Godin Multiac Jazz

Multiac Jazz, solid spruce top. Features well described in previous review, except switch between synth patch up and down buttons is for notch frequency, midrange filter. Strings through body, great sustain. Top thicker than an acoustic, minimal volume unplugged, should take a couple of years to develop some sound. Very clever active electronics, controls function change according to what cables are plugged in the output. For details, the manual is available as a PDF file on their site. Heavier than it looks, but perfectly balanced, even when playing in a seated position. In a perfect world, there would be a bridge pickup, but then it would not look so neat and uncluttered.

Classic jazz sound perfect. Piezo sound not really acoustic sounding, but great to add richness to the electric (can be mixed). With a Pod, a Cry-Baby and a small Marshall, it becomes obvious that the output from the pickup and piezo add up to a very rich basic sound, any tone alteration or effect is very striking. This is not for heavy metal, but for lighter distortion or subtler effects, the tone is full and expressive.On the synth side, with a Roland GR-33, the tracking is jaw-dropping. Never a mistake, follows flawlessly bends and slides. You must take the time to make the sensitivity adjustments. At first I set it too high, and a stray touch of a string sent a note playing. But with some adjustment to your playing style, this is a very responsive synth controller. The GR-33 enables you to mix the real guitar sound with the synth sound, and set the respective volumes directly from the guitar. Tweakers' heaven.

The fit and finish were flawless, as I expected from two previous Godins.Satin finish, the top looks gorgeous, not as bland as in the photos. It has a nice flip-out panel for the active electronics battery, 5 seconds battery change in an emergency. The action is quite low, more than an acoustic, less than a solidbody noisemaker. The neck plays very smoothy. If you try it in a store, bear in mind that it is fitted with medium gauge strings, so you will need more effort than with a guitar fitted with standard light strings. I'll stay with the medium gauge on this guitar, the tone is gorgeous, and I think the more sustained notes may help with the synth tracking.

The spruce top is quite thick, it should take a few scratches without piercing. The tuning pegs are very precise, and stay locked. The finish looks the same as on my Multiac Nylon, satin and rather thin. It helps the wood age quite faster than a thick glossy plasticky finish, but it is obviously not as resistant. No pickguard, so if you are a basher with a heavy pick, well you must like Willie Nelson. With the piezo and synth electronics, time will tell if this stuff is dependable, but even with only the single pickup, I would be left with a superior jazz guitar.

One year warranty, if anything is seriously wrong, it should come out in that period. Support from the store is great, with a luthier on the premises that checks the set-up for every guitar they sell. They have no trouble getting answers fast from Godin, and I sent Godin a couple of e-mails that got me informative answers after a few days. Not split second response, but they are listening and answering, which is more than I can say for a lot of the competition.

I've been playing on and off for thirty years, more "on" the last couple of years. My musical interests are varied, and I've been looking for a versatile guitar. This is it for me, classic full round tones for jazz, acoustic piezo for a drier sound, and synth acess for the new millenium, and no reluctance for distortion. I'm very impressed with the clean and uncluttered look that hides an incredible flexibility, with the multipurpose controls. If it disappeared, I'd buy it again without thinking about it. The more I play it, the more I'm impressed. There is no guitar with that combination of features that I know of. If you are hovering between Jim Hall and Robert Fripp, well you don't need to switch guitars with this baby. I'm giving it a 9 because it doesn't have a single coil pickup to do Hendrix impressions and it doesn't make coffee. Still looking for the perfect guitar, but this is getting quite closer.

As far as features for a jazz guitar, (or any guitar for that matter)this is pretty decked out. First of all, as you may know, Godins (pronoucned like Go-Dan), are guitars handmade in Canada and the US, by caring dedicated individuals that are highly trained professionals. This Multiac Jazz is the ONLY production model in existence and I was very lucky to be among the handful of people to play it. 2001 model, 22 frets, solid highly figured maple top with a tobacco-type burst, slotted headstock like on the Godin Multiac Nylon Duet guitar, ergocut fretboard, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, mahogany body, two sound cahembers on either side of a solid center block (making this guitar feedback free), real wood binding on body, two F- holes, Schaller-ish tuners, string through body, backed with a brass plate. The ergocut thing is basically Godins' effort to make guitars fell worn in, right out of the box. With the ergocut, your fretboard edges are scientifically rolled, so that it feels like a Gibson that has been heavily played since the sixties. The Multiac Jazz has a bolt on neck, with a incredibly clean wood to wood pocket for maximum vibration transfer, that pushes back the heel of your typical jazz guitar and allows you to play up to the highest frets easily. In addition the body is beveled away in the back near the top cutaway to make things even easier to reach.
If you were to put a simple pickup at the neck with volume and tone control this would be a great guitar for the price. But Godin goes much further. There is a Godin designed GNX1 mini-humbucker at the neck, controlled by a volume and tone control (with two nice brass knobs). No bridge humbucker. But underneath and incorporated into the tunamatic style bridge is a LR Baggs piezo acoustic pickup as well as a synth pickup. In fact there are something like 12 synth pickups; two for each string. Controls for the acoustic and synth pickups are on the upper bout. There is a blend slider for blending between acoustic and electric sounds, as well as treble, mid and bass sliders, which control I think 5khz of sound each (but that might not be totally accurate). Then there is synth up and down patch as well as synth on and off switch. These are routed through THREE outputs. Acoustic only, electric and acoustic, and a 13 pin synth output for connected to various sound models (such as Roland GR-33). Quite a load of features.

