Godin LG SP90

Originally when I bought this model I had no clue when it was manufactured, but as I learnt that Godin had reduced the LG's scale from 24 frets to 22 frets in late 2003, I'm assuming it's a 2003. The Godin company is located in my city, Montreal, in the small suburb of Baie d'Urfe. All the parts for this guitar are handcrafted in northern Quebec, and then sent to New Hampshire to be assembled. As I previously stated this is a 22 fret guitar, Gibson-esque scale. The entire guitar is composed of beautiful solid mahogany (except for the fretboard, which is rosewood), giving it some weight. However the combats the Les Paul's rib-bruising problem by having a countoured edge. The guitar is equipped with two fantastic Seymour Duncan P-90 Custom pickups. All this has been said before... just be aware that it's one heck of a well-made guitar. Comes with a free gig bag.

(note: The pickups aren't "'custom' Custom Custom", those are on the LGX, these are simply SP-90 Custom)

I don't care what people say, this guitar can do anything. I prefer it for the blues and rock, but that's mainly because that's what I mostly play. However occationally when I just feel like goofing around I'll turn the gain up and the mids down on my amp and strum some powerchords, and the P-90s have no trouble in sounding fierce (keep in mind that the SP-90 Customs are the highest-output P-90 style pickups, and when I say P-90 style I mean that they still sound like P-90s)

The guitar is beautiful. I can hardly count the number of pieces it's made from through the transparent red glossy paintjob. The grain looks fantastic. As for the playability, everything is recessed. There's a recessed Shaeller bridge, and there is no stopper; it's string-through-body design. Fantastic for finger-picking. The action is the best I've seen, and fully adjustable thanks to the bridge style.

I've had two minor problems with it thus far however: the pot for the volume knob became scratchy after a little more than a month (without heavy usage), however the store I bought it at fixed it immediately for me, and the output jack hex nut wasn't fastened on properly.

I'm not going to answer this question as I'm not a gigging musician, and I don't even own a strap (mind you the buttons are solid metal, and look like they can withstand the weight of the guitar)

The guitar comes with a one year warranty, however the store I bought it from offered their own warranty, which I've already tested and was completely satisfied with. Godin has a website with an overloaded email server, but they did answer a question within a few days. godinguitars.com if you need it.

No one's going to steal my ax, because I'll never let it out of my sight. Should anyone steal it, I'll buy another for sure, and then for sport I'll hunt down the loser who stole it. I compared this guitar to all sorts, from Les Pauls to Strats. The one thing that you absolutely cannot beat on this guitar is the action. It's a fantastic guitar.

2004,lg godin ,sp-90,materiel du Quebec,Canada ,monter au N-H,usa,solid body,red,Mahogany neck and body,sey. duncan p-90.gig-bag realy nice,24 fret,for the price the top.

free-rock,old-rock,bluues,balad-sky,and the old dirty bluuues,with a fender tremolux 67,that incredible,the lg is crying.

every part is ok.

finish? top!!all? top shape!!!

2 time i wrote and the day after i got the email answers.Michel from Godin give me the good ideas.

since 38 years I played guitars ,drum,bass,my mother play since 62 years,my brother plyed since 42 years and my brother now is jealous and turn around my LG,I got 3 others guitar ,a old 66'stratos,a voodoo les paul, and a old Guild,the best sound? the very best pleasure? is on my Godin HO Yeah Boys!!! try one close your eyes and feel.

this is to address the comments on the body material. these are indeed made of solid wood. i have the satin natural finish lgsp90. if i remove the back cover i see that Godin has routed the cavity in several passes, going deeper each time, one reveiwer has mistaken this "stepped" edge to the cavity as being layers of wood. these are not laminate guitars. so be informed that if you by a solid or natural finish Godin it will be solid wood.

a note from a fellow lgsp90 owner, yes you can adjust the action without removing the strings. on the top of the two posts for the bridge are screws, insert a small flat screwdriver and turn( don't forget to release some string tension). piece of cake . don't mind me, i just want to inform you all.

Construction: The LG is a mahogany string thru body guitar with a mahogany neck and a 24.75" scale 24 fret rosewood fingerboard. The frets are somewhere between medium jumbo and vintage. It has what I imagine to be a holly veneer on the headstock similiar to an LP. The neck is bolted into the body and all paint is removed from the pocket allowing wood to wood fit. The joint is beveled to allow for better high fret access. This is NOT your dad's bolt on neck joint. This guitar was made in Canada and assembled in New Hampshire as I think all Godins are.

