Godin A6 Ultra Review

Not for electric players

Bought this because the demos sounded great and it's advertised as great for electric players. It does have a great acoustic sound! But the neck is set up for finger style and open chord strumming. Godin support said to try 11s with a wound G and tighten the truss rod, maybe lower the bridge. Not like the T5Z, Acoustasonic, or Ovation that let you play lead out of the box. Read… read more online reviews where folks were happy only after experimenting with adjusting the bridge, nut, and trying different strings. Would reconsider if it came set up for acoustic jazz, fusion or blues.

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Workhorse

I use my Godin A6 Ultra primarily for solo and duo acoustic gigs playing cover tunes (James Taylor, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Chris Stapleton, et al.) I do not utilize the stereo option of running 1 cable for acoustic and another for the electric pickup. I plan to try this in the future, but for now I don't feel like lugging an amp to gigs in addition to my PA. That said, I find… read more a lot of value in playing direct into the PA and mixing in the humbucker to fatten up my tone on solos. I have friends who gig that don't love this guitar. They play very hard and are more accustomed to a full body that they can bang away on for a percussive element. For me, I have a pretty mellow attack, and I'm often doing a lot of single note lead playing. Feedback is almost never an issue with this guitar. It's great for late night playing when my 4yo is sleeping. I highly recommend it.

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Godin A6 Ultra: an absolute dream!

I could not be more pleased with this guitar. It's my first Godin, but it definitely won't be my last! Top-class sound, very well constructed, and a nice setup right out of the box. I especially like the positioning of the pickup, which allows me a little more space for fingerpicking. Huge shout-out to Shaun, my Sweetwater sales engineer, who expertly guided me through the… read more process. You won't be a bit disappointed in this guitar—or in the service you'll receive from Sweetwater!

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Doesn't get any better.

I wrote a previous review of this fine guitar a few years back (scroll down for that) and since then, I did have to replace the tuners on it because the plastic heads on a couple of them broke (no big deal). It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words and in keeping with that I have to say that "sound" also fulfills that adage. That being said, if you want to hear… read more what this guitar sounds like in a live situation, just click on the provided link. This was a live improvised performance at "The Lost Chord coffeehouse" in Port Colborne, Ontario (Canada) on March 19, 2014. My younger brother Mich had written a blues tune and wanted me to accompany him onstage. Completely unrehearsed (except that he sang me a couple of bars of the tune and we agreed on the key to accommodate his C harp). I plugged my Godin A6 Ultra into the sound system and away we went! Unfortunately a friend who was photographing the event switched his camera to video mode a bit late and missed the opening bars and the soundman turned the volume down at one point thinking we were done. Fortunately he realized his mistake, turned the sound back up and here you have it. Although I have 9 other guitars (acoustic and electric) I'm so glad I had the Godin there that night!

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Richlite Revelation

Somehow I have managed to collect four A6 ultra’s and this denim blue beauty is fantastic. Godin has changed the spec on this latest version changing the fretboard from rosewood to Richlite and high polished to boot. I am an old guy and old school; lets just say my 1957 GS’s were new when I bought them... anyway the point is up until now I have never owned anything with Richlite… read more on board. Wow was I just plain wrong this piece is a joy to play, fast and looks outstanding. I would swear it was ebony if I didn’t know better. Change is a hard thing sometimes but in this case I am thinking from now on if isn’t Richlite I am not buying it. Good on ya Godin let’s save some trees. Just one more point if you have never tried an A6 or don’t have at least one in your stable your missing out. The price point vs Godin’s high quality build standards (pure craftsmanship) and its versatility make this an must have go to instrument for anyone who works in the business or just a weekend worrier. I was turned on to this insider secret years ago by some hard working studio guys who always have one with them. Try one you’ll be shocking surprised how often you grab your A6 over your old standards. My LP and Martin haven’t seen the light of day lately.

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Godin

unbelievable love it ! blew away both my Martins !

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Love it!

I have arthritis that increasingly affects my ability to play on many days of the year; some days my acoustic is just not in the cards. I was expecting to be happy getting the acoustic tones out of this guitar with the much more manageable neck, and I do, but the real beauty is managing tones by blending between the magnetic and the piezo pickups and between the acoustic and electric… read more amp. I'm using a Roland AC33 and a Fender Super Champ X2 and I'm getting some really cool sounds. This guitar is made really well and it feels great. There may well be an A12 in my future due to the same physical limitations. The only reason I gave this a 4.5 and not a 5 star rating is the Richlite fretboard. I'm not even saying I don't like it but I don't like the idea of it as much as I do my rosewood necks and I'm still determining how much I like it. Realistically, if there was a 4.9 rating I would have given that instead, and only for this reason. The Sweetwater experience was also all that I hoped for; excellent all ways around.

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Fantastic instrument

It plays like a dream and sounds like one, too. I've wanted a solid body acoustic guitar for years and glad I settled on this one. Sweetwater's sales engineers are the best.

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Perfect for My Playing Style and Venues

I am a solo acoustic guitarist in a three person vocal group. We play restaurants and bars that do not offer optimal spaces to set up - there is no "stage." Usually it's a corner from which they move a table or two. Set up is throw-and-go. Consequently we set up tight, usually not in the best place in relation to our PA. As a result of that, I have constantly fought feedback… read more wars with my guitars using various pickups, EQing, phase reversal and creative positioning techniques. All this in concert with an attempt to get a full, balanced tone from the instrument through the PA. The obvious answer was to go electric, but I wanted that acoustic tone and fullness. The A6 Ultra seemed to be an obvious theoretical solution, but they are hard to find so I watched a bunch of "reviews" on YouTube; but nobody was doing what I do, which is to finger pick the guitar using brass fingerpicks. So I really didn't know how it was going to sound. But I went ahead and ordered one from Sweetwater. It turned out to be the absolute solution to my problems. It sounds tremendous through the PA, big and full just as I'd hoped. With enough volume you can get anything to feed back, but as of yet I have not been able to get this guitar to feedback at any frequency. For my needs, perfect. I had also anticipated that EQing might be difficult to get the sound I want, but I find I simply have to set the PA channel flat, and handle all the EQing with the instrument itself. I'll no longer have to carry my Baggs PADI to gigs to compensate. I should add that I am primarily concerned with the acoustic sound, and I believe that is where this guitar shines. The humbucker, while touted by many reviewers, is best used, in my view, to augment the acoustic sound and smooth out some of the harshness often associated with piezo transducers. I use it sparingly if at all. As I said, I am currently a solo guitarist. But were I playing acoustic in a band situation, this is exactly the instrument I would use.

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