Godin A11 Glissentar

Well described by previous reviewer.

It can be made to have that warm vocal sound associated with fretless acoustic basses- but in a high register. You need to use the flesh of the finger and get the string to buzz against your skin a bit as you let a tone decay- works best with vibrato. If you use you fingernail to stop the strings you can get a cleaner sound that's a little like a "nylon sarod" perhaps. A more neutral end-of-finger stopping of the string gives an oud-like sound. Different picks have quite different sounds as well. Fairly soft picks are quite nice.

The eq is effective in bringing out quite different voices. Boosting the mid gives a nice electric effect.

It's resonant enough that you can feel a string matching up with the harmonics of its neighbors in your fingertip as you slide around. It's a great feeling.

The middle strings especially have a wonderful lightly buzzy sustain that somehow feels just perfect.

Very well made all around. No flaws.

Seems pretty tough. Worry that the battery will run out just before a show and there's no indicator.

Two sets of replacement strings are included- this is important as they are unusual strings.

They're cheerful and proud. Seem great by email

I play oud and sarod, so I was simply compelled to get this instrument. It's much more convenient and reliable as an amplified, portable gigging instrument than the traditional instruments that inspired it.

I've talked about the good stuff- here are some potential problems:

The scale is hard to get used to. It's a long scale for a fretless instrument in the treble range. You have to move pretty fast- you can't anchor your hand as much. It ends up requiring a lot more arm muscle motion than an oud, for instance.

Also, the strings are closer together than on most fretless melody instruments from a round the world. You tend to unintentionally dampen nearby strings as slide around. You also have to be a more careful picker, of course, if you're used to oud or sarod.

The strings are guaged for a standard guitar tuning. This makes sense for a guitar player- but if you're coming from a traditional fretless instrument, you'll probably want to reproduce that instrument's tuning- or maybe come up with an open tuning that works for you. In this case, the strings tend to be a little too loose or too tight. Not much, mind you- but they really are right in the pocket for a standard guitar tuning. It DOES stay in tune very well, which is positively weird if you're used to the oud.

The Glissentar is a bit unusual- a fretless guitar with 11 nylon strings, tuned to standard guitar tuning. The strings are laid out in pairs like a 12 string, but tuned in unison. The low E is not doubled. The idea, it seems, was to cross an oud with a guitar, and the result is one of the more interesting guitars to come around in a long while. It is surprisingly easy to play, assuming that you have a good ear (prior experience with fretless instruments doesn't hurt, either). The construction is typical of Godin, with a chambered silver leaf maple body, solid cedar top and a bolt-on rock maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. The fingerboard on my Glissentar is very dark and evenly coloured, and actually looks and feels like ebony. A change in the specs, perhaps? The cedar top is also dark, more of a red cedar than the blonde cedar that Godin normally uses. The installed bridge pickup and preamp are both custom made by L.R. Baggs and are quite natural sounding, with little of the usual transducer "grit". The volume and 3 band equalizer controls are arranged above the neck/body joint, in similar fashion to the other Godin acoustic/electrics. The Glissentar ships with a very well padded gig bag and 2 spare sets of strings. The only extra thing I could ask for would be an XLR output and phantom power like the Multiac, but this is a minor point.

I am primarily involved in free improvisation and avant-garde composition these days, and the Glissentar suits these areas very nicely. I've also been known to dabble in drum 'n' bass, ambient and dub on occasion. The tone can be likened to that of a fretless bass, thickened somewhat due to the doubled strings. Even more than usual, the individual musician's playing technique has an enormous effect on the tone. Given that there are no frets to temper the sound, different degrees of pressure yield slight tonal variations. Of course, your intonation plays a strong role in this as well. The preamp and equalizer are transparent and quiet.

The factory set up is very comfortable, and is better than usual for Godin. The action is low and even, and the construction is solid. The tuning machines are very accurate, and all the hardware is installed cleanly.

I was a little worried about using a gig bag at first, but the Glissentar is built like a tank. I have no doubts about its durability.

I've never had the occasion to contact Godin about this guitar or my Multiac Nylon and I doubt I ever will, except perhaps to lavish praise upon them for their commitment to innovative design.

I have been playing for roughly ten years, and my guitar set up consists of a Fender California Series Stratocaster, ProCo RAT distortion (when necessary) and an Ampeg SJ-12T for electric work, and the Glissentar, Godin Multiac Nylon and a Yorkville AM100 amp for acoustic. I run all the guitars through a Line6 DL4 delay modeller. My direct recording rig consists of a SansAmp Classic and a Drawmer MX60 channel strip, through which the Godins sound lovely. I would replace the Glissentar immediately if it were lost or stolen, as there really is nothing else like it.