Godin LG

This guitar came pretty standard; black finish, seymour-duncan custom custom's. It has since been modded with the addition of an EMG 81 in the bridge and sperzel locking tuners. It has a 5-way selector for the pickups.

I currently play lead in a metal band which tunes to B, stylisticly I'd say similar to Gorguts, Arch Enemy, Opeth, At the Gates, Cephalic Carnage. I'm playing straight into an original 5150 head through a Mesa-Boogie Recto 4-12, and the tone is crunchy and brutal, but remains very defined for intricate chording as well as for soaring leads. Very warm and musical, oddly enough, as it is a very agressive sound.

I have the string height very low, and yet there is very little fret buzzing. It's a testament to the workmanship of these guitars that with just an intonation adjustment, I'm able to play tuned to B with very few problems. I'm only using 10-48 gauge strings.
The one major problem I've encountered is that the stock bridge became corroded and required replacement. Not a big issue.

The finish is near perfect, no wear and tear. When the guitar is hit or dropped the finish will dent, but not chip or flake off. Very nice. I've used this baby without a backup live for years and I've never had one problem. The only major issue I've encountered is that the stock bridge became corroded and required replacement. Not a big problem.

Never needed to call.

My band's other guitarist is endorsed by ESP, but I find myself playing the godin much more than even the high end ESP's. Not LTD's, I'm talking KH-2's, etc. High end guitars. The LG is the best investment I've ever made bar none. This is a professional quality instrument which suits me and my playing style perfectly.

I got this guitar from a Montreal Dealer. 24 fets, solid guitar, 2 Seymour Duncan humbuckers, a 3-way selector, a volume pot and a tone pot. No extra really, just basic electronics.

The LG is really in the Les Paul area, as for feeling than for sound.

Mine is dark red and came with the original case from Godin.

It took my 10/46 strings no problem.

I think newer LG's are coming out with a 5-way selector and a midrange pad switchable by pulling out the tone knob. I sure would have liked those features but after all I don't care,the simpler the better... right?

I was looking for a good overall, any style guitar. It's plugged thru a Soldano SP-77 preamp, a TC electronics G-Major FX unit and then into the return of the fx loop of my amp wich is a homemade copy of a JCM800, driving 2 EL34.

The sound is really rich! This guitar is soulful. Reminds me Queen's guitar sound. Both pickups are not muddy at all but real thick and chunky when in full bridge or full neck position. Almost too rich sometimes, but It's always easier to remove from you sound something you don't want than to add something you can't find. When in the middle position, it sounds more like a twangy strat. So I use it mostly in the bridge position ans switch from time to time into the middle poz to get a more tubbie strat sound.

I'm in love with this guitar! Perfect for old Genesis and clean stuff. Incredible with the clean chan of the soldano. But might be a little too round for a more heavy-Metallica-like trash. A bit more siffness would have been nice. But the trade-off is real sweet tone, infinite sustain and a addictive playability.

This is not really my style but I guess this guitar would do some real solid blues tones like santana and BB-King.

Although it's a full solid body, the resonance is almost one of an accoutic guitar or at least a hollow body. In fact you can ear the sound of the guitar even unplugged. Good wood conbination I guess.

Nothing to complain. Everything was perfect. Not a scratch, really clean and well assembled. The fret job is perfect. I personnaly got to raise the pickups out of their holes a little bit and to tune the bridge in matter of height and harmonic adjustment but that was really painless. No trussrod messing and action nightmare.Just one little thing, the jack get intermittent when you mess around with your guitar cable, but that sounds like the result of some kind of abus in the store before I came by. Anyway I'll tight the output jack connector tip and i'll be happy for life...

Well I got it only since a few weeks I can tell about the long run, but as the quality of fabrication is really high, I don't expect any problem.

No deal with them yet. But apparently they are very quick on asnwering emails....

I've been playing here and there for fun since 10 years. It does the trick for me. I would buy a guitar more dedicated to metal music and all my tone wishes would be fulfilled!

