NEW! Limited Edition Roland-Ready Epiphone Les Paul Standard Gorgeous Flamed Maple Top with Iridescent Trans Black Finish Internal Roland-Ready 13-Pin Guitar Synthesizer Output with GK Expander box and GK Expression control Beautiful Synthesizer Access Guitar, Bound Mahogany Body and Bound Set Neck Plus MORE! This is a photo of the actual guitar in this auction. Features of this Epiphone Limited Edition Les Paul Standard Plus Electric Guitar with GK Expander: Mahogany body Rosewood fretboard Chrome-covered humbuckers 24 3/4” scale length neck, 1.68” nut width Cream body and fretboard binding Black hardware Professionally installed, integrated Roland synth pickup system. Integrated GK Expression control adds more synth control from the guitar! Also Included In This Auction: NEW! GK Expander - Adds more synth control from the guitar! NEW! 12’ TRS Cable for GK Expander NEW! Planet Waves 30’ 13-Pin Guitar Synthesizer Cable NEW! D’Addario EXL120-3D pack of three sets of .009 to .042 Guitar Strings NEW! Musician’s Friend Black Gig-Bag NEW! Epiphone guitar extras, warranty info, etc. About this One-Of-A-Kind Guitar: I build processors for vintage and modern Roland guitar synthesizers. I also retrofit new and vintage electronics into guitars. Over the last several years, it has come to my attention that most Roland Ready guitars are Fender Strats. While Gibson has produced several technologically advanced guitars, such as their Robot guitar and Digital Les Paul, none of these guitars included a 13-pin Roland synth output. This seemed very strange to me, especially considering that the most popular vintage synth controllers, the Roland G-303 and Roland G-808 are clearly in the Les Paul club, with their carved tops, maple and mahogany bodies, and 24 3/4” scale. I already had a vintage Roland LPK-1 (Les Paul synth retrofit kit) and a modern, Roland GK internal synth kit, and I wanted to create an upgraded, 21st century guitar synthesizer controller that still had the features most players demand in a guitar. So this guitar is my answer to all the Gibson players who need a Roland-Ready guitar! Following the Fender approach, I bought a quality, well-made imported guitar and added a custom electronics package. The Fender guitar masks its hex pickup in a white cover on a white pickguard. Similarly, this guitar was selected so the black hex pickup would nicely blend in with the all-black hardware and transparent black top. The internal factory electronics were removed, the synth electronics were mounted to the guitar, and the original dual controls were re-wired as master volume and master tone, and synth volume and synth expression. In addition to the standard Roland output, this guitar has some extra features I borrowed from my other processors, including the GK Expression control on the guitar and the GK Expander. I have tested this guitar with the Roland VG-99, VG-88 and GR-20. Check out the video demos below. This guitar really works as advertised. This guitar was purchased new, and has not been played, except to install and test the expanded synthesizer electronics. I am including the warranty information, guitar goodies, etc. though the modifications I have made to this guitar obviously have voided the warranty. You will love this guitar, and I am including a three-day, no questions asked return policy. If you are not happy with this guitar, for any reason, just send it back, and I will refund the closing auction price, not including shipping charges. You cannot do better than that on ebay! GK Expander (Pedal) and GK Expression Control (Guitar): Unique to this guitar, and to this auction, is the GK Expander. The GK Expander is a compact stomp box with a 13-pin input (from guitar) and a 13-pin output (to synthesizer). On the side is a TRS jack that outputs a Roland EV-5 control signal. The included TRS cable connects from the GK Expander TRS jack to the guitar synthesizer, VG-88, VG-99 or any Roland guitar synth with an expression pedal input. On the front of the GK Expander are two footswitches: GK Vol and Exp Pedal, with green and red status LEDs. Using these footswitches, you can turn the Roland GK Guitar Synth Volume on and off, and also turn the Expression Pedal/EV-5 signal on and off. How does the GK Expander work? First, unlike the standard Roland Guitar Synthesizer controllers, this guitar does not send the conventional guitar pickup sound down the 13-pin cable to the guitar synth. I "borrowed" the conventional pickup line, and I have wired in place a GK Expression Control, basically a Roland EV-5 mounted inside the guitar, in place of the first tone control. When this guitar is used with the GK Expander, the top tone control on the guitar acts as a EV-5 pedal. Without the GK Expansion box this guitar works like a standard Roland controller, and the GK Expression Control is inactive. See pictures below. Also, this guitar is compatible with every Roland guitar synth made, so you can use it with any Roland guitar synthesizer, with or without the GK Expander. Why did I decide to wire the in GK Expression control? Most vintage guitar synth players remark to me that they miss the extra controls found on a Roland G-303, G-808, or the amazing Ibanez IMG2010. Furthermore, I do not see the need to transmit the conventional guitar pickup signal down the 13-pin wire. If you are serious about guitar tone, do you really want to hear the sound of these wonderful humbucking pickups going through a cell-phone grade opamp in the Roland electronics? There is a