Paul Reed Smith Roland Ready Conversion

I had been evaluating Roland Guitar Synth Pedals and determined I was in the market for one. The GR-55 was revealed at NAMM'11 and I had to have one. But, then the question was how to play into it. Do I buy a new guitar like a Carvin with an already built in Hexaphonic pickup? I favored the Tele-Thinline style. That was certainly attractive. Do I buy a Roland-Ready Strat? Not an option because of scale length. I am a accustomed to 25 to 24 5/8 inch scales; like Gibson, PRS, Taylor, Carvin and others. Or, I could go with the Roland solution: the GK-3, the black blob that attaches to the rear strap button, with the pickup cable hanging loose over to the hexaphonic pickup you screw to your guitar. Well, I didn't like the black blob, or the external cable. I was sure it would get caught on something and damage the connection on one end or the other. The solution I favored for the end result was a custom install. I looked at the Roland GK-KIT-GT3 custom install kit. I looked at solutions from Graph Tech like the Hexpander Midi Interface also a custom install. Custom Install implies major work on your guitar. But, the end result of a custom install is definitely worth the effort if done by a qualified luthier. It's more esthetically pleasing and practical. Everything is protected inside the guitar control cavity. I finally settled on the Roland Custom Install.

I'll show you the end result now and post the construction details later. The subject Guitar is a 1994 PRS Custom 24 Top 10:

Remond, WA Christian Musicans Summit

Every morning in Redmond it was foggy. At one of the clinics I asked, in jest, "Did it rain last night or is it alway wet here" ... everyone laughed and said "Do you know where you are?"

First Blog

Well, I am doing a test blog. I thought I would start with just saying how awesome Matt and Bruce are for putting on the Christian Musician Summit at the Redmond, WA Overlake Church. Worship Leader sesseion by Lincoln Brewster couldn't have been more awesome. Great advice.