I dare anyone to find a better sounding guitar at this price. Since the Godin's shop is pretty close from here, I got it at an unbelievable price. I came into the store looking for a Les Paul standard ( about 2000$ can.) and went out with this awesome piece of work for 25% of that Les Paul Price!

I'm more than happy.

its a simple guitar
easy 3 switch
1 tone
1 volume

great
this beast beasts out ANY guitar under a grand
its so smooth
the seymours really shine on the mahogany
clean smooth versital tone

i love it
i grew up on fender guitars and the attack on thois guit was low and comphy and the action is SOO easy to adjust with the tune o matic bridge - the black pearl finish is beutiful - all black hardware is awesome - beautiful in and out

oh ya godin knows how to make guitars right
they NEVER cut any corners
there company is built around details

overall amazing guitar for the price
beats ANY guitar for under a grand

This is a 2002 Godin LG. The sticker on the headstock said 'assembled in america from parts made in canada'. 24 frets, 2 SD P90 pickups, 3 way selector, volume and tone controls. It is made from a three piece mahogany body with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard. The body looks vaguely les-paul like, but no arched top. Mine has a cognac burst finish. It is a string through body with a tune-o-matic style bridge/saddle. 3X3 tilted headstock. No idea what kind of tuners or nut but I like them both. It has a short 24 and 3/4 inch scale. Interestingly it doesn't have top ferrules on the string through body holes letting the strings bite into the wood a bit. I've seen earlier LG's that DO have these so I emailed Lasido about it. They said it was a design change recently and it was done to help dampen ringing and strange harmonics behind the saddles because the strings weren't dampened well enough. It seems to work fine.

I love how the guitar sounds. Pretty much just what I expected on a guitar with P90s.

The guitar was bought near and is in great shape. The finish is much darker and thicker than earlier year models, but it looks great. The nut is little rough around the edges, but seems to be placed perfectly and is cut just fine. It was intonated perfectly from the factor. Very well done.

I've never played live with it, but practice at home and with my (extremely bad) band.

They answered my emails in 2 hours.

I've been playing for almost fifteen years. I don't own much gear, just a peavey classic 20, a squier standard telecaster, an ibanez S540, and a tacoma dm8c. This latest purchase was after quite a bit of shopping. I wanted a fixed bridge guitar with a flat fingerboard, reasonably wide nut, vintage pickup selection, pretty and cheap. I also checked out Carvins, the cheap Gibson les paul studios and fadeds, a few different fender telecasters (i never got to play a G&L but after all i've read i still want one of these), a few other Godins, and a few others they had at guitar center. The local mom&pop store had an LG, which I immediately loved, but only one (the floor model) and in gold finish which I hate. So I kept my eyes open and picked it up for cheap on ebay. I have a lot of confidence in Lasido, my friend's Art and Lutherie acoustic is great, so it only marginally bothered me to buy it blind. It was worth it.

I had to change my picking style with this one. I've been playing a telecaster and an Ibanez before and hand placement is quite different on the tune-o-matic. Not harder, just different. Also the shorter scale changes bends and feel, and among other features seemed to add a lot of bottom end, so I spent a while playing with my sound.

This is a great guitar. I thought the price is great, and its simplicity and quality are very appealing. This will be my #1 electric for a long time.

Canadian guitar. 24 fret with mahogany body rosewood fingerboard. Black pearl finish. I have a godin case for it. I had it rewired and differend Seymour duncans added.

This guitar does almost everything. It is increadible. I can play NoFX to Staind to Our Lady Peace with it. I play it with a boogie. I find that the guitar doesn't like lights with a dimmer switch and the guitar doesn't hum at all unless these stupid 40watt bulbs are around then it hums like crazy. I found that the stock pickups sounded fine through a solid state peavey amp but when I started trying out tube amps the gain sounded really growly and muddy. I asked my guitar tekkie what to do and he suggested putting in Seymour Duncan Alnico II pro pickups. I also had the guitar rewired to a 3 way switch which gives 2 awsome clean sounds. The new pickups give the guitar a tone very similar to a PRS standard with dragon pickups but not quite as bassy. Really amazing sound.

