A Canada-built, tastefully styled mini jumbo serves up comfort, a unique and expansive tone profile, and addictive playability.
Godin may be a Canadian company that skews modern in its design approach. But staring across the room at the new Godin Connaisseur MJ, glowing in soft spring sunlight, I kept thinking about two very classic American guitar companies. Martin and Rickenbacker are famous for very different things, and one of them rarely made acoustic instruments. But check out the Godin’s sunburst finish—it sure reminds me of Rickenbackerfireglo. The herringbone-patterned purling evokes that found on a D-28 as well as Rickenbacker’s checkerboard binding. The split-hexagon fretboard inlay? It conjures thoughts of aD-45, and Rickenbacker’s shark-fins. There are practical reasons that this Godin feels like an alternate-universe offspring from the two American companies—most notably the super-satisfying playability. Hermann Rorschach might have told me I’m more inclined to see and feel these likenesses in the Connaisseur MJ (I’m genuinely captivated by the beauty of Rickenbackers and Martins). But style is a big part of what sets the Connaisseur MJ apart, and you don’t need an inkblot test to know that the Godin Connaisseur MJ is a handsome, well-built, and fine-playing flattop. It’s a guitar that reveals its virtues quickly and easily.
Maple Leaf Rag
Consider another unorthodox melding of concepts: “mini” and “jumbo.” Obviously, they are a contradiction in terms. But as an acoustic guitar design guideline, the combination can yield pure gold. The jumbo in mini jumbo (MJ in Godin nomenclature) alludes to the body’s basic shape which, in its fluid curvaceousness, echoes Gibson’s SJ-200. But while the Connaisseur MJ isn’t a behemoth like the SJ-200, it’s not exactly mini either, and feels much more like a shapelier Martin OM. It’s a very comfortable profile that does much to alleviate the arm fatigue that can come from wrestling a dreadnought or genuinely jumbo jumbo.
At $2,499 the Canada-built Connaisseur MJ is Godin’s most expensive flattop by several hundred dollars. And at that price it has to tussle with giants like Martin, Gibson, and Taylor—all of whom sell very established and well-known models in a crowded market segment that most of us could call “getting expensive enough to hurt.” So, what distinguishes the Godin in a densely populated field? Well, it’s certainly pretty, and the melding of classic flattop design touchstones and contemporary styling moves achieves a unique, attractive result rather than an uncomfortable, incohesive mash up of influences.
Golden Glow
In the sonic sphere, theConnaisseur MJ exhibits many classic spruce-and-mahogany characteristics. The warm, concise fundamentals, sunset-hued, softly decaying overtones, and lack of brashness are all hallmarks of this tonewood combination. But the Godin definitely doesn’t live on the dusty, dry, and antique end of the mahogany-and-spruce spectrum. It’s alive and dynamic and responsive in ways you might even categorize as “modern,” and has ample headroom that leaves space for shifts in mood and intensity without shedding its essential voice. It’s easy to be struck by the Connaisseur MJ’s sparkle, especially when you use a light fingerstyle touch. But as I got to know the guitar, I grew to love the balance and resonance in the low end. I suspect that the mini jumbo body, and perhaps the 25.5" scale, have a lot to do with the Godin’s even, inviting voice and range. There is a beautiful combination of energy and air, even in the most softly plucked notes, and it’s easy to see how the extra expanse of spruce aft of the bridge might have a lot to do with how lively and rich the Godin sounds.
“The Godin definitely doesn’t live on the dusty, dry, antique end of the mahogany-and-spruce spectrum. It’s alive and dynamic and responsive in ways you might even categorize as ‘modern.’”
All the tone in the world doesn’t mean much if a guitar plays like a log. But the Connaisseur MJ shines in the playability realm. A few less-than-perfectly-dressed fret ends aside, the neck is addictively comfortable. If there’s a lot of Richard Thompson hammer-ons and pull-offs in your own playing vernacular, you’ll love the snappy touch responsiveness.
The Verdict
The biggest compliment I can offer the Connaisseur MJ is the considerable time I spent with it in a meditative musical state—thinking not about a review, just basking in its warm, sprightly resonance and inviting touch response. At $2,499, the Godin arguably offers more personality than a satin-finished instrument at the same price with a more famous name. It’s well built and feels like a guitar that’s in it for the long haul. And when it comes to tone and a pure playing experience, the Connaisseur MJ shines.
Billed as a practice amp, this 40-watt, solid-state combo with reverb and tremolo is clean, pedal- and stage-friendly, and affordable.
