“Drenched in Acoustic Tone!”

It doesn’t get much better than that. That is what noted guitar influencer/reviewer, Henning Pauly, better known as EytschPi42 online, said about his recent review of our Modern Black acoustic guitar. His YouTube channel alone has nearly 200,000 subscribers and over 3,700 videos where he publishes detailed reviews of guitars and guitar related products. His engaging and straightforward style attracts a wide audience, earning him enormous influence and respect within the industry. More important is his integrity. He is known to be honest and will not hesitate to point out flaws with the product he is sent for review.

The first thing Pauly noted was the missing sound hole from its traditional location of being on the guitar top. The Modern Black features two sound ports located on the side of the guitar, redirecting the sound towards the player. Pauly quickly noticed the drastic improvement of the players’ experience when playing the guitar. With sound ports on the side, the player becomes fully immersed in the sound coming from the guitar. Eliminating the traditional sound hole results in a better overall sound by simply allowing the top to do its job – reproduce the sound of the instrument without obstruction.

To get a better understanding of how the sound ports perform on the side of the guitar, Pauly recorded the guitar through a variety of methods. He first recorded the sound of the guitar using a shotgun mic, located about a meter above and in front of him to show off the projection of the guitar. He followed that by close-miking the guitar with a Sennheiser MK8 – a fantastic mic with fantastic results. Another important technique for recording acoustic guitar is to capture the sound of the guitar in the room. For this, he used the AEA R88 ribbon mic, and you can easily hear all of the detail in each note and chord played on the guitar. His demonstration really captured the true acoustic character of the Modern Black. But as he noted, he felt this guitar is really designed to be played on a stage using its built-in electronics. We’ve evaluated many systems for acoustic guitar electronics and feel the Fishman® Matrix Infinity VT system is the best choice for this instrument. Pauly agreed. With the Volume and Tone controls found just inside the sound port, they are easily accessible when playing to adjust and shape your sound quickly for any size stage.

Of course, as with any helpful review, Pauly took the time to mention the features of the guitar. This guitar is one of our flagship models. The craftsmanship needed to make such a guitar is of the highest quality, as are the materials we use to build it. The guitar features a solid spruce top with solid mahogany back and sides. We have also designed an ergo asymmetric neck profile that is extremely comfortable to play. This one is made of mahogany with walnut reinforcement, topped with an ebony fretboard and hand-rolled frets. Pauly liked it, especially given that he is maybe more of an electric guitar player than an acoustic guitar player. The Venetian cutaway makes playing up the neck easy, and the softened edges around the bottom bout make for super comfortable playing. He even commented on the beauty and design of the Gotoh® SGL510-L5 gold tuners. The one negative he did find with the guitar was the side dots. They are black. For him, black side dots on the walnut binding made it challenging for him to navigate his way around the fretboard. That was a great piece of feedback, and we greatly appreciate it.

But with all reviews, we always must consider price. This guitar retails for $1,295 USD. He did point out that while the $1,295 price was not cheap, it is not too much for this guitar though. It’s worth it. He even noted that he has other acoustic guitars that retail for about $8,000, and he would easily put our Modern Black next to them. We are very honored to hear that and proud of the guitar we have designed.

Pauly concluded the review by saying,

“I am stunningly impressed with this guitar.”

We think you will be, too.

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