Roland GK-3 Pickup Post-Installation Overview
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- This video demonstrates the common set up for the GK-3 pickup system for the Roland GR-55 synth unit. No sounds are sampled here, only installation and calibration tips. Thanks for watching!
Hi,I found the pickup mounted over the top interfered with my right hand technique badly.The GK pickup settings allow you to reverse the pickup and bring it up through the bottom.There is extra cable curled up under the bottom plate to accommodate this change.I almost tried rewiring my pickup before discovering this setting.Love this system.
Bought a use GR 55 and GK- 3 pickup (like New) on the GK-3......the GK and Mix switch are the same and on guitar there is nothing no sound at all. Can't figure it out, any suggestions? Help going nuts trying to get it to work!
Question... if all i want is full synth sounds from the gr55 no blending or none of that specifically synth tones for lets say a saxaphone or flute solo here and there, can i just plug the 13 pin cable into the gk3 by itself and output from gr55 to a keyboard amp, then plug the guitar output jack to my main pedals and my fullstack as i usually do?
For those who wants to install the GK-3 in reverse direction with GK-3 cable from bottom high E string. Please follow the link below. I found this after hours of searching online. You can change the setting in GR-55 in 5 sec after installing the GK-3 pickup. It's that easy!!
GR-55, GR-55S: CHANGING THE GK PICKUP DIRECTION:
www.roland.com/support/knowledge_base/201955829
I did exactly like it is in the video but couple of days ago when I had a small gig the strat pin fell off when I slightly bumped gk3 with my amp while changing some settings :/ Do you have any tips how can I make it more stable? My strat is a Highway One US made. I had no time to fill the hole so I just used a bigger pin which of course damaged the pin hole even more. I don't think gk3 is meant for stage as it's not as fixed to the guitar as I thought it would be.
if this was fitted on a left handed guitar will the pickup still work ok as the top string will be the bottom?...
While your efforts are much appreciated,Your tutorial is missing key elements in the setup.Velocity and Nuance are just as crucial as distance and pickup type.I was hoping you could tell me something about those two parameters that I didnt already know,which at this point is nothing.The manual like all roland manuals is good for nothing.
Quick question for you: I am thinking about buying one of these but I use a hollowbody jazz guitar with a trapeze tailpiece (Ibanez AF155, to be specific) and I waswondering if it would be possible to install the GK-3 on this type of guitar? Thank you!
Thanx that was my big concern about buying one because if I wanted to try it on one of my other guitars or was it guns hurt the value of one my more expensive ones by drilling or making a permant scar on it.good job of brekin down other tools or acseories I mite need.you wee very helpful in helping me make decision on getting one.atleast now I know I wouldn't have to by another axe just for a processor.now is it fairly easy to navigate through the settings or do indeed a big manual n a translated to figure it out
Sir I have roland gr55 with Gk3 but latency problem how to solve it kindly reply
I have the gk2 that came with my GR-1...
Is there ant advantage to switching to the gk3 pickups? ( better tracking? less artifacts? )
Quick question how to make the GK-3 Pickup fit between the bridge pickup and floyd rose system it is a tight squeeze..Will it be better to take the pickup plate off or pick up support ring?
Does the pickup cable have to go over the top of the bridge (where it could touch my picking hand), or is there a version available where the cable can go on the bottom (where the volume and tone knobs are, and where my picking hand would never touch it)? If the pickup cable can only be routed as shown in the video, then haven't Roland made a serious design error?
I think there is a way to reverse the pickups within the settings of the GR-55. I'm not 100% sure on that but I've read that somewhere it can be done. You might want to download the owners manual and search there to be sure. It would've made better sense though to have the cable facing down, so I agree!
Thanks! Good job :)
Thank you so much.
N.
Roland pick up works with acoustic guitar...???
Check out Roland's FAQ page. I found this answer there: "A.Yes, you can. Note, though, that the GK-3 pickup is designed for a right-handed guitar. Reversing the pickup for a left-handed instrument isn't a problem; it will work fine. The orientation of the GK controller unit, however, is fixed in a right-handed manner. For this reason, you may find the controller's GK Volume and S1 and S2 switches difficult to use when the controller is mounted on a left-handed guitar."
Does the quality of the guitar affect the overall performance of the MIDI recording quality? i have a couple of guitars but cannot decide on which one to install GK-3. What is your suggestion?
follow your heart
i'm using the gk-3 on boss gp-10. when i plug the guitar cable to the gk-3 input, i dont hear any sound from my guitar.
does it only work with gr-55? i usually have 2 cables attached to gp-10. one guitar cable going to guitar input of th gp-10 and a gk cable separately.
i saw your video/ the ouput of the guitar goes to the gk-3.
Hi there, a quick question: did you put something in between the pickup and a double- sided tape or did you just paste directly underneath it? Thanks.
