Fishman set a benchmark for acoustic guitar amplification back in the stone age with the Fishman Acoustic Matrix. They’ve since held their position as one of the most prominent brands in the field, continuing to innovate and refine what was already solid. Recently, the Fishman Aura Acoustic Imaging Blender has been turning heads with its powerful “imaging” technology – making use of some freaky algorithms that duplicate the way a particular guitar body sounds mic’d – and revolutionizing the way pickups interact with the rest of the system.
When the gang at Premier Guitar handed me a stack of three new Fishman AFX acoustic guitar effects pedals – reverb, delay and chorus – to test and review, I was extremely intrigued. Monolithic in a friendly way, these boxes are reassuringly solid and weighty, with the Fishman logo prominent, yet subtle. From the moment the temptingly textured boxes hit my hands I was hooked. The pedals are sleek, slightly retro, immediately comprehensible, and – dare I say it? – shiny.
Adventures in Stereo
First things first: kudos go to whoever decided to make these units stereo. There’s a right and left input and output on all three units, meaning it would even be possible to use these pedals, particularly the reverb, as outboard effects for a mixing board – a painless way to get reverb into the signal when you’re plugging into a Bose L1, for instance. Double kudos are needed, because the reverb pedal has enough luscious settings to justify the stereo capabilities. Also, the überhandy Input Gain switch toggles between Normal and Boost, adding a little more punch to a passive pickup. For players who have multiple signals coming out of their guitars from multiple pickup systems, a perfectly clean, stereo reverb in one little box is a revelation.
The rubber feet are attached to the base of the unit with screws on all four corners, making it highly unlikely that they’ll fall off and get lost in anybody’s gear fragment vortex. The knobs are enticingly chunky, super easy to turn and clearly marked with highly readable black text on the brushed nickel top plate, which means given barely adequate lighting (the norm at many gigs), you’ll actually be able to see your settings. The bypass footswitches are effortless to find in the dark and have a very solid and unmistakable click that tells you when you’ve made contact. I get the feeling that maybe, just maybe, the designers at Fishman have actually gigged before. These are some of the most user-focused and friendly pedals I’ve ever plugged into.
Apart from the aesthetics, the biggest hook is that the AFX pedals are specifically designed for the tone and frequency range of acoustic guitars – there is no compromise here. They’re beautifully clean and clear with vibrant, lively sounds that compliment your acoustic image perfectly, and there’s no crunch, noise or other distracting tonal inefficiencies that characterize so many pedals designed for electric guitars. When you increase the level, you don’t distort or change your tone. That pretty much seals the deal right there. But before we get too carried away, let’s plug them in.
AFX Reverb
There are eight presets out of the box – Studio, Room, Plate, Chamber, Stage, Concert, Cathedral and Canyon – and three controls to sculpt your sound: Level, Tone and Decay Time. Fortunately for the less-techno-savvy acoustic guitarists out there, the controls are immediately comprehensible. The Level control mixes in parallel, simply adding effect; likewise, Tone adds brightness or warmth to the effect, but steers clear of your instrument’s tone. Decay Time does what it promises, adjusting the length of the reverb’s tail, allowing you to increase the drama or dial it back for some simple sweetening.
The unit generates no noise that I could hear and unlike some other reverb pedals available, there is a clear and immediately discernable difference in the sound when you start dialing in the exact ‘verb you want. I particularly enjoyed the Tone knob’s flexibility, preferring a little more warmth with my steel string and a little more brightness with my nylon string. The presets themselves are very appealing, with most needing little or no tweaking. Overall, Fishman’s AFX Reverb offers up clean and effortless operation – not to mention killer value for the money.
Buy if...
you want gorgeous reverb and effortless control over it
Skip if...
you require more control over elements not available here
Rating...
MSRP $389.95 - Fishman - fishman.com |
AFX Chorus
Fishman''s AFX Chorus also includes eight presets to start the user off with a nice, big palette; three Chorus settings, Stereo and Narrow Tremolo, Flanger, Phaser and Rotary effects round out the package. I''m not a big chorus fan, but found myself far more engaged with this pedal than I imagined I''d be. In fact, a taste of Chorus 1 on the warm side was enough to scare away the winter blues. Schmaltzy and smart jazz tunes really pop, and it''s possible to dial in Scofield-style weirdness, too. The trem, flange, phase and rotary settings sound just as transparent and clear, but to my ear they lacked a little of the beauty that the Chorus effects claimed; it might have simply been because I couldn''t figure out how to incorporate a rotary sound into a fingerstyle tune, but if you''re the inventive type, you''ll enjoy the added effects. The control knobs - in this case, Level, Tone and Speed - remain dead simple, although the Tone control didn''t seem as responsive as on the AFX Reverb, with the bright side becoming sterile at the highest settings, and the warm side adding just a touch of mush. Nevertheless, the sheer transparency of this unit makes it truly remarkable and well worth adding to your rig if modulation effects are your thing.
