roland ready 13 pin Axis...anyone?

[aggravation]

I'm looking for an Axis that has 13 pin/Roland VG-88/99 capability.
Does anyone know of one for sale or a good luthier who has experience installing that system in an Axis?

 

[Colin]

what's your experience with synth guitars? I only ask because I've seen people mod guitars before only to find out they where too hard to use. You can just apply double sided tape or the suction cups to the external units. That's what Steve Morse does...

 

[aggravation]

I've been using the Roland stuff off and on for years. Started with the GR-1 guitar synth, even used it on stage a few times for a few Journey tunes since we didn't have a keyboard player.
So I know the trials and tribulations of the triggering thing.

I'm not playing in a band anymore just recording stuff on the computer using a Presonus Firebox so most of my playing is actually done direct from the VG-88 and the GR-20 into the Firebox and listening through headphones. I do have a small 300 watt 8 channel PA for the rare moments when I can actually turn up the volume (big beautiful stereo wall of sound) but for the most part, due to being a family man, I'm now trapped into using headphones.
I'm recording some original songs just for fun so having all those different sounds/instruments at my fingertips is very inviting in spite of the occasional glitch.

Right now I have one of the external Roland pickups on my Tele, having the big hunk of plastic on there is a pain in the butt. Also I'm about to put an internal kit in a mexican strat, actually it was originally a Fender Roland Ready guitar I got off ebay that someone removed the 13 pin stuff from. I'm going to put in a new internal GK-KIT-GT3 pickup.

But I really want to have an Axis because I love the feel of those guitars, I know it's blasphemy to cut into one but I want something better than the mexican Strat or the Tele as my number one guitar.
Basically any guitar I have will have to have some form of 13 pin hexophonic pickup system like the Roland or Graphtech Ghost or I won't be able to play it much. Using a regular magnetic pickup into the 'Line In' on the VG gear limits the patches I can use to only a few, I need to have access to the COSM stuff and the synth stuff.

 

[Colin]

I good local luthier should be able to do the job, looking forward to seeing the finished project

 

[John Czajkowski]

The RMC piezo hex-pickups are the best system I have used to date. I had a RMC Nashville bridge put into one of my Steve Morse models. They have saddles available for Strat and Tele type bridges too. This type of pickup with the Axon is surprisingly fast on the low strings if set up well. I used them all over my latest album with Hectic Watermelon as well as live for some pretty quick stuff, and they are great all around. They provide a superb piezo tone as well. I think there are some pictures of the modified guitar on my site. I had it drilled out a bit so I could attach a regular cable and a separate one that runs to a Poly-Drive II break out box.

 

[beej]

I have the Ghost system in my Morse- I also find it excellent. I didn't wire it up with the hex ouput (I just use it for the piezo), but that's certainly doable. FWIW, I love the sound of this setup.