Godin A8

[DaveMorehouse]

Hey folks.

For those who are playing the Godin a8 out live I would ask, "What are you playing through?" (Amps, pedals, pres, etc.)

I just got mine and plan to run it straight into my Fishman Loudbox tonight. I would like to hear what others are doing and perhaps expand my sound some.

Thanks, in advance,
Dave

[Jim Nollman]

I've owned two of them in the past. I played mine through a Fishman Loudbox acoustic amp. The best "electric" mandolin I ever owned. The only caveat I can add, is that I just hope you didn't buy one of the early ones without an adjustable bridge. Probably not if its brand new.

[mandroid]

With their built in preamp, powered by the 9v battery they are pretty un fussy, line level into a mixer, or combo amp will do.

Fishman loudbox?, don't need to use their preamp,, since there is one in the A8.. a lot hotter signal than a passive piezo pickup.

[kjbllc]

I have used one for 9 years and tried it through a california blonde for the first 5 for me the fishman loudbox blew the blonde away but that is just my experience. I have two one with adjustable and one without, they both needed quite a bit of neck adjustment.

[DaveMorehouse]

"I have two one with adjustable and one without, they both needed quite a bit of neck adjustment."

Yeah, mine is setup okay but not great. I will be tweaking it next weekend.

[Barry Canada]

I have one which was a complete disaster over the years. Firstly thee piezo electronics broke down. Then the neck warped to the point that my excellent luthier clearly said it was unacceptable. He contacted the Godin company who didn't want to hear of it. Finally my luthier told me it wasn't worth fixing. I then requested that he remove all the frets, fill in the fret grooves and make me a fretless Godin! He thought I was joking! Then hesitated and said that was the coolest suggestion he heard of in a while. I now have a sitar like sounding fretless Godin!
Would I buy another Godin product? After this experience? No!
Cheers!

[Loubrava]

I play an older A8 usually through a Fishman LB and never a problem. I've played it through a Marshall, a PA, a Roland never used a preamp and always plenty of volume. Right now I'm playing a stereo set up with the LB & VHT 5 watt tube amp. The sounds you can get are pretty cool. The A8 with its on board EQ and volume make it very versatile playing in loud band. We play a little hard rock stuff so when I want some distortion the VHT provides nice warm tube distortion mixed with the LB clean it blends in real nice with the rest of band, a mando with grit ! The affects on LB work pretty well too the delay/reverb and chorus mixed together will give you a cool pallet for some funk chop chords & when the band starts playing some James Brown you won't get left behind ! My A8 has served me well never had to adjust the neck the action is pretty low and it stays in tune forever. Have fun with it.
Lou

[Teak]

I also own a newer model Godin A8 that did not need any neck adjustment and sounds great. I use a Carvin AG200 acoustic amp which is like a small PA system. It has six inputs which include High Z and 48V phantom power switches. I send the A8 signal directly into the amp and use the 48V phantom power. The mandolin has a nice acoustic sound even at higher volume which is needed when playing with drums and piano.

I also use a Sennheiser e835 vocal mic that I run into the Carvin and a Sennheiser e614 'pencil' mic that I use to amplify my acoustic mandolins with the 48V phantom power.

The last gig we played at, the keyboardist brought an amp for her piano but couldn't connect into the house system. We ran her piano input into the Carvin and mixed the three sounds (acoustic manolin, vocal, and piano) before sending that signal out to the house PA. I like that better than trusting the house engineer to do a suitable mix.

[Lord of the Badgers]

i guess my issue with them is purely aesthetic; I don't want a mini guitar if I am to play a nice electric mandolin.
NFI, but Paul Hathway for example does a nice range with headway p/ups in them... http://www.paulhathway.com/solid-electrics/

[Teak]

i guess my issue with them is purely aesthetic; I don't want a mini guitar if I am to play a nice electric mandolin.
NFI, but Paul Hathway for example does a nice range with headway p/ups in them...

Wow, those Hathways look nice!

So did the Godin A8 sound like a mini electric guitar to you when you played one? That is surprising to me. I own two electric guitars, two acoustic mandolins, and a Godin A8. The Godin sounds much closer to an acoustic mandolin when plugged in and far from an electric guitar sound. And that includes a Rickenbacker which can get a pretty clean sound, almost acoustic using a tube amp.

[jab]

I play my A8 with a guitar cable plugged directly into a powered mixer. The eq on the mixer and the eq on the mando gets you a pretty good sound out of the gate. Doesn't sound thin or cheesy, pretty mando sounding for an electric. Have had my A8 for 10 years and have never had to make an adjustment, plays easy.