Godin Freeway-4

Don't know the year, but relatively recent, bought used. Says "made in USA of components made in Canada." It is a fretted bass with a flame maple top, one humbucker, one single coil, strings through to a brass plate in the back, passive electronics, two volume controls and a single tone control. Non-locking chrome tuners that say "Godin."

It has two string trees to help get a tight angle over the nut. I'm not sure if this is the best-implemented feature, though, since the wrap on the string winds up under the string trees, and I'm wondering if it will rub or tend to cause the string to break there. Maye I'm just worrying about nothing.

The tuners seem to be pretty decent quality; even with brand new strings, after getting them up to pitch they were very stable. They have a decent gear ratio, so it was not hard to get it fine-tuned.

Mine came with a HSC, which is a pretty nice snug-fitting case with a tool pocket. Given that I bought it used, it came with nothing else at all, but fortunately I have spare tools I can use for the truss rod and bridge, etc. An Ikea 5mm hex wrench fits the truss rod reasonably well (not sure if it is exactly the specified width).

It did not come with strap locks, although I will probably put some on.

The pickup mounting arrangement feels a bit flimsy and they wiggle quite a bit when you push them. This design is unfortunately common to a lot of instruments, but I'd prefer to have the pickups mounted directly to wood in the body the way Peavey does it, and not so prone to getting knocked around.

There is no thumb rest and the pickup housings aren't solid enough to rest your thumb on them, so I might consider adding a thumb rest.

Reasonable feature set.

I just got this bass last night so I have not yet put it through all its paces. The single-coil pickup is somewhat noisy, the humbucker is not, but both pickups sound quite good. The humbucker is closer to the neck and a little more mid/treble. I'm guessing the cavity is not well-shielded with foil or conductive paint, although I haven't opened it up to check. This could possibly be improved with shielding. The pots are quiet. No switches to introduce crackling. I immediately put GHS medium flats on it tightening up the truss rod just a bit, and it puts out a very robust deep tone. I played it through a Roland Micro Cube RX bass amp testing out various amp models (I am an apartment dweller; I know that's not exactly a kick-*** bass amp but it will mostly be going either through that thing or directly into my recording interface, or into a preamp).

I played it with bass flange, chorus, and wah. I think it sounds quite good especially with the amp's compressor engaged. The tone is quite woody and I'd call it dark/rich. It sounds to me like a considerably more expensive bass. With flats it is not a funk or poppish tone, not bright, but smooth. It seemed to call out for flats. Tonality across the fretboard is very even and it feels pretty good -- it really calls out to be played. Rolling off the tone control did not produce much useful tone with flats.

Overall I like the sound. It would probably be more versatile with roundwound srings but I am going for more of an old school tone on recent projects.

I bought this bass used and it has some damage: a number of minor dings on the neck, nothing serious. So I can discount those. It is impossible to know if the setup has bee changed from the original factory specs or not, but here is what I can tell:

The nut seems to be very nicely done; I don't think it was altered since made.

The neck pocket and angle seems to be quite nicely done as well, although not quite as elegant as some of the Peavey necks.

The fretwork is done with reasonable care, although not as nicely as some of the more expensive Peaveys. It isn't mirror-polished by any means, but on the other hand I didn't run into any sharp fretwire edges sticking out, or anything like that, and the whole freboard seems pretty flat and even.

The top is bookmatched maple with a somewhat mediocre-quality flame. The finish on the top seems a bit indifferently done. There are some dark speckle marks like ink along the seam between the two halves that look like they are under the finish, but it is hard to know for sure. Also, the finish seems to be whitish/peeling in spots; I don't know how much of that was because or poor original work, or because of damage inflicted by the previous owner. I might try to see if I can heat these spots up and melt them and buff them, or something. I'm not certain if this is a poly or nitro finish; I know Godin does some nitro finishing but it is a bit hard to tell in this case. I'm not an expert on guitar finishing.

