I purchased a Godin Multiuke natural, cedar and mahogany about two weeks ago. It has a 24" radius fretboard, 9 volt battery active pick up. It comes with a high qualty nicely padded gig bag. It has seperate volume, treble, mid and bass level controls, see picture. These work great and you can REALLY shape the sound right at the instrument, I can keep my amp adjusted flat. I have a couple friends that own them so I have had a chance to play them and listen to them before making my purchase. I wasn't going to do a NUD on this uke.....I was thinking of returning it but both those ideas have changed. I will explain why.
The first thing I did was restring it low G with my favorite South Coast HML-WB string set. I liked the sound unplugged but the more I played it amplified the less I was sure about it. Simon came over and played it amplified and it sounded good, then he played my Koolau with LR Baggs pick up plugged in. That kinda killed the Godin for me (I will be making a point so hang in there), I thought why keep it. After he left I realized I was standing behind the amp, Simon was facing me, and so was the sound hole of the uke and the amp was very low, I was hearing more of an acoustic sound.
The SC wound strings were sustaining for too long a time, 15 seconds plus and the note was oscillating. I changed the 4th and 3rd wounds to Thomastik and that solved that problem. I than stood 20 feet away from my amp, turned UP the volume and tested it against the Koolau, I'iwi, LfdM and Webber tenors all with LR Baggs pick ups. At volume, like on stage the Godin kicks ass, it sounded the best. Realize the Godin is about $625, the others are 3-5 times as much. If you are looking for a dedicated amplified tenor this instrument is a winner. The sound amplified is more natural sounding then anything I have played.
There have been discussions on what wound strings work well on this for low G and I can recommend the Thomastik CF 30 and CF 27 for the wound 4th and 3rd respectively. These strings are noted to have strong fundamentals and a netural sound charactristic.
I hope this helps someone out there that might be thinking of buying one. The build quality is very good and a solid cedar top and solid mahogany body for that price is great. I love the neck, it plays very easy and smooth but you will need to use a strap.
The first thing I did was restring it low G with my favorite South Coast HML-WB string set. I liked the sound unplugged but the more I played it amplified the less I was sure about it. Simon came over and played it amplified and it sounded good, then he played my Koolau with LR Baggs pick up plugged in. That kinda killed the Godin for me (I will be making a point so hang in there), I thought why keep it. After he left I realized I was standing behind the amp, Simon was facing me, and so was the sound hole of the uke and the amp was very low, I was hearing more of an acoustic sound.
The SC wound strings were sustaining for too long a time, 15 seconds plus and the note was oscillating. I changed the 4th and 3rd wounds to Thomastik and that solved that problem. I than stood 20 feet away from my amp, turned UP the volume and tested it against the Koolau, I'iwi, LfdM and Webber tenors all with LR Baggs pick ups. At volume, like on stage the Godin kicks ass, it sounded the best. Realize the Godin is about $625, the others are 3-5 times as much. If you are looking for a dedicated amplified tenor this instrument is a winner. The sound amplified is more natural sounding then anything I have played.
There have been discussions on what wound strings work well on this for low G and I can recommend the Thomastik CF 30 and CF 27 for the wound 4th and 3rd respectively. These strings are noted to have strong fundamentals and a netural sound charactristic.
I hope this helps someone out there that might be thinking of buying one. The build quality is very good and a solid cedar top and solid mahogany body for that price is great. I love the neck, it plays very easy and smooth but you will need to use a strap.
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