The sound has to be experienced to be believed. You can have a straight dark, wooly jazz tone with just the neck pickup and the tone control rolled back. This in itself is a great focused, well defined sound, THE classic Wes, Larry Coryell or Metheny sound. Or you can dial in a little bit of Acoustic to get some clearer note definition, especially in chords. I like this especially as I play a lot of full voiced chords, and I want to hit it hard and have it ring without being muddled. If you feel like it, it's also possibly to use this guitar with distortion, and for it to respond well. And although you can, it doesn't mean you should. This is too beautiful a guitar to be made in to a shred axe. Also, you can do full ahead acoustic, which is also amazingly believable. Although in my opinion there is no such thing as an amplified acoustic sound that sounds EXACTLY like a acoustic (how can there be when it's amplified ?), this is a very rich sound that sounds GOOD and believable. Isn't that all that matters ? Then, you get the synth sounds which are also incredible. The combination of woods and Godins extremly fast (probably THE fastest) tracking system, make for outrageous sounds. The sounds are dynamic sensitive, so you can dial in a flute or trumpet sound and the harder you pick the string, the more it sounds like a horn player BLOWING harder, with the response curve that is unique to that instrument. You also get the ambient noises that make it feel alive. Air blowing, key clicks. This brings you to the point of no return, where you can mix all three elements together to get otherworldy sounds, to the point where you forget to eat !!

Godin guitars are some of the best setup in the business. They blow away Fender and Gibson and Ibanez in terms of qualtiy and attention to detail. I can honestly say that I only found one thing slighty, wrong with this guitar and I emphasize slighly; the volume control felt a little grating as it was dialed clock-wise. This has no effect on the guitar at all, and it is something that could probably be fixed in five minutes. Other than that, a clean bill of health. No excessive glue, well polished and rounded frets, great finish. As close to perfect as a human can get.

As far as reliability, I wouldn't be concerned. Although I only played it in the store, it is a very solid guitar, what with the bolt on neck and all. If you're gonna be an idiot like Pete Townsend and try to smash this guitar over an amp, then no, it won't last. But it will put up a fight. And all Godins are backed by a solid warranty, so I have no doubt this could hold up to serious gigging.

Godin is a group of serious dedicated people. I met the president, Robert Godin, tonite at a clinic at Daddy's Junky Music in Boston and he was the greatest, he spent hours talking in detail about the features of Godin guitars and guitars in general, and even stayed behind to answer questions for almost an hour after the clinic. Also, his demo man, Joey, was highly knowledgeable and a great player who was very kind. Robert even answered my questions about my Radiators bridge that was breaking strings and how to fix it. Overall, the people that I have met were very nice and if I ever were to have a problem (which I doubt) I'm sure they would be very helpful and true to the warranty.

Overall this would probably be my first choice for a new guitar. I say probably because Robert was talking about a new guitar that they just finished his week which will be along the lines of an ES-335 (thin semi-hollowbody with two humbuckers) that sounds enticing as well. I haven't bought it yet, mainly because although it's a bargain, I just don't have 2,000 bucks right now. Think about it though, a guitar like this, of this quality, custom made or made by some big name company would literally cost thousand more. But if I had enough money I would say screw all those other conpanies and buy all Godin gear. Then I could have every sound of there's and more, for less money.
I've been playing for a couple years now and I play alot. Unfortunately, quite often I get bitten by the gear bug and cruise the net in search of both the perfect sounding and feeling guitar. I haven't quite found it yet, but this brings me alot closer. The only thing that I might like to see on this guitar would be a tremolo of some sort, like a bigsby. But that's only because I don't have a guitar with a tremolo right now. I'm sure if I had one, I wouldn't use it much and would eventually think it was a nuisance, and want to get rid of it. Also, I think I tremolo might seriuosly hurt the sound of this guitar by cutting down on the sustain. Oh well. Anyways, as soon as I first saw this guitar on the Godin website, I knew I had to have it. It was so perfect. And to think that I got a chance to play the ONLY production model is unbelievable. I think everyone should have a Godin, but if that happens, they'll turn into Gibson or Fender, and their prices will go up while their quality goes down. So it's just as it should be now, a small company with great guitar concepts for people like me looking for something different and unique.