Orange O 40
I enjoy that back-of-the-throat, big cat growl that starts happening when you turn up the preamp of an Orange amplifier. But the company’s new O Tone 40 is a different breed of feline. With no gain control and a 1x12 made-in-Poland Voice of the World speaker that doesn’t break up until you start cranking it past noon, the O Tone 40 is designed to purr rather than snarl—unless lashed to an overdrive or fuzz pedal. It adds a different, more American-vintage flavor to the company’s lineup of versatile, low-priced new-generation amps and a voice shaped, in many respects,by the number and character of the stomps on your pedalboard.
Practice Schmactis
The solid-state O Tone 40 is billed as a practice amp, but I’d feel comfortable taking it onstage anywhere I’d use, say, a Deluxe Reverb or Blues Junior. It’s a 40-watt, class-AB build with 3-band EQ, digital reverb, and footswitchable JFET-driven tremolo. There’s an effects loop, too, and the combo clocks in at a light 26 pounds. In the modern practice-amp spirit, the O Tone has a 1/4'' headphone out and an unbalanced line-out to run into a DAW. There’s also an auxiliary input for, say, pumping in rhythm tracks or plugging in a metronome. The cabinet is medium-density fiberboard, versus the birch plywood of the 35-watt, 1x10 Orange Crush, which has no reverb or tremolo. And it’s tagged at a very reasonable $399, given its overall functionality.
With its classic control set—reverb, depth, speed, bass, midrange, treble, and volume, from left to right—the O Tone 40 is easy to use, and dialing up a host of good sounds with single-coil and humbucking pickups was a snap. The closed-back design and overall sonic profile tends to make the amp a bit bass heavy, especially with humbuckers, so it’s important to watch the EQ settings. I found a set-it-and-forget-it location with the bass at 9 o’clock, the mids floored, and the treble at 11 o’clock. This is a matter of taste, of course, and mine runs toward the mid-heavy with tempered treble. After all, Orange amps’ strength has always been the harmonic richness of their mids, and the O Tone 40 hits that mark. Plus, adding a little more treble pulled things toward Marshall territory, too.
Another aspect I loved was the breakup I started to hear working the volume up past noon. It’s more subtle than snarling, and reminded me of the organic dirty sounds that can be achieved by cranking up old Valco and Gibson amps from the ’50s and ’60s. So vintage tone hunters may find the O Tone 40 a great lower-priced alternative to an actual period piece. But the quiet effects loop also makes the amp ready for sonic futurism, if that’s one’s goal.
Finally, the reverb is deliciously spring-like, and the dial will travel from dry to surf to the supernatural. The tremolo has plenty of vintage character, too, although I would like to see a little more response in the lower range of the depth control, like that I’ve experienced with old Supros and Gibsons, which can get pretty radical right out of the box.
The Verdict
The super-affordable Orange O Tone 40 is versatile and pedal-friendly, with vibe-y reverb and tremolo as well as an effects loop, so stomp OD fans likely won’t miss the amp-maker’s usual appealing gain profile. There’s enough headroom for clean stage and rehearsal sounds at substantial volume, and pushing the volume past noon yields a very vintage-amp-like breakup profile, which make the O Tone a dependable work-pony with much more than a single trick.
The Icelandic rockers roll with semi-hollows for their hard-hitting blues.
Iceland-born, Nashville-based blues rockers Kaleo released their fourth full-length LP, Mixed Emotions, on May 9 via Elektra. To celebrate the album in their adopted hometown, they threw a party at American Legion Post 82 in East Nashville.
Some of the band’s gear had already been shipped to Red Rocks Amphitheatre, where the official release show took place on May 10, but “Kentucky Fried Scandinavian” lead guitarist Rubin Pollock gave PG’s Chris Kies a look at the must-haves loaded in for the legion gig.
Pollock bought this 1967 Gibson ES-345 at Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville, and since then, it has been his closest friend, used on all tours and recordings. He favors its out-of-phase sounds brought on by using both pickups, and though it's equipped with a Varitone knob system, Pollock almost never uses it. He hasn’t changed the strings in years.
The Kustomer is Always Right
It was almost closing time when Pollock saw this Kustom K-200 hanging on a wall in a New York City guitar shop. The shop clerk said there was no time to try it, so Pollock bought it on the spot. It has a darker tone than his 345, which he brightens with a wah pedal. Its strings haven’t been changed since he bought it.
A Fender Mustang, bought in 2016, was treated to new strings recently by Pollock’s tech. He didn’t seem stoked.
