Any serious guitar player is familiar with Godin instruments. Renowned for their playability, tone and craftmanship, Godin Guitars have been 100 percent made in Quebec, Canada since 1972 and their reputation for building distinctive, unique, and excellent instruments is firmly entrenched in guitar making history.
The Godin ACS Nylon Steve Stevens Signature 25th Anniversary and ACS Nylon Steve Stevens Signature 25th Anniversary LTD are limited-edition acoustic-electric nylon-string guitars priced at $2,999. Celebrating over 25 years of collaboration between Godin Guitars and Billy Idol’s Grammy-winning guitarist, the rare model LTD is limited to only 100 signed and numbered units. But good luck finding one—the signed version sold out very quickly, though there may be a few still out there at some dealers. The good news is that the non-signed version is in full production and readily available.
Stevens and Godin have designed a masterpiece of a guitar. Designed to be the best possible electrified nylon string guitar, it is strikingly beautiful, with playful touches that embody Steven’s sense of humor. The body is made of silver leaf maple with Canadian Laurentian basswood wings. The body top is Stevens’ signature purple highly figured bookmatched flame maple. The gloss finish mahogany neck features his trademark pop kitsch ray gun on the top of the headstock and painted signature on the rear. Even the Godin custom tuning pegs are purple, and they are of the highest quality.
Sporting a 13-pin Multiac cable connection that interfaces with the Roland Synth Guitar System, as well as a standard ¼’ guitar jack, the versatility of this guitar is staggering. “When I first discovered the Godin Multiac, it completely changed the way I thought about guitar,” Stevens says. “I wanted to merge flamenco, rock, and electronic music into something cinematic and modern, and Godin was the first company that truly understood that vision.”
Capable of expansive synth driven stereo landscapes articulated by an LR Baggs piezo pickup to provide the nylon string sound, the sonic tapestries available are incredible. The LR Baggs pickup requires an onboard 9-volt battery and sounds excellent without the synth.
MC tested the ACS Nylon with legendary guitarist Marc Mann (Danny Elfman, ELO, Concert For George Harrison), providing a Roland VG-8 guitar synth. The 5-fader onboard mixer on the guitar allows for combinations of the nylon string guitar sound and the synth blend, as well as 3 band EQ with mid shift and patch change buttons. The synth tracked extremely well, with minimal latency. Mann pointed out that care must be given to the Multiac cable as they are pricey and, if stepped on, the 13-pin connector can easily be crushed. He also noted that while most classical guitars do not have position markers on the fretboard, the ACS Nylon features fretboard markers on the players side of the neck as well as small subtle offset markers on the front of the fretboard, a feature that he likes very much.
Upon playing the guitar for many days we were convinced that the fingerboard was high quality ebony. But is the fingerboard ebony? No. Upon researching, we were surprised to find that both the fingerboard and bridge are made of Richlite. Richlite is a durable composite material made from 65 percent paper (often recycled or Forest Stewardship Council-certified), and 35 percent phenolic resin. The paper layers are saturated with resin, stacked by hand, and pressed under intense heat and pressure to form dense, solid sheets. Richlite feels like a very hard, dense wood, and with ebony being endangered and in short supply, its frequently used as an ebony substitute for guitar fretboards.
The Godin ACS Nylon Steve Stevens Signature 25th Anniversary Guitars are truly magnificent work. Every feature has been optimized to make the best possible electric nylon experience. Each guitar includes a custom hardshell case with purple plush interior, ray gun and signature painted on the case, a Steve Stevens guitar pick, and a signed Certificate of Authenticity. Highly recommended. $2,999
