You can still use it without the synth stuff, and those pieces show up separately more often that as a complete rig. The
floor unit (synth) for this one goes for around 5-600 usually, and the special cable that runs between the floor unit and bass goes for around 200 each. Only reason being, the connectors are defunct and can't be purchased to make your own cables.
Of all the early Roland stuff, these seem to be the best in terms of pitch tracking (they did it a little different here than in the more recent stuff). I have the guitar rigs, and they play so much more musically than the newer Roland GR-1 setup that I used to have. I don't have to adapt my playing like I did on the GR-1, and it just seems like it picks up the nuances better... more "expressive". The range of sounds on these old ones are limited, though. Just has that old Moogy sound - but hey that works for me!
They're nice basses! Real similar to the Ibanez MC series stuff from that era. It has an active 18v 2-band eq setup, and it sounds warm and punchy. I generally just like a good passive setup in the bass, and do the "active" on the outside - but this one sounds decent. The neck is comfy. 1.5" at the nut (edit: oops- its actually 1 11/16"), and feels beefier to me than a jazz bass - maybe a thicker profile.. mine has kind of a "D" shape to it.
I don't even have the synth for mine... just use it as a bass. The controls look confusing, but most are for the synth. Here's a shot of one with the control panel overlay still on:
All I ever use is the vol/bass/treble controls to the left. There's a huge control cavity on the back for the synth controller, but that stuff just sits there idle unless you have it connected to a floor unit via the special cable. That part is powered from the floor unit, and not the two batteries. There's a standard 1/4" output on the side edge for normal bass use:
Mine is the neck-thru (G-88), and that one on CL (a G-33) is similar with the only differences being the set-neck, rosewood board, and chrome hardware.
