This year I made an effort to expand to a dual midi set up on my grand.

This came as a result of being frustrated with the limitations of using midi on just the melody side. I'm currently the "synth" player at my church backing up the main piano player with strings, organ and synth patches from a korg triton.

The idea was to figure out how to get the full 12 strings into a single midi channel and get an upgraded synth module to add to the triton.

So this is how it's set up:
Dual Roland GK3 pickups -->
Dual 13 pin cables -->
Dual Roland GI-20's -->
Dual midi out into Midi Solutions box sending a single midi out -->
Yamaha Motif ES (midi out) -->
Korg Triton
I have a 2 space rack holding the GI20's, motif, midi box and cables.

There are volume pedals for the motif and triton allowing sound changes and flexibility.

I absolutely love this set up! There isn't much synth bass in use and the tracking is excellent!

The other cool thing I realized is that I can plug my stereo out from the PAS4 into each of the GK3's taking the "guitar outs" from the GI20's into my rig! That way I only have to cables AND now I have the endless possibilities of the "GK, mix, guitar" GK settings on both bass and melody sides! I apologize if this has already been done but I'm having a blast with this set up
I hope that makes sense, Lee

sounds great! there's nothing like getting "the" sound that you are after. For me , it was getting an instrument with the Stickup. I was after that classic signature "Stick sound". Have Fun!

Congrats on getting the setup where you like it! I had a 10 string Teak instrument that I installed dual midi on - really miss having it right now. I do have the components to make a dual midi setup for my Paduak 12 string - I just have to get off my tail and make the new circuit board for the pickup pieces. I purchased two of the GK-kits from Roland and plan on making my own housing for the electronics - and putting the controls for both GK's on the side. When I had the Teak Stick the controls needed to be on the back of the isntrument which I was not very happy with.

Have fun!

Dave,
That would be very interesting to see the dual midi pickup housing.
It's difficult to switch the bass side GK as it's at the bottom of the stick and in the back side. When you do this please post pictures.

The idea is to control with foot switches. I can leave the GK's on "both" and have a volume for the motif and A/B switch boxes for the bass and melody sides before going in the amp.
Lee

Here are a couple pictures of the set up.
First is the custom stereo cable going into the 2 GKs.

Then the rest of the rig.

This is great stuff!

I've been conceiving of a better cabling scheme for my 12-string grand as well.
Currently using an older AX-100 and GR-33, while splitting the audio out to various pedals and/or recording gear, but it's still clumsy having that whole cable harness hanging off the Stick, so I'm looking at doing a similar approach.

Thanks for sharing this.

Greg

Another thing I've incorporated in my set up is the behringer foot controller. The triton is gone and I'm only using the motif es these days so that's what the foot controller connects to.

Also, I added a sustain pedal and I really like using it with pads and strings on the bass side and a clean sound on the melody side. Very fun

Edit: here's a sample on soundcloud

http://soundcloud.com/leelandj/newsezrmx