Godin Flat Five

I've had mine for a couple of years now, and I am fairly happy with it. Ordinarily I have played acoustic guitar straight into the board; when switching to a more rock-type sound, I had to put down the acoustic and pick up the electric, as well as carry two guitars around with me, etc. My aim in getting the flat five was to enable myself to carry around, tune up and hook up only one instrument. Its "acoustic" sound is really not acoustic (how could it be?), but it's serviceable, and it has a lot of flexibility as an electric. My one complaint is that it tends to fall out of tune much more easily than my old acoustic Ovation that I have played for 30 years; maybe I need to change out the machine heads. Also, I have to be careful to keep a fresh battery in the thing, or else it will totally crap out on me in the middle of a performance. But overall I'm happy with it.

See above.

Guitar, stunningly beautiful. Action, good. Intonation, perfect.

Hardware seems ok, though not the highest quality. Everything works. I don't have a backup, but I have backup batteries for the preamp always handy.

I have not dealt with the company at all yet...

See above.

2004 Flat 5 With a Beautiful Flamed Maple Top. All features are stock and similar to previous reviews.

Suprisingly the sound and tone of the guitar are excellent. Godin's electronics can be very loud and challenging to get a desired sound. This guitar sounds great and is very versitile. I can play blues, jazz and rock and roll.

Factory set up is satisfactory and the guitar came without any flaws.

The guitar is very reliable and withstands live playing. The hardware is solid, however, I would never gig without a backup.

I haven't dealt with the company.

I have been playing for a while now and this guitar gets played often. The tone is great and the semi-hollow body style gives real warmth to the music I play. The pickups are surprisingly good for a Godin and I would highly recommend this guitar. If it were lost or stolen I would probably go for the replacement model (Montreal) as the Flat 5 is now discontinued.

I won't add to what has already been said.
In comparison to my Godin Multiac Jazz I find there has been much less attention to detail: the neck, the tuners... It has a much cheaper feel and look than the multiac Jazz. But then again, the price is lower.
Mine is with a black "translucent" finish. Very nicely done with a dark purple-ish touch to it.

Nice sounding guitar. Doesn't really sound like a carved archtop, but then again, how could it?
I find it to be the best alternative to an archtop to my knowledge. The trouble with archtops is the feedback on high volume settings (in a club with loud drums, in a big band). To avoid this stress I turned to the Flat Five and it's a nice compromise.
The idea of the five way-selector with the single coil settings in between is great. Gives you a nice palette of very useable sounds.
Nice dark jazz tone, nice vintage jazz tone on the single coil neck pickup.
I wouldn't readily replace the pickups. They sound great with great definition. They are certainly not hot, but who cares.

The set up was good.
I like the way the top is connected to the body: no bindings, but a nice colour difference when looked upon from the sides...
Flaws are certainly the cheap tuners and the cheapo look of most of the hardware.
Nice pots though for tone and volume.

Very dependable instrument. I've been using it steadily and it has never let me down.

Nothing much.

Great instrument for the jazz player who has trouble with the "amplified archtop" and is looking for a good compromise.
Great tone, nice workmanship for body and top.
Slightly cheap hardware, but great pickups, though.

This is a further update to my 03/13/2004 review. I have continued my quest to better this guitar, in my opinion. I have now installed 13s for strings, and adjusted the action accordingly. Tuning is now in flats (EbAbDbGbBbEb). I changed the switch to a tele-type 3 position, and have wired in two volumes, ditching the tone control. I am finally satisified. I was looking for a fat, some may say muddy distortion (ES335), and I've got it. The low end is almost to much, nah, can't be. Sounds beautiful clean. The most important thing, there is now a more discernable difference between the bridge and neck pickup.

I asked them for a wiring explanation, and they gave it to me within 2 days (like their site says). On top of that, they snail mailed me a wiring diagram, free of charge. I think that's great.

2005 Canadian Made/USA Assembled

I think this guitar gives me many different sounds and tones. I play it through a 60's Vintage Traynor Studoimate and am able to achieve any tone I desire. I think some earlier reviews are from people who may be going a little overboard with there criticisms. Just pick it up and play, the tomes are there if you fool around witt the various options.