The action went out after I bought the guitar which makes sense considering that new wood is used in these guitars. I got the neck adjusted a couple of times and it has been fine since. The action is increadible on this guitar. Not quite as quick as a Gibson Les Paul but buttery and smooth. No Sammy Haggar solos so I guess I'm OK. Everything was in fine working order when I bought the guitar although there are a few battle scars which make the guitar look loved:D

Have gigged without backup. This guitar has a propensity for staying in tune unless the strings are old. That is how I know when to change them:D The finish has not chipped at all and aside from belt scratches on the back is fine.

I emailed Godin. They are SO busy that they just don't have much time

I've been playing guitar as a second instrument (piano first) for 3 years now. If somebody stole my guitar I'd do something I'd regret later. Not another one like it. I love the versitility in sound, it does whatever I need it too. It is soft enough for wimpy rock and has the output/energy for metal. I like the neck feel. Buttery smooth. Easy to play. I compared it to Les Paul Custom, PRS Standard, Fender Strat. It sounded better then all of the above with the new pickups. Buy it from Canada and throw in the Alnico II pros. You won't be dissappointed

I bought the guitar in 1997. It's the older model LG, with the Godin Tetrad pickups.
If you've read the other reviews, you should know the basic specs of this guitar by now - 24 frets, Mahogany and Rosewood, 5-way selector with a push-pull filter (I've seen a few people refer to this as a coil tap, but my instruction leaflet says that it's a filter, rather than a tap - to be fair it does sound like a coil-tap), Schaller deluxe tuners.
Mine has a low-gloss natural finish, with a fixed bridge - simple but effective.
It came with a gig-bag, but I haggled with the shop owner and he agreed to sell me his only Godin hard case (I had to travel over 4000km to take it home, so a gig bag just wasn't good enough). This has proven to be an essential investment.
I also bought Jim Dunlop Strap-locks and fitted them the day I bought it. They've gone a bit rusty, but still work perfectly, and have never failed me.

I've given this category 9, as this guitar has everything I really need, and nothing I don't really need. (I'm not a Floyd-Rose fan)

Fits my style perfectly - I tried quite a few guitars out, but I knew from the second I picked this one up that it was mine.
I love my LG!
I can switch from ringing jangly chords, to soft jazzy sounds to full-on crunch with ease. When I play at home, I tend to lean toward chords with ringing open strings and eastern-sounding riffs. On stage it's usually hard rock/grunge, alternative stuff, although we've been known to throw in the odd country or bluesy thing now and then.

I usually play it through my JCM800, with usually nothing more than a simple distortion pedal and maybe a Wah. I occasionally use other effects, but on stage it's usually just the guitar and a distortion pedal to help drive the Marshall.

Even through my el-cheapo Samick practise amp, this guitar sounds great.

There's not much I don't like about the LG as far as sound goes.

I was very happy with the way the guitar came off-the-shelf, but over time, a couple of small cracks have developed around the neck-join. These haven't affected the overall sound, and don't seem to have spread any further in the last year or so, so I'm not too worried by them.

I dropped the guitar (hard) a couple of years ago, and almost snapped the headstock clean off. I was devastated, but took it into Fremantle Fret Services, in Western Australia and the guy there re-joined and reinforced it, then finished the neck with a dark brown/natural sunburst.
It plays as good as ever, and I haven't had any problems since.
There are a couple of small dents in the body, but considering the punishment I've given the guitar, it's held up exceptionally well.
After using Strap-locks on this guitar for the last 5 years, I wouldn't do it any other way. I like to jump around a bit, and have dropped other guitars.
I would (and have) used this without a backup, but my experience has been that you can break a string at any time, no matter what guitar you're playing...