The sanding/smoothing of the body seems also slightly mediocre, like it didn't quite receive enough hand attention to be excellent. You can see some slight ridges here and there in the right light. Nothing that jumps out at you, though; overall it's a fairly good-looking instrument, and I wouldn't be embarassed to be seen with it, although the flame top can't compare to a real AAAAA flame top.

I like the use of a solid brass plate in the back for the string-through-body arrangement, that seems quite nice.

The truss rod is nicely accessible in Godin's trademark little pocket, so you can turn it without scraping the finish (and, thankfully, without even removing the strings).

When I got it, the neck relief was fairly flat with a bit of relief. I tightened the truss just a little bit more when I put on mediums because I think they will put more stress on the neck; I'll let it sit and see if it needs any further adjustment over the next few weeks. I like only a very slight relief (curvature) in the neck. More curvature means the manufacturer can get away with sloppier fretting. A totally flat neck requires real attention to the frets to avoid buzzes.

The bridge pieces are set to somewhat high action by current standards. I don't know if it came from the factor this way or not, and I have not decided yet whether I want to try to lower the strings a bit at the bridge or not.

Overall I'm a bit disappointed by the quality of the finish woodworking (at least, when you examine it up close). From a few feet away it looks pretty good, though. Godin definitely has figured out where they want to put the money to get the best bang for the buck, and so the instrument is very playable with good detail work in the parts that contribute most to playability. Keeping in mind that it was not a very expensive instrument originally, it seems like a reasonable trade-off, although part of me is offended that anyone would sell something that doesn't represent the best quality they can possibly produce. But I guess I'm as culpable for this as the next buyer; I want to buy a USA-made instrument if I can, but I am also looking for a bargain.

The tuners seem solid and stable, the bridge decent. Tuning stability is excellent. The output jack socket seems fairly secure, and I know how to solder well enough to replace it with a Switchcraft jack should it give out. Those are the main things that I'd be concerned about when playing an instrument out on a gig and all of them seem reasonably well-covered. The case is solid enough to provide reasonable protection, so yes, I'd try playing it on a gig without a backup.

I like the string through design and the solid brass plate to anchor them; that feels like it will last pretty well.

The finish work is not excellent and already shows some signs of wear and damage, but I don't know what kind of abuse this bass has been subject to.

I am not really a bass player, but a guitarist who wants basses to occasionally record a bass part. I've been playing for quite a few years now and feel like I can pick out a quality instrument in a rack of mediocre ones. This was the best bass in the shop even in comparison to some newer American-made Fenders, and considerably better than the Mexican ones. I considered buying an older American-made Jazz Bass that had been set up with a Badass bridge, but it had some damage to the nut and even with that damage the shop wanted twice the price of this Godin. So forget that, the Godin is of comparable or better quality and was in better condition.

With HSC, bought used, pretty good value for the money.

Canada/USA manufacture. 2005, I think. 3 piece body, Nice bookmatched flame lam on top. V/V/T controls, cheap little mini-pots. Passive electronics, noisy as hell. Combo bridge, string thru or thru back, cheap looking. Cheap proprietary tuners. Came with a very good quality gig bag, adjustment tools.

I hate the tone of this thing with a band. It cuts thru for Sh%t. I play Eden, Hartke, THUNDERFUNK. Drive bass w/ sansamp (gotta with this weakling). Tone is too bright IMHO, not enough solid bass or low mid. I replaced the noisy bridge p/u with a seymour jazz hot stack 2, put a usa fender on it, too. I also put a FATFINGER on the headstock, to clean up the attack a little. I am still not satisfied. The pickups and the electronics that come stock in this thing are a joke. I will redo this myself. I hope it was worth the ten bucks they saved in parts to piss off a customer.

No complaints here. I will give credit where due. with the exception of the atrocious electronics and hardware, it really is a good instrument. Playing it unplugged is a joyful experience.

