Turner Renaissance acoustic

[Loud Librarian]

I thought I'd share a bit about my new (used) Turner Renaissance, you don't see these very often and for me it fills a very specific acoustic guitar need. I got this after researching and trying out different guitars for playing in one of my bands - an acoustic rock project with bass, drums, and another guitar player/singer.

 

The Turner is fantastic for how I play with this band - I'm usually capoed up at the 7th fret playing inversions of chords that the other guitarist is playing, and soloing in the higher positions too, so the high fret access helps with that. It's got a thin neck that plays easily. The nut is kinda narrow for me, but I hardly ever play it down in the first position anyway.

 

I also run through a tube amp with compression and occassionally effects as I play a lot of solos and want a different tone than the other guitarist. He plays a Taylor through the PA - I want a contrasting, more midrangey tone than him so I stand out in the mix. The Turner doesn't feedback (at all!), and it's 18 volt preamp gives it a fat piezo tone without too much quack.

 

Anyway, it's kind of an odd duck but it works great onstage. I don't really even play it at home as I have other acoustics for that. The pics don't do the sunburst justice, it's much better looking in person.

 

I considered and played a Line 6 variax, for me the Turner is better. FYI it's a thin hollow body with a center block to resist feedback. Here's some linkage: http://www.renaissanceguitars.com/renac.html

[Cripes]

Interesting looking guitar. Tell me - what's the point of the hollow body without some sort of sound hole or f-hole. I could fathom the design if an internal mic is used but this guitar uses a piezo system. Is the piezo an AST?

[Loud Librarian]

Hmm, I don't know about the hollow body thing, maybe it contributes to the tone somehow? For sure it's a very light weight guitar. Sorry I don't know what an AST is...

[Cripes]

Active Soundboard Transducer. It's another style of piezo bug that is fixed somewhere on the inside of the guitar's top whereas the UST, or Under Saddle Transducer, is a strip-type piezo of very thin cross-section that sits between the saddle and the bottom of the saddle slot in the bridge. The AST is located at a place - different on every guitar - where the top gives the best balance of frequencies. Some systems use multiple AST's to pick up the various frequencies - not unlike a fixed equalizer in function - along with a UST or even a small condenser mic.

[Loud Librarian]

Good info, thanks. I believe it's just an UST only. The preamp has a higher headroom so they say, leading to less overdriving quacky sound when you hit the strings hard. I can say from experience that's true. I previously used my Carvin C980 - feedback problems and the typical piezo quack. When I tried my Taylor GS with the ES it just didn't work well through the amp and pedals (no big surprise there, but I thought I'd give it a shot). The Turner works for my band situation with no problems. BTW I also play some electric in this band which is why it's nice to have an acoustic that will work with my electric amp/pedal rig.