IN THE LATE 1970s and early ’80s, the synthesizer threatened to take over popular music, and legion were the pundits who lined up to ring the electric guitar’s death knell. Then, just as guitarists were getting fit to burst with oscillator envy, Roland Corporation swooped in to save the day. Introducing what were arguably the most functional and genuinely usable guitar synths yet to hit the scene, the Japanese music-electronics company presented a series of impressive modules that culminated in the whopping GR-700 of 1984. While Roland’s guitar synth didn’t dominate popular music as a result, it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
Guitarists have been trying to make their instrument of choice sound like something other than itself ever since a pickup was first introduced to an amplifier. Early players took aim at
