Jeff Baxter Guitar - Look at this.

[italianguy63]

Ghostsauce posted some pics of his Dad's Telecaster with built in effects-- really interesting stuff.

On a similar note, I was knocking around South Florida, and bumped into this thing at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood FL.  Took a pic so someone might identify what this is?!  A guitar from Jeff Baxter of the Doobie Brothers, with gangs of built in effects.  Does anybody know the history of this guitar or anthing about the bizzare pickups, etc??  I took the best pic I could and at the biggest resolution.  (hanging on a wall, bad lighting, etc.)

MC

[italianguy63]

My pic is higher resolution than what uploaded.  So, I will give you what is labeled:  Starting from the bottom.

Oval section at bottom marked "Guitar" -- Assume the G knob is Gain, the T knob is tone.  3 way switch marked EQ 1, 2, & 3.
Square box marked "Synthesizer:  On/Off switches above.  Knobs marked P (Polyensemble), B (Bass), M (Solomelody), S (Ext Synth).
V knob by itself marked Master.... unreadable

Above pickups:  Vertical Toggle unmarked (pickup selection?)
3 On/Offs -- Remote
Guitar Synthesizer (white toggle)
Dual Portamento

MC

[italianguy63]

I found it on the Net!  It is a Roland GR/GS-500 from 1977.  Crazy thing.

[armdnrdy]

I know the guitar well.

I was in a band back in 1980 with a guitar player Steve Yates who played one.

[Mark Hammer]

Those were the first Roland guitar synths.  You'll find all the info you need about them here: http://www.joness.com/gr300/index.htm

[italianguy63]

With the duct tape and all on it, I was wondering if this was something he had custom built.  I saw it and went Holy Cra*!  Was just very interesting to stumble upon- never saw anything like it.  Looks like you need a Doctorate to operate the controls.

[davent]

First step on his path to military consultant?

Baxter is a most interesting individual... even if all he ever did was music.

[Mark Hammer]

With the duct tape and all on it, I was wondering if this was something he had custom built.  I saw it and went Holy Cra*!  Was just very interesting to stumble upon- never saw anything like it.  Looks like you need a Doctorate to operate the controls.

The duct tape appears to address his removal of the stock pickup, and the resulting hole it left.  As for the controls, the earliest guitar synths occurred at a point when digital control and stored presets and such were minimal, if existent at all.  The model they used was that of an analog modular synth, so there needed to be a lot of controls available to the musician to shape the sound, because they couldn't just hit Bank 7, patch 4. 

For my part, I find "all those knobs and switches" easier to navigate than the software manual, and trying to produce SysEx patches.