Godin Bass Guitars

Accquired from Sam Ash in Edison NJ, was a scratched demo model so I got it for around $700. I liked the way it sounded in the store, it had a beautiful tone, and it got some excellent magazine and web eviews. (Which I've since come to believe are all highly over-inflated!) It's an electric hollow body semi-accoustic, but you wouldn't play it out unamplified as it has no sound hole. The tone, when used with the right amp (I use a Hartke KB12 or an SWR Workmans 10 cube with it,)is really fantastic; it's almost like playing a DB without having to haul one around! You need a combo or an amp with at least 100W of power and at least a 10" speaker to get good sound from the A4's piezzio pick-ups. Mini amps such as Peavey's MicroBass or SWR's LA30 cube break up badly on the A string of this thing. Also the A4's EQ controls are tiny, delicate sliders, and moving the things just a tiny millimeter causes an ernormous tonal difference! And (and this is a big problem IMO,) the Godin company is extremely unresponsive to it's customers! It takes months to get any kind of response out of them at all, and then they will give you lame excuses as to why they didn't respond and will also forget to follow through on whatever they said to you about providing assistance! Fit and finish is not up to par for a bass that normally sells for around 1K; already, in 2 months of light use, one of the A4's bridge's pegs has splintered slightly and the neck is starting to bow and raise the string action too high. And the truss-rod adustment nut is extremely difficult to get at as the cavity it's in is too damn small! The back of the A4 is not wood although it looks like it; it's some kind of plastic composite like one finds on a kitty-litter box, and the plastic battery holder inside it is like something from an Everything Is $1 store! Beautiful tone (so far) from a crappy, overly delicate, poorly and cheaply constructed way over-priced bass made by a company that hides from its customers... Buy at your own risk! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Purchased at The Arts in Newmarket ON, Canada. $1,199 MSRP Cdn. Helpful group of guys at The Arts, they fixed the action and set up the neck before I left, even though the store was closing. I'm a drummer who has just taken up the bass for quite versatile praise & worship band at church (many different styles). I purchased two bass guitars and two amplifiers in a three month period STOP!! Clean and articulate sound. B-string is nice and tight, not floppy. The neck is beautiful, a flat 16" radius, nicely finished frets, not a thick neck, can get your hand around it easily. Basically it's very comfortable to play. That's what sold me on both of my Godin basses. Stays in tune. The finish is hi-gloss sunburst (jet black on back of guitar and front edges with tobacco colored flamed maple, looks beautiful. They also had one in blue, it was hard to decide which to take. Lots of tone flexibility with the Basslines pickups and active electronics. The bridge is quite easy to adjust. Battery compartment with flip-out and snap in installation. Much better than taking out a screwdriver every time you need to change the battery, a nich quality touch. The guitar came with a really nice and sturdy hard case plus allen keys. It's a bit heavy, and if you don't have a 3-inch wide strap the neck will definitely dive. The truss-rod adjustment access is extremely tight. It almost looks as though the neck pocket was cut a little low. The truss rod is positioned somewhat lower than the access cutout, very little clearance, very tough to adjust. The electrical output of the guitar is actually less than my passive P-J style Godin Freeway 4 bass. When I inquired via email whether or not there was an adjustment for this I received no response from Godin. They had answered two previous email questions I had about my Freeway bass within two days (good) but didn't respond to my inquiry on the BG5 (bad). The owners manual I received was for a previous model which didn't share the same control knob configuration. Aside from the truss-rod access issue mentioned above, the bass is really structurally solid. There's lots of sustain, and the bridge looks like a high quality Schaller unit that has multiple adjustment (not like some of the cheap Fender stamped units). Finish is top notch. The mechanical integrity of the bass is top notch. Did I say it was really solid. The mechanical solidity of the unit helps it to be very pitch articulate. Some basses make it really hard to hear the difference between semitones on the B and E strings. The Godin BG5 rings the notes out without any doubt. It tends to be a bit more "modern" in sound with lots of midrange and treble if you want it. It doesn't have the round and punchy tones of my Godin Freeway 4 (which has a string-thru-body that I think gives it that character) Vive le difference! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com