What to do first?

[cx1uk]

Hi everyone,

I'm taking delivery of a GR-55/GK3 tomorrow... so what should I do first! 

I've been reading the forums for a few weeks now, and while I'm tempted to rush straight into modding the 55 with an effects loop, I think I'll take it easy for the first few days. Seriously though, is there anything a newbie should do straight away to avoid a lot of heartache later?^*

Cheers,
Neil

PS: Other than that, I'm a guitarist playing, and keyboard twiddling, ex-theatre pit musician who now teaches for a living.

^*_{You can take it as read that I'll fit the GK3 pickup first!}

[supernicd]

Welcome, and congrats on your purchase!

Yes, I'd get the GK-3 set up well, follow the installation instructions carefully and then read the supplemental guides created by users here to get the string levels and other GK-3 parameters set up correctly.  The defaults are not so good in most cases and proper GK-3 set up could mean the difference between loving and hating the 55.

Then, personally, I'd see what you can do with the stock box before going and voiding your warranty by modding it.  I'm not saying the mod is a bad idea, but IMO it's worth making sure you really have a reason to do it first, at least until the warranty expires.  There are no fewer than 10,000 other things you can try with the 55 before modding it.

Download gumtown's awesome floorboard editor.  Download the patches from the site.  Go through these and the factory patches to see how they're created and get a taste for all the possibilties, and get some ideas for what you want to do next!

[cx1uk]

Thanks for the reply

Am I right in thinking that I'll get the most up to date version of the Floorboard Editor from Sourceforge (Here? http://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/)

Sorry if that's a daft question, but with 43 pages in the dedicated thread I wasn't sure!

[supernicd]

Yep, that looks like the right link to me!

[Elantric]

GR-55 FAQ: TOP THINGS TO KNOW
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=4006.0

[cx1uk]

Thanks for the link(s)