Godin LG

O.K... here goes....
THis is last year's LG (1997 i think) because it still has the tetrad pickups... solid mahogony body and neck, rosewood board with 24 frets, 2 humbuckers (godin Tetrads) VBOl, Tone, mid cut, Five way, TUne-o-matic bridge, passive electrics, semi flat neck, medium frets.. came with a case.

WOW! I play a little blues and a little metal, and this guitar does them both perfectly... I am really impressed with it. My setup includes a crybaby, a Peavey classic 30 (with extension cab) a Zoom 505 DOD Death metal and Metal maniac and a Boss G7 eq. personally I find it noisy, opening the control cavity I noticed there is no sheilding. AT ALL!!!! so that will beo ne of the first things I change about the ax. otherwise, rich sustaining tones all round. the neck and bridge being my faves I don't find too much use for the mid cut, I find it cuts a little too much off the top and gets too bassy for my Ideals... but I like a bit of scooped midrange tone...

Setup is bad, but I bought it used, so no harm there... as far as fit and finish the thing looks amazingly good... seems to have held up well... as I can figure by the abuse... (bad strings, dirty as hell) THat must mean something!

relieable as all hell... It was abused all to hell, and lived, as far as I can tellt his thing is built like a tank. ask me again in a few months.

Never dealt with em,

playing around 10 years now... own lots of other guitars, and with a little work this one is hands down going to be my favorite... all I can honestly say is TRY ONE!!! they are a great unassuming instrument... it looks pretty plain jane (especially int he natural finish) but when the chips are down, this guitar has what it takes to get the job done....
Oh yeah,,,, 530 CANAIDAN!!!! WITH TAXES!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA that equals out to about 340 US!!!!! WOHOO!!!!!!

-First Impressions- The first thing you'll notice about this guitar is its uniqe shape and styling. The headstock resembles that of a Seagull acoustic guitar (Also from Godin) and gives you a straight-string-pull from the bridge to the tuners. You'll also notice the unique pickups set down into the body of the guitar. Also, the strings are strung thru the body. All of these things along with Godin's unique neck joint and thick rosewood fretboard creates the Godin LG's seemingly infinate sustain and incredible sound.
-Pickups- I can't very well describe the technology of the Godin Tetrad pickups. I'll leave that to Godin. Check out their website at www.LaSiDo.com. I can, however describe the sound... well almost.. (You REALLY have to play this guitar to know what I'm talking about.) The sound is full, rich, fat, sustaining, etc.. etc.. This guitar pumps out probably the best tone of ANY guitar I've ever played. Simply put, these pickups "kick booty!" Hooked up to a good tube amp, you'll find yourself locked in amazement at the guitars full- sound and unique tone. There isn't another guitar on the market that sounds like this one, folks. Trust me. Godin knows this and thats what they had in mind when they designed this guitar.They designed it from the ground up to be revolutionary, and it IS!
-Controls- The Godin LG is equipped with a 5-way selector switch and a push-pull tap to activate the onboard midrange EQ which drops the mids -8db for an incredible strat-like or tele-like tone. (I personally don't use this much because I am more interested in this guitars native sound, but its nice to know its there) Therefore, essentially this guitar has a whopping TEN different pickup configurations. You can even activate all four coils at once for a VERY full-sound.
Note: The tuners on this guitar are made by Schaller and are Kluson-style. These are very good tuners - better than Gibsons.

See above.

-Feel/Materials- The Godin LG is made from one of the best and most resonant woods you can use on a guitar. The WHOLE guitar -except for the rosewood fretboard- is mahogony. This wood is one of the key elements in the LG's tone. The tuners are Les-Paul style and are made by Godin's Seagull division. The bridge is a Gibson-style tune-o-matic. The electronics are ALL Godin and ALL new designs. This guitar feels incredible in your hands. The neck is so precision you have to play it to believe it. The neck is wide/thin and has medium-jumbo frets. The neck has 24 frets. The fingerboard is EXTREMELY flat and allows for some incredible bends. The fingerboard takes a little getting used to at first... I found myself bending notes right off the neck! The scale and design of this guitar makes the strings feel REALLY loose and light under your fingers. The action is INCREDIBLE! You'll find your fingers FLYING on this guitar with little or no warm-up.