I couldn't get much assistance from the Australian distributor of Godin guitars when I broke the neck. They never returned my calls and kept giving me the runaround about getting hold of a new neck for me, so I ended up going to a "local" guy (only 2500km away, instead of about 6000km to the Aus. distributor - I live in the remote Northwest of Australia)

I've been playing (on and off) for about 14 years (I'm 29).
I also currently own an Ibanez 59er Les Paul copy, a Fender 12-string acoustic, an Ashton (cheap) active bass, a Marshall JCM800 2203 100 watt head and quad box, a Samick practise amp, Boss DS-1, Boss DS-2 with footwitch for lead channel, Boss phaser, very old Korg multi-effects unit (for practise only - too noisy for stage use).

If My LG were lost or stolen, I'd be heartbroken.
I would buy it again, but I'd also look at other Godins.

When I bought it, I wanted either a vintage Fender (way out of my price range), or something like an SG.
On the day, I chose between a Gibson "The Paul" - a very basic Les Paul model, an Ibanez Joe Satriani, a Patrick Eggle New Yorker (I think that was the model), an Epiphone Les Paul and a secondhand Strat. The LG was the one. None of the other guitars (except maybe the Patrick Eggle, which didn't have the balls of the Godin) felt right.

I bought it used a lil' while ago. The guy who sold it to me didn't know what year it was made but he said it was around 1993, 1994. pieces were made in Canada and it was assembled in New Hampshire (USA). The body is see-through cherry colour ( kinda woody red-brown ). The body's shape is somewhat between a les paul and a tele ( godin's shape). Strings pass through the body ( that had sustain) The body is made of three piece of mahogony. The neck is also made of solid mahogony. The fret board has 24 frets and is made of rosewood. Two godin humbuckers and the most important thing...this guitar has a kida 5 way selector plus a push-pull tone knob ( 10 sounds).

I play mostly punk and kinda heavy solos. But I also play blues. I'm currently using a "cheap" peavey studio pro. Hey man this amp is really not the best I've tried and my baby makes it sound AMAZING! I tried it with the metal zone of my friend and it sounded great. I used a marshall jcm 900 for some shows and it was simply superb. Thsi guitar is not noisy at all believe me! The pick-ups and sealed. Sicne I have it I'm always forgetting to close my amp. It's simply silent. I can get almost all sounds I want from it. From a nice twangy tele sound to powerful punk power chords. This baby ROCKS! It has it's own sound. through the marshall my godin sounded as good under heavy distortion than the gibbie of my friend and under clean channel forget it the les paul was eating the dirt! But still i'm probably gunna replace the godin humbucker by a seymour duncan JB or CUSTOM or simply an invader. Depends. The sound is rich and full. Thsi guitar is not sounding bright...it's just perfect. it's my first good electric and i simply love it! lets' go for a nice lil' 10!

the action is simply PERFECT! low enough without any fret buzz. It stays in tune pretty well... ( not a miracle but at least it's better than a les paul) after 7 years of used my baby has no scratch no marks no nothing it's simply amazing. the only thign is that the headstock doesn'T seem as nice as it was in the paast probably. the neck is great. Large, flat ( VERY FLAT) and well made for soloing. The only problem I had with it is that the jack to plug it has been destrcuted by the other guy. but still I just changed it and it's in perfect shape.

I play live it does the work well no need of backup. it's made to last! the finish is very thick so i dont feel it'll go away easily. i'm probably going to change tehe strap button to locking ones but those are still good.

godin rulez.

GODIN 4 ever! thats enough said!

Made about 97, in Canada and the US, 24 frets, solid body H/H configuration, with five way switch, 1 volume, 1 tone. Seymour Duncan Custom Custom Custom bridge pickup (a Custom Custom that was supposedly wound different for this guitar) Jazz II neck pickup (a Duncan Jazz, again 'specially' wound for this guitar). It's a Bolt on mahogany neck/body with rosewood fingerboard and birdseye maple headstock veneer. Transparent red gloss finish, Godin LG body style (as mentioned earlier, sort of a Les Paul crossed with a fudgsicle). Tune-O-Matic Style bridge, strings go through body. Nice Schaller tuners. Thin, flat neck profile, with regular size frets i guess. Came with a case, and an allen key for adjusting the truss rod. The neck pocket is specially designed to be very tight fitting.

