Godin Multiac Steel

This guitar is a 2002, I think, although I bought it in 2003.
It basically has all of the same specs as mentioned in the other responses here. The main sell feature of this guitar is the pickup configuration: piezo under the saddle and a condenser mic up by the neck with a three band e.q., pickup mix, phase, mid notch and phantom power controls. It's a different looking instrument that not everybody will go for. It's a thinbody without a soundhole, and the contour of the instrument is normal except the bottom left corner (when facing guitar i.e. what the audience seees) is flattened out to accommodate the dual inputs (one 1/4 inch, and one xlr). I love the look of the instrument, but I bought it more for playability and sound.

This guitar sounds good through anything whether you're playing through a guitar amp, bass amp, sound system or a tonka toy tape recorder (kidding)! I play it through a bass amp (GK400RB), and love what I'm hearing. As my style is quite laid back and subdued (no shredding here), and I use more fingerstyle than picking for my songs, I wanted a guitar that would pick up the subtlties of what my right hand was doing. This does it, and HOW! I can even emphasize what I want brought out. Harmonics can sound great without having to put up with harsh fret/string noise when shifting chords or positions. This guitar delivers better tone than many fullbody acoustic electrics.

As I am getting more and more into Jazz, I am realizing that I may be closer to purchasing an electric for that smooth jazz tone, because this one just won't deliver it, and why should it? It's sell point is its acoustic sound. Don't buy the multiac if you want a do-it-all guitar.

The guitar was set up great when I bought it. When I switched to medium strings, the playability took a beating. I'm going back to medium lights or even lights (uuggh) for the first time since I started playing guitar. With the factory strings, playing the guitar was effortless in any position.

The only concern I had was my high E String did seem very close to the edge of fret board above the twelfth fret. In the highest position I would be able to do any bends because it would slip off. I'm sure that this is easily remedied, but I just haven't gotten around to using one my free setups at the store where I bought it.

This guitar does not have that indestructable gibson or fender or martin vibe. It seems well built, and I'm not concerned about any failins in the instruments integrity anytime soon, or ever. It's just not going to be played in the high noon sun or by a campfire.

The finish is flawless, I've played the guitar heavily for about five months now, and there's no noticeable blemishes from picking, etc.

I would use this at a gig without a back up. No worries here. Very dependable acoustic electric.

Only tried once, and they never got back to my e-mail. This experience agrees with the other responses on the Multiac. It's a drag when you spend a grand on an instrument and can't get any help with it from the manufacturer.

I've been playing for six years. As I'm primarily a bass player, guitar is kind of my second hobby. The multiac is the first professional level guitar that I've ever owned, and thus far it's been a pleasure. If it got stolen, I think I'd upgrade to the Multiac Jazz (if I could get it without Synth Access--I hate synth access!).

Godin builds its parts in Canada, and assembles in the states. The value is the best on the market (I think). Dollar for Dollar, I don't think I could have done better.

1999 Godin Multiac Duet steel string guitar. Rosewood fretboard and bridge and mahogany neck. Carved out mahogany body with select spruce top. 3 ply binding on body. High gloss finish. Classical style headstock. L.R baggs custom electronics with undersaddle transducer and condenser microphone. Custom voiced L.R baggs preamp with vol/bass/mid/tre/notch/mix controls. Very elegant and classy looking instrument. Newer ones have an LR baggs Ibean instead of the mic, they feedback a bit less but don't have as natural an acoustic sound in my opinion.

Plugged in sound is excellent. Can dial in on the right combination of pickup/microphone blend to your taste. Sounds very warm, rich and full. Not alot of "quack" for a piezo. I prefer the pickup blended output to my Larrivee miked with a condenser mic. Great for recording and very easy to use. Sound guys will love you, just plug and play!!! Great for live playing as well. Doesn't feedback.

Unplugged sound is compressed compared to a regular acoustic. It's a thinbody dual chambered cutaway with no soundhole, what do youe expect? I prefer it to the Gibson chet aktins sst and many ovations though. Still very loud and resonant and bright sounding. Sounds kinda like a classical guitar unplugged. Great for practicing without waking up the neighbors. Most people buy these things to record/perform anyways. I even play with this thing unplugged at small gatherings and it sounds fine.

Construction is great. No flaws. Nice gloss finish. Stock setup was on the money. I luckily got a N.O.S model that was made before these things were the rage across the country. This one was made when production was lower and the builders had more time to concentrate on properly constructing the instrument. I feel the newer ones have cut some corners to reduce costs ( no neck plate, different pickups, different routings and poorer wood selection). The new one I've tried just doesn't sound the same - its still very good, but doesn't have that extra ooommmph this one does.

