Roland GR33 Guitar Synth

Feature:
It's loaded with features and also translates guitar to MIDI with almost 0 ms latency. You have a lot of parameters you can adjust in order to make it respond to your playing style and guitar setup. The effect proccesor responds well and also the arpeggiator and harmonizer, although I think these last two limit you to presets and that may cause your arpeggios to sound like the guitarist of the previous band, but this is why it costs less than 600$, isn't it? It's a closed tool, which means programming is limited, but the preset programming gives a good value. Regarding the synth, it's not such a big deal, because I can easily plug any MIDI capable synth, but the arpeggiator and harmonizer aren't feature one could easily find in external machines. This is why it's only a 9.

Quality:
The product is made by Boss and I think that says it all, doesn't it? It's very plastic like and well designed with a thousand hands making sure it works properly before it ships, but it doesn't look like a machine that would last for decades.

Value:
All in all, I'd rather have a simpler guitar to MIDI converter with less features in a much lower price. I like using the extra features given by the GR-33, but I'd rather have

Desirability:
MIDI guitar is great when playing brass, no keyboard player can make them sound better. People don't know that until they hear my brass programming on my groovebox. This is why you'd want it. There are tools that simply sound better with a MIDI guitar. If you look into the MIDI, you'd find out why. No keyboard player can "bend" the sound so accurately.

Sound:
The synth has solid sound, but.... it's a synth built for keyboards, not for guitars, so it sometimes reacts in strange ways when tapping is used as a playing style. Don't expect your sound to be anything close to analog guitar with regard to the expression level. It takes some time to get used to playing with a synth for a guitarist - have that in mind.

Support:
I don't know, which means it didn't give me trouble so far.

Overall:
I bought it second hand for a very low price in a brand new condition and a few days earlier someone declined selling his Yamaha G50 to me, which made it the only choice at the time. I can't think of MIDI programming without a guitar2MIDI converter, which means I'd buy another if this one was lost, stolen, etc', but I think next time I'll be looking for something with less features and with a smaller size. This is, after all, a converter. I have to admit it though - I love some of its' sounds very much.

This unit is a must for those of us who don't want the overhead of learning the keyboard to produce sequences. The GR-33 tracks well enough to sequence and works beautifully in an ensemble situation. (My anal drummer is delighted at my upgrade from GR-09!!!) I will be making a recomendation to Roland have the pedals detachable so that while you're creating patches, you don't have to keep picking it up to tweak, and putting it down to play. I think this would perfect te usability of the GR-33.