I have used it for gigs, was not satisfied. I like the way it looks, plays, but the tone/sound is for sh%t. hardware is chintzy, at best. Used it with no backup, that was a mistake. when I'm done w/ mods, this thing will be a professional grade instrument. it does seem sturdy.

These guys SUCK, they do not return calls/messages, and they hung the phone up on me while I was waiting to speak to the dude I needed to talk to about finding a part number to replace a bad pot. It was like trying to call your mother in a bar. They succeeded in pissing me off, and assured I will never buy anything from them again. These folk obviously don't need my money, or maybe yours either....

I have been at it 20+ yrs. I own 5 basses, and too much other stuff to list. I play a lot of paying gigs. Fundamentally, it is a good instrument. If you can get one for 3 bills or less, do it, cuz you will need extra dough to replace all the stock crap with real stuff. I would never buy one again, but I will make this one nice. They retail at 650-something usd, so I got some wiggle room in terms of spending money to make a real bass out of this thing....

If you are into project basses, buy one, but don't pay more than 3 bills for it.

Rock Maple neck. Rosewood Fingerboard. 16" fingerboard radius. 34" Scale. 1 1/2" nut width. 4-string. String through body.
Body: Silver Leaf Maple
Pickups: Godin Passive PJ
Color: Natural Satin - amazing flames

Nice thick warm sound. At least that's where I've settled in on it. I play all kinds of rock, alternative, rock-pop, hard rock. Running it through a Yorkville XM200 BassMaster. No I'm not from Canada, but funny that it just kinda worked out that my entire bass rig is. I love the sound this gets. I can dial in a variety of sounds, and all of them fit in the mix very well in a band setting. Basically, I'm loving it.

My model was perfect. No flaws. Components fit together snugly. The action is just right. It looks amazing, feels amazing. Ready to go right out of the box. Just needed to tune it. And the wood grain on this is beautiful.

I've only had it for a few months, but it feels solid and I haven't had a bit of problem with anything. Finish looks and feels like it will last. Strap buttons have held on well, but I also have a very good strap.

Haven't needed to use it.

New, these things often go for about $500. I got it new for $280, and for that money, man I feel like I stole it. Fantastic value. I'd buy it again if I lost it.

This is a follow-up of my previous review.

After a while you realize the pickup lack definition in a major way..you can`t possibly be heard by anyone if you play with a guitarist that uses a stack (I play on an Ampeg 400 watt and 6*10 cab). I changed the pickups to Lace Sensors P/J...another bass all together. I found the missing mids and the missing definition.

A marvelous bass for the price, just change the pickups.

1 volume for P-pickup
1 volume for J-pickup
1 tone

Maple neck with rosewood fretboard

The best feature is the choice to have the strings through body or stringed at the bridge.

Sounds wonderfull, you can get any sound you want with this bass, jazz or precision.

Pretty good for slap also.

I am using DR Black .045 - .100 strings to get a warm sound suitable for any style.

On gripe, the J-pickup can be noisy as hell, might be a problem live on a stage. But other than that, I am very happy about this bass.

That were I was a little disapointed.

-Strings were ridiculously high
-Intonation was way off
-Pickups were MUCH too low
-The first 3 frets were VERY uneven...the person who did the crowning of the frets on this bass must have been sleeping on gass.
-The nut was not cut properly which rose even more the strings.

120$ CDN of professional repairs later, the bass was A1.

The bass itself was very well assembled but who ever did the setup on my bass at the factory should be out of a job. I was expecting a little more from Godin.

I've heard alot of good things about Godin and their factory setup, but I've not seen what I've heard on my bass.

And just to top it of, the gig bag had a deffective handle. I am curretly waiting for the new one to arrive at the dealer.

It's brand new but the assembly is jst ahs good as any custom shop bass.

If you do not take care of your gear like Kurt Cobain did, it will last a lifetime and more.

Never dealt with them.

I would buy again without any hesitation.

The only thing I wish this bass had was a tone volume for each pickup but, hey, at that price I can't complain.

