Just Bought a Godin A4 Fretless

[Randy Howard]

Sounds like I really need to make a vid - I have an A4 Ultra fretless and I get a LOT of "action" out of the various controls. It depends on which 1/4" jack you're plugged into and how the sliders are set. I'm at work, but if I recall correctly one jack bypasses the pre-amp and only uses the magnetic pickup. The sliders do nothing in this mode, and only the volume/tone control knobs on the edge of the bass work. The other 1/4" jack goes through the pre-amp and the bass/mid/treble sliders work, as does the piezo volume slider. I *think* it's a volume control for the piezo and not a balance control...but I'd have to confirm that.

The primary danger of me making a vid is that you guys would find out how badly I play.

Oh go ahead and make the video. Then we can all laugh at you and tell each other how great we are! Not.

You are right about the differences between the two phono jacks. The "electric" jack seems to play only the mag pickup. But when playing with the "acoustic" jack both the bridge and mag pickup seem to work. Of course Godin mentions none of this in their skimpy literature.

 

[NG51]

The primary danger of me making a vid is that you guys would find out how badly I play. [/QUOTE]
Fear not- You'd be doing us present and future owners a great service!
This whole discussion has gotten me really curious-can't wait to get mine, and see what's up. One thing in my favor is that I bought my A5 Ultra from a great local shop, run by experienced people-they are also a long-time Godin dealer. So at least I feel I have excellent service.

 

[Randy Howard]

I have an A5 fretless and I find that there's very little happening with the slider controls. Putting LaBella nylon tape wound strings on it helped, but I am having a difficult time finding a musical situation that it works in.

Do you find the thumb rest useful and is it in a position that you like? In what ways did the tape wound strings help?

 

[Davo-LON]

Not sure I understand. You replaced the standard Godin piezo with a K&K pickup?

I added the K&K so I could use both. I just prefer the K&K.

Davo

 

[Randy Howard]

Messing with my new A4 tonight. The guitar is amazing. If you are a traditional sort of player I doubt you will like it. Rock/metal/alternative players will have no use for it at all. But if you like to color outside of the lines this might be for you. Great for solo work, jazz, jazz fusion, even possibly folk such as Latin. I have discovered that the mag pickup offers a lot of diversity in tone and it sounds very natural. I bought the bass thinking the bridge pickup would be what I liked most but so far, not. Great tone, instant mwa, effortless vibrato, huge opportunities for harmonics and over tones. It is all in your hands to see what can be done. I have been playing it flat on my ironing board as I figure out what it can do. This bass will entertain me for years.

 

[lpdeluxe]

Do you find the thumb rest useful and is it in a position that you like? In what ways did the tape wound strings help?

I don't use the thumb rest at all. I sort of hang my right hand from my wrist when I play, which probably developed from my playing with a flat pick when I first started on bass.

The standard flat wound strings went dead pretty quickly, resulting in a bottom-heavy sound. The tape wounds restored some up harmonics and in my opinion gave the bass more of an upright flavor: thumpy with low sustain but a little treble zing.

It's a nice bass and I wish I liked it better.

 

[Randy Howard]

I don't use the thumb rest at all. I sort of hang my right hand from my wrist when I play, which probably developed from my playing with a flat pick when I first started on bass.

The standard flat wound strings went dead pretty quickly, resulting in a bottom-heavy sound. The tape wounds restored some up harmonics and in my opinion gave the bass more of an upright flavor: thumpy with low sustain but a little treble zing.

It's a nice bass and I wish I liked it better.

What bass(s) do you like better?

 

[jg42]

Sounds like I really need to make a vid - I have an A4 Ultra fretless and I get a LOT of "action" out of the various controls. It depends on which 1/4" jack you're plugged into and how the sliders are set. I'm at work, but if I recall correctly one jack bypasses the pre-amp and only uses the magnetic pickup. The sliders do nothing in this mode, and only the volume/tone control knobs on the edge of the bass work. The other 1/4" jack goes through the pre-amp and the bass/mid/treble sliders work, as does the piezo volume slider. I *think* it's a volume control for the piezo and not a balance control...but I'd have to confirm that.

The primary danger of me making a vid is that you guys would find out how badly I play.

yup, I have a Godin guitarbag with similar setup - one jack is for magnetic pickups and the other is a mix of magnetic and piezo....

 

[lpdeluxe]

What bass(s) do you like better?

I go around and around with four other basses: the most aggressive is a '99 MusicMan SR5, which gets pulled out of the case when I play '70s and '80s rock (which I haven't done for about 2 years); next up are a Fender AVRI '57 P and a Classic '50s, which are interchangeable as to tone, but I favor the Classic '50s for gigging since its poly finish is a lot more durable than the '57's lacquer; finally is my current #1, a Fender Classic '51 Precision, which is the least aggressive other than the Godin. All are strung with Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats.

I played the split-coil Ps in a top 40 C&W band, and the other guys loved the sound. The '51 gets played in our current line-up, which performs pop songs from the '30s and '40s with the occasional foray into other decades. We have three harmonizing female singers, a percussionist, me on bass and a guitar player. The guitar and I arrange the music so we are something like the right and left hands of a pianist, so I need a bass with specific features: not too in-your-face, but not recessed, either, with great articulation and note definition, and finally, with a fast attack and short sustain to help out the percussion.

Against these requirements the Godin is too laid back and doesn't provide the thump I need, and its tonality tends to get lost between the electric guitar and percussion (mic'd snare/cymbal and congas and bongos on a stand). I did use the Godin when I was playing sing-along music with my percussionist and another guitarist who sang. In that environment the sonic demands were low and the chances of stepping on one another's parts even lower.