Hardware:Tuners are Godin brand probably 15:1 ratio they do fairly nicely. The bridge is a standard black tunamatic. the thumbwheels are recessed so you have to take of the strings to raise or lower the action, a pain if you ask me but hey it's actually for the musicians benefit so theat when you DO change strings you don't accidentally hit the thumbwheels. I wish tonepros would release a black bridge but such as it stands the one one it does a fine job. I wish it also had locking tuners with maybe a slightly higher ratio. It also has Schaller strap buttons on it so you can keep it extra solid.

Electronics: It has two SD P90 customs...not custom built but custom pups. The bridge is thick and warm and aggressive the neck might be a bit too hot for some but it also has a VERY warm sound in the mahogany these pups sell me on ducan ceramic magnets. The pups are very articulate and balance well. They are both piped into a singe 250k volume and tone of some make I don't know but I don't think CTS. Mine were scratchy and so I blew them out with canned air. I actually think that 500K would be a better choice I will probably replace mine and will tell you all how that goes. It has a three was slide switch in the same config as an LP but is probably not a switchcraft but I have had no problems from the switch.

I'm giving it a nine on features because I'm a Keep It Simple Stupid kind of guy. I do wish it had another volume and tone though.

I'm using this guitar with a Dr. Z Maz Jr. with no effect except a Seymour Duncan Booster Pedal.
This is the most subjective part of my review some will agree or disagree. The guitar is lively...it sounds decent even unplugged and is loud enough to actually hear. It doesn't have the problems of a lot of LP's that it has to overcome it's weight. The tone can be smooth and full or on the neck pup and when you add OD it still sounds like good. The neck bridge combo gives you more sparkly single coil type sound than either pup alone. It makes a good crunchy rythym sound. The Bridge pup sounds very very VERY good. Lots of crunch and output it really cuts through the mix. Now here is the reason I think 500ks would be beneficial to me in this guitar. I use an amp with a tube rectifier and the bass is a little to flabby to me in the mahogany and it is my experience you can fix a good deal of it with 500ks. Some will probably argue it makes a harsh sound but I like having a brighter sound and toning it down. I've never had any real noise problems from this guitar even at high amp volume it's permissable.

This guitar takes the old LP jr sound to the next level and then gives it a shot of steroids and adrenaline. Some don't think that since it has 24 frets that neck pup can sound all that great but it does.To my ears it sounds better than MOST 22 fret guitar neck pups...I could still stand for it to be a little brighter.

This is a gold lg with a metallic look to it. The neck has a satin finish and the headstock is black with black and chrome tuners to match the black hardware and pups. The only flaw is if you get it in really good light you can see a line of some sort in the paint on the bottom third but it is unnoticeable for the most part. Wish it had binding on the neck particularly

Action/playability Now THIS is where the godin shines. I don't know how long this one sat but the fingerboard was as dry as could be and already a month after its first real oiling it needs another. This didn't really affect the playability that much but the satin touch of a well oiled fingerboad is a thing I love. The neck is the fastest I've played and the fretwork is AMAZING! By that comment I mean the frets are trimmed to a T and beveled and everything perfectly and THAT in my opinion is the makings of a truly great guitar. It plays better than my US strat did out of the box and the frets 4 and a half years later on the strat still aren't quite as nice. The Tele is close with the rolled fingerboard edges but not quite there. The neck finish is some kind of satin finish and is a delight to play.

The playing is so great it covers for my finish issue.

I see no reason that this guitar shouldn't last. I just need to get a set of black schaller strap locks and it will be as stable as can be. I never gig without a backup because that is asking for trouble.

John at Atomic Guitar in Little Rock AR was the guy my dad bought it from he is now out of business but Saied Music in North Little Rock is also a dealer and a buddy of mine works there so I shouldn't have problems.

All and all this is a fantastic guitar I would replace if stolen or destroyed. For the money it is an UNBELIEVABLE guitar you have to play to believe. They are in stores around the $600 mark but you can get them for less. The 24 fret neck gives it an extra bit of charm for me that extra piece which gives me the whole two octave (per string) neck.

2002 gold-sparkle finish mahogany-esque*, single cut-away body; a pair of Duncan P90s, one volume, one tone, 3-way selector (no hum-cancelling in middle position); mahogany neck, 24-fret, 24.75" scale, 16" (!) radius. The pickups and bridge are recessed in the body (includes a "comfort contour" as well) and provide a comfortable playing experience.