If I remember correctly the double sided tape is stuck directly to the bottom side of the pickup and then placed directly onto the pickguard. There were other mounting options but this one worked best for me. Thanks for asking!
Thanks a lot!
CoffeeDrinker71 hey dude thanks for the video, was wonderin though how i could get this onto my ibanez as far as the actual pickup, the unit would fit on my guitar as u have done on this video, but the pickup itself might not fit between the bridge pickup up and the saddle on my guitar, reason being is because the bridge pickup is extrememly close to the saddle on my ibanez, do you think it would work as well if it went between the middle or bridge pickups on my guitar or would it make much difference since its a synth pickup.
brian bridges don't: I tried it as an experiment, and it wouldn't track properly.
ha, i had the misfortune of tryin it myself dude and yeah..... was a disaster, even when i got a guitar that it fitted perfectly the tracking is still almost unusable on a lot of the presets......and a lot of people have complained about this..... roland need to get the finger out and start listening to the feedback on the forums...... the fishmans tripleplay is meant to be way better for tracking but not as live-friendly, it has to go through a laptop and thats pretty awkward for live use.
The Roland 13-pin cable is specific to their products only (I believe) so you would have to use the GK-3 pickup with another 13-pin device. I don't know if there are any adapters out there to go from 13-pin to standard 5 pin midi. I hope that helps.
Thanks for this...very informative. Do you know if the pickup has to be placed between the bridge pickup and the bridge? The reason I ask is because I am considering using this unit on a Telecaster style guitar and the design of the bridge plate doesn't leave enough room for the pickup. I would need to install the pickup between the neck and bridge pickups. Do you know if that would work?? Thanks.
Thank you for watching and commenting. I can't answer definitively because I have no way of trying this out first. I know there are calibration settings inside the software of the GR-55 that are based on the measurements between the guitar saddles and the piezo pickup. I just don't know if it would go "high enough" to measure the distance to your proposed location by the neck. Maybe it would work but it just might not sound optimal if that makes sense?
To answer your question Tedd; the recommended distance from guitar saddle to the middle of the gk3 pickup is no more than around 20mm so putting it in the middle of 2 pickups wouldn't be ideal.
and I made a sound pickup for each string separately without piezoelements and right now I look for to what producer better to give! If it is interesting: sound pickup for each string of sound pickup for each string
i have a problem, i have to put the pickup between the guitar's two humbucker pickups, because it wont fit between the bridge and the rear pickup. my guitar is a Gibson sg standard
cheers man, i'm surprised that roland never made a lefty version too...or even a different bracket....thanks anyway. :)
Thanks for the comment. That certainly seems like a rough task and I agree the manual is of little to no use on many of these settings.
do you need a splitter to use this or does the pickup have 2 outs? one for the guitar amp and one for the keyboard amp/ synth setup?
Aaron, the best way to split the synth and magnetic pickup signals with this configuration is through the "guitar out" jack on the actual GR-55 synth unit. So, your 13 pin cable would actually carry both signals to the GR-55 but the magnetic pickup signal would have a dry pass-through from the back of the pedal board to your other amp. There is a blend knob on the GK-3 pickup to control each signal. I hope that helps.
CoffeeDrinker71 Thanks for the quick reply my friend. I was planing on using this pickup with the gr 33 actually. Do you have any experience with that? How much tone loss is involved? Surely the signal doesn't go through the whole synth system before splitting out into a guitar amp
After seeing photos of the AF155 I don't see how it would be possible. But....I would recommend contacting Roland to be sure.
I did not see anything on the height of the pickup to string measurement?
Or is there...good video though thanks
I hope that pickup is low enough to where I won't have to cut into my Tele plate...
i had to cut the pick-guard with a Dremel tool on my 2013 stratocaster to get the clearance needed for the gk-3 pickup. worst part of the install - but not hard. looks like you have your saddles set up very high to provide enough clearance for the gk-3? what is your string height over the fretboard at like the 7th fret? i thought of just raising the saddles but was worried it would make the strings too high to play.
THANKS VERY MUCH MATE! THIS VID HELPED ME A LOT, SENDING YOU GOOD VIBES BRUV!!!!!!!;-)
Hi! Is there anybody out there facing problems with GR 55 installation on a Win XP Service Pack 2 pc? I'm trying to install the driver for Roland GR 55 on my computer, but it shows "unknow device". Already tried to reinstall the driver, change de usb plug, but nothing worked up to now. Thanks for your help!
Can I run the GK-3 into a generic midi/usb interface plugged into my laptop? I don't want to use any hardware synths, mainly because I design my own sounds. I just want control software synths on my computer.
Hello, I don't know if that's possible. A standard midi input uses a 5-pin cable whereas this Roland system uses a 13-pin jack. I'm just not confident to say it would work. You may want to contact Roland to find out. Thanks for asking.