Buy if...
you need a smart, sophisticated chorus palette that''s a breeze to set
Skip if...
you need more than just Tone and Speed controls
Rating...
MSRP $389.95 - Fishman - fishman.com |
AFX Delay
While I''ve never really employed delays in my own playing, if I was to embark upon such a mission, this is the delay I''d go with. The pedal features two delay types - the ultra clean and quiet Modern mode or the warm, analog-styled Classic mode - and four presets for each, giving the users the option of short, medium, long or ping pong variants (with up to 2.9 seconds of available delay time). There''s also the ability for short phrase sampling, a nice bonus for such a compact unit.
Due to size constraints there is no tap switch onboard, but the pedal features an extra input for a tap switch that allows the user to override the delay time and set their own tempo. Like the other two pedals, this unit is well thought out and easy to use, but the most important thing to my ear is that there is no sudden "electric" sound. Nothing gets added to your hard-earned acoustic tone - you just get delay.
Buy if...
you want a gorgeously transparent delay effect that satisfies your wildest muses
Skip if...
you need unlimited versatility and depth of control
Rating...
MSRP $389.95 - Fishman - fishman.com |
The Final Mojo
Personally, I can''t imagine being an acoustic guitarist and not wanting these pedals; they're incredibly user-oriented, and with 24-bit A/D/A and 32-bit processing, these units provide the high-quality tone and transparency acoustic players crave. Diehard tweakers may wish for some more depth of control, but for the majority of players, these things will transform how you look at coupling effects with that gorgeous acoustic.
Our expert has stated her case, now we want to hear yours. Share your comments and ratings below.
LR Baggs Session DI Acoustic Guitar Preamp / DI
Inspired by the LR Baggs Handcrafted Video Sessions and our experience in some of Nashville’s great studios, the Session Acoustic DI brings our signature studio sound to your live rig. The Session DI enhances your acoustic pickup and imparts the rich sonic character that you’d expect from an experienced audio engineer using some of the world’s finest studio gear. We’ve captured this studio magic and put it into a compact, easy-to-use DI that will transform your live sound.
For the first time in the band’s history, the Dawes lineup for Oh Brother consisted of just Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith (left and right).
Goldsmith’s lyrics spoke to me the loudest, with lines like “Well, you can judge the whole world on the sparkle that you think it lacks / Yes, you can stare into the abyss, but it’s starin’ right back” (a casual Nietzsche paraphrase); and “Oh, the snowfall this time of year / It’s not what Birmingham is used to / I get the feeling that I brought it here / And now I’m taking it away.” The way his words painted a portrait of the sincere, sentimental man behind them, along with his cozy, unassuming guitar work and the band’s four-part harmonies, had me hooked.
Nothing Is Wrong and Stories Don’t End came next, and I happily gobbled up more folksy fodder in tracks like “If I Wanted,” “Most People,” and “From a Window Seat.” But 2015’s All Your Favorite Bands, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Folk Albumschart, didn’t land with me, and by the time 2016’s We’re All Gonna Die was released, it was clear that Goldsmith had shifted thematically in his writing. A friend drew a thoughtful Warren Zevon comparison to the single, “When the Tequila Runs Out”—a commentary on vapid, conceited, American-socialite party culture—but it still didn’t really do it for me. I fell off the Dawes train a bit, and became somewhat oblivious to their three full-lengths that followed.
Oh Brotheris Goldsmith’s latest addition to the Dawes songbook, and I’m grateful to say that it’s brought me back. After having done some catching up, I’d posit that it’s the second work in the third act, or fall season, of his songwriting—where 2022’s Misadventures of Doomscrollercracked open the door, Oh Brother swings it wide. And it doesn’t have much more than Dawes’ meat and potatoes, per se, in common with acts one or two. Some moodiness has stayed—as well as societal disgruntlement and the arrangement elements that first had me intoxicated. But then there’s the 7/4 section in the middle of “Front Row Seat”; the gently unwinding, quiet, intimate jazz-club feel of “Surprise!”; the experimentally percussive, soft-spoken “Enough Already”; and the unexpected, dare I say, Danny Elfman-esque harmonic twists and turns in the closing track, “Hilarity Ensues.”