perfectly usable 1/4” jack on the guitar, and if you have really dialed in your guitar tone with your amp/rig, this is the output you want to use anyway. If you want to use the cool signal processing in the VG-99 or VG-88, they too have a 1/4” input for you to plug your guitar into. But I am thinking that if you are even reading this auction listing, then you are a guitar synthesist, someone looking to push the boundaries anyway, and the GK-Expander opens up cool new possibilities. Check out the video demos below. Also, this guitar does not have the standard Gtr/Gtr+Synth/Synth selector switch. This switch selects between guitar, guitar plus synth, and synth only output. While this switch made sense with earlier processors, it does not given current Roland technology. This guitar is hard wired with the option of both synth and guitar active. If you want to hear the conventional guitar pickup sound with a VG-99 or VG-88 you must program a specific patch to do the job. Without a patch specifically programmed to access the conventional guitar pickup sound, the output selector switch is useless, unless you want to turn the synth sound on and off. And you can do that with the GK Expander footswitch. I have not found any VG-99 patches that use the conventional guitar pickup, and only a few do on the VG-88. The only current Roland synth that easily outputs the conventional guitar pickup is the GR-20, but again, what the GR-20 outputs is a dry signal, processed through those cell-phone preamps, with a pretty terrible noise floor. Control layout with the GK-Expander Expression pedal input on the Roland VG-88 Expression pedal input on the Roland VG-99 New Video Demos of this Roland-Ready Epiphone Les Paul Standard Guitar: VG-99 GR-300 with GK Expander One of the most popular features of the VG-99 is the GR-300 emulation. In this demo, I use the GK Expander so that I can control the Filter Cutoff of the GR-300 from the guitar, just like I can with a Roland G-303! VG-99 with GK Expander With the GK-Expander still hooked up, I use the GK Expression control on the guitar as a two octave pitch bend, then I use it as a virtual tone control for a Gibson L4 jazz guitar. The mini-toggle is used as a virtual pickup switch. VG-88 with GK Expander The GK Expander works equally well with the VG-88. First, it is programmed for pitch bend, then to control attack with a synth lead patch, then to control chorus level on a clean Strat patch. VG-99 Various Guitar Synths This Roland-Ready Les Paul works perfectly with the latest in guitar synthesizer technology, the VG-99. In this demo I step through a series of VG-99 factory patches. Roland GR-20 Various Patches In this demo I play a variety of GR-20 patches. If you have been playing vintage MIDI guitar, you can appreciate the speed and accuracy of the GR-20. VG-88 Various Guitar Synths Again, I am stepping through a series of factory VG-88 patches. The VG-88 still sounds great, even with the VG-99 around. Roland Ready Les Paul Guitar Clean I use a standard guitar cable from the Les Paul to the guitar input of a VG-88. This lets me blend the Les Paul with the VG-88. Most of the demo is the Les Paul clean, then I blend in a virtual Nashville guitar from the VG-88. GR-20 Nylon Guitar Demo In this demo I switch to a MIDI Nylon Guitar patch from the GR-20. Electronics Details: The hex pickup and stainless steel mounting hardware for this guitar came from a vintage LPK-1 Les Paul Kit Narrow vintage Roland guitar synth pickup behind conventional humbucker, mounted with stainless steel brushings. The 13-pin electronics are from a modern Roland GK package, modified for the GK Expander This guitar has a one of a kind mix of electronics. The hex pickup on this guitar is not the standard, longer-than-a-popsicle Roland GK-2/GK-3 pickup. This is a new-old-stock vintage Roland hex pickup from the original Roland LPK-1 kit. The LPK-1 was produced specifically to retrofit Roland electronics in a Gibson Les Paul, thus the name LPK-1, Les Paul Kit. This vintage pickup has the same impedance and output as the contemporary GK pickups, but in a more compact package. The only problem with the vintage Roland pickups is the fragile ribbon connector used, so I replaced the ribbon with a wired bundle for increased reliability. Roland switched to the wider, flatter design of the GK-2/GK-3 pickups so that the pickups could easily fit into a Strat or low-profile tremolo guitar without the need to route out the guitar. The early, vintage Roland guitars are often routed for the pickup, but the Gibson Les Paul, like the Roland G-303 and G-808 has a carved top, and no routing is necessary. The original output jack was replaced with the 13-pin output jack, and a new standard output jack was added to the guitar. 