Despite what many would think, the typical guitar synth pickups are not MIDIpickups. The pickup strip is actually six individual activepickups mounted in a line one pickup per string, hence the term Hexaphonic. In the case of the ubiquitous Roland GK2a for instance, the signals from each pickup are separately output to a 13pin connector, along with signals for the synth volume and inc/dec controls, and a control to allow the blending of the natural guitar sound with the synth. The pickup itself performs no processing of any kind and the output is simply analogue guitar times six - it is the external synth engine that is responsible for the conversion and interpretation of the performance. This is a great idea because it means that as the guitar synth technology advances, you can upgrade without having to change or modify the pickup, which you may have permanently installed. It also means that the pickup can be used with other technologies that require the guitar strings to be output separately guitar modeling systems and MIDI convertors for instance.
