Roland V-Bass w/o GK Pickup?

[Murphys Law]

Hey there.
I've got the possibility of getting an Roland V-Bass quite cheap, but without a GK Pickup!
Is the V-Bass still useful without a GK?

I know I cant use the Bass modeling section without one, and altering the effects to fit different strings seems quite hard also

So, are the effects and amp modelings good enough alone?

Thanks alot!

[Dirk Diggler]

Nope you can't use it at all without the pickup. It processes each string individually. Your only other option is piezo's but that will be more expensive.
Dirk

[greenboy]

It's a good effects unit and amp modeler with a plain bass, but forget the effects section pitch shifting for larger shifts at higher levels, it's not even close to the good COSM section pitch shifting.

You miss out on all the layering possibiilities having both magnetics and hexaphonic inputs provides too, and a lot of other good stuff besides. So at that point I'd say you might instead look at some other multi.

There are no shortcuts ; }

[elros]

Yes you may use the effects section and the amp simulator section without having a GK pickup. Which is nice.
But the real gold lies in the bass simulator - which needs the GK pickup.

[Delta T]

As stated before, you can use the V-bass without the GK pickup...but you can't use the poly-octave effects and similar. The internal effects are 'ok' but not outstanding.

However, if you are getting the V-bass cheap enough, get it now and add the GK down the road...

Dave

[greenboy]

Originally Posted by Delta T

The internal effects are 'ok' but not outstanding.

I think they are good, other than than the pitch shifting which is good for close interval stuff like barber poles but not for near-parity fifths or octaves. Maybe it's my programming skillz ; }