This guitar exudes fantastic Godin quality. Where else can you get this kind of Guitar built in North America for this kind of price? The action is fantastic, neck is quick and string bends seem to go forever. The real attraction to the guitar for me was the look and finish.

Everything on this guitar seems durable and I have had no problems.

I e-mailed the company about getting a Manual to go with this guitar. They don't make one for this guitar but were quick to reply and offered various tips about the guitar and ways to set it to achieve different tones.

Overall I love this guitar. I looked for many months with a budget of about $2000 to find the guitar I wanted and I this was definitly the best one for me. The only concern that I share with a previous recviewer is that the volume knob is a position where you can hit it while playing (thus incresing or decreasing your volume). However, after playing the guitar a few tims this rarely happens.

Made in Canada/US, 24 frets, semi-hollowbody with figured solid maple top and poplar excavated wings, mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard, flame lightburst (sort of old violin colour) high-gloss finish. Dual passive humbucker configuration with master volume, master tone and 5 position blade switch selection. Schaller tune-o-matic bridge.
Short scale, thin neck (front to back), wider (6th to 1st string) than most other electric guitars.
With godin hard shell case since its dimensions are closer to an archtop guitar.

Rich mellow sound, which sometimes is not bright enough to play rock-style riffs (I'm in the process of rewiring it), but since I'm mostly a rhytm guitar player at a church it does just fine. I play through the Church's PA system or through a Carvin acoustic amp with a Tonelab effects processor.
It has good dynamic range and can do funk and blues or jazz-style comping quite nicely, I only wish I could make it sound brighter, but I believe a little time with a soldering iron will allow me to do that.

When I got it it was superbly set up, action was really low with no buzzing whatsoever, the pick ups were well adjusted and are completely shielded so it is wery quiet. Workmanship in general is very good, no burrs, drops of paint, loose parts or anything of the sort.
The feel of the guitar was so good for me, with its wider neck and low action that I was sold on the spot (all Godin guitars seem to have this feature); also, the bigger body dimensions made it really comfortable to me (I had mostly played cassical guitar up to that point, so it could be just what I was used to but it fit me like a glove and I didn't fell lost as with manu other guitars)

I have had it for a couple of years now (maybe three, I cant remember) and everything is in good condition, I have never had a false connection or parts coming loose. It has never let down so far.

Never had to get it repaired.

I have been playing electric guitar for 3 to 4 years now. As I said before I mostly played classical before that; my tastes are more akin to Jazz, Bossa, Funk (I also like latin rock) so I tend to stay away from hard rock sounds.
At the time of buying I searched around a lot for something that would fit my budget (~$1000CAN, basically all my savings) and would keep me satisfied for a long time. I tried all makes of guitars (fender, epiphone, washburn, gibson, gretch...) and the Godins seemed to have the most comfortable neck (I also play a church owned LGHmb) and thi one also the most comfortable body shape.
If it was stolen/lost I would seriously consider it again and compare it with the new Godin Montreal and PRS Hollowbody guitars (which I would hopefully be able to afford now) but right now I feel no need to consider anything else.

Update to my 03/13/2003 posting

I was less than impressed with the stock Godin Flat five, but I knew a few upgrades would do the trick and it has.

The first thing I did was replaced the somewhat thin sounding stock pickups
with Dimarzio Air Classic (designed for the bridge position) 8.04K
resistance in the neck position for a tad more warmth and Air Norton in the bridge (12.6K resistance). This warmed up the tone a good deal.

The 2 newest changes kicked it up a few notches more.

First off, Godin used a gorgeous solid figured maple top (on my model), but then they caked on a super thick polyurethane finish.
A good choice from a builders perspective, as it is requires little to no curing time and only a few coats are needed. This thick plastic like finish really prohibited the top from vibrating like it should.

I stripped of the poly with a superb product called ZAR stripper, one of the few that will also turn a Fender type Polyester finish into jelly.

