Knox Bronson, in addition to being excited about his new record, Pop Down The Years, is excited about his dream guitar—The Godin Multiac A.

“This is the guitar I dreamed about in my twenties, but it took quite a while for the technology to catch up. I fell in love with classical guitar when I heard Christopher Parkening's Romanza, simply a perfect album, when I was young. Then I fell in love with Kraftwerk, the German synth band,” says Bronson. “I left the guitar alone for quite a while while I explored electronic music. When I decided to play live again, I thought I had better play something and got a Roland GR-33 hooked up to a Telecaster copy with a GK-2 pick-up. At that time, only steel string guitars could be interfaced with the GR-30. It was great, because Roland had figured out many issues that were problematic on early guitar synths: tracking, bending strings, and so forth. But the downside was that I was stuck playing a steel-string guitar and I've never like the feel of steel strings. Godin came along and solved that with the Multiac SA, a hand-made, nylon string, semi-hollowbody guitar. It has proprietary circuitry allowing it to plug right into a Roland GR-30 or GR-33 guitar synth console.”

It also has a separate out for the nylon strings, which helps to make it loud when needed. But it can also be played softly in an intimate setting.

“In that regard, it does not have the warmth of a true classical guitar. But it has lovely action, and the neck is thinner and narrower, allowing for a more electric-guitar style playing. I think a lot of jazz guys like it.” says Bronson.

How Bronson has used the guitar / synth set up has varied over the years.

“When I first got it, I used it simply to trigger the Roland synth sounds and I spent a lot of time working on sound design with the GR-30 and GR-33,” he says. “Over time, I started mixing the pure warm sound of the nylon strings louder and louder -- the Godin got me to fall in love with the guitar all over again!”

He uses both the GR-33 synth and the acoustic out from the GR-33 into separate channels in the mix when playing live.

“Sometimes I use different outboard effects on the two signals. I also take the acoustic out and put it into a TC Helicon Harmony G vocal processor for spot harmonies –- it listens to what chords you are playing, wonderful - here and there, like for a chorus in a song,” he says.

He also took some time to get all the details of his rig sorted out in the studio.

“In the studio, it took me a while to learn that I should use the separate outs. I was using the synth/string mixed out at first,” says Bronson. “When Charles (Stella) was mixing my cd, he figured out a way to sum and subtract the waveforms - don't ask me how - to separate the string pads from the nylon string sounds and thereby process each on separate tracks.”

Bronson loves the nylon string sound of the Godin.

“It has kind of a compressed, electric quality, but is still quite resonant and warm. But it doesn't have the air that a classical guitar has,” he says. “I just go for a warm tone, and leave the little sliders - there are three bands of eq on the guitar -- there where they are, pretty flat, actually.”

Each string of the guitar has a pickup in the bridge.

“The tracking is phenomenal, but then I am not a shredder. I strum and finger-pick. Even so, the tracking is light-years ahead of any other guitar synth I've ever played. There is a thirteen-pin cable that connects from the Godin to the the Roland, the same cable used with the GK-2 or GK-3 pickup,” he says. “I often use more than one synth patch in a song. It's wonderful for quick shift in tonal color and the range of sound from the GR-33 is great, whether I want a distorted electric guitar, a string pad, or a shimmering synth sound for a given part.”

He did make some minor changes to the guitar, mostly basic maintenance.

“I had the action lowered a little, and some minimal fretwork done. I also replaced the tuning machines, which were not up to the caliber of the rest of the guitar,” says Bronson. “I guess they have to cut corners somewhere. But other than that, nothing. I figured out that high-tension strings are definitely the way to go with the Godin.”

In addition to promoting his CD, Bronson has been playing shows an is about to release and electronic symphony. He also plans an acoustic/vocal album bext year.