Roland G-303

The Roland G-303 is a guitar controller for the GR-300 guitar synthesizer. It is also a playable guitar on its own, unlike the GS-500.

Andy Summers played the G-303 as a guitar on most of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" during live shows with The Police (1980-84), then turning on and controlling the GR-300 during the bridge section.

Later on, Andy preferred to use the G-303 to control the GR-700, instead of the G-707.

Quotes about the Roland G-303
"'It's a very nice guitar to play. I've also got one with a wanger bar on it, which they gave me in Japan, they only made one and they gave it to me which is really nice. And now I've got the other one too — I've got three guitar [synth] controllers, all together. The [G-808], which is supposed to be the better guitar, I don't like as much as the cheaper one [the G-303]."

"'The necks are different, the one I like to play just suits me more. They vary, like all guitars. The one I like to play has a thinnish neck, very nice and very easy to play, I like the action on it. It's more like the guitar I'm used to, I suppose. The other one I find a bit more like hard work.' (One Two Testing, December 1982)"

"'It’s been very hard for the guitar as a serious synthesizer to compete with keyboards. Generally, this is because the sounds that you can get on it haven’t been anywhere near as good as keyboards, unless you play it through a Yamaha DX7 or whatever. Then you still have the problems of tracking. I must admit, though, it’s much more impressive than it used to be. I recently had my Roland GR-700 completely updated with all the latest software, and its tracking has now come up almost to where the Roland GR-300 was, so I’m quite pleased with that. I’ve got some great new sounds out of it. I continue to use my original Roland guitar. I used the G-707 guitar for a bit, but I’ve gone back to using my 303 - the brown one.' (Guitar Player, June 1986)"

Reference

 * Live footage
 * Guitar Player, June 1986