I decided to grab an album to accompany my reading tonight, and decided it should be something I hadn't listened to in a long time. My choice was Smash and Scatteration, a 1985 duo release by guitarists Vernon Reid and Bill Frisell. Interestingly the final piece on the album, a Frisell composition called "Black Light," sounds a lot like "Industry" off of King Crimson's 1984 album 3 of a Perfect Pair. Coincidence, or was Frisell influenced by the Crimson tune? Of course the fact that Frisell used a Roland GR300 guitar synth a lot on this album got me thinking about King Crimson, since the '300 was a central part of Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew's setups in the 1980s. The '300 has a very identifiable sound, and due to its limited controls tends to produce certain sounds no matter who might be using it. I've mentioned Andy Summers use of the '300 in a past post, and another big fan of the "blue box and brown guitar" is Pat Metheny, who apparently still uses his at times. In fact its been claimed that Metheny regularly buys GR300s that turn up on eBay as spares for his own unit.