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The Roland GK3B is indeed an hexaphonic (per se a pickup for each string) pickup like ALL so-called MIDI pickups @ped, but it allows you to use a MIDI system so is often referred as a MIDI pickup for some reason. It was not @Rosie C enquiry. 😉

You might be right there. 4x10 isn't unreasonable. He contacted me again recently and asked me if I want to do something again. Nice enough bloke but a bit demanding.

I sold mine in the mid 90's for ... 750 €/£...

I don’t want to sell mine but when I look at pricing it seems Steinberger has held it’s value

The GK3b isn't a MIDI pickup - only if you use a GR55 or VB99 etc to do pitch to MIDI conversion, with associated lag. Using the native Roland gear, there's no conversion happening so it's almost entirely lag free and just like a magnetic pickup.

I guess an East SR preamp just drops in if anyone wanted to “convert” one?

I cannot believe what I am reading

I think there is very few passive models. Rare Bird

That just looks great - nice job!

Cheers, yeah my Boss GX-10 can do a similar sort of thing where each of the footswitches is a preset so that's what I'm doing at the moment (e.g. 'dub', 'punk', 'clean'). My main issue with that is it feels a bit restrictive but to be honest, I think all of what I want is all do-able on the GX-10 as a multi-fx with presets/snapshot (or whatever Boss call it) and then adding external things like synth and envelope filter as individual pedals in the fx loop (and the fx loop can be on/off controlled by presets). It is just that classic thing of the multi-fx being more convenient/cost effective etc but being a bit less 'hands on' for on spontaneous stuff. ....and probably the biggest factor is I've had the GX-10 for long enough that I'm trying to find excuses to buy new pedals! This caught my eye in the 'shiny new stuff I want to buy but probably don't need' category: ,

I did many times, but it always ended with a whole resale as I didn't see the point of all this. That said, it works very well latency wise and I don't see why it wouldn't work with a fretless bass as it's only about converting a note into data for the MIDI system. Listen to Uzeb and Alain Caron as he's been using (6) strings MIDI fretless basses since the beginning in the ... 80's (when the latency was delirious especially with a low B).

Thank you! I'll keep it then. 😄

I Go Wild - Rolling Stones

Very nice. Perhaps you can subcontract with Paul to help out with his waiting list!!

Lately I've been getting quite into MIDI and inevitably my attention has come around to a MIDI-enabled bass. I only have one bass guitar (!) which is fretless, so I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of using the Roland system with fretless?

I've tried quite a few different strings. I only play halfwounds or flats now. For a few years, I settled on Labella black tapewounds. Their depth of tone balanced-out the slightly "modern" tone of the pickups to give a nicely rounded sound with plenty of low end. Fender flatwounds didn't work quite so well - a bit too bright on this bass, in my opinion. I also tried some Status black nylons, but I was experiencing a lot of intonation issues. Then, I decided that tapewounds and nylons were a little too slack, and needed quite a high action which was tiring my fretting hand. At that point, I switched to Status Hot Wire half wounds, mainly because they were appreciably cheaper than most other good quality strings. These worked well for me on the bass and became my favourite strings until Status stopped making them. Now, the bass is strung with Picato stainless flatwounds 45/65/80/100 : https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/picato-stainless-steel-flatwound-45-100-bass-guitar-strings-short-scale?srsltid=AfmBOoqRRdcYcUJCqjgf78pul-hME30NWWN49P_8ZtwkNZBT3oXWarCN I had one set that lasted 2 years of rehearsing and gigging most weeks. Eventually, they started sounding a bit dull, so I replaced them with an identical new set - better the devil you know, I suppose.

Groovy man! 🤩

I've loved the Spectors I've owned (four) and I still own a EuroX, but my fear for Spector is that their business model is fast aping Fender and it's diluting its position in the marketplace ('Coming May 2027, the Fender Vintera III range, exactly the same as the Vintera I, but now it's III, innit?'). While I appreciate over the years there's been the occasional movement away from the NS body line, the market just seems to be saturated with variations on (more or less) the same design with models suffixed with LT/LX/LE, offered in different colours, pickup and preamp configurations. Obviously I realise that (like Fender) the company needs to continually mix things up to keep the range fresh and to stay in business, but as Gary says these new models are possibly just replacements for a discounted line...how different are they from these and ultimately does it make any difference?