Godin A-F Fretless

This bass was made sometime in the last few years and is still a current model. I think this one was an earlier issue because it has a finger rest on the top, parallel to the E string and I haven't seen that on any of the new ones.

Despite being acoustic looking, with a peizo pickup in a wooden bridge on a semi-hollow body with a solid spruce (cedar?) top, it's too quiet to play unplugged unless you're just practicing. It features an interesting interior resonating device formed from a set of metal tines. Plugged in, it sounds as acoustic as any electric bass I've heard. There is no sound hole and it is too quiet to play unplugged. Active electronics by L. R. Bags provide three bands of tone control and a volume control.

I play in a lot of different styles and can't think of one where I wouldn't use this bass. For jazz, you can get a pretty decent acoustic bass sound. I play it though a Line 6 Bass Pod into a Peavey amp, or from the Pod directly into a digital recording setup. It speaks well of the design and quality of the bass that I usually leave the three bands of tone control at their center detents and make only minor tone adjustments in the rest of the signal path

When I get a new (to me) instrument, I usually take it right to the workbench and adust the action and intonation. I haven't felt the need to do a thing to the Godin.

The A4 obviously won't take the kind of body blows a solid body instrument would, but I wouldn't hesitate to take it anywhere.

I've had no dealings with Godin.

I started at age 12 (a long time ago) on mandolin and evolved into a general purpose string player. I'm probably best on guitar, but Since there are so many guitar players around, I usually get called to play mandolin, bass or pedal steel. For bass work, I like the A4 becuase between it and my Carvin LB76, I can get nearly any kind of bass sound.