A friend of mine is a pro finisher (how convenient) and he owed me a
favor... (the stars are right now)... So he put a medium thin nitro
cellulose lacquer finish on it. Much improved! More resonance, and
character.

Now for the coolest stuff:

Godin used a cheap piece of crap 5 way switch, and didn't really take
advantage of some cool wiring options, opting for a simple coil cut instead.

I had originally installed a Schaller mega switch with the P.R.S. switching options.The mega switch is a pretty good upgrade, but they do require a good hit of Caig's Deoxit now and then to keep them clean.

I wanted more tonal variation from this guitar so here comes the newest mod:

I wanted to have the standard 2 'bucker fare plus:

upper coil of the neck in single(closest to the neck) 4.07K
upper coil of the bridge in single (less shrill more strat like) 5.56K
2 outer coils in parallel (tele ping) 2.59K
2 inner coils in parallel (strat quack, P.R.S.tone) 2.32K
2 inner coils in series ( a fatter warmer strat tone) 9.52K
2 neck coils in series with the upper bridge coil ( to die for tone, warmth with a touch of ping) 13.46K

I have found that most of the time all 4 coils in series is far too muddy of a tone to use, but 3 coils is perfect!

I want to thank Carlos Lorenzo for his ability to take my wish list and create a diagram that would make it happen with just 1
push/pull pot, a 4 pole 5 way switch, and a 3PDT switch!

Now this guitar has far more tonal variation, albeit, I wish it were a 22 fret not a 24 fret neck as it would place the neck pickup closer to the neck for added warmth.

Carlos's wiring diagram has been posted to my gear page for those
interested. Post refin pic's will be posted shortly

Harry Jacobson
www.harryj.net

This area has already been well covered by previous reviewers, but I will add my 2 cents worth. First of all, mine is an absolutely gorgeous guitar, I guess they all are. Splitable humbuckers, solid maple top, 1 vol. 1 tone control and a beautiful burst finish. Mine came with a decent H/S Godin case as well.

The sound of this guitar is somewhat polite. The humbuckers are not incredably hot, just nice and warm with a little bite. The split coil settings are pretty decent as well. You can get by quite nicely with just this one guitar on gig. It covers all the bases, HB. and SC. tones well.
I use it through a DeVille Tweed 2-12 amp, and it sounds great.

The guitar was set up really well by the folks at "The 12th Fret" when I bought it. Just one gripe, that 5-way switch. It started to cut out completely on me, and when removed the back plate to take look I was somewhat disappointed at the soldering job. It must have been done on a Monday morning during a hangover. It wasn't hard to fix, but these are not not el cheapo guitars. That's my only problem, and I still love this guitar.

I feel the guitar will last a liftime, it as solid as a rock. Just that damn solder joint, and like I said that was a really easy repair for me.The hardware seems great and it stays in tune very well during a gig.

I've been playing for over 40 years and I've had my share of gear. Too many guitars to mention, numerous amps. This is my latest aquisition, and I'm still very happy with it. One thing I'd like to add, I had cherry red ES-335 back in the early 70's and as I recall it was not nearly as versitile as the Flat Five, but it was cool and I loved it too.I can't get that wonderful 335 tone out of Godin, but it does comes very close.

This is an update to my 07/10/2003 review of this guitar. Due to having shoulder issues with myself (due to the weight of my les paul), I decided to revisit this guitar. I use numerous tube amps, and strive for a heavy marshall-esque tone. I have made the move to ernie ball 8s for strings, and now tune to DBCFAD. I was also able to straighten the neck even more via a truss rod adjustment, and am 99.8% happy with the action (I love brutally low action). As you've guessed, I play metal/hard rock, not nu-metal, I do solo ;) Anyhow, with the changes, man, what a monster now. Deep massive crunch on the neck pickup, and I sometimes use that bridge pickup now! Solo tone with the neck pickup is awesome. I still hold to wishing it was a 22 fret guitar, but now with such a drastic improvement, it is not such an issue. The tone control is still relatively useless ... I will be refitting the guitar with two concentric pots (vol/tone), so that I have more blending options. The clean sounds are also beautiful now. I can not emphasize how much of an improvement these changes have made. I have never played a les paul with humbuckers (mine has mini-hbs), but I have heard them, and now would compare this to a hot rodded les paul, no stretch of the imagination. This is my main axe as of now - though I may look into those new 22 fret LGs. The single coil sounds are also great IMO, I can hear the difference now. Not sure whether the difference is due to setup, strings, or down tuning further, but I now actually use the sc settings.

