See the video review of the T.C Electronic G-Natural

Founded in Denmark in 1976, T.C. Electronic has long been renowned for its high-end recording equipment and electric guitar effects. Now, with the introduction of the G-Natural, the company has created a multi-effects unit tailored for the acoustic guitar and performance requirements of acoustic players—all in a portable, rugged, high-quality package built with the same care that’s made T.C. Electronic’s electric guitar effects so desirable.

With a host of tone-shaping options including compression, EQ, boost, modulation, reverb, and delay, the G-Natural is a capable tool for fine-tuning (or radically reshaping) an amplified acoustic guitar sound. Better still, it enables players to manipulate their tones and even vocal mixes before they relinquish control to a less-than-sympathetic soundman.

A WELL-BUILT BOX OF TRICKS

The G-Natural is housed in a sturdy, floor-based metal box with a footprint just slightly larger than a letter-size sheet of paper. If those dimensions seem large for a stompbox, it’s because the G-Natural packs a lot of versatility and tools in one unit. This wealth of available functions can also make orienting yourself to the numerous controls for the first time a challenge.

Eight footswitches are arranged on the angled front panel in a fashion that most stompbox users will find familiar. Only the top four switches and the one on the lower right actually turn a given effect on or off, however. The other three switches are dedicated to activating presets. Four of the switches can also be used in pairs to navigate through the preset menu or bank.

The more numerous manual controls (19 in all!) above the footswitches are largely dedicated to selecting effects parameters and variations. But there are also buttons for storing presets, setting output levels, and for changing the information set displayed on the LCD. The possibilities are many, but a little study and experimentation yields a bonanza of tone-tweaking possibilities.

All of the G-Natural’s many inputs and outputs are found on the rear panel. There are two balanced ¼-inch inputs—one for line instruments like keyboards and the other for guitar—and an XLR input for a vocal microphone. There’s also a digital I/O, standard MIDI interface, and an in jack for attaching an expression or volume pedal. Although the G-Natural offers balanced output via its TRS ¼-inch jack, it doesn’t provide an industry-standard balanced XLR output.

AN EXPANSIVE SOUND PALATE

The G-Natural will accommodate numerous configurations and blends of guitar, vocal mic, and line instrument, but I used a simple rig to audition the unit—a Fishman-equipped Martin OMC-16E and a Fender Acoustasonic amplifier. Seeking simple sound enhancements to begin, I explored the four available reverb types—spring, hall, room, and plate—and customized each with various decay, pre-delay, color, mix, shape, and size parameters. With a long decay time and a relatively low mix, the GNatural provided a wonderfully ethereal effect on Nick Drake–inspired finger-picked passages. With a shorter decay, it sounded excellent for forceful, Pete Townshend–style strumming. Neither setting suffered from the clipping or harshness I am accustomed to when processing an acoustic signal through a pedal.

Exploration of the four delay types—clean, analog, tape, and dynamic—yielded a remarkable range of clear and organic tones, and I created dozens of compelling, expansive soundscapes that retained the essentially woody character of my Martin. The analog and tape varieties add a nice vintage vibe that range from studio smooth to spacey, and the dynamic delay, which is highly responsive to picking nuance, is particularly expressive for fast, flatpicked lead lines.

The G-Natural has two types of compression: Stomp, which is most akin to compression found on guitar pedals, and Studio, which is much more customizable and can be applied more subtly. All of the compression settings (which level out the dynamic level of the guitar’s signal) sounded smooth and remarkably free of digital clip, which can be quite pronounced on a digital pedal compressor. Settings in the Studio and Stomp modes proved especially useful for de-emphasizing errant string-snaps and harsh strums in a variety of playing styles.

Some of the G-Natural’s modulation effects, like vibrato and tremolo, are more commonly associated with electric playing, but I found they can be used on low settings to add an attractive texture to ringing arpeggios or on high settings to create some experimental backdrops. As with all of the other time-based effects on the unit, vibrato and tremolo sound clean and musical and are easy to tweak and store.

THE WRAP

With the G-Natural, T.C. Electronic succeeded in creating a high-quality, versatile multi-effects box for almost any acoustic guitarist. Traditional players of all styles can use the unit to add subtle enhancement to their tone, while more experimentally minded guitarists can dial in a great number of uncanny sounds that might even inspire whole songs. And given the ease with which players can add, process, and mix in vocals or an accompanying instrument to their taste—well before a meddling soundman tinkers with the formula—the G-Natural may soon be regarded as indispensable by gigging acoustic players everywhere.