*when I opened the control panel to modify the volume pot, I discovered that the body showed the tell-tale layers of a laminate. While it may be a mahogany laminate, it definately isn't a gold-sparkle version of the natural semi-gloss, say, that appears to be solid pieces of wood. I feel the manufacturer could be a little more forthcoming in this respect (and maybe all manufacturers do this) and perhaps price the different finishes accordingly (I noticed no difference among colors for the LG SP90s at two local dealers).

I was looking for a Mahogany P90-loaded solildbody guitar to support how great my Epi Casino sounded through my (then) new TopHat Club Royale (think Vox AC15); and because of a couple of local guys' goldtop LPs with P90s. I tried out several Les Pauls (old and new/resissues), a Guild, a couple of PRS's, and even an old-gold LG, but this one sounded the best for what I wanted to hear (a little warmer than the other LG I tried). Since then I played a new Les Paul Special in the faded yellow series and a used Pete Townsend SG, each of which sounded a little better and the best, respectively.

Great sounds AND great sounds for the price. I upgraded the volume pot to 500K and added a cap+resistor mod I typically do on my Strats to keep that Vox-like sparkle happening when rolling it back. The tone control can get really furry, so I may need to swap out a cap in it as well.

The action is awsome and with such a flat radius the guitar is a joy to play. The neck is thicker than I'm generally used to (Parker Fly Deluxe, say), but traditionalists will likely appreciate this feature. The neck is deep-set into the body, contributing to the flatter surface profile with the recessed bridge and pickups: this makes too much sense!

The finish is definitely show-biz and, since I play a number of outdoor gigs, it really sparkles in the sun and under lights. I haven't noticed any other flaws in the wood work.

Since the knobs are Tele-style with set-screws, I have had the volume kob fall off a number of times.

I also replaced the tuning keys to heftier Grovers than whatever was stock: no modification needed and it took slightly longer than a typical string change to do.

With the Grover upgrade I haven't had any tuning issues at all; prior to that I would say my experience was similar to below. I have played it live a number of times and would have no reluctance to rely on it.

Came with Straplock style buttons that are really well connected. Since loading it with Ernie Ball's 10-52 set, I could play without a backup.

Been performing over 26 years, but only recently had the maturity to shop with my ears instead of my eyes (gold sparkle finish notwithstanding). I play through a couple of TopHat Club Royale amplifiers (sold my Marshall DSL 100w halfstack for the second one) and Kinman-loaded guitars (Mexican Strat Standard and parker Nite Fly) as well as the LG.

I would by this model again, but probably the clear, natural finish to be certain I didn't have something that compares to some cheap Squiers I've owned in the past. It can be a fantastic value, but caveat emptor on the body.

2003, made in usa from canadian parts. solid mahogany with rosewood board. 3 way switch for 2 seymour duncan sp90's. natural satin finish. one beautiful guitar that looks like it was made by mother nature. the features it has are the ones that are important. playability and tone as well as being one solid axe. do yourself a big favour and check out godin guitars. very beautiful gig bag included, no cheap bag but rather a durable and useful one!! i love it!

it sounds wicked. i can get tele country , stevie ray neck tones , blues rock as well as heavy rock tones with this. it can be clean to crunchy with a roll of the volume. no screwing around with this . pure guitar. the p90's may lead some to think this cannot be a heavy rock axe but that is what your amp is for. high gain pickups are not my choice for heavy music anyway. i prefer paf or p90's for the clarity. i will probably try the tone pot resistor trick as mentioned in these reviews. mainly for the brightening of the tone. there is nothing wrong with the tone now but i am curious if i can get even better tone. i dislike nothing about this guitars tone. when i try out guitars i play unplugged for a bit before i plug in to hear the guitars tone. it rings like a well made accoustic! and is very balanced.and has amazing sustain! there can be noise from the p90's but nothing i can't handle.

very well put together, smokes most guitars regardless of price. mucho hand work. i find the grain in the mahogany matches great(3 piece body) and if it didn't i wouldn't care. i want to play it not admire it. but when you see it you can't help but drool. the only "flaw" was a missing trusrod cover? my guess is the store lost it and played dumb. but i saved money because of it and will make my own anyway. godin scores highly in this category( action ,fit and finish). like i said this guitar looks like it is a product of mother nature it is so solid. solid mahogany, schaller hardware and seymour duncan pickups. not a cheap piece on this guitar. even has a metal jackmounting plate!