This is a fairly versatile guitar, because the humbuckers are splitted in the 2 and 4 positions of the 5 way switch... bridge pickup (bucker) is fairly raucous sounding, with a lot of mids and treble, but not a lot of bass; split single it sounds about the same only less output. Neck pickup sounds quite full, and is good for jazzy kind of stuff with the tone rolled down, or those extra full neck pickup kind of solos with the tone down and the mids and gain cranked on the amp (sort of brian may-ish). The neck pickup split to a single coil sounds pretty stratty to me, with a lot of bass and twang, and a glassy high end. The split neck pickup (position 2) is probably my favourite... sounds good clean and dirty, a good all around sound. The middle position, with both buckers engaged in parallel is very full and twangy sounding. This guitar is good for a generic rock sound or a pretty big 70s rock sound partially or fully distorted, and sounds good clean with the neck pickup (split or full) and/or middle position. It suits rock stuff fairly well, which I like to play, but i think i will change the bridge pickup out for a Duncan JB or Custom. I might try putting the bridge pickup in the neck position to see what it's like as well, because i have read (on this site) that the Custom Custom sounds good in the neck position. In addition to rock (Rush, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Meshuggah...) I also like playing (and listening to) Jazz, Classical, Hip Hop/R&B (Miles Davis, Beethoven, The Roots, Outkast, Erykah Badu, etc.) I think this guitar tries too hard to be an SG and a strat together. I think i would be happier with a strat and an SG (for electric guitars anyways) than with this guitar. Guitar Shoppe gave me a decent cord and a strap of my choosing (well, not a leather strap) Comes with a Godin Hard (sort of, not a gigbag anyways) Case

The flat/thin/wide neck takes getting used to, but i like it now. A big problem with this guitar, i have heard, is that the bridge is not far back enough for proper intonation (which i have witnessed since trying to properly intonate it) so it needs a shim in the neck, therefore defeating the advantage of the super-tight fitting neck pocket/bolt-on design. There are two bad cracks in the finish (maybe wood as well) around the base of the neck pocket, possibly from the neck being screwed in too tight. The finish is nice and glossy on the body and headstock, and the satin finish on the neck (that gets nicer with time because of the oil from your hands) feels very nice. A big complaint of mine is that it is very obvious where the 3 pieces of mahogany that compose the body are joined. On the back side, the finish over the joints is lovely and smooth, but on the front, they were so badly joined (or inadequately sanded) that there are ridges going up/down where the pieces were joined, thus the top of the guitar isn't totally flat. Another problem with this guitar is that the pickup switch that comes with it is a dirty piece of junk. The switch is very sticky, and it is very picky as to which position it is in... the action is not 5 fluid clicks into place, it sort of scrapes and sticks in each place. After 2 years of use, the switch is now not as sticky, but just as finicky to get into the place you want it. It needs to be replace ASAP IMHO. The tuners and volume/tone contols are very smooth and nice however.

Overall, this guitar seems very durable, with the exception of the switch and the fact that the strap buttons are horribly small and unsuitable. The strap frequently comes off at the upper bout because the strap buttons are so small. This guitar needs straplocks or at least better strap buttons. The finish is very thick and durable and glossy. I would gig with it without a backup as i have no other electric guitar right now. I only really use it to play by myself or with a couple friends (though I have played "gigs" a couple of times)

No idea
Probably pretty good, Canadians RULE!!!!

I have been playing guitar for more than 4 years now i believe, and the only other gear I own is a Norman (same parent company as Godin) B50 Acoustic guitar, a fender blues jr. amp and an ehx Small stone phaser pedal. I think this guitar is a good deal for the money, because it is fairly durable and the electronics can be modified to make it sound better, as the structural and aural integrity of this guitar is quite good i think, other than the shoddy switch/pickup config. I love that it's all mahogany and made mostly in Canada, and entirely in North America. It's versatile. I wish it had one of those beautiful maple tops and a piezo bridge like the LGXs have, then with a pickup swap i would have the only guitar i'd really need, +). They don't make LGs like this anymore, but if it was stolen i probably wouldn't get another one. I'd probably buy an SG special or a G&L S-500 or ASAT (probably used, they're a bit more money than this one.

