ToneWoodAmp Multieffekt for Acousticguitar

I've installed a TWA in my SelMac style Gitane DG320 model.

The hall verb is basically what I need (Jazz) and the guitar sounds so freaking good is hard to put it down. It really sounds as if I was in a big hall. Super Jazzy feeling for solos a-la Joe Pass.

I'm using a shadow double piezo (to the body near both sides on the bridge. These are normally very quiet and need a pre amp, the TWA certainly amplifies them enough, I don't even need to have full gain/volume.

- The build quality is great. Very solid piece of gear.

- Installation is easy and yeah, the TWA is firmly installed. No real need to glue the X brace to my guitar.

- The notch filters to deal with the main resonances do a very good job.

- I recommend to unscrew the base at the battery compartment (about half to one turn) cause indeed Li-Ion batteries have a hard time getting in and out. After unscrewing those a bit they slide out without problem.

- EBL Li-Ion Batteries last at least 4 hours or more, at least 4 or five practice sessions of about an hour average.

- The effects are great, especially the verbs. The chorus is good too. The tremolo is basically useless.

5 out of 5. This is one of the coolest guitar gear I ever owned.

I have looked at getting a Tonewood amp for a long time. Ever since they first came out and started putting professional players behind an acoustic with a Tonewood installed in it. I finally got an acoustic guitar that I wouldn't mind forever installing the X bracing mount in it. I put it in a PRS SE T-60 Tonares made of Ziricote. Stunning to look at, but with the Tonewood amp in it. It's just amazing. Magical wouldn't be too far of a stretch! Really!! There are so many videos out there now for this device. Go watch a few and you'll not believe your ears. Wear headphones! online videos are compressed, and sometimes the effect doesnt come across as well as it does in person.
Pros: for the price, you really get so very much!!! The sound coming out of the sound hole, will inspire you to pick up your acoustic so much! From 3 flavors of reverb, to various delay and other modulation effects, to even gain if you want a little growl on your melody. Its just so intense, you must hear it for yourself. This is probably the wave of the future when it comes to acoustic guitars. The sound, all the effects, everything, comes out of the sound hole. You aren't plugging into some other piece of equipment like a PA or acoustic guitar amp or anything else. It is a stand alone piece of gear that will blow your mind. But, and this is a big but, if you want to plug in, you have that option also, and all the effects that were coming from the sound hole, is now coming out of the speakers. You can even record through this beauty. And its small enough to fit in the little cargo containers in most acoustic cases.
Cons: READ the directions before you start installing the x brace. This is so important, it cannot be understated. Where that brace goes, is all dependent on what body size the guitar has. Also, this is for acoustic electrics only! If you have a straight acoustic guitar, you are going to need a pickup installed. They make a sound hole pickup you can retrofit if your guitar is not an A/E, but I don't have any experience with that. So you plug the Tonewood amp, into the jack that connects to the piezo pickup under the saddle. This is where the Tonewood gets its signal from. So you have to have that connection going on. It takes that signal, and then vibrates the back of the guitar, to produce the effects. That's why it comes out of the sound hole and not out of a speaker. The body of the guitar is the speaker. Its truly an amazing piece of equipment.
dialing in the amount of effects takes some doing. too much effect, and you get a feedback scream, just like putting a microphone in front of an amp. Balancing the amount of effect, vs the volume of the effect, is a time consuming process. But so worth it. It's simply beautiful once it's all in place...

It is really is fun – three types of lush-sounding reverb and the delay are the first ports of call and the fact that the latter has editable speed and feedback, as well as its own reverb, means you can really tailor it.

The onboard controls and small display screen feel intuitive to use and encourage you to edit the effects to suit your tastes.

Those time-based effects would be enough on their own but there’s also Tremolo Delay, Leslie, Autowah and even Overdrive. A software update via USB can replace the latter with Chorus, which is just as well as Overdrive tends to suffer the most from feedback issues and clipping.

The sounds feel organic, even pleasingly gritty and analogue-esque at times when you play harder. Though you need to be careful with the ‘Amplitude’ volume and gain levels to avoid clipping when digging in. It’s easy to see why players like Mike Dawes love this device, and you can even use the output to gig with it too.

You can get sounds fast that wouldn’t be possible without finding your guitar lead and booting up a computer or an amp with effects.

First, let me address the padding on the back. There is a very thin film protecting the foam "suction padding" that needs to be removed prior to use. It adheres to the guitar more securely in addition to the x-brace magnet with the film removed. Well let me tell you that mine was very hard to peel off. I initially thought that I had to peel off the whole padding, but that was not supposed to be the case.

Other than that, the unit itself is a joy to play with acoustics. Once you get used to having ambiance while playing, it is hard play without it. I just updated my firmware and replaced the distortion effects with chorus. I think it was wise for them to do that. Works and sounds much better.