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MGR/basswoulf « Godin A4 Fretless (2003) »
Published on 08/19/03 at 15:00Accquired 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
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