In it's category, the Freeway 4 has no competitor. It smokes Peavey and Yamaha hands down. Once setup properly, this bass plays and sounds like a good old Fender American for 600$ CDN less.

Resell value is not there, so if you buy, plan to keep it. Peavey and Yamaha have a better resell value for some obscure reason since they are in most cases inferior products.

the previous post is very informative concerning the specs.

there is a finish on the maple neck although its very thin and satin, plays like butta!

I wish it had a blender knob and master vol instead of the 2 vol setup. thats why im giving it an 8.

It came w/a hardshell case that fits very well.

I mostly play classic rock and blues, the combination of p/j pups. rosewood board and snappy maple body gives me all those classic tones and more. I can get all the pbass sounds as well as the typical rear j bass sound by varying the vols and tone knob. I'm using d'addario nickel roundwounds but plan on using some flatwounds to get that percussive, round thump which I'm sure this bass will do real well.

The setup was very good from the factory, but of course good i've got my preferences and tweaked it to suit my needs.

same goes for the pups.

The neck fits real tight into the body and does not move. the frets are all very well finished and dressed w/no high or flat spots.

I can see the joints in the three piece body thru the black paint when I hold it up to the light. As well I can see lines running across the bass. The other finish offered has a flame top, can it be that they use the same body for each and just use a different finish? I hope so, I plan on sanding it and seeing for myself!!

It seems pretty solid but I haven't had a chance to gig it yet nor have I had it a long time.

n/a

I've been playing bass for 17 years and have owned a bunch off p basses and a jazz bass. this compares quiet nicely. In fact its a far superior instrument than an american standard p or j bass because of its bang for the buck. At half the price of a USA fender you are getting a great instrument w/money left over for and amp or effects, accessories......

I'm giving it an 10. At this price my issues with the 2 vols and finish an negligible. This is a USA/Candaian hand built instrument for under $600 CN. Unbeatable

2003 Made in USA of Canadian parts.
4 strings, 20 frets, 1 P and 1 J pickup with each having a separate volume, but the tone knob is combined for them.
Pickups are Godin Stock GBP1 and GBJ1. Passive.
All maple body (P bass style) and neck (J bass style) with a rosewood fingerboard
I have the black pearl finish which is excellent (although you get fingerprints.
Bridge is convertible (you can go through body or not)
Standard tuners.
fairly thin neck.

Sound is very thick. Very boomy with the P pickup but you can get some funk with the J pickup turned up. There is the single coil hum that can get bad with just the J pickup at full and no P. Turning the tone down or the J volume back helps.

I had a Fender P-bass Lyte before and that doesn't have the power of this bass. Very percussive and fat with the stock pickups. The only thing I would change is to get a reduced hum J type for that position as it can get noisy.

Factory set up was OK, but a bit high. Having a bit of fret buzz problem with one fret on the E string, but that will get resolved. Otherwise, it feels great and I found no other things to complain about. No finish on the neck so its smooth and not sticky.

It's actually a fairly light bass that's easy to play. Compared to my P-bass lyte its only slightly heavier and the neck is only slightly thicker. It's not like an old tree trunk 70's P bass with a baseball bat as a neck. I tried out Godin's older model the SD-4 and found that to be a heavy monster like an old P-bass. This model is much lighter and easier to play.

Haven't played live with it yet, but it feels solid. I replaced the strap buttons with locks. But that has to be done with almost any bass anyway.

Haven't dealt with Godin yet, except that I own 2 of their guitars besides this bass and am very satisfied. Quality for the money. I'd recommmend this over any MIM P or J bass any day since they are about the same price.

Been playing for 10 years. Had a 70's P bass, a P bass Lyte and now this. I'm very happy with this bass especially for the money. It's comfortable, sounds great, and is inexpensive. I wish it came with a hard case instead of the gig bag, but I'm sure if you shell out a few more bucks they will give you one.
Godin is one of the best values out there, I get compliments from everyone who sees and hears their products.