solid! as a rock. comes with schaller strap buttons which are for schaller strap locks. some people miss this. and think they are regular buttons and too small for safe use with a strap. i actually used my SDXT with a srap that didn't have the strap locks on and had no problems. if the holes in your strap are worn out and streched don't blame the guitar.duh.

great support. i have emailed them several times. they are busy and don't have time to reply INSTANTLY but i appreciate the money i spend for my godin is for the guitar. look at big companies and see the price differences. you pay for the endorsers, big lawyers, ads, fancy websites etc. but do you get better quality of support?

playing 20 years, i own two yamaha electrics and yamaha DG100 that i control with a rfx midiwizard. if stolen i would definately buy again. i love everything about it. i tried several different guitars out and this was the one. strats, brian moores, and a real nice faded epi sg and a wolfgang were tried but they all had reasons they lost. this had the simplicity, solidness, tonal variety i needed. what i hate the most? what i hate is i am now wanting a LG signature or LGX. damn you godin i am now hooked. i want more GODINS. can't help the 10 in this category, but for the quality, tone, workmanship for this price is a "10" high enough?

There are already 25 postings for this guitar, so I will keep this brief. I was in the market for a mahogany guitar with P-90s and this
guitar was the clear winner based upon playability, price and tone.

I chose the cognac burst finish and it is indeed very beautiful. The back of the guitar is black in color. I play with an aggressive right hand and did not notice the tuning problems others have mentioned.

I had to intonate the third string as it was off by a few cents.
The body is made of 3 pieces of mahogany and mine has 3 different grains which turned out to be stunning. This is a very comfortable guitar; "no sore ribs from your Les Paul syndrome".

The neck is fabulous. A modified C shape which suits me well.
A very flat rosewood fingerboard provides a buzz free environment for
those who prefer a low string action. Left hand work is effortless and my legato and string skipping riffs can be played very quickly and with little strain.

This guitar has great acoustic tone. Lots of warmth, sustain and
harmonics when strumming or shredding.

I do not like the tuners. They are small and require a very light touch or you will be flat or sharp when making adjustments.
Once tuned, however, this guitar was very stable despite subjecting it to whole tone bends and hard strumming and picking.

I play blues, jazz blues and rhythm changes. No effects. I use Polytone Mega-brute amps into Raezers edge and Marshall 1X12 cabs.

Like other single coil pickups, the P-90s are noisey when around computers or lights. P-90s are a great trade off between single coil
and humbuckers. The high end sizzle and strong mids are what I like about the Seymour Duncan wound pickups in this guitar.

As shipped, the tone control capacitor was a ceramic 0.033 microfarad
unit. I found the guitar was not bright enough for me. The mids were very strong and when playing the guitar unplugged you do not hear this. Acoustically, it has a well balanced tone, therefore, I felt the tone circuit was rolling off too many highs.
I changed the capacitor to a 0.01 microfarad unit and this guitar
is now the perfect combination of warmth and brightness.

I read elsewhere on this page about a guitarist who changed the 250K
pots to 500K pots. With all due respect, changing the capacitor is
much easier. I tried a 0.022, a 0.015 and finally a 0.01 microfarad cap.

The 0.01 gives me the classic P-90 sound, with lots of growl and bite.
It also sounds better through a distortion circuit; giving clearer seperation of notes and good raunch for the fifth-style chords that rock players love to use.

Another guitar I was considering was the Fender Toronado mahogany versions with P-90 style "black-dove" pickups. It was 2.4 times the price, had less sustain and a strat-style neck which paled by comparison.

I can't believe how expensive Fender guitars are now!


Overall this guitar has a unique tone that is very pleasing to the ear. I have a hard time putting it down! I like tone much more than a former Les Paul junior sold years ago. This guitar is alive and very, very musical sounding.

My ratings for sound are 8 with my mod and 6 without the mod.

Beautiful sanding and attention to detail. There was a 2 inch long ,fine scrape in the finish on the top side of the headstock, but it can't be seen by the audience and I just kept it.

Strap lock buttons are stock. Very solid. Good fret wire work.
I can't see it breaking apart.

I wanted a mahogany guitar with P-90s. This is a classic guitar sound. This guitar delivers the goods and is a great value.
Try one out and see why Godin is selling so may of these guitars.