The main engine behind Dawes, the Goldsmith brothers are both native “Angelinos,” having been born and raised in the L.A. area. Taylor is still proud to call the city his home.
Photo by Jon Chu
“I have this working hypothesis that who you are as a songwriter through the years is pretty close to who you are in a dinner conversation,” Goldsmith tells me in an interview, as I ask him about that thematic shift. “When I was 23, if I was invited to dinner with grownups [laughs], or just friends or whatever, and they say, ‘How you doin’, Taylor?’ I probably wouldn’t think twice to be like, ‘I’m not that good. There’s this girl, and … I don’t know where things are at—can I share this with you? Is that okay?’ I would just go in in a way that’s fairly indiscreet! And I’m grateful to that version of me, especially as a writer, because that’s what I wanted to hear, so that’s what I was making at the time.
“But then as I got older, it became, ‘Oh, maybe that’s not an appropriate way to answer the question of how I’m doing.’ Or, ‘Maybe I’ve spent enough years thinking about me! What does it feel like to turn the lens around?’” he continues, naming Elvis Costello and Paul Simon as inspirations along the way through that self-evolution. “Also, trying to be mindful of—I had strengths then that I don’t have now, but I have strengths now that I didn’t have then. And now it’s time to celebrate those. Even in just a physical way, like hearing Frank Zappa talking about how his agility as a guitar player was waning as he got older. It’s like, that just means that you showcase different aspects of your skills.
“I am a changing person. It would be weird if I was still writing the same way I was when I was 23. There would probably be some weird implications there as to who I’d be becoming as a human [laughs].”
Taylor Goldsmith considers Oh Brother, the ninth full-length in Dawes’ catalog, to be the beginning of a new phase of Dawes, containing some of his most unfiltered, unedited songwriting.
Since its inception, the engine behind Dawes has been the brothers Goldsmith, with Taylor on guitar and vocals and Griffin on drums and sometimes vocal harmonies. But they’ve always had consistent backup. For the first several years, that was Wylie Gelber on bass and Tay Strathairn on keyboards. On We’re All Gonna Die, Lee Pardini replaced Strathairn and has been with the band since. Oh Brother, however, marks the departure of Gelber and Pardini.
“We were like, ‘Wow, this is an intense time; this is a vulnerable time,’” remarks Goldsmith, who says that their parting was supportive and loving, but still rocked him and Griffin. “You get a glimpse of your vulnerability in a way that you haven’t felt in a long time when things are just up and running. For a second there, we’re like, ‘We’re getting a little rattled—how do we survive this?’”
They decided to pair up with producer Mike Viola, a close family friend, who has also worked with Mandy Moore—Taylor’s spouse—along with Panic! At the Disco, Andrew Bird, and Jenny Lewis. “[We knew that] he understands all of the parameters of that raw state. And, you know, I always show Mike my songs, so he was aware of what we had cookin’,” says Goldsmith.
Griffin stayed behind the kit, but Taylor took over on bass and keys, the latter of which he has more experience with than he’s displayed on past releases. “We’ve made records where it’s very tempting to appeal to your strengths, where it’s like, ‘Oh, I know how to do this, I’m just gonna nail it,’” he says. “Then there’s records that we make where we really push ourselves into territories where we aren’t comfortable. That contributed to [Misadventures of Doomscroller] feeling like a living, breathing thing—very reactive, very urgent, very aware. We were paying very close attention. And I would say the same goes for this.”
That new terrain, says Goldsmith, “forced us to react to each other and react to the music in new ways, and all of a sudden, we’re exploring new corners of what we do. I’m really excited in that sense, because it’s like this is the first album of a new phase.”
“That forced us to react to each other and react to the music in new ways, and all of a sudden, we’re exploring new corners of what we do.”
In proper folk (or even folk-rock) tradition, the music of Dawes isn’t exactly riddled with guitar solos, but that’s not to say that Goldsmith doesn’t show off his chops when the timing is right. Just listen to the languid, fluent lick on “Surprise!”, the shamelessly prog-inspired riff in the bridge of “Front Row Seat,” and the tactful, articulate line that threads through “Enough Already.” Goldsmith has a strong, individual sense of phrasing, where his improvised melodies can be just as biting as his catalog’s occasional lyrical jabs at presumably toxic ex-girlfriends, and just as melancholy as his self-reflective metaphors, all the while without drawing too much attention to himself over the song.
Of course, most of our conversation revolves around songwriting, as that’s the craft that’s the truest and closest to his identity. “There’s an openness, a goofiness—I even struggle to say it now, but—an earnestness that goes along with who I am, not only as a writer but as a person,” Goldsmith elaborates. “And I think it’s important that those two things reflect one another. ’Cause when you meet someone and they don’t, I get a little bit weirded out, like, ‘What have I been listening to? Are you lying to me?’” he says with a smile.