Solid. Don't think I'll have problems. One year limited warranty. Construction is very good so I think it'll be fine. Canadian guitars are great.

Don't answer emails promptly. Take forever to get back to you. Don't always have the information you're looking for. I dont' think they have a 1-800 number. Their focus is obviously on guitar building and not customer service.

I was looking for a good gigging/recording acoustic and this one fits the bill. I chose it over a Taylor 310CE amd Larrivee D03E. It doesn't have the unplugged sound that those ones do, but beats it hands down plugged in. You can get a very warm realistic acoustic tone with this, and the electronics are so versatile and great. There's also a XLR output to plug straight into a mixer. The Taylor sounded too bright and "quacky" to me, not enought warmth. This guitar is better for performing and recording, and costs much less as well. Great value and more comfortable to play (since its a thinbody). Look into these guitars, there's a reason why many top players are picking these up.

'99 Multiac Steel string. Godin's are made partly in Quebec, and some assembly is done in New England. The multiac steel is a bolt-on-neck steel string electric acoustic with a Roland-type guitar synth interface in it. It's got an LR Baggs type of transducer system for acoustic tones along with the 13-pin synth jack, and a roland type synth interface. Basically the same controls as a GK2A system; midi patch up/down buttons, and a volume control (no bypass or blend function like the GK2A, but not really needed). Neck is mahogany with a slotted headstock; fairly wide fingerboard, fairly flat radius. Body is chambered mahogany with a spruce top. The body is quite thin; about 2 inches give or take. There are supposedly some tuning fork prong type things attached to the bridge to add resonance; I've never investigated this. Mine has a natural finish. Finish is really nice. Nice rectangle hard case.

The unamplified tone, as you'd expect with such a thin quasi-hollowbody, is very quiet. I play it unplugged a lot when I want to practice quietly! The amplified acoustic sound is quite good; it lacks the resonance of a "real" flattop, but it's intended to be a stage guitar, and it works well. Doesn't feed back under most club stage type situations. Has a decent EQ system to notch out some mids, although a parametric mid control might be a nice touch. I wouldn't use it for solo acoustic stuff where nuance and tone were important (unless I was doing an Adrian Legg type thing with some effects) but it's a great acoustic for band work. The synth interface is right on the money, and tracks as well as anything out there. Tracks much better than my GK2A mounted on my strat, for example. I don't use a guitar synth module; I run a roland GI-10 interface and drive a standard synth rack module with it (currently using an emu). I bought this essentially to do guitar-synth things, as well as to have an acoustic-electric for stage work; it fills both bills well.

Fit and finish are fine. Godin's in general have quite stiff action, which is a bone of contention I have with them. I have an ACS and a 12 string acousticaster as well, so I obviously like their products, but action is something of an issue with the ACS as well. The action at the nut as well as the bridge was set quite high, to the point that I considered it unacceptable. The action was so uncomfortabe I could barely play the guitar. I *do* favor light action, but I've been playing 32 years and I am *not* a wimp. This thing was stiff as a board. I think a lot of buyers are driven away by this; they're all this way from what I've seen. I had to file the nut slots for quite awhile to get the strings down; they're now less than a third of the height off the first fret that they were, with no trace of buzz. That's pretty dramatic! The action is also set quite high at the bridge, and there's no way to adjust that. So, even though the guitar is much more comfortable now in the lower registers, there's no way to lower the overall action short of inserting a shim to tilt the neck. That would be a shame, since Godin are very proud of their attention to the neck joint. Open letter to Robert Godin: lighten the action, or make the bridge somehow adjustable! (My apologies if there's some way to do this that I haven't figured out).

Built like a tank; should hold up well. Strap buttons solid. Don't use a backup. Have some batteries handy, however.

They've answered some email I've sent them, but I've never addressed the issue of the action with them. I may drop them a line about it.

I've been playing over 30 years, and have boatloads of high-end gear. In terms of electric-acoustics with a synth interface... well, how many of them are out there? It's quite a niche market, and Godin are the biggest (if not the only) show in town. I would not use the multiac as an electric acoustic for solo work, as I've said; I'd use my Taylor or Lowden (if I could get myself to take the Lowden out of the house...). It would be nuts to buy one of these if you don't need the synth interface, of course. But overall, it does the job well.