Roland GR-500

The Roland GR-500 is a polyphonic guitar-controlled synthesizer unit, which was issued in 1977. It comes with a GS-500 guitar. Both Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett have worked with GR-500's.

Mike Rutherford's Roland GR-500
Mike Rutherford used the GR-500 a lot for lead guitar work during the late 1970s and early 1980s, alongside the ARP Avatar. It is heard on Mike's album Smallcreep's Day, and Genesis albums Duke, Abacab and possibly their self-titled 1983 album as well. By 1982, the Roland had largely replaced the ARP.

The GR-500 was especially useful to him during the compositional process, so he could compose on a guitar in the same way someone would compose on keyboard and therefore have more control over the final arrangements of songs for his solo output. In places on Smallcreep's Day, for example, there is a blend of guitar synthesizer and Anthony Phillips' keyboards, the guitar synth offering a different textural quality.