The tone pot has come loose over time, and the volume is starting to.

After the above changes, I have really started to appreciate this guitar. I wish it came with 22 frets, and two volume, two tone controls, or concentrics. I also wish the neck was a tad thinner.

I think it was made in Canada, probably in 2002.
24 frets; solid spruce top; 5 way selector; 2 humbucking p.u.'s
semi-hollow body; f-hole style; single cutaway; sun-burst finish

Other details are covered in previous reviews

I'm still experimenting with settings, etc to get the sound I want. I think it has potential for some great sounds but I've noticed that the first two settings (bridge p.u.) are a little muddy and bassy. I have a Fender Blues Jr. tube amp so maybe I need to look at a superior amp to get the full potential from this guitar.

I tend to be a little rootsy in style so I like a clean not overdriven or distorted sound. I like it to have volume and punch though. So far the only settings that seem to work with ol' blues jr. are the 3 pos. and the 5th. I can get a nice tone for finger-picking on the 3rd and the 5th offers a heavier rock sound.

The guitar looks and "feels" like it's saturated with grace and quality.

Of course I had to get the action adjusted to my preference but other than that I grow fonder of it every day.

I may have grown discouraged by the sound limitations I've been experiencing but it is such a joy to look at and hold. I'm a little technically challenged so I think some more experimenting with amps, etc should yield the results I'm looking for.

I have also tried ES-335's and Epiphones (I like the semi-hollow style) and I've found the Godin a far more solid and potentially interesting guitar. I think Gibson's in general are out-dated, over-rated and over-priced. I'm convinced, in alot of cases, that you are paying for the name. Sure, they're good guitars, but c'mon.

I think, if I take care of the wood etc, that this guitar can last a life-time. I'm not sure about the electronics but I've had it for a year and no problems yet. I'm sure it could withstand lots of playing and I'd use it without a back-up.

N/A

Like I said, I feel that much of the possibiliies with this guitar are yet to be explored and I don't want to be too critical about the sound before I've tried other amps. However, from the other reviews, it appears that the sound quality issue of the Godin flat-five is fairly controversial. I side with the fellow who sees himself growing into the guitar. It is what it is. I know a good guitar when I play one.

Semi-hollow thinline style guitar, 24-3/4" scale, 24-fret, dual humbuckers, 5-way switch, volume and tone. Rosewood fretboard, mahogany neck, maple/poplar body. Bolt on construction. Hard shell case. Light-burst finish.

Extremely bright guitar, even in neck position. I would almost say the sound is "scooped" in nature. In my opinion, with my limited Gibson exposure, it is not Gibson-esque in sound. The tone control is useless, the guitar is quiet in all pickup selections. It can be extremely bassy, but not "deep" like a Gibson. I have somewhat compenstated for this by using a compressor inline, in order to shave off the brightness. My amplifier is a Marshall JTM-45 reissue fitted with NOS Mullard & Raytheon preamp tubes, and Svetlana power tubes. I use en EBS MultiComp pedal, and a DOD Yngie Malsteem preamp overdrive. I agree with some of the other reviews concerning the 24 fret neck, in that it degrades the sound of the neck pickup, since it is placed too close to the bridge. In my opinion though, all the sound options presented by this guitar are different in nature. Personally, I only use the neck pickup. BTW, I down tune half a step, so this may have an impact on my point of view.

