Roland GR-55S Black

My first effects pedal was a Boss PS-2 Digital Pitch Shifter Delay pedal which I bought in 1987. I also owned a Boss SE50 & SE70 effects units during the 1990's. I loved the range of effects that these units produced but now that I own a Roland-GR55 my playing and sound has been transported to a whole new level way beyond anything I could have possibly imagined!
I am blown away by the seemingly endless variety of effects, models, instruments and combinations that are now at my finger (and toe) tips. It's like a whole new dimension of sound has been revealed to me, I'm in Tech Heaven!
I also purchased a Godin XTSA guitar which is the perfect match for this amazing piece of technology. The sound is immaculate, the response is instant & my adventure into a new world of sound scaping and experimentation has just begun. For me this is the perfect unit for my style of playing and my appetite for experimentation. The unit is extremely well built, strong, a good size for accessibility, easy to navigate and understand, an excellent overall design and has everything I've ever wanted all in one unit. I can't recommend it highly enough!

I have in conjunction with a Godin guitar with Synth access.

There are so many features in this device reading the manual is a must and you have to calibrate the pick up to make it work properly.

The sound shipped are very good and you can make adjustments in order to build your preferred sound, this is based on guitar modelling, synthesized instruments and on the sounds and effects shipped with the unit, it would be amazing if you could create your synth sounds from scratch or load them from your computer, don't get me wrong, you can modify thousands of sounds but I feel they will always have a kind of roland "signature"

In the other hand it can be used as a MIDI interface and there are so many features like phrase looping, playback audio from a USB pen drive, alternative tunings, guitar models to choose from... etc, it is a worthy purchase.

You may need to adjust your technique and execution to get the most of some sounds and this can be a bit weird at first, at some point you may need to change your mind from guitar player to a sythesizer player using a guitar as interface.

The truth is I only use about 10 of the patches provided by the pedal - mostly guitar related ones. Very often use them in parallel with my JVM so that the traditional electric guitar sounds are combined with what comes from GR 55. I find it very useful as a simple way to more sound diversity in the arrangements. But the main thing is - naturally - the classic GR300 sound (and similar flavours). In jazz this fantastic sound (somewhere between trumpet / violin and distorted guitar) is practically "owned" by Pat Metheny and using it is a bit like playing "Stairway to Heaven" in a guitar shop or industry showcase. Serious offence. But it seems like dropping it here and there in alt rock arrangements can actually be appreciated by listeners in this postmodern world. And even if you do not have the guts (or are too decent ;-) to try it, this sound will absolutely suck you into long improvisations when you are rehearsing alone or jamming with your band ... Irresistible force :-)

I bought the Roland GR-55S in order to expand my vocab as a gigging bassist, and ultimately with the aim of supporting/covering for our keys player.

I am no expert - but it appears to me that this unit is easy enough to use, and my bass tracks well with the Roland midi pickup. Support and forums are available and they have both been helpful. I intend to spend more time getting into the functionality, but the basics are certainly easy enough.

I have only rated the "sound" as 4 stars as some of the presets aren't usable FOR ME. Also, I found that the quick editing of patches to be a little limited, but this is probably my ineptitude.

A great function is the ability to change tunings of strings - this is something that works well and opens up huge new possibilities in my playing.

Definitely worth it. Thomann delivered it basically instantly too