Guitar Gear

Last weekend I finally had the chance to gig with my Godin Artisan ST-V. It performed incredibly well, but it’s clear that I have a bit more work to do in dialing in my signal chain to get the best sound out of the guitar.

How do I describe the natural tone of this guitar? It is very much like a Telecaster tone, but with balls, if you catch my drift – like a super-Tele. I started out setting the amp at flat EQ to see where the guitar’s natural tone sits. Not a bad sound at all, but a little more midrange than I prefer. So I turned down the mids to compensate, but the guitar also creates a pretty fat bottom; not flabby, mind you, but it required that I dialed down the bass just a smidgen. That fixed the tone, and the result was a crisp and rich sound out of my Katana 50.

The other challenge that I had was using my drive pedal. When I got the Katana 50, it was going to be used expressly as a clean headroom platform. In that respect, it performs incredibly well. With all my other guitars, I use my trusty Tone Freak Abunai 2 for dirt. But it didn’t sound “right” with this guitar for some reason. I think it has to do with the fact that the Abunai 2 adds a bit of darkness, even with the diode lift setting (it acts as a traditional overdrive in this setting). With the natural fat bottom that the guitar produces, it was a bit much.

So I’m going to have to go back to the drawing board as far as overdrive is concerned. I’m going to have to try my TubeScreamer (TS-808), but I’m thinking that my Timmy pedal will work great with this as it is a really transparent overdrive.

As far as cleans are concerned, oh man! The cleans that absolutely love in a Tele are present in this guitar. Add to that the fat bottom-end and when played with an analog delay, the sound is pretty haunting. I love it!

As I said, I’ve got a bit more experimentation to do with this guitar. It has a unique and unexpected tone that I have not had in a guitar ever. This one for sure will be staying with me for years.