Projector Project
With his black-panel Fender Deluxe already making its way to Red Rocks, Pollock opted for this Austen Hooks-built projector amp. Hooks built him one after Pollock fell in love with another of his builds at a Los Angeles studio.
Rubin Pollock’s Pedalboard
Pollock packs light, configuring his board to fit in a shoulder bag that he can carry himself wherever he needs to go. His pedals include a Strymon El Capistan and Flint, JHS Colour Box, DigiTech Whammy Ricochet, Boss TU-3, Fulltone Octafuzz, Chase Bliss Preamp Mark II, and an Isle of Tone “Cookie Monster” fuzz.
Jökull Júlíusson’s Guitars
Jökull “J.J.” Júlíusson couldn’t make it for the Rundown, but Pollock gave us a look at his Gibson ES-330 and his signature resonator, built by English luthier Pete Turner. Behind them sits J.J.’s long-time go-to amp, his Orange AD30, which ran through an Orange 1x12 cab.
Jökull Júlíusson’s Board
Júlíusson’s board includes a Strymon Flint and El Capistan, Boss TU-3, a custom Sounds of Shelby drive pedal, Vemuram Shanks ODS-1, MXR Ten Band EQ, and Radial StageBug DI box, plus a channel switcher for the AD30.
The all-star producer invites John Bohlinger to his home studio for a glimpse of his most treasured gear.
Veteran producer and behind-the-scenes guitar superstar Dann Huff released his debut solo album, When Words Aren’t Enough, on May 30, but his career began long before that. He’s been making records and playing guitar for roughly 50 years, working with everyone from Taylor Swift to Rodney Crowell to Michael Jackson.
His home studio is where the magic happens, and for this Rig Rundown, he invited PG’s John Bohlinger over to talk about his career, his new record, and the best bits of gear he’s played along the way. Keep an eye out for our feature on Huff online and in our August print issue.
Huff had hardly played this 1964 FenderStratocaster for 20 years when he walked by it before recording his latest solo album and deciding it was time to reconnect. It was heavily modded by builder James Tyler.
The lower tone knob is also a push-pull switch to modify the pickup configurations; the middle tone knob is a mid-boost circuit, which can be toggled on or off with a push-pull function; and the volume pot is, well, just a volume pot. Huff explains the series of three switches, each assigned to one of the three pickups: “Down is louder, up is softer.”
Tyler Tone
This James Tyler Strat, built specially for Huff by Tyler, is an exacting copy of his ’64 Strat, complete with Tyler’s signature mods.
Revv Your Engine
Derek Eastveld, owner of Winnipeg, Manitoba-based amp company Revv, brought this Dynamis D40 head for Huff to try out, and it clicked instantly; Huff wrote a song on it for his solo record. It runs through a Little Walter 2x12 open-back cabinet.
Dann Huff’s Pedalboard
Huff doesn’t need a spaceship to get where he needs to go. Along with a TC Electronic PolyTune and a Lehle volume pedal, he runs a Vertex Effects Steel String (Slight Return Edition), Vertex Ultraphonix Mk II, Boss SD-2, TC Electronic Corona, Boss VB-2w, Mr. Black SuperMoon, Strymon Brigadier, and Line 6 M9 Stompbox Modeler.
Xotic Effects newest version of the Vox-flavored AC Booster, the AC Booster V2, adds a second, footswitchable boost circuit (tweakable via a small, clear knob tucked among the four main-channel controls), plus a set of four DIP switches on the box’s righthand side which engage compression, modern or classic voicing, low-mid boost, and high-mid boost.
This new suite of features packs significant extra functionality into V2’s still-diminutive enclosure. The Vox sounds are all there, and with the high-mids juiced and treble nudged, you’re squarely in clanging Top Boost territory. The modern voicing trades some furry mid-range chunk for a bit more aggression and clarity, while the compression is useful for leveling leads and smoothing out unruly playing.
The boost knob is a little difficult to access, situated as it is in the center of the primary four-knob array. I don’t have particularly big fingers, but even I had trouble twiddling it. That’ll annoy some. But it’s a small price to pay for such a pedalboard-friendly footprint. The boost doses you with a healthy bump in level and gain that’s great for stand-out leads and solos. And speaking of standing out, the upper-mid boost switch is a treat. I found that creating a greater disparity between the high mids from the low mids made for a more precise and satisfying tone-shaping experience than I would experience using a standard mids knob.
There are no shortage of pedals that ape Vox AC30 mojo, but I haven’t seen many that will give you the range of utility that the AC Booster V2 will, for less for $200. Xotic nailed a smart and versatile redesign here.