Mine was a factory blemish, with a 3mm round indent by the neck pickup on the upper bout, almost impossible to see. There were also two pin head sized black dots on the fretboard. The fretboard was dry as a bone, and I did not appreciate the strings. I conditioned the fretboard, and used Fender bullet 9s, and set the action to just shy of 1/16" on the low E @ 12th, and aboud 1/32" on the high E @ 12th. The action was OK from the factory, but not my preference. I would prefer low action still, but the fret work, bolt-on construction, will never rival a set neck Gibson. The book-matched top was not perfectly lined up, and I have seen other Godin with this problem, i.e. look at the catalogue. The strap buttons are rather small, but I wear my guitar high and close to my body, so no worries here. It looks like the pickups are wax potted as well. IMHO, the way the strings are anchored through the body is a pain, but it does provide an extremely comfortable right hand position. The f-hole edges were/are not 100 percent polished.

Seems reliable, though the 5-way switch may give troubles down the road, as indicated by others.

Local guitar store, SRC Music, is pretty decent to deal with.

If I was to buy a guitar again, I would most likely go with a Gibson ES335, bite the bullet, and pay the price. In reality, this is a good, almost excellent guitar. They should fix that tone control, it goes from full on bright, to dull nothing, useless. Liking Gibson style guitars, I also feel the volume control is too close. Initially I was knocking the volume down all the time.

I was able to take this guitar home for a week to try it out with my set-up. It is a beautiful guitar, however I had one problem with it, which was enough to make me decide not to purchase it. By putting 24 frets on this guitar, the neck pick-up is placed too close to the bridge. I just couldn't get that really warm jazz sound out of it no matter what I did. I have been playing for over 20 years and own, or have owned, way too many guitars. I know how to get that sound out of just about any guitar, but the pick-up placement is just a bad idea - especially for a guitar like this, that certainly could have been used by jazz players.

No complaints here at all. They make beautiful guitars!

A solid (not laminate like most) carved, AAA figured maple top
The back is Maple with Poplar wings (to add a touch more warmth to the tone as well as reduce weight)
The neck is mahogany, Fingerboard is rosewood

There are 4 hollow chambers (2 per side) and a chambered center block

24 ?" scale
1 11/16" nut width
24 Frets
16" fingerboard radius
Jumbo Frets
String through body design

I am toying with changing the pickups... Godin uses Duncan's on some models (and are very nice), but these look like they may be made by Schaller (as were most of their past pickups)

These are nice, but lack a little bit of warmth... as I said, I am very hard to please, as there are so many folks that absolutely love this guitar stock.

In general the guitar is pretty flexible... good for jazz, blues and when used with overdrive, it sings and sustains beautifully

The finish is excellent! looks like a polyurethane with an amber tint added.

The neck is the new 2002 design with a tad more thickness

First off, Godin's are a very well made, under rated, hand made instruments.
It mystifies me as to why a company that makes such a fine instrument, would choose use a piece of crap Taiwanese 5 way switch. But alas they do. I believe they use the Yamaha switch or copies of it.(these fail very quickly)

I have 4 Godin's (lookin' at a 5th) and have replaced all the switches with either the Schaller Mega or the Dimarzio 24 lug 4 pole switch (which is even more solid than the Mega,as they can fail in time too)

I have had a few email interactions with Godin.

They have been less that helpful and in one case actually spewed out incorrect information.

I was inquiring as to what wood material was used for my Artisan TC (tele)because it was much lighter weight than my Artisan ST (strat)

They told me that they were both solid maple, yet it turned out that the tele was basswood (limewood) with a maple top (much more to my liking)

Ok... I have been playing for 34 years
Currenty own far too many guitars (15) I will spare you the list.

It may be interesting to see what the guitar would be like if they reversed their design and used mahogany for the body and maple for the neck.

I also would have preferred a 22 fret neck to allow the neck pickup to be a bit closer to the neck and therefore warmer.

I made a few enhancements that I fell improves upon an already nice guitar ... anyone who knows me knows that I am very demanding and rarely satisfied with "off the rack" guitars.

I changed the wiring on the Flat 5 from stock:

pos1 neck
pos2 neck split
pos3 neck/bridge
pos4 bridge split
pos5 bridge

To Paul Reed Smith's configuration: (Using Mega switch model "P") All
choices remain hum canceling!

pos1 neck humbucker
pos2 neck/bridge outer coils in parallel
pos3 neck/bridge outer coils in series
pos4 neck/bridge inner coils in parallel
pos5 bridge humbucker

I then added a push / pull pot to activate neck and bridge with all coils on.

