Godin ACS

Started by joe himself, April 02, 2020, 07:14:02 AM

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joe himself

This post is a copy of a guitar review I posted on Amazon but I hope you'll agree with me that it is appropriate for this forum. It might help someone that is considering the purchase of the guitar or GR-55.

When I purchased my Godin ACS and GR-55 I thought of them as a matching pair and I ordered them at the same time. My Godin arrived first and when I first played it I was very surprised and dissappointed. I play a classical guitar style and IMO the guitar was (is) not suitable for this style of playing. It is basically a solid-body electric guitar fitted with nylon strings and piezos. This set up creates a wonderful mellow sound with lots of natural sustain for Willie Nelson kind of leads. But for fingerstyle playing, I thought there was way too much sustain. I couldn't control the sustained ringing of open strings. For example the bottom E bass string would ring loudly for a long time after my fingers had changed to a D chord. I do think this would be a great guitar for a lead player in a church's P&W band.

I almost returned it but decided to wait until my GR-55 came in. The GR-55 modeling made all the difference for me. It solved the sustain problems I had and I now love the sound. I'm not saying it's the best sound because I've never owned another guitar synth but the sound I get from the GR-55 is plenty good enough for me.

admin

Ive worked on a few major session players Classical Guitars and in general most had among the most massive thick & wide neck profiles Ive ever experienced.

I was surprised to find the standard  Godin ACS MultiAC has such a thin Neck Profile, Like playing a EBMM Petrucci Electric Guitar.

Wonder which players Godin surveyed when designing that instrument - as IMHO they must not have consulted Classical Guitar Players. 

kenact

Quote from: admin on April 02, 2020, 08:00:05 AM
I was surprised to find the standard  Godin ACS MultiAC has such a thin Neck Profile, Like playing a EBMM Petrucci Electric Guitar.

I've played the standard ACS and some of their classical La Patrie models, and found the necks to be comparable.

Which is why I opted for an ACS Slim, which does have a thinner profile.
Godin Session & Montreal FTP, LGXT, LGX SA, Redline, ACS, A12, A11, A10, A4
Danoblaster Baritone w/GK-3
Gretsch Nashville, Viking
Fender Strats
Fret King Supermatic
Larrivee DV03RE
Parker Midi Fly
Seagull, S&P 12
VOX Phantom XII
GR-55, 33, 30, 20, GI-20, RC-50, US-20, VG-99, VP-7
Sentient 6
Cyr 7

kenact

I will have to correcct myself. While they feel very similar, the standard ACS has a 1.9" nut width, which the La Patries have a 2" nut width.

To steal a line from Billy Joel, "Don't ask me why." :)
Godin Session & Montreal FTP, LGXT, LGX SA, Redline, ACS, A12, A11, A10, A4
Danoblaster Baritone w/GK-3
Gretsch Nashville, Viking
Fender Strats
Fret King Supermatic
Larrivee DV03RE
Parker Midi Fly
Seagull, S&P 12
VOX Phantom XII
GR-55, 33, 30, 20, GI-20, RC-50, US-20, VG-99, VP-7
Sentient 6
Cyr 7

Marin

I have Godin Multiac Nylon SA, which I believe has the same neck as your Godin ACS.
While I completely agree with everything you wrote, I somehow believe that you made wrong choice of the instrument to begin with. ACS is not really for classical players, but more for electrical guitar players who also want to play nylon guitar sometime. Therefore the neck is more suited to them
For classical players, Godin has Grand Concert model which has much wider neck, 52mm, same as most classical guitars. Although, this neck is still much thinner than most classical guitars, and also action is quite low.

Personally, for classical guitarist who wants to get amplified, I would rather recommend Yamaha silent series guitars. They sound amazing, and their neck profile is much closer to the neck profile of standard classical guitar.
But, they can't be connected to GR55 unless you modify them, as I did with mine :-)


Quote from: joe himself on April 02, 2020, 07:14:02 AM
This post is a copy of a guitar review I posted on Amazon but I hope you'll agree with me that it is appropriate for this forum. It might help someone that is considering the purchase of the guitar or GR-55.

When I purchased my Godin ACS and GR-55 I thought of them as a matching pair and I ordered them at the same time. My Godin arrived first and when I first played it I was very surprised and dissappointed. I play a classical guitar style and IMO the guitar was (is) not suitable for this style of playing. It is basically a solid-body electric guitar fitted with nylon strings and piezos. This set up creates a wonderful mellow sound with lots of natural sustain for Willie Nelson kind of leads. But for fingerstyle playing, I thought there was way too much sustain. I couldn't control the sustained ringing of open strings. For example the bottom E bass string would ring loudly for a long time after my fingers had changed to a D chord. I do think this would be a great guitar for a lead player in a church's P&W band.

I almost returned it but decided to wait until my GR-55 came in. The GR-55 modeling made all the difference for me. It solved the sustain problems I had and I now love the sound. I'm not saying it's the best sound because I've never owned another guitar synth but the sound I get from the GR-55 is plenty good enough for me.

chrisnickey64

i have a godin acs sa guitar and i love how it plays like an electric guitar but very buttery ....i alternat between fingr stule and flat picks and quite honestly ive never played a finer instrument of this kind .....i previously owned  a spectrum steel multiac that honestly play a little stiff and i didnt really dig it so much ....it was like a taylor t5 but with the hexophonic pizo saddles  and had electronic problems while under warranty so i  exchanged it for my current multiac nylon . to me it's like a perfect mix of classical , electric and standard acoustic . sorry to hear you dont care for it