My new blue Railboard is about a month and a half out or so (fingers crossed). I ordered the GK-3 divided pickup installed on the melody side, which Cambria tells me are on order and causing a delay.

I'm very familiar with MIDI for keyboards, drum machines, and DAW controllers. I've never played with guitar MIDI, or Stick MIDI, in this case. It seemed silly for me as a keyboard player to NOT get the MIDI pickups, but now I'm not sure exactly what my MIDI strategy is.

I'm hearing now that there's various third party software and hardware boxes that report to let you plug your quarter-inch jack right into them and covert directly to MIDI. But my Railboard will have the GK-3, so I'll leave alone the devices that convert audio signals to MIDI, and just concentrate on things that work well with the GK-3 (and at around an extra $600, maybe I might have made different decisions but that's probably too late to change my order, and I'm not sure that I'd want to.)

I'm hearing very good things about the GR-55 (from the Stick website as well). It's about $700 bucks, and I'll be paying off the 3 grand for the Railboard for a bit, so I'll have nothing to trigger the Railboard with quite yet. But I'm saving for that, too.

Anyone use the GR-55 or something else with the GK-3? Should I not have gone with the GK-3 pickups?

I'm more than a little curious what y'all think of MIDI, if you're thinking about it at all. I'd love to hear what you all are doing or think.

I use the GR-55 and GK-3 on my Paul Reed Smith Custom 24.
I bought a second GK-3 that I plan to modify for my vintage #404 Stick.

The GR-55 synth sounds are great, but I've expanded the MIDI to an entire host of software.
I've got about $3000 invested in music software and no regrets. It's a lot of fun.

My advice to you, is to take it slow and buy whatever you can afford as time goes on.
Here are two examples of what is out there. I have them both and love them.
http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-10-ultimate/
https://www.spectrasonics.net/products/trilian.php

I've got Native Instrument's Komplete (last 3 versions of it) and I can't recommend it enough! I have Trilian, too (and also NI's Maschine, for drum stuff). Komplete has Guitar Rig as well, which I use separately on both the melody and the bass side.

It occurs to me that I have plenty of synths to trigger already--I just need to plug my MIDI output of the GK-3 into any of my MIDI inputs. Maybe I don't actually need a "guitar synth" as such. MIDI trigger data should be MIDI data, and I can plug into a number of virtual and real hardware interfaces that use MIDI.

But the GR-55 seems useful for effects as well.

Edits to add: I have no guitar effects hardware--not a stomp box or effect pedal to my name. But I've got loads and loads of digital stuff that lives as Pro Tools plugins. But nothing in the physical world.

I go around and around on this frequently. My main use of synths is as background for loops so it's mostly pads. As someone with a keyboard background, I sometimes think to myself that MIDI pickups were created to allow access to synths for people without a lot of keyboard skills. To that end, I go through phases where my MIDI pickup goes unused and I simply carry a small keyboard with me. That's pretty much the phase I'm in right now. If you're a keyboardist with a lot of experience in both hardware and software synths (which it sounds like you are), I have a hard time imagining synths via strings being very rewarding. But that's just me and I might change my mind at some point in the future. Even when I do go back to a MIDI Stick phase though, it's usually a convenience based choice and not because I prefer it. When at home, I have a small collection of software synths, a Roland GAIA SH-01, and an old Juno-60 all running into my Echoplex along with my Stick and it's a ridiculous amount of fun.

Glenn, you've hit the nail on the head: I'm not really sure what my strategy and intent for MIDI on the Stick is (yet). I can play keyboards and Stick at the same time, for that matter. It just seemed like something I'd want Emmett to install on the Railboard "at the factory" by the Master, but I don't know exactly what I'll use it for.

I do like the idea of triggering strings (the orchestral kind) and pads, but I can do that with a free hand or finger. What will probably sell it for me is the ability to layer a few keyboard sounds on top of each other and have it all track exactly together when I play on the Stick. It's a third output mainly. One bass, one melody, and one with that melody doubled (or hundred-tupled) by keyboard MIDI.

It also sounds fun in theory to map each string to a different keyboard sound.
Adds: and trigger percussion samples! Via my Maschine or through whatever. That could be cool.

The GK-3 is not a direct MIDI device. It's a divided pickup with 13 wires.
You will have to use a synth to convert this analog information to MIDI.
http://roland.com/V-Guitar/about.html
http://www.americanmusical.com/itemfiles/manual/roland/gk3.pdf

Oh, it's just a pickup? I thought it actually sent MIDI data. I guess there's no onboard audio to MIDI converter, and that's what the GR-55 would do for me. I don't have an audio-to-MIDI converter.

Okay, then the GR-55 would output its MIDI to other devices. That makes sense.

Man, that's expensive at $600 for just pickups. Now I see better what I need in addition to just the GK-3. And then $700 for the guitar synth as well, just to trigger MIDI via the Stick.

Another option is the Fishman TriplePlay wireless MIDI system.
I have one, but I haven't tested it on a Stick yet.
http://www.fishman.com/products/view/tripleplay-wireless-guitar-controller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmcmFrtxBU0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvst6IaoZ7U

(from a 2 year old newby) Download the GR55 manual from Roland. you can explore the capabilities of the unit. Look for a GR55 editor on Vguitar (by Gumshoe??? -it's been a while since I downloaded it). Many (most) of the other effects manufacturer also post their manuals - lets you get into more info on capabilities of products than what shows up on the videos. Too much gotta acquire stuff (GAS) will take away from time to spend on the Stick - which inherently by itself has a lot of sound variation opportunity.

Thanks so much for the info about the editor for the GR-55. Here's a couple of very interesting links to that editor, and there's an ipad IOS version as well. This might be cool to anyone with a GR-55, and makes me want one a little more now.
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/09/r ... -and-ipad/
http://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index. ... 3#msg30263