Boss announces GM-800 guitar synth and GK Series pickups
July 20, 2023 · 3 sources
Boss announced the GM-800 guitar synthesizer and the GK Series on July 20, 2023. The GM-800 is the company's first new guitar synth system in over a decade, according to MusicRadar, which also reports it is Boss's first guitar synth to feature piano sounds since the GR-55 in 20111.
The GM-800 is a guitar and bass synthesizer built around the ZEN-Core sound engine, which Boss describes as derived from flagship Roland synthesizers2. Boss lists more than 1200 Tones and 70 Rhythm sounds on board2. The workflow is based on Scenes, which Boss calls "super patches" holding Tone selection, parameter settings, effects and play settings; there are 150 user-configurable Scenes, 100 of them shipped with sounds2. Each Tone and Rhythm part has a dedicated MFX processor offering over 90 effect types, and each Scene adds two further FX plus chorus/delay and reverb with independent send levels per part2.
The pedal has four footswitches, assignable through an Assign matrix, and two external control jacks that each support up to two footswitches or an expression pedal2. It has five-pin MIDI I/O and USB audio/MIDI, and Boss says a Guitar to MIDI function lets players trigger virtual instruments over USB or hardware modules via the MIDI output2. Boss also says the GM-800 can work as a standalone MIDI sound module2.
The GM-800 uses a new Serial GK digital interface, which takes input from a GK-5 or GK-5B Divided Pickup and can link multiple Serial GK units2. The GKC-AD and GKC-DA conversion boxes connect classic 13-pin GK devices, such as a Roland GK-3 or GK-3B pickup and products like the Boss SY-1000 and GP-10, to Serial GK gear2.
MusicRadar gives US prices: the GM-800 at $749.99, the GK-5 guitar pickup at $249.99, the GK-5B bass pickup at $299.99, and the GKC-AD and GKC-DA interfaces at $199.99 each1. The GM-800 is available from August, according to MusicRadar1. MusicRadar reports the GK-5 works with most standard six-string guitars with steel strings and the GK-5B supports most bass guitars with four, five or six strings, with internal sensors adjustable for different bridge spacings1.
"ZEN-Core combines modern PCM synthesis and advanced modeling to provide an infinite playground for sonic discovery"
Boss's own history of its guitar synthesizers places the GM-800 in a line that began with the Roland GR-500 system in 1977, and describes the new Serial GK system as moving away from conventional 13-pin connectivity3.