You know the drill, made in Canada and assembled in the USA, 2002 Godin LG SP-90 in Cognac Burst. Beautiful high gloss finish, mahogany body and neck with a Rosewood fretboard. This guitar is beautiful to look at, and feels good when you pick it up. It's no feather either, lots of weight. 24 3/4" scale, 3-way selector switch, great Seymour Duncan SP-90 pups, string through body, Godin spec tuners, and a gig bag. I give the axe a 9 for what it doesn't have, just a simple straight forward guitar.

This guitar does sound great. I play rock and blues, through a Fender Blues Jr. and with the SP90's humming along, and the extra tension from the string through body, the guitar sings. Play it clean and you get a nice jazzy sound with the neck pup, add a little drive and with the bridge pup it crunches and growls sweetly. Beautiful full sound. The pups are a little noisy, since they are single coils. I wouldn't say the 3-way selector gives you alot of versatility, but for straight ahead rock and blues, it's great. Darker than a Strat or Tele, but very cool nonetheless. The string through design really make the LG resonate amazingly well, probably the best I've ever experienced. The sustain with a little drive is awesome.

Out of the box the LG was set up nice, but I had the tech swap the stock strings for a set of D'Addario XL .10s which made a huge difference in feel and sound. I also raised the bridge pup up closer to the strings, and with some distortion it rocks. The guitar had no flaws whatsoever, one of the best I've seen.

The plastic tuners might not last forever if your gigging regularly, and probably a good idea to swap them in the future. The rest looks to be solid for the long run. One thing I did notice, and not only on this axe, but other LG's was that the guitar goes out of tune easily, especially since i bend alot. I don't know if it's because of the string through design or not, but what I did notice was that the strings come in contact with the wood, and there is no ferrule. Over time the strings may cut deeper into the wood, which would be a concern. It's weird because I also have an MIM Strat, that I put 5 springs into the trem, and it NEVER goes out of tune.

I called and emailed Godin a few times, and was impressed with their timely replies, and they were very friendly.

Overall, the LG SP-90 is a great guitar, and for the money a steal. You can't get the features, sound and quality of this guitar in any axe under $1000 Canadian. I would buy this guitar again for sure.

This is a 2002 model made in CANADA.It has a 24.75 scale fretboard which gives each string 2 full octaves of play.Solid mahogany throughout with a rosewood fretboard.A 3 way switch for two SEY/DUNC s/c pics.Telecaster vol and tone controls with semi set in tune-o-matic bridge set in body and strung through the body.Godin tuners with 15:1 ratio.neck 16" radius with medium frets.

Very full sounding with lots of warmth and smoothness due to the use of all the mahogany.Played through a marshall JCM 900 100W DUAL REVERB COMBO(2 G12 75 celestions),ZOOM ULTA LEAD pedal,DUNLOP CRYBABY.This guitar will play most types of music with a lot of warmth and clearity,not a metal guitar at all, much too refined for that garbage.Not overlly bright due to the SP90's.The neck is just slightly thicker than I like but not as thick as PRS's or Gibson.The guitar is a pleasure to play and the controls are precise.The frets are easy to play on and the guitar is put together very well with great attention to detail.I bought the guitar because of its sound which is a noiseless version of a s/c and has a clear warmsound unique to itself,no jangly Strat sound here,if I want that I'd get it with the other Dunc s/c.

The action sits nice and low and is very fast.Everything is fitted well and all routering is done precisely .There is a ton of hand work done on these guitars,the finish is flawless.The guitar is visually a work of art as are most of GODIN electrics.

This guitar is super solid ,doesn't mean you have to do a Pete Townsend on them to break them in .Top grade woods are used and the hardwareis solid and well made.The 3 way switch hasn't given me any problems but is a bit on the flimsy side .You'll need a guitar with HUMbuckers to fill out your sound if your style takes there otherwise the LG is more than adequate.

N/A no problems so far .

Been playing for a long long time and own a Godin SDXT(another beaut by the way),Seagull S6 Cedar,Ibanez GAX 70.I've owned Strats and Tele's and found them one dimensional in there sound .Gibsons and PRS's are way beyond my means and I don't get along with they're necks and weight so the Godins are a blessing and you cannot beat the QUALITY-PRICE RATIO thes guitars have.They're basically a steal.Once you solve the other part of the equation which is the proper amp for you then you have got your own little NIRVANA happening.I love the neck because it is fast and very comfortable to play and the people at GODIN spent alot of time and effort on this axe and I appreciate that.This guitar competes with those that are 3-4 tims he price.