Godin A6 Ultra Cognac Burst

The Godin A6 Ultra is an amazing value and the perfect guitar for home players, gigging soloists, jazzers, or a feedback-free substitute for an acoustic guitar. From first hand experience, the Godin A6 is an excellent option to wrestling with a traditional amplified acoustic, especially on a loud, crowded stage. It sounds just as good as most amplified acoustics, it's highly feedback resistant and comfortable and easy to play all night long.

The Godin A6 features the follow construction and components:

• Solid cedar top with chambered maple back
• High Gloss Cognac Burst finish
• Godin humbucker neck pickup with active volume treble and bass mini-knobs
• Godin EPM under saddle bridge transducer with sliders for active treble, mid, and bass
• 25.5" scale mahogany neck with Richlite fingerboard
• TUSQ saddle and nut
• Schaller strap lock buttons
• Output jacks for electric and electric/acoustic mix (when using both they act as individual electric and acoustic jacks)
• Deluxe Godin padded gig bag
• Requires (1) 9-volt battery

The A6 can span a wide range of tones and excels as a live performance instrument. Whether using the mixed output or running the individual electric/acoustic output jacks, it's easy to morph from impressive acoustic guitar tones to mellow electric guitar to a combination of both. Because there are individual EQ for both neck pickup and bridge transducer, there is no sacrifice in tonal quality between the electric and acoustic settings.

Using the split separate outputs, a typical configuration is running the humbucker neck pickup into a conventional guitar amp, and the bridge transducer into an acoustic guitar amp, or through a preamp direct into the PA. The neck humbucker is voiced for fairly mellow tones, and the chambered body provides a round, deep tonality. It does a surprisingly good job at emulating a hollow body jazz guitar. The bridge piezo is bright and crisp sounding, but largely devoid of piezo crackle and quack. Tested through a Fishman Loudbox with a touch of reverb it sounds crisp and clean, and unless you are a hardcore folkie, would easily hold its own in most performing situations. Direct into a PA, it does benefit from a little signal conditioning such as an outboard acoustic DI, or aural exciter such as the BBE Sonic Stomp or Sonic Maximizer.

Using the blended output, it's possible to get all Electric, all Acoustic, or a blend of the two. By blending a little neck pickup into a mostly acoustic signal, you get a very rich acoustic tone with a nice low end. For players doing primarily acoustic work, the blended output is probably all they will ever need.

At home the Godin A6 is great for just sitting around or practicing both your electric and acoustic parts. While certainly not as full sounding as a true acoustic, it puts out a reasonable amount of volume, the slim body is easy to hold, and electric style neck has light action and is easy on the fingertips. At only 6 pounds it travels easily and takes up far less space than a traditional acoustic.

The Godin A6 is one of those guitars that once you own it, you'll wonder how you got along without it. Whether you are a performer or just like to play, the Godin A6 is a go-to instrument for a wide array of playing environments.