On those increasingly rare occasions when I sit in with folkies, the A5 is a natural choice, not least because it looks much more "acoustic" than my other basses (which are honey sunburst,sunburst, fiesta red, two-color and bright yellow [butterscotch] respectively).

I hope this answers your question.

 

[Randy Howard]

I go around and around with four other basses: the most aggressive is a '99 MusicMan SR5, which gets pulled out of the case when I play '70s and '80s rock (which I haven't done for about 2 years); next up are a Fender AVRI '57 P and a Classic '50s, which are interchangeable as to tone, but I favor the Classic '50s for gigging since its poly finish is a lot more durable than the '57's lacquer; finally is my current #1, a Fender Classic '51 Precision, which is the least aggressive other than the Godin. All are strung with Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats.

I played the split-coil Ps in a top 40 C&W band, and the other guys loved the sound. The '51 gets played in our current line-up, which performs pop songs from the '30s and '40s with the occasional foray into other decades. We have three harmonizing female singers, a percussionist, me on bass and a guitar player. The guitar and I arrange the music so we are something like the right and left hands of a pianist, so I need a bass with specific features: not too in-your-face, but not recessed, either, with great articulation and note definition, and finally, with a fast attack and short sustain to help out the percussion.

Against these requirements the Godin is too laid back and doesn't provide the thump I need, and its tonality tends to get lost between the electric guitar and percussion (mic'd snare/cymbal and congas and bongos on a stand). I did use the Godin when I was playing sing-along music with my percussionist and another guitarist who sang. In that environment the sonic demands were low and the chances of stepping on one another's parts even lower.

On those increasingly rare occasions when I sit in with folkies, the A5 is a natural choice, not least because it looks much more "acoustic" than my other basses (which are honey sunburst,sunburst, fiesta red, two-color and bright yellow [butterscotch] respectively).

I hope this answers your question.

Thanks Ipdeluxe. I went to a bar last night for a CD release party of a band billed as "Alternative". Thought they were more rock or possibly Indie rather than alternative. At any rate their bass was loud and just thunked out notes like chopping wood. The Godin would have been totally lost in that environment.

 

[ChemDave]

The controls on the bass' body change their functions depending on which output jack is being utilized.

Using the "Mix Jack" only....the sliders from the top of the upper bout toward the bottom...
1. The blend control for the piezo and the magnetic Lace Sensor. Sliding it toward the neck boosts the piezo, toward the bridge boosts the magnetic pickup. I like mine around the middle position.
2. The next three sliders in order are treble, midrange, and bass. These control the piezo bridge pickup.
3. The bottom slider doesn't function (it's for the 13-pin synthesizer control).
The controls at the top edge of the body control the mix jack...closest one to the back of the bass is the volume, the one in front is the tone control.

Using the "13-Pin Jack"....controls an attached synthesizer that has a 13-pin input.
1. The bottom of the sliders controls the synthesizer output/level.
2. The top slider blends the magnetic pickup and the piezo.
3. The top edge volume and tone controls are used as a master control for the piezo and the magnetic pickup.
I never used this jack, and I have a feeling that to get bass signal out you'd need to use the mix jack too.

Using the "Electric Jack" only...only the magnetic pickup (no piezo) operates, and the body edge volume and tone control modifies its sound.

Using all three jacks at one time.....three cables!.....
1. The bottom slider controls the synthesizer output/volume via the 13-pin jack.
2. The top body edge knobs control the magnetic pickup's volume and tone via the Electric Jack.
3. The top slider is the piezo's volume control, and the three sliders below it are treble, midrange, and bass controls for the piezo via the Mix Jack.

The pushbuttons beside the sliders toward the neck side of the bass are used to switch up through (top button) and (bottom button) switch down through pre-programmed patches for a synthesizer. The sliding switch between them is used to set the center frequency for the piezo midrange control, 700 or 1200 Hz.

I learned a lot about the setup of the electronics when I purchased a used 2013 Ultra A4 through an eBay musical equipment dealer and discovered that there was an output problem at the Mix output...terrible distortion that was very erratic: it cycled on and off, cutting signal levels, distorting like a cheap fuzz pedal, and then coming back to normal for a short time. The Electric output worked fine with the passive magnetic pickup. I contacted Godin about it, asked for advice, and was advised to (1) spray the circuit boards with contact cleaner, then when that did not improve anything (2) replace the equalizer (which involved every electrical component in the bass except for one small cable). I purchased a new equalizer from Godin (the seller reimbursed me for it since he represented the bass as operating perfectly), and I installed it, holding my breath when I soldered each of the twenty-three new connections. It has worked perfectly [so far] since I hooked up three new circuit boards and replaced its multi-conductor ribbon cable.

 

[Randy Howard]

My bass has been sitting due to health problems but I am on my feet again. Still very curious about the addition of the K&K pure transducer pickup. Did the pickup replace an existing pickup or was it added as an additional pickup? Where was it installed and how was it wired into the existing circuitry? What gains were realized by using this pickup? Anyone have more wisdom on this unique bass? Randy

 

[rericsawyer]

Thanks to all the good comments on this thread!

I am expecting delivery of a new A4 this week. I have several Godin guitars, which I like very much; but I have never played this bass. Bought it totally blind, and I have been very hungry to hear what some other folks have thought.

I have mostly played several of the little U-Basses, from a solid with roundwounds, to a 5 string solid, to a hollow fretless (my favorite) and it was that fretless that convinced me it was time to go big. I haven't played a full sized bass guitar more than an hour in the last 20 years!

Especially interested in hearing about string selections. Looking for as close to an upright sound as I can get without buying a van.