Taylor Goldsmith's Gear
Pictured here performing live in 2014, Taylor Goldsmith has been the primary songwriter for all of Dawes' records, beginning with 2009’s North Hills.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
Guitars
- Fender Telecaster
- Gibson ES-345
- Radocaster (made by Wylie Gelber)
Amps
- ’64 Fender Deluxe
- Matchless Laurel Canyon
Effects
- 29 Pedals EUNA
- Jackson Audio Bloom
- Ibanez Tube Screamer with Keeley mod
- Vintage Boss Chorus
- Vintage Boss VB-2 Vibrato
- Strymon Flint
- Strymon El Capistan
Strings
- Ernie Ball .010s
In Goldsmith’s songwriting process, he explains that he’s learned to lean away from the inclination towards perfectionism. Paraphrasing something he heard Father John Misty share about Leonard Cohen, he says, “People think you’re cultivating these songs, or, ‘I wouldn’t deign to write something that’s beneath me,’ but the reality is, ‘I’m a rat, and I’ll take whatever I can possibly get, and then I’ll just try to get the best of it.’
“Ever since Misadventures of Doomscroller,” he adds, “I’ve enjoyed this quality of, rather than try to be a minimalist, I want to be a maximalist. I want to see how much a song can handle.” For the songs on Oh Brother, that meant that he decided to continue adding “more observations within the universe” of “Surprise!”, ultimately writing six verses. A similar approach to “King of the Never-Wills,” a ballad about a character suffering from alcoholism, resulted in four verses.
“The economy of songwriting that we’re all taught would buck that,” says Goldsmith. “It would insist that I only keep the very best and shed something that isn’t as good. But I’m not going to think economically. I’m not going to think, ‘Is this self-indulgent?’
Goldsmith’s songwriting has shifted thematically over the years, from more personal, introspective expression to more social commentary and, at times, even satire, in songs like We’re All Gonna Die’s “When the Tequila Runs Out.”
Photo by Mike White
“I don’t abide that term being applied to music. Because if there’s a concern about self-indulgence, then you’d have to dismiss all of jazz. All of it. You’d have to dismiss so many of my most favorite songs. Because in a weird way, I feel like that’s the whole point—self-indulgence. And then obviously relating to someone else, to another human being.” (He elaborates that, if Bob Dylan had trimmed back any of the verses on “Desolation Row,” it would have deprived him of the unique experience it creates for him when he listens to it.)
One of the joys of speaking with Goldsmith is just listening to his thought processes. When I ask him a question, he seems compelled to share every backstory to every detail that’s going through his head, in an effort to both do his insights justice and to generously provide me with the most complete answer. That makes him a bit verbose, but not in a bad way, because he never rambles. There is an endpoint to his thoughts. When he’s done, however, it takes me a second to realize that it’s then my turn to speak.
To his point on artistic self-indulgence, I offer that there’s no need for artists to feel “icky” about self-promotion—that to promote your art is to celebrate it, and to create a shared experience with your audience.
“I hear what you’re saying loud and clear; I couldn’t agree more,” Goldsmith replies. “But I also try to be mindful of this when I’m writing, like if I’m going to drag you through the mud of, ‘She left today, she’s not coming back, I’m a piece of shit, what’s wrong with me, the end’.... That might be relatable, that might evoke a response, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily helpful … other than dragging someone else through the shit with me.
“In a weird way, I feel like that’s the whole point—self-indulgence. And then obviously relating to someone else, to another human being.”
“So, if I’m going to share, I want there to be something to offer, something that feels like: ‘Here’s a path that’s helped me through this, or here’s an observation that has changed how I see this particular experience.’ It’s so hard to delineate between the two, but I feel like there is a difference.”
Naming the opening track “Mister Los Angeles,” “King of the Never-Wills,” and even the title track to his 2015 chart-topper, “All Your Favorite Bands,” he remarks, “I wouldn’t call these songs ‘cool.’ Like, when I hear what cool music is, I wouldn’t put those songs next to them [laughs]. But maybe this record was my strongest dose of just letting me be me, and recognizing what that essence is rather than trying to force out certain aspects of who I am, and force in certain aspects of what I’m not. I think a big part of writing these songs was just self-acceptance,” he concludes, laughing, “and just a whole lot of fishing.”
YouTube It
Led by Goldsmith, Dawes infuses more rock power into their folk sound live at the Los Angeles Ace Hotel in 2023.
