I'm new to this forum and to Avalon guitars. Just wanted to share my excitement about this awesome guitar, and to congratulate the folks at Avalon for the design of this instrument
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The JS signature is basically an A-200 with cutaway and onboard Fishman blender, but with a slimmer body (slightly thinner than a typical OOO-size guitar). Unlike many "stage" guitars however, this one sounds extremely full and loud acoustically. In fact, it was probably the loudest guitar in a store where I tried it (compared to Taylors, Larrivée, Santa Cruz,...). If you heard Jacques playing it, even without amplification, you know what I mean...
On this guitar, the reduced body depth is a plus rather than a compromise. It has plenty of bass, but in a controlled way, which helps for amplifying or recording. Treble notes sound full and loud, with a cutting quality but not shrill at all. Very balanced throughout, and really amazing sustain. The thinner body makes it also very comfortable to hold.
This is of course an excellent fingerstyle guitar, whether played softly with bare fingers or loud with fingerpicks, but it strums very well too, and at high volumes !
The only downside are the plastic bridge pins. This is NOT DONE on such a guitar !
Also, I think I may replace the Tusq saddle (I'll post a topic in the guitar tech section).
I plan to use the Fishman Aura with this guitar. There are as much as 10 sound image downloads for the JS Signature on the Aura website ! I suspect they used this guitar for designing the Aura...