I want to go wireless with this pickup. Any recommendations ?
Thank you!!!!! just ordered a Roland gr-55 cant wait!!!
is there a way to use the roland unit and also use the analog signal of your guitar .. the roland signal going to your laptop and the analog going to an amp?
Yes, I believe so. If you notice on the back side of the Roland GR-55 there is a "Guitar Output" jack which takes the clean guitar tone and allows you to run it through a separate amp. I hope this helps.
This is the most thorough and direct explanation I've come across. Thank you!
That was really helpful! thanks.
awesome thnx. i have a 73 gibson sg...
Thanks for the review! Very informative. :D
I put one on my PRS Custom but the selector switch only works when its in GK when its in Mix or Guitar setting no sound from my onboard guitar pickups I calibrated all the setting on the GR-55 25" neck length & the Bridge to pickup distance I don't see any thing else to adjust
In order to use your magnetic pickups in "mix" or "guitar" mode, you have to have a separate amp hooked up to the back of the GR-55 using the "guitar out" 1/4 jack. It's basically like a pass-through.
CoffeeDrinker71 You know I thought so Because when I took it back to the store we plugged the jack from the amp to the Guitar out on the GR-55 and I was happy about that because I knew we were getting a signal trough the 13 pin cable. so in other words theres nothing wrong with the switch its working the way it should. I wondering now if I could use the second Channel of my twin to get the other feed from the GR -55 I will do an experiment. Thanks for the heads up my friend c];-D
AL theDoctorWho I'm glad that helped! I'm not completely familiar with the setup possibilities with the Twin like yours, but whenever I hooked mine up to run two amps I simply used the GR-55 through a set of desktop monitors using the "normal" left and right 1/4" outputs, then I'd run that separate line to another amp from the "guitar" output. You can do some amazing things with a split setup like that! That way, you could add all your effects, distortion etc. to your normal guitar signal, and then add a beautiful synth pad behind it through the other signal. Have fun!!!!
CoffeeDrinker71 I'm having exactly the same problem: I can't get the guitar-only selector switch to work having one amp hooked up to the mono output of the GR-55 as the only setup. No sound comes out when I change the selector to guitar. I thought it was a calibration problem, but nothing works. So, your suggestion (using the guitar out) is the only solution? I used to own a GR-33 and I never had this problem. So, this seems to be a limitation of the GR-55. I saw a You Tube video of someone switching from guitar to synth with only an amp-to-mono setup, and it worked fine. What do you think?
MusikeXavier Its funny I was thinking to myself why didn't Rolland have it on the first page L/Mono dose not put out both channels when other output are not used. You will only get signal from the GK-3 pizo pickup I was going nuts But then a big clue when I looked at other Demos I notice all 3 output jacks used thanks for the comment c];-D
Thanks, very helpful!
thx 4 the vid you help me a lot
thats a neat break down. gives me a better idea what to expect. cheers.
Thanks! That was my goal. ;)
Yes they will.
I reall want one
Did you have any problems with PCM tracking? I placed the PU correctly, the distance is under 20mm from the saddles, and exactly 1mm from the strings, for every string. But most, not to say all, of the PCM are having lag when play, for example, a simple walking bass using the acoustic bass. Mainly on E and A strings, some times at D string too...
+SixStringWorship I gave it a little more time to practice and I'm getting a better result now. But still having weird lag on PCM Piano and Bass. Thank you anyway :)
+Les Souvenirs Great news. I remember a few of the patches required some time to get used to. Take care!
Is this compatible with a whammy equipped guitar ?
Hey why do u use and plug in the monster cable to the gk3 and the guitar what do that do? Thanks
That allows you to blend or split your actual magnetic pickup signal through the GR-55. You can route the magnetic pickups through a separate amp that way.
CoffeeDrinker71 I heard u can use your others distortion pedal with the GR55 unit?
***** You can treat it basically like any other multi-fx processor so yes if you want to run a distortion pedal with it I suppose that's fine. I never set it up that way because the on-board patches and amp models gave me plenty of choices. Just remember when you are actually using the GR-55 you are engaging the GK-3 pickup system. I don't know how good those piezo style pickups will interact with another distortion pedal.
CoffeeDrinker71 I see u install the gk3 to this ibanez u have alot of room to install the kg3. On my ibanez guitar I have the ibanez rg 50 and the ibanez rg3xxv model on both guitar I have to take out the pick ring around the pickup to make room to install the kg3 pickup.
***** Yes, this is the Ibanez RT450 from 1992. It's basically a Strat configured RG so it has a traditional style bridge which gives it enough room to install the GK3 properly with no other modifications. I could definitely understand why the GK-3 won't fit on a Floyd equipped model though.
Fantastic