I love the Aura! I have a Gibson Songbird Deluxe a/e (older version of the Songwriter) with no onboard controls or cutaway, just the fishman piezo under the bridge. This is by far my favorite guitar for playability and acoustic tone (I also have a '74 Guild D-50, a nice Seagull and an older Ovation Ultra), but I could never gig with it because I could never get it to sound decent plugged-in. I tried a few different preamps (Fishman and Boss), but they didn't make much of a difference. I used the Seagull for a while (decent) and a pretty Washburn jumbo with a B-Band (terrible) but they never really did the trick. I play in a band with no drums, just myself, an electric player and a bass player, so I'm the rhythm, and my tone is very important. I beat on the guitar, and with most piezo/preamp setups it sounds quacky and thin. What I needed was a guitar that sounded plugged-in like my Gibson did acoustically. Well, I got the Aura and downloaded the GSW images, and the difference was amazing and immediate. The guitar now sounds almost exactly the same plugged-in as it does acoustically. No one that I've seen has tone anything like mine (bacuase they don't have Auras). I also have an Alvarez PJ85 a/e 12-string, and while there aren't any specific images for that guitar, I use the Taylor 855 images (same body and wood types) and it sounds great. I do wish the Aura was a little more user-friendly, and I really wish it had a headphone jack so I didn't have to rattle the walls every time I try out new images (so I hear the plugged-in tone instead of the acoustic tone), but otherwise this is an amazing tool. It's a little expensive, but what's the use of playing a $2000 guitar on stage and having it sound like any other $500 guitar? Anyone who plays out acoustically is really missing the boat if they're not using an Aura. There is simply nothing else on the market that even comes close.

Posted By: chendren on Saturday, November 10, 2007