Godin xtSA Multi-Voice Electric Guitar - Trans Black Reviews

I have owned several Godin's in my journey as a musician. My first was a Multiac Steel-SA, way back in the late 1990's. I used it for acoustic stuff and to control a Roland GR-1. Subsequent Godin guitars included: LG-P90, LGT (kinda rare), Montreal Premier Supreme, Passion Custom, and a couple others. So, I guess you could say I have been happy with the quality of the Godin brand - never had a "bad" one in the bunch.

The XTSA is a great guitar. I have read on some forums how the pickups weren't that great, but I honestly find them to be wonderful. They are smooth sounding, and I like that - not too bright but also not muddy, just smooth. The piezo is quieter than I thought it would be, but I am not planning on using it as a stand-alone "acoustic" voice. I like playing clean, or with just a little "edge of breakup" dirt. The piezo, dialed in moderately, adds a little nice crispiness to the signal. It's subtle but effective.

I ran the XTSA into a Boss SY-1000 with the 13pin output. It tracked perfectly. You do have to set up your SY-1000 to let it know you are using a piezo hex bridge, but that's simple. So, there's a world of tones right there.

As far as playability, fit and finish: I had it Plek'ed by the luthiers at Sweetwater. I have other guitars that have been Plek'ed as part of their initial build, prior to leaving for sale - and the Plek is definitely worth every penny. It ensures your guitar comes to you perfectly set up with your requested specs. This is a must in my book. Regarding fit, everything is perfect and on target. The finish on this guitar, trans black, is beautiful and flawless.

I also want to add a shout out to Chris McCown, sales engineer, for assisting me through the purchase and Plek process. I had a hand injury when I was in the military - he was able to communicate that to the Luthiers. The action on the guitar is great for my hands - effortless playability.

This guitar has the ability to create tones for any kind of Music. I will have lots of fun Songwriting with this one. It is effortless to play, & makes you want to play when you dig in to it's capabilities. Very impressed to get this much Bang for a small amount of Bucks. And Sweetwater Team; They always Rock. Thanks Connor Smith, & the entire Sweetwater Staff for providing great equipment, great pricing, & great service. I will always shop Sweetwater.

Playability is very nice, I'm playing through two systems, one through my Acoustic Singer VE-8 and My Korg AX3000G through a max of 5 stereo amps (13 speakers including subs) of different configuration. Would like to have more control over my pickups perhaps by using Seymour Duncan Triple Shot Pickup Rings, and two separate tone control one with a Westcap Oil Capacitor and the other for Black Ice Overdrive. And to top it off I would have installed a kill switch for both outputs the acoustic mix and electric. Other than that I really enjoy playing this guitar a lot. One more thing I discovered is that you can kill the acoustic mix for the guitar by plugging a dummy 1/4" plug into the guitar out.

My go to guitar for synth access, everyday practice, and weekly gig. It's got a fabulous bridge pickup for Acoustic sounds and a lot of options for split coil or humbucker or single coil selection. If you can only get one guitar, get this one.

Absolutely Amazing Guitar-What a design. A lot of Extras for a
reasonable price. Knock out finish and details. You will not
be disappointed. This thing Kills it...

I've owned this guitar for five years now so I think I can comment without bias. This is my first choice ax for live or midi recording. I can't express the reactions I get when I start in acoustic piezo for first verse, add organ or string swells to the second, then distorted guitar onto everything else with a little wawa added in just for good measure. Add a looping pedal as I've done and rock out Rick Wakeman style. I have a Roland Gr 1 and a boss GT 5, and have never thought about gear again. That is... I keep buying it but my rig or confidence never wanes. If I need to gig out, its this combo every time, if I'm jamming with the buds its this rig, if I'm adding horn stabs in 9ths to a song its this rig . I'm super picky about sound and articulation and this setup has everything and can be sculpted to nail every sound. I have 22 electric guitars and some are just fantastic, but none can get an acoustic, and electric and sitarr at the same time. I'd love to tell you about all the things wrong but out of all my guitars this one is the best. I never even had a neck adjustment, can't say that about any of my other ones. I change the battery every 6 months whether it needs it or not. Thanks for your time. I hope I didn't come off too glowing, just want to share my opinion.

I just got this guitar today from Sweetwater, and am blow away by the craftmanship, sounds, options - pretty much everything about this guitar. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant about purchasing a guitar online without ever playing it, but I own and have owned other Godins before and I know they are quality instruments. Every Godin I've ever played had a great neck, which was my main concern. The neck on this beaut feels like butter in my hand. The finish is beautiful, yet understated and not too flashy. The pickups sound excellent, I had planned on replacing at least one humbucker but now I think I'm gonna stick with these. I can make this guitar sound like my SG, or get that Fender twang, really perfect for every situation.
And then of course, there's the piezo pickup; again, the sound is STELLAR! Just shocking how good the acoustic sounds coming out of this thing are.
Last but not least, there's the synth output, which I immediately hooked up to my Juno 106, blending a warm string-esque synth sound with the electric pickups and just a slight hint of the piezo-everyone in the room was blow away by that, it sounded like there were two guitarists and a synth player in the room.
This guitar has immediately become my main axe, everything about it is just perfect, you can tell a lot of thought went into the design and "amenities", from the schaller strap-locks to the locking tuners-this is an amazing instrument especially given the great price.
Buy it!

The guitar is well made and the sound and playing are great, but there are no instructions for all the knobs and switches.

I almost love this guitar. With all the options between the 13-pin output, the piezo output, and the electric output you can get just about any sound you can imagine. All the electronics and the finish is superb. One small complaint is the fretboard. This was my first richlite guitar and I don't love it. I feel like I'm digging into the fretboard and scratching it sometimes when doing large bends. No visible damage yet, but it kinda interrupts my playing as it often feels like I'm grinding the fretboard. It's hard to describe. Now the big complaint, the trem. I hate it. I already have some wood blocks in it to make it a hardtail. I cannot believe companies are still using this dated screw-in trem arm setup. Yuck. You either have it super tight to where it is in the way or it moves around when you use it and you can hear the wiggle through the pickup output. And despite having locking tuners and me lubing up the nut and saddles it goes out of tune if I even wiggle the trem. Very disappointing. Now that I've blocked it off and have essentially a non-trem version I am happy though. I would strongly suggest doing your research on the trem and fretboard if you are thinking about spending this much on a guitar though. I wanted the piezo and 13-pin, didn't care too much about the trem. For those features I am happy with it.