If Martin never introduced another new
guitar, their place as a gold standard in
studios and on stages everywhere would
remain forever assured. But for all their
heritage and iconic guitars that are already
practically perfect, Martin hasn’t stopped
innovating or building new guitars for new
niches and evolving players.
The Performing Artist series is one of the
most recent manifestations of that commitment.
In this case, Martin is reaching out
to the sizable chunk of the contemporary
acoustic market that’s plugging in and turning
up—not just for performance, but also
for recording at home and in the studio. The
GPCPA1 Grand Performance reviewed here
addresses those needs by including a Fishman
Aura imaging system, as well as enhanced-playability
features like a slim-taper neck. But
for all its concessions to the needs of new-world
singer-songwriters and pickers, the
GPCPA1 is a Martin through and through
and a joy to play in any situation.
A Feast for the Eyes,
Nose, and Ears
The first thing you notice about the
Martin GPCPA1 is that it smells as good
as ambrosia on a warm summer night. It’s
beautiful to look at too, with a curvaceous
Grand Performance body built
around East Indian rosewood back
and sides, and a solid Sitka top. The
“select hardwood” neck (in Martin’s
nomenclature) looks like mahogany
or sapele and is shaped in the
Performing Artist profile, which
tapers gradually down its whole
length. The nut, saddle, and endpins
are Tusq, which always provides a certain
oomph that’s a lot like you’d expect
from bone.
Ornamentation is subtle and lovely, with
simple arrow-and-square fretboard inlays,
a striking pearl rosette surrounded by a
black-accented double ring, and triple black
purfling around the top. The pickguard deviates
from the trademark Martin template
and evokes a vague country-western look.
My favorite feature, though, might be the
ebony headplate with the old-fashioned C.F.
Martin block letter logo in pearl descending
the center. I’ve always preferred that bold,
blocky look to the more common script
logo, and it looks great with the gold Martin
tuners. The satin-finished, 25.4"-scale neck
has a fingerstyle-friendly 1 3/4" nut. The
fretboard is bound in golden-tinged ovangkol
that matches the body binding, and
a peek inside the soundhole reveals a hybrid scalloped X-brace.
The Fishman F1 Aura system interface is
placed familiarly enough on the upper bout.
But rather than a clunky plastic frame-and-plate
section for the controls, there are just
two low-profile knobs and an LED indicator
to tell you what options you have selected.
The knob closest to the top controls Volume,
and the knob closest to the player is used
to select Aura settings. There are nine Aura
images available that you can modify using
a tap and a twist of the edit knob to adjust
Treble, Mid, Bass, and Compression settings.
The F1 Aura also has a tuner (unlike some
onboard tuners, this works with any tuning)
and a really slick 3-band anti-feedback system.
Conveniently stashed at the endblock, the
9-volt battery that powers the FI Aura is easy
to access and—according to the manual—will
last up to 54 hours with a lithium battery and
up to 27 hours with a standard alkaline cell.
Sweet Acoustic or Electrified Tones
The GPCPA1 has a truly intoxicating tone.
The spruce and Indian rosewood pairing
produces a beautiful combination of warmth
and clarity, bursting with overtones that will
keep your ears ecstatic for hours. Lower tunings
like C–G–D–G–B–D and DADGAD,
showcased the Martin’s impressive capacity
for big bass sounds without overdriving the
box or sounding tubby. In standard tuning
the guitar has a sweet fingerstyle tone, but
when you dig in with a flatpick, it can really
bark with great definition.
A lot of folks don’t completely understand
the principle behind the Fishman
Aura systems. First of wall, it is not a
modeling system. It does not make a bad
guitar sound like a great guitar, nor will it
make your Martin sound like a Telecaster
or a Les Paul. Fundamentally, the Aura
system emulates the sound of your guitar
played through a microphone instead of
through a pickup system. And by using an
algorithm that emulates a microphone’s
interaction with the warm, breathy, woody,
open presence of a real acoustic, you can
get studio-level clarity that can be turned
up really loud. The microphone emulations
in the Martin’s F1 Aura system include
some very cool specimens too: the DAP
4011, Schoeps CMC64g, Earthworks QTC
30, AKG C414-B, Neumann KM 84,
Soundelux E47, GT Velo 8, Shure SM57,
and a Neumann U 87.
I had the chance to gig with the
GPCPA1 with my rhythm section, which
happened to be in a pretty rowdy mood the
night of the gig. These musicians play a lot
of classic rock, R&B, funk, and blues, so
they like to get loud. And the Martin had
the goods to help me hang tight in the mix.
Following Martin’s directions (which you
can explore via an included DVD), my first
step was to set the volume as high as possible
without overdriving my amp. Then I
turned the Edit knob to blend between the
undersaddle pickup and the Aura image
(Martin recommends a 65 percent pickup
balance). I chose the microphone image by
pressing the Edit knob, and then turning
the knob to move between images. There
is a clear difference between each image, so
spending a little time getting to know them
before trying to pick one out for a given
situation is key.
For the solo section of my show, I chose
the Schoeps CMC64g condenser microphone
image, which gave me a awesome
mix of dark, rich, and brilliant overtones
when I plugged into my very transparent
L.R. Baggs Core 1 amp. But while the
Schoeps tone was beautifully balanced, I
decided to tweak it further by dialing the
bass back a touch and kicking the presence
up just a hair, which made the already
warm image that much more enveloping.
To play in the heavier sonic environment
of the trio, I chose the Neumann U
87 image because it seemed to compete less
with the bass and emphasize the Martin’s
beautiful midrange. I shaved the bass by
just a tweak or
two, pushed up the
mids and treble,
boosted the compression
to 3, and dialed
the blend to about 70
percent pickup. The guitar
sounded great—real, rich, and
present in the mix—and loud and
clear and wonderfully free of feedback.
The 3-band anti-feedback control, which
can automatically isolate up to three frequency
bands that are inducing feedback,
worked like a champ. I just pressed and
held the Edit and Volume knobs for two
seconds, waited for “1” to appear, and
then watched a succession of numbers
that indicated the system was reducing the
offending frequencies. The other valuable
onboard feedback-busting feature is the
Phase setting, which you access by pressing
the Volume knob once. You can use this to
improve bass response at low volume and
also to suppress feedback when you need to
play loud.
The Verdict
The GPCPA1 is a gorgeous feather in
Martin’s cap—a great sounding, great
playing, stage-friendly super-axe that is as
feature-rich as it is grounded in the Martin
tradition. It only takes a little time to master
the highly intuitive F1 Aura System that
makes the guitar adaptable to just about
any performance or studio situation. And
unlike many acoustic/electrics that compromise
on both fronts, the GPCPA1 excels in
both realms.
Watch the video review:
Buy if...
you need a serious performance tool that offers outstanding tone,playability, and versatility in a roadworthy package.
Skip if...
a passive soundhole pickup is already more electronics than you can handle.
Rating...