Pos 2 gets me a very pingy bell like tele tone

Pos3 is warmer, darker bell tone

Pos4 is that psuedo, PRS, semi, not quite, almost, strat quack tone :-)

Push/Pull activated (all coils in parallel) is the standard Gibsonesque 335 or even 175 warm bell tone.

As I have mentioned in other posts on the news groups, one of the extra special way cool,undocumented things about the Mega switch, is that in between the clicks are other choices!

Between pos 1 and 2 you get the neck in single mode (north pole)

Between pos 2 and 3 you get the bridge (north pole) coil

Between pos 3 and 4 you get the neck (south pole coil)

Between pos 4 and 5 you get the bridge (south pole)

Next alteration was a treble bleed circuit that I add to all of my guitars:

270K ohm resistor with a 560 pF cap

This will compensate for the slight loss of treble when the volume is
lowered without sounding harsh.

In summery... The flat 5 is a very nice instrument, very balanced, light weight, extremely resonant, versatile tone choices (even more after my changes)

the flat five is new this summer so this is pretty new. it's the first one i found locally, I'd been looking for a while. SOLID carved, highly figured/quilted silver maple top. 5 way selector, volume and tone. two HB's with tapping for pos. 2 & 4. the semi hollow (carved) body has a solid block with chambers. mahogany neck w/rosewood board. 'flat-five' (passive) pu's. body is a larger version of their lgx line. through the body stringing (good for tone but the only really aggravating part about godin's set up). good tuners - no problems. 24-3/4" scale ('gibson' scale - shorter then the lgx's) a good hard shell case included

I'm a jazz - fusion player but i free lance for money gigs on the weekend: weddings, private parties etc (the only gigs in this town that pay good money) so I play a lot of pop tunes from 1940 to the present. I have tons of gear but I've been playing this primarily through a Carr slant 6v or a Dr Z Rt 66. effects are chorus and/or delay when needed. very quiet, full sound. pu's are actually quite hot as compared to 57's or Tom holmes - a surprise. I posting this because I've read not so positive reviews of this and the more I use it the more I like it. I even bought a nice 335 (a good one out of several clunky ones I tried) for twice as much as the Godin AFTER i bought this. So I thought I'd be really digging the 335 more. I'm not. This guitar is much better live playing 'parts' in bands. the notch positions help greatly. The 335 gets that great 335 sound but it's harder to dial in the right sounds on the fly for ensemble work with both pu's. And you still don't get the lighter, spankier sounds you get from 2 & 4 on the Godin - plus (on the Godin)you mostly just get there with the 5 selector switch. less stress. It actually has more sounds - not less that some people claim. Nice light guitar!. plays easily. it has 24 frets which pushes the neck pickup further away - you'd think you wouldn't get the darker jazz sounds - but that's just not true. It can sound fuller and woodier than the 335. It can also sound stratier too (in a subdued way)

It was set up like most guitars are - hardly at all. you know - no tension on the truss rod, poorly intonated. So what, big deal! You SHOULD do it yourself after you get it. geez. All manufacturing and fitting was imaculate.

I've owned 4 Godins - I still own 3 - and I'm keeping them. It'll last. they're as well made as anything out there. who brings a backup up 20 floors in an elevator in downtown Chicago? I'm not touring with roadies.

Never had to call them.

'been playing professionally for 25+ years. I own strats, lp, 335, chet atkins, alvarez yairi, Dearmond, ibanez, boogie, fender, marshall, carr, drz, vht, etc, etc..whatever. this guitar will get used. and will stay at the front-end of the 'rotation'. it sounds like itself, it's somewhat innocuous in that you need to take the time to play it and listen to it. It's seemed to have gotten lukewarm reviews - maybe from people in too much of a hurry or with other 'expectations'. It's really a keeper with a complex, mature voice that will serve me well for years - i think, i hope. and with the solid carved top - it should get better! for half the price of a GOOD 335.