G-Sharp Guitar with Roland GK-3 Pickup

Do you know the G-Sharp guitar (www.g-sharpguitar.com)? It’s a rather short and small guitar with one pickup that ends already at the forth fret at G#. A good reason to extend this little thing with a Roland GK3 pickup!

I was facing the the following challenges:

• Not enough space between strings and body for the GK pickup
• String spacing too smaller for the GK pickup to be placed straight next to the bridge
• The plastic box cannot be attached using the included parts

Let’s Start

First take all strings off. Then before getting out your router out to route a rectangular pocket with about 5 mm depth for the GK-3 pickup find the right position: The pickup needs to be closest to the bridge for the low E string (should actually be called a G# string here…). In this example it’s placed 11 mm away from the bridge, which allows enough space for bridge adjustments when correcting the string intonation. At the highest string the distance to the bridge is about 28 mm. Your Roland guitar synthesiser should be configured for this guitar with the correct values for bridge to pickup distance.

On the plastic box I removed the screw next to the GK output jack and replaced it with a longer wood screw that screws right through into the guitar’s body. A bit of double-sided adhesive tape between box and body fixes it in the correct position. Now patch up the normal pickup to the GK3, patch up your guitar to the synth and rock!

Sound and Tracking?

This pickup produces a bit of a rounder sound on the higher strings when using the guitar modelling on Roland GR-55 and VG-99, which actually suits this guitar well. Tracking-wise there is no difference to a pickup that sits straight next to the bridge.

Guitar Modelling

The guitar modelling on the Roland GR-55 and VG-99 can add a lot to this guitar.

As its name indicates, it’s tuned to G#, which makes it sometimes a bit difficult to play in the key of E. Tune it down to E on your guitar model settings!

The pickup in the near neck position limits the sounds of the guitar. Especially highly distorted sounds are impossible to use. Again the guitar modelling allows you to choose between models like Strat, Tele, Gibson, etc. – with pickups in all positions. Also the acoustic guitar modelling sounds great. So, loads of variety added!

Result

The Roland GK-3 is a big fun and sound enhancement for this cute little guitar. And with all the new, great sounds it has a great show effect playing it live on stage!

Enquiry

Want to have your own guitar converted? Contact me:

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’E-Mail’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Enquiry’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]