13-Pin Synth Output Standard Guitar Output Innovative GK Toggle Switch: This guitar is wired with a three-way toggle switch for GK S1 and S2. This latching-type switch adds more control possibilities. The industry-standard Roland-Ready Les Paul uses two momentary push buttons for GK S1 and S2 switch, here labeled Up and Down. Similar to the Fender Roland-Ready guitar, Godin has two momentary pushbuttons for S1 and S2. Typically, Roland uses momentary push-button switches for the GK S1 and S2 switches. You can find these momentary switches on the popular Roland-Ready Fender Strats, and on the Godin Synth Access series of guitars. A few manufacturers, like Brian Moore, used a spring-loaded toggle switch to combine both switches together. Similarly, this guitar has both switches combined on a toggle switch, but uniquely, I have used a standard three-position switch with no spring. Why? As I mentioned, I primarily build synthesizer interface equipment, like the BX-13 V3. I discovered that using a standard toggle switch opens up new control possibilities, particularly with the new Roland VG-99. With separate S1 and S2 switches, each switch is either on or off. But with a toggle switch, you have the possibility of three control positions: S1 on, S2 on, or both off. I know this sounds simple, but it is like adding a five-position switch to a vintage Strat that comes with a three-position switch. In the VG-99 Expander demo, the combined S1/S2 GK toggle switch works like a virtual pickup toggle switch. Switch up is the virtual L4 neck pickup, switch down is the bridge pickup, and the middle position is both together. This type of control is impossible with the standard momentary pushbuttons, and it does not work with the spring-loaded toggle switch design since the switch will automatically return to the center position. And, most importantly, this innovative design is backwards compatible with all the earlier Roland synths. Headstock and Body Details: As mentioned at the top of this listing, this is a new guitar. The cosmetic condition of this guitar is typical of a guitar you would grab off the rack at Guitar Center and play. If there are any scratches, etc. then they would be very minor, the inevitable results of picking a guitar up and playing it once or twice. The guitar was solely played for the creation of the video demos and testing. Action and Setup: Well, action and setup is very subjective, but for me I would say the setup on this guitar is nothing to write home about. I would describe it as "minimum effort required to get the job done." When I was playing for the demos, I had to fight the urge to stop and run the guitar over to Greg Bach, my local super guitar tech, but I figure who ever buys this guitar will want to fine tune to action to their own preferences. Checking the tuning with the VG-99, I would say the intonation is pretty close to perfect. One thing that bugged me the most was a slight buzz on the "B" string on the tenth fret, (or a high G-sharp). I did not notice it at first, and if you play lightly it is not an issue. Other than that, I really love the guitar, and I think it looks absolutely killer. I had to keep reminding myself that I bought this guitar to test my GK Expander concept on, and not to add to the guitar barn. This was my first Chinese guitar, and other than the setup issues, I was truly impressed with the quality of the materials and build. If you want some numbers, I tried to measure the string height at the 12th fret. I measured from the top of the fret, to the bottom of the string. For the low "E" string, the distance is 2.1 mm and for the high "E" string, the distance is 1.8 mm. Guitar Synthesizer Settings: VG-88 String Pickup-Bridge Sensitivity E1 13.0 mm 100 B2 15.0 mm 72 G3 18.0 mm 60 D4 17.0 mm 47 A5 19.0 mm 52 E6 23.0 mm 74 VG-99 String Pickup-Bridge Sensitivity E1 12.5 mm 49 B2 15.0 mm 34 G3 19.0 mm 20 D4 17.5 mm 00 A5 20.5 mm 00 E6 22.5 mm 24 GR-20 String Sensitivity E1 07 B2 06 G3 05 D4 05 A5 06 E6 06 The chart above shows the critical settings I used with the VG-88, VG-99 and GR-20 to record the video demos. Your playing style may vary. Previous Guitar Synthesizer Auctions: Great Guitar Thank you. - trim4car Excelente transaccion, item y comunicacion.VENDEDOR RECOMENDABLE 100%.THANKS - vargas335 item as described - fast shipping - great communication -recommended - A+++ - zog_larson Bid Now! If you have been looking to buy a Roland Guitar Synth Controller, this is a great way to go! I am listing this guitar at a very low starting price. This guitar is in practically new condition, and it sounds great! I think you will agree this is a great deal. Bid now, bid high, and beat the snipe bidders. Also, in the case of a matching big, the earlier bid will win the auction! I try to make every ebay auction as smooth as possible, and I take pride in listing the gear I sell as accurately as I can. Please feel free to ask me any questions about this amazing guitar. I really believe the winning bidder will be blown away by this guitar, but if you are not totally satisfied, I am offering a three-day return policy on this guitar. Check out this amazing guitar, and if you are not happy for any reason, just return the guitar and I will refund the auction price, not including the shipping cost. Check out my feedback and bid with confidence! This package is 7” x 16” x 46” and has a weight of 22 lbs (oversize package), so extra shipping charges apply from UPS. I accept only PAYPAL. Shipping outside the U.S. means extra charges. If you cannot get a shipping charge from the shipping calculator, please let me know. As of May 14, 2007, I can only ship this guitar overseas via USPS Priority Air service as listed above in the shipping calculator. International Shipping IMPORTANT! Please enter your country and calculate the shipping charges before bidding! This package is too big to ship via USPS to certain countries, Australia, Singapore, and some others. If the shipping cannot be calculated for your area, I cannot ship to you because of size restrictions. I wish ebay could fully explain this in the shipping calculator section. Please contact me if you have already bid on the guitar and cannot get a shipping total! Thanks!! Please feel free to email me if you have any questions!