It's a 95 I beleive.. made in Canada. It's a 24 fret, solid body,simple beautiful guitar. They switched to seymore duncan pickups in the new models that aren't nearly as nice as the godin tetrads that I have. Some times change is done just for changes sake and in this case they should have left well enough alone

The guitar has such a wide variety of tone that it can suit any style of playing, which suits me just fine as I have a very diverse style..
you can play the dirtiest, meanest sound with a great heavy tone, or you can pull out the coil tap and have a nice light tone.. great guitar!

They couldn't make a better guitar... It took a little fiddling with as it was on the shelf for about 3 years before I bought it but now it's just great, solid, shiny, and gorgeous.

I beat the shit out of my guitars and this one takes it like a man.

I had som ework done on it.. it came with a one year full warranty, which is impressive considering that it was 3 years old when I got it... well it was on the shelf in the store but anyway... it took a while to get it fixed but they did with no charge... what can I say we canadian don't mess around

I wouldn't trade it for anything.. they don't make them like this anymore, literally, they switch models now and there isn't a better guitar than mine anywhere in the world

1996 Godin, Black Mahogany Body, Mahogany Neck.. Nice nice guitar.. Stop tail piece, and thru body strings.. Bone nut, or plastic ? Looks like Bone to me, and with the components on this guitar I'm guessing it's bone.. Tele like body shape, singel cutaway.. Godin Tretrad pickups which are pretty damn good.. Hard shell case..24 frets.. Made in Canada, and assembled in the US I do believe.. I wrote Godin and they told me the Year, date it was manufactured, how many guitars were made that week, etc..etc.. Oh, almost forgot.. Came with allen wrench for the truss rod, instructions, etc.. I got this guitar as new old stock on a trade, and it's mint.. Came set up perfect with the 9's but I put 10's on it.. as I like them better.. they really make this thing sound like a killer guitar.. It has a Gibson scale length which makes it play so much easier to than a strat or typical bolt on guitar.. This is like a custom Tele, or what a Tele should be..

This guitar rocks.. This thing is it's own guitar but it reminds more of a Gibson than a Strat except for it's bolt on neck.. This thing plays great.. Nice action.. I did have to change strings and adjust the bridge and truss rod for the set of 10's I stuck on it, as it had 9's which really suck... what's up with the standard of using 9's for an electric guitar? They suck..They just sound so weak! I love the sound of this thing, but it sounds a tad to weak compared to a gibbie, but much better than a strat, etc.. This guitar sustains forever for a bolt on.. They really took some time to put this thing together.. It rocks.. I gave it a 9 just because it had a set of 9's otherwise it would be a 10 for sure..

Action was good when I got it, except I don't like 9's... No flaws, the quality of the pieces on this guitar is just astounding for the price.. You can't go wrong with this one!

I would never jam without a backup in case your break a string, but this guitar looks well built and I don't think anything will go wrong with it at all.. Very solid it seems. When I first got this guitar I was going to use it for trading material, but now I'm going to keep it I like it so much!

They are great.. I wrote them and asked about the guitar and they are sending me a manual free and told me when it was made, etc.. I asked and they emailed me right back.. Can't complain at all considering I didn't buy the thing new.. Great guitar company.> can't go wrong..

This is a great guitar.. If you want a good all around guitar without spending a fortune and you find one of these used, I would highly suggest you check them out.. They just have everything that you could want in a guitar.. Reminds me of the EVH guitar from Peavey only better built, as they mount the pickups directly in the body, etc.. Just all around great stuff.. Bridge says made in West Germany, shaller kluson tuners, etc.. Just great components and playability.. This guitar has a neck to die for.. I mean thin thin thin, and it's so easy to get pinch harmonics, and to get that singing tone that sounds like SRV on steroids with a Gibson..hehehe..