Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin P90

I purchased this little gem about three months ago. It is the cognac burst .I love the old style french polish type finish.The truss rod cover and floating pickguard is a nice vintage touch too The headstock is pure class IMHO .Binding is a very classy ivory/cream colour. Once I got used to the neck I must say I find it excellent. I strung it with flat wound Jazz strings, adjusted the neck which Godin told me I would have to do if I was going to use medium strings. plugged it in and Holy Cow what a jewel! It's the guitar I grab first now. My poor Gibson AJ stays in its case for the most part. Don't get me wrong,my Gibby is wonderful,but this little Godin is just so comfortable to hold and play . I agree with the review that remarked on the great range youi have with the control knobs. They react the moment you begin to turn them. I play with a friend who has a Gibson ES125 1953 .We are amazed at how these two guitars compliment one another. Imagine all this for $699.00 . I find the quality to be first rate on this instrument. Imagine a North American built guitar that doesn't cost an amr and a leg. Thank you Godin .Congratulations on a winner!!

I got me a stock Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin. Contrary to some other reviewers' experiences, I found that the bridge and nut on this model are identical to the bog standard 5th Avenue, though the guitar is set up with (heavy guage) electric strings instead of acoustic strings.

The P90 pickup is just lovely, the neck is a nice (stained) bit of maple (with an Indian 'rosewood' fingerboard) and the wild cherry laminate top smells anything but funky, white boy.

A graphtec nut and adjustable mahogany bridge - not to mention a half-decent set of tuners and the limited wiring possibilities for a single p90 - means that there isn't an immediately obvious upgrade required for the guitar, unless you want a piezo or a bigsby. Hey - it's an archtop with a truss-rod, what more do you want!

The sound is lovely; with the right action and set-up, the thin, Gibson-scale neck plays much like an electric (that is to say, more smoothly and quickly than most acoustics, and with an action that won't drive you to take up bass). Yet at the same time the body resonates nicely in the mids - you can pluck out a bassline without losing definition (impossible on affordable dreadnoughts), though you will lose a little high frequency response. Take the tacky scratchplate off, and everything opens up a little more.

And the little p90 really does live up to its 'kingpin' name. I tested this againsty a variety of p90 guitars (mostly Gibsons, and twice the price), and the Godin pickup really outperformed all-comers. The p90 gives a full response, with remarkable clarity and a good output. Volume and tone controls are well scaled on audio tapered and linear pots respectively, giving a great variety of tones from a single pickup.

Don't get me wrong - in this category, the Godin is far better than most production guitars I've met - I'm just very picky when it comes to finish. The fretwork is, despite its flaw, probably the best I've seen on a production guitar. That doesn't mean that you oughtn't to take the strings off and properly level them yourself, if you know how.
Flaws as follows, from least to greatest:
- Binding meets in a slightly unseemly join under the heel of the neck.

- Some prescient idiot has decided to secure the wiring EXACTLY under the bridge - just where you would want to fit a piezo! This necessitates fiddly removal of the glue and plastic anchor, whilst being careful not to damage the top, if you want a home made piezo.

- One slightly buzzy note on high E owing to one slightly high fret. As I've said, this is still among the best fretwork I've seen on a production guitar. Go figure.

- Groove for low E is too thin at bridge; buzzes slightly until re-filed or played in.

- The (fabulous) p90 pickup is mounted too close to the low E string, and is not adjustable! Therefore at low actions, you WILL get a buzzing, clicking sound on the bass strings as they touch the pickup. The only solution is to remove the pickup and manually level down the housing.

I would also recommend taping sandpaper to the body and making the bridge fit a bit better, as one reviewer of the 5th Avenue standard did.

Despicably, this list of flaws still puts the Godin ahead of most production guitars. I WISH manufacturers would spend a little more on finishing their products!

It's an archtop, but made with a three-layer laminate instead of a single carved piece of wood. Only time will tell if Godin treated, bonded and finished it properly, but it ought to out-last most other archtops. The binding will prove a boon if it's dropped, and the electronics are well wired and anchored.

The truss rod and adjustable bridge mean that it'll survive changes of location and remain playable. None of the fittings (bar the unnecessary scratchplate) seem to be of questionable provenance or quality, though only experience will show how well it lasts.

Never had cause to deal with Godin. They run an excellent website, so I imagine that their customer support will be fine.

This'll sit happily with my over-customised Yamaha, and my Fender, Vicente Sanchis, etc. guitars. It'll do very nicely for acoustic gigs, and for sitting out in the back yard with my neighbours. I'll probably add a home-made piezo, but as it is, it plays beautifully and is fully adjustable, which is wonderful for a guitar of this type. It'll record well, too.

I can't emphasise enough, it plays well, it sounds great, its cheap, and its an archtop-acoustic with a truss rod, so it'll last. Buy one.

My Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin archtop guitar was bought new by me in 2009 for ??499 wihout a case. It was made in Canada. It has laminated top, back and sides of wild cherry stained in satin-finish cognac burst. The comfortable, medium neck is of stained maple with vintage syle tuners. It has 21 medium/thin frets and has a single Godin P90 single coil pick-up with tone and volume controls which perform as well as any I've come across. The floating, arch-top bridge is, unusually, made of 'Tusq' by Graphtech. I had to re-curve the bridge feet to fit the top of the guitar correctly as this had not been done at 'set-up'.

I play swing jazz and latin through to early rock and roll and this guitar is spot-on for this. I play through an AER compact 60. With this guitar I use a completely 'flat' setting. One of the best features of this guitar is the electrics. The P90 performs as expected but the real bonus is that both the volume and tone controls are usable through their complete range. Someone has thought this one out and there's no 'nothing until about 6' on the volume. Similarly the tone control is fully usable so you have a one pick-up guitar with real tonal flexibility.

As mentioned earlier in the review, I had to re-curve the bridge feet to properly fit the top of the guitar. Apart from that, the quality of this instrument is excellent.

This is a well-made simple guitar that has quality components and I'm totally happy to use it without back-up.

Ive never dealt with the company direct so I don't know what their customer support is like. I'll just go back to the dealer in the unlikely event of problems.

I've been playing for over 45 years, the last 25 full-time so I've come across a lot of instruments! I think Godin have got this one right - particularly for the price. One of the best things about this guitar is the usable electric set-up. I suppose a cut-away is what most players may want and I must admit I thought about this, but then how often do you need to go to the dusty end in my style of music?!