Roland GR-300

The Roland GR-300 was a polyphonic guitar synthesizer, released by Roland Incorporation in 1979. It had 6 voices, with octave shifters.

Andy Summers was a user of the GR-300 guitar synth (controlled with the G-303), which was one of his main tools with The Police which helped expand the group's sonic territory. Before the GR-300, Andy experimented with the GR-500, but didn't have much time to use it on the road. He used the GR-300 for the first time on Zenyatta Mondatta in 1980: specifically on "Don't Stand So Close To Me", where it provides the synthesizer washes during the bridge. During concerts at the time, he'd play the G-303 as a normal guitar for much of the song, then activate the GR-300 guitar synth during the bridge (controlled by the G-303). He continued to use the GR-300 on Ghost In The Machine (e.g. "Secret Journey", "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic") and Synchronicity (e.g. "O My God") with The Police, and to great effect on I Advance Masked (1982) with Robert Fripp. The only time Andy ever used the GR-300 for a guitar solo was on "Omegaman".

Andy's trademark swelling sound with the GR-300 was produced with the help of a Roland FV-2 volume pedal: while the synth is tuned in fifths, he'd use the volume pedal to slowly open the VCF (Voltage-Controlled Filter) on the synth. He then fed the output signal through his custom-built pedalboard, with compression and flanging effects to enhance the wash of sound. Sometimes he would use also split the input signal between two GR-300's which are in turn fed into one Marshall 100-watt stack each to produce a wide stereo sound.

According to a 2021 interview, Andy Summers still owns the instrument.

Quotes
"'I use a Roland guitar synthesizer, the GR-300, which is the latest one they make. I've also got the GR-100, which is the electronic guitar. It's just an additional colour to the guitar synthesizer, really. What I've started doing now is using two guitar synthesizers together, which is really spectacular. 'It's like a little panel you have on the floor,' he said of the unit, 'and you operate it with your feet. The synthesis comes from the guitar itself - there's a hexaphonic pick-up on the back of the second pick-up of the guitar - so it is a pure synthesizer. One of the features of this one is a duet switch, where you play your original note and it will add any interval to it. Second, minor second, major third, minor fifth or sixth, whatever. So you get two notes together, and if you've got it tuned to fifths, say, and you start to play strange chords, it really sounds incredible. The sound gets so fat, really big. It has an envelope and an inverted envelope, too. It also has something called rise and fall time, where there are dual switches on it, A and B, and you can move from one to the other. Like you tune A to fifths, then you can tune B to fourths or thirds, so you can go from playing a line in fifths to playing a line in fourths or thirds. It's great ! And when you get to playing it through a chorus, then it really sounds good. . .' (Musician, December 1981)"

"'Yes, the Roland guitar synth at that time [Ghost In The Machine] was brand new, and it was a very hot item to have. I still have it, actually. It's sweet now, because it’s sort of an antique. Stewart always used to take the piss out of me for playing it, because it could only make one sound, really. It was effective on Don't Stand So Close to Me. I played it in the chorus; it got this big wave of sound, which was not like a standard guitar solo, but it was a kind of a fresh sound at the time. With Secret Journey... Sting and I both picked up on this Tibetan Himalayan vibe, and the Roland synth seemed to be the collective of a travel soundtrack for that. It was effective. I always liked that song, although we barely played it live.' (Guitar World, October 2021)"

Further information

 * Joness vintage Roland GR resource page