivities around 70-80% and it trigs beautifully.

Easily the most fun I’ve had with my guitar in a long while.

The GM-800 isn’t exactly very hands on. You can probably access all the parameters on the front panel under a million menus, but if I was a gigging musician with this I’d make all the preparations on the editor on my computer before playing a gig. Fortunately for me the GM-800 is sat on my tabletop and always hooked up to my iMac so it’s easy to edit the sounds whenever I feel like it.

I’m not too keen on getting the Roland Cloud to be able to add more sounds to my GM-800, but luckily I’m not forced to do that. 1200 preset tones to combine as I want to and quite a nice selection of quality boss fx is everything I need and if I feel like accessing more sounds I can always play my V Collection or my rack synths with guitar.

Juniper_Steels · 2025-02-13T14:24:13.361Z

Wolf-Rami:

if I was a gigging musician

So no chance of Night Satan getting back together then?

Wolf-Rami · 2025-02-13T15:00:09.008Z

If the price is right, naturally.

We’ve been asked a lot to do gigs here and there, but we don’t even have a rehearsal space anymore so it would take quite a lot of effort to get back in shape again.

Laser · 2025-02-13T18:03:11.424Z

Wolf-Rami:

it trigs beautifully.

Cheers for the feedback!

Fast runs of notes okay?

How about fingerpicking?

Tapping, sweeping?

Wolf-Rami · 2025-02-13T21:27:39.707Z

I’m not exactly Steve Vai.

Not even Joe Satriani.

My main instrument is the synthesizer, but I like to have a guitar around for a different approach to playing music. I tried tapping last in 1989 when I was high on Marty Friedman. My playing is mostly ambient style, long chords with shitloads of reverb, delay and other condiments. For me the GM-800 is perfect. The tracking is a lot more accurate than anything I’ve tried before, but that’s the best answer you’re going to get out of me.

Laser · 2025-02-15T17:38:04.022Z

Cheers, no worries!

Yeah I’m not too keen on wanky 80s solos either, occasionally like a fast run or two though.

I am intrigued by the GM-800 though, just blew some cash on 2 new Macs, but might look into getting one next.

Ta for the feedback and impressions!

Brockstar · 2025-02-23T22:40:13.898Z

I ended up caving in for the vg-800 as I knew I would eventually, even after the whining lol

I still think it’s a step back from what the sy-1000 did which gave you 3 paths and normal path and also cool dynamic synth and osc synth etc… but to be honest I was never using all of that anyway. I usually use a acoustic sound mainly and paired it with the gm-800, which the vg-800 will do perfectly for since it’s basically a sy-1000 core minus some stuff.

How I set it up with my gm-800

Guitar and gk-5 pickup with serial cable into VG-800 serial in
VG-800 serial out into serial in on GM-800
VG-800 outputs into speakers (or whatever your output source is)
GM-800 outputs using a Hosa 1/4" TRS to Dual 1/4" TS Cable into VG-800 guitar in (you can use fx loop return instead)
Turn off GK AUDIO on both units under their menu section or else you’ll get weird noises

BOSS VG-800 AND GM-8001920×585 83.4 KB

Brockstar · 2025-02-24T12:03:43.123Z

boss gm-800 decksaver https://www.decksaver.com/product/gm-800-cover/