The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a Roland synth that works great with my guitar and I was wondering if there is or was a steel synth pickup manufactured that would work with this unit? I know it has been at least 10 years ago that steel synths were popular.

Bruce, if you do a search you should find a lot of info on the forum about steel synthesizers.

The only one made for steel, to my knowledge, was the Steelrider. I believe they folded years ago, but those who really know will hopefully chime in.

I wish there were something modern available, I'd give that route a try.

Thanks John. I remember the IVL unit. In fact I believe it was manufactured in this region. What I am interested in finding out if the pickup for that unit has a connector that matches the Roland pickup. Probably not but I thought I would ask anyway.

Would it be possible to mount a Roland pickup in the guitar? I realize it would only work for 6 of your strings, but it might work. I could give up 4 strings for the MIDI possibilities.

If you do a search on the IVL it looks like several people tried this with mixed results.

the ivl was a disaster and if anyone has one that is running its a wonder to behold .. i had one and it never worked more than a month at a time then back to Canada .. i use a roland 6 string from 3erd string down and it works great .. you really only need your core strings to achieve great results ..

I had thought of using two of the Roland pups on my Kline U-12. Don't know if that would have worked, and decided it was just too much monkey business for me to be involved in.

Hi Scott, could you show us some pics of your installation on your steel??? I have a roland p/u too and I am going to do what you have done I was going to angle mine to get the spacing right. so I 'm curious

Jim