PRODUCT REVIEW
Lightburst High-Gloss finish
Buy If...
you want an ultra flexible live
and studio nylon string electroacoustic guitar with no feedback
Skip If...
you’re an acoustic purist and
want a traditional non-electric
Rating...
4. 5
ONTHEWeb
Head online to hear sound clips of
the guitar and amp in action at
premierguitar.com
Godin Guitars
Street $1349
godinguitars.com
that the strings were new and still stretching so tuning later became a non-issue,
even though that particular tuner never felt
quite as tight as the others.
Plugging the Multiac in directly to my Pro
Tools rig via a Creation Audio Labs MW1
Studio Tool (an excellent device for DI and
reamping), it was immediately clear
that this guitar is ultra-versatile.
Dialing up a great tone is as sim-
ple as plugging in. The controls
offer huge flexibility when using
just the Fishman piezo pickup
and the accompanying Volume,
Bass, Middle and Treble. Setting the
Blend slider in the far right position
engages only the piezo pickup, but
as you slide to the left it begins
blending in the Mic Imaging,
with the piezo for ultimate
tonal flexibility. To the far
left, you will only hear the
Mic Imaging—the four
choices of mic models
and distances I described
earlier. Tonally, I found
all of the four sounds to
be very useful, depend-
ing on the style of music
being played, but it was the
use of the Blend control that
really opened up the possibilities.
For instance, I liked the piezo setting
with a little bit of the mids cut while blending
about 40 percent of the #2 Mic Image (based
on the Soundeluxe E47 mic) for some of the
solo acoustic playing on a recent Brazilian
track I was working on. Noticing that it was a
little too thick, I hit the Phase button to flip
the phase relationship, and it thinned it out
just enough to sit in the track without taking
up unnecessary space. Remember, this is all
being done as a direct sound using no FX or
other EQ in Pro Tools. After spending a good
deal of time playing it this way, I moved on
to using it with the Jam 150.
The Amp
The SR Jam 150 is a thing of beauty, convenience and simplicity. Our review model
was packaged in a handsome laminated
birch cabinet (also available in black), and
weighing just 29 pounds, it offers nearly
everything a gigging or recording guitarist
would ever need to get the job done in style.
It functions much like a mini PA and boasts
a 40Hz–20KHz response with a max SPL of
115dB, which should be plenty to cover small
to medium-sized venues. The system is bi-amped using a two-way bass reflex cab housing an 8" woofer and a compression tweeter
that combined put out an RMS of 150 watts.
If you need more power than that, they
have included an XLR output to send the
signal to an external amplification system.
Conveniently located on the top of the amp
are all of the controls, including what you’d
see in just about every modern compact
6-channel mixer and then some. Channels 1
and 2 offer your choice of XLR or 1/4" input
for either a mic or high-impedance signals.
Channels 3 and 4 offer hi and lo sensitivity
inputs to accommodate keyboards and active
pickup instruments, while channels 5 and 6
are set up like stereo RCA inputs to plug in
your iPod or similar device. EQ on channels
1–4 offer up 3 bands of fixed frequencies of
high, mid, and low, while channels 5 and 6
remove the mid control. In addition to the
built-in FX, there is a full-featured FX loop
plus a recording output and accompanying volume control for feeding an external
recorder to document your performances.
If plugging the Multiac in direct yielded very
usable sounds, going into the Jam brought
out its best. Plugged into channel 1 of the
Jam with all of the settings flat and the
Volume and Master Volume set to noon, a
new body and warmth opened up on the
Multiac that was incredibly musical. At this
point, the sonic differences of each of the Mic
Imaging settings became much more apparent, and all of them showed their true tonal
colors. Cranking the amp to full up revealed
no feedback from the guitar whatsoever and
