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Hi all. I can contribute a few ideas. ROLAND VG-8 I have a Roland VG-8, which is driven by a Roland GK-2 style pickup. If you just want to do polyphonic distortion, this is a really good unit for that. You can choose what type of guitar pickup you want to sound like, pan the individual strings in stereo, add effects, all kindsa cool stuff. A while back in the jazz guitar newsgroup we were having an argument/discussion about whether hexaphonic distortion sounds different than regular distortion...yes, some people were actually arguing that they sound the same! Anyway, I put up some mp3s to demonstrate the difference using the VG-8. So if you want to know what the VG-8's hex distortion sounds like, here it is: http://www.marksmart.net/sounddesign/guitarsounds/VG8/HexFuzz.html You can get 'em on Ebay. I'm sure the VG-88 can do all the same stuff. RMC FANOUT BOX This is a splitter box that can be used to tap off the individual analog string signals from a Roland GK-2 type pickup: http://www.rmcpickup.com/fanoutbox.html HEX PICKUPS IN REGULAR BODY For a while, I have been investigating regular humbucker-sized hex pickups for use with my looping setup: http://www.marksmart.net/gearhack/jazzpedalboard/jazzpedalboard.html#V2 The reason is that I like to use an octave divider for bass rather than a synth or the VG-8 (which also has a tracking delay when the pitch shifter is activated). Octave dividers like the Chili Dog I use have real problems trying to track a signal from a pickup at the bridge. So a hex piclup in a humbucker body is desirable. Apparently Bartolini made these a long time ago, and that is what got used in the stereo Eddie Van Halen guitar mentioned eralier. I have been using this very cool pickup by Rick Copeland: http://www.marksmart.net/gearhack/jazzpedalboard/copeland.html This thing is great, but seems to be unavailable now. There is a guy in Sweden named Olle Svensson who makes similar hex pickups. I had him make me one. It was very reasonably priced and looks great, but I haven't had a chance to really try it out yet because I keep getting distracted with lots of other stuff. If anyone is interested in asking him about a custom pickup, I can give you his email. He also makes them with hex distortion built in. There is a place called Sound Garage that makes a unit with a regular humbucker and a hex humbuckler built into the same humbucker body. This is intended to be used for GK-style synth output in the bridge position, but it looks like it could be adapted for use in the neck position. http://www.quest-md.com/soundgarage/index_e.html Hope this info helps. Mark Smart http://www.marksmart.net/