Reviewed: Faith Guitars Nomad Mini-Saturn Electro Acoustic
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Reviewed: Faith Guitars Nomad Mini-Saturn Electro Acoustic

Mini/travel guitars have really exploded over the last few years, rising from novelty-type, bash around instruments to serious playing tools that offer portability along with good feel and tone. Faith’s Nomad series encompasses this thinking, with small scale guitars built for anything from home use through to gigs. The FDS Saturn Electro model offers a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, and a mahogany neck with ebony fretboard. The instrument also features an ebony bridge and ebony bridge pins.

 

In a dreadnought-esque shape, this Nomad is light and comfortable, with the natural timbers blending nicely with the clean, simple looks (limited neck markers, for example). More than just a knockabout guitar, Faith has definitely kept the gigging/practising musician in mind by incorporating a Fishman Sonicore pickup and Isys preamp into the mix. This means that not only is the Nomad portable and handy for travel (with a scale length of 590mm), but it can be a serious gigging/playing guitar too.

 

Acoustically, the Nomad Mini is super punchy with lots of volume. Great for strumming chords, but also defined when playing single note lines and fingerstyle parts. The intonation, action and neck were great on this particular example, creating a solid feel in your hands (which isn’t always the way with some smaller scale mini guitars). In turn, there are no worries using the whole fretboard, meaning it’s not just limited to beginners or chord-playing singer-songwriters.

 

Yes, the whole ‘travel’ aspect is pushed with a smaller guitar such as the Nomad, but the onboard Fishman preamp/pickup system gives you the ability to plug in directly for live use and recording if need be, making it a totally usable portable gigging instrument. I also found the build and quality of the Nomad Mini to be really solid and cost effective compared to some other models on the market.   

 

Home use, rehearsals, gigs, players with smaller hands, kids and more would all be suited to the Faith Nomad Mini. A short-scale acoustic with plenty of positives.

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