infrared72
New member
So last saturday, I headed out to a local shop to try out some Godin guitars. I had a difficult time finding a local Godin dealer that was close enough to home, so I made a few phone calls and located one within about 30-40 minutes of my house. When I arrived, I noticed that they had basically every model I wanted to try out - the LG, Flat Five, Freeway Classic, Detour, Redline, and the new A6 Ultra.
First up was the LG with P90 pickups. I actually wanted to try the dual humbucker version of the LG, but the p90 version is basically the same
sized and contoured guitar with different pickups. Even though
I'm not a huge fan of P90's, this one sounded really nice through a fender Twin. The LG's have a really substantial feel as far as the weight of the guitar. I love Les Paul style guitars, but for me something about the playing angle isn't quite right. To me, the LG is kind of a cross between gibson and strat with a slightly different shaped neck that's probably similar in some ways to a Seagull acoustic. This particular instrument was their natural finish, but it also comes in a nice transparent darker red finish as well.
Next up is the Flat Five. The flat five is a larger hollow body style guitar. I think that Godin may have discontinued this model, and they're making one called the Montreal now. Early on, I wasn't a huge fan of Hollow body instruments. After playing a friends Gibson 335 (the guitar of the month in either '87 or '88 - he bought it second hand in the late 90's) I was really floored by the sound and feel of a hollow body. So I've been paying more attention to these now as a result of that. The flat five has two Seymour Duncan humbuckers with a 5 way switch to get you various combinations of humbucking and single coil. A lot of nice tones from this guitar. I think these Duncans are made specifically for Godin, but I'm not certain. I really like this guitar a lot, and it played like butter through both the Boogie and the Twin.
Their fixed bridge strat style, and super strat style guitars were nice as well. The Freeway classic, Detour, and Redline were all very good players. The bodies on those were very lightweight and comfortable to play. The redline and Detour felt a little smaller than normal to me, but still played pretty darn good overall. The Freeway classic has a nice vintage style tremolo, and the detour and redline are fixed bridge.
The last one I played was their hybrid A6 Ultra acoustic/electric. This is a new take on their Acousticaster/A6 series of guitars. Basically, pretty much the same as far as the bridge piezo pickups but they've added a neck humbucking pickup and some controls to balance/blend the volume and output from both pickup systems. I played this through some little Randall acoustic amp they had in the store, and this is a fantastic sounding and playing instrument. Superior clean tone, and the ability to blend in the sounds from the neck pickup was great. I put a little touch of reverb on the amp, and it was just perfect.
Bottom line: I personally think these guys make some great instruments for the money. The quality of their guitars (from what I've seen so far) is very good, they have really nice finishes, and pretty decent pickups and electronics for a production guitars. They've come up with some unique designs and hybridizations of classic instruments that I think both play well and look great.
I'm probably looking at purchasing one the fixed bridge LG's with dual humbuckers, or possible a used LGX or LGX III with both magnetic and piezo pickups.
-Peter
First up was the LG with P90 pickups. I actually wanted to try the dual humbucker version of the LG, but the p90 version is basically the same
sized and contoured guitar with different pickups. Even though
I'm not a huge fan of P90's, this one sounded really nice through a fender Twin. The LG's have a really substantial feel as far as the weight of the guitar. I love Les Paul style guitars, but for me something about the playing angle isn't quite right. To me, the LG is kind of a cross between gibson and strat with a slightly different shaped neck that's probably similar in some ways to a Seagull acoustic. This particular instrument was their natural finish, but it also comes in a nice transparent darker red finish as well.
Next up is the Flat Five. The flat five is a larger hollow body style guitar. I think that Godin may have discontinued this model, and they're making one called the Montreal now. Early on, I wasn't a huge fan of Hollow body instruments. After playing a friends Gibson 335 (the guitar of the month in either '87 or '88 - he bought it second hand in the late 90's) I was really floored by the sound and feel of a hollow body. So I've been paying more attention to these now as a result of that. The flat five has two Seymour Duncan humbuckers with a 5 way switch to get you various combinations of humbucking and single coil. A lot of nice tones from this guitar. I think these Duncans are made specifically for Godin, but I'm not certain. I really like this guitar a lot, and it played like butter through both the Boogie and the Twin.
Their fixed bridge strat style, and super strat style guitars were nice as well. The Freeway classic, Detour, and Redline were all very good players. The bodies on those were very lightweight and comfortable to play. The redline and Detour felt a little smaller than normal to me, but still played pretty darn good overall. The Freeway classic has a nice vintage style tremolo, and the detour and redline are fixed bridge.
The last one I played was their hybrid A6 Ultra acoustic/electric. This is a new take on their Acousticaster/A6 series of guitars. Basically, pretty much the same as far as the bridge piezo pickups but they've added a neck humbucking pickup and some controls to balance/blend the volume and output from both pickup systems. I played this through some little Randall acoustic amp they had in the store, and this is a fantastic sounding and playing instrument. Superior clean tone, and the ability to blend in the sounds from the neck pickup was great. I put a little touch of reverb on the amp, and it was just perfect.
Bottom line: I personally think these guys make some great instruments for the money. The quality of their guitars (from what I've seen so far) is very good, they have really nice finishes, and pretty decent pickups and electronics for a production guitars. They've come up with some unique designs and hybridizations of classic instruments that I think both play well and look great.
I'm probably looking at purchasing one the fixed bridge LG's with dual humbuckers, or possible a used LGX or LGX III with both magnetic and piezo pickups.
-Peter
Its thin and slim feeling yet super solid with sustain for days and resonates beautifully.