The five-way pickups selector is going out on me after having it a little over a year. This hasn't been heavily used, either. I think that Godin didn't use a very good switch.
Otherwise, no problems with the guitar The Schaller Kluson-style tuners seem real durable and the volume/tone controls are solid. The finish seems good and the strap buttons are very solid.

-Overall- I've never played a more precision or versatile guitar. This guitar looks great, plays great, feels great, sounds great, and doesn't cost much. If I could only have one electric guitar, this is the one I'd choose. This precision instrument allows you to focus MORE on creating and LESS on fighting with your guitar. I LOVE it. I've played a lot of guitars and I consider this one exceptional. One of this guitars greatest features is its low price. This guitar is handmade in the USA and includes a high-quality custom hardshell case. It is available in satin-natural and high-gloss finishes. Go check one out. You'll like it!

I bought this guitar just a month or two ago, just out prowling for an electric axe to go with the acoustic I've been thrashing on.
You may have heard about the LGX; this is the same thing without the fancy maple top and acoustic output jack/mixing knob.
I didn't try out very many different guitars. I kinda fell in love with this one and made an Impulse Purchase. Since then, I've played a number of guitars in various price ranges and have not found one I like better. This is an outrageously great instrument, especially considering how cheap it was.
It's Canadian made. The whole thing is mahogany, except for the rosewood fretboard and a thin curly-maple laminate on the headstock (the one dumb thing Godin did on this guitar was that maple veneer. It took the stain differently than the mahogany and it looks funny up there.) Mine is stained a rich red color and has an elegant, understated look -- the fretboard markers are tiny dots along the left hand side of the fretboard, not huge squares of mother-of-pearl. The knobs are simple black metal, and the pickups are those elegant looking blade jobs (Tetrads, they call them. Four coils in each, and there are two of them -- that's 4 humbuckers, arranged HH-HH.)
Body style is kind of like a combination of a Les Paul and a Telecaster, but more contoured. Single cutaway, no rhythm switch up top; it's got a 5-position Strat-style switch which, alas, doesn't split the humbuckers. It also has an on-board mid-range EQ dampening switch which they claim causes it to emulate Telecaster or Stratocaster sounds. Well, it doesn't. But it comes close enough for shemps like me. (I dunno. Maybe I'm just not amped right.)
It's a solid hunk of bookmatched mahogany, so no special tops or anything, and it's flat on top. Strings are strung thru the body. Tuners are non-locking, work fine, I don't remember who makes them.
And finally, the neck. Oh my God. The thing is like, less than an inch thick, I mean really FLAT, and wide. I have touched nothing that plays quite like it. (But I've led a sheltered life.) It's got 25 frets, so you can really make it squeak.
They're available in gloss colors, white and black and a few others I think, but I just love how the wood looks!

I don't have a music style yet. I'm developing one, but right now I'm dabbling in all sorts of things, from bluegrass to blues to heavy metal. The versatility of the sounds you can get out of this guitar is a real plus to me. I have a Korg AX300G which I plug it into; I use this box to make it sound like a Tele and play bluegrass on it; I crank up the gain and play the Shemps National Anthem ("Smoke on the Water"); etc. I can get incredibly full sound out of it with all 4 pickups going, which is nice for trying to play along with old Boston albums.
I do have one complaint; the Tetrads don't seem to be well shielded, and occasionally will respond to electronic equipment like TVs by developing a hum. I have not yet figured out what causes it, but it's barely noticeable anyway. That occasional hum is the only reason I'm not giving it a 10 in this category.

There is not one flaw on this guitar. Quality control is excellent. And you have to look very closely at the bookmatching of the mahogany body to realize that it is not a solid, 14-inch-wide slab of wood. No complaints here.
The body-to-neck mating is exceptional, by the way. Maybe that's why this thing sustains like it does. It does, by the way, have awesome sustain.
I've already commented on the action. I'm sure some of you guys with the $10,000 Dragons and Les Pauls would think it was crude and clumsy, but to me it plays like butter.

Stumps me. I've only had it a couple months. It *looks* solid as a railroad tie, but ask me again in a year. The finish is solid and although there is no pickguard, I've nailed it a couple times with 1.4 mm. picks and I can't see a scratch in it, so it is tough!

Also drawing a blank. Never needed to use the customer service, and don't know how long the warranty is.

I'm a recent convert; used to play wind instruments, but got into guitar last December. I also play an Ibanez AG300 acoustic cutaway; that's pretty much it for me.
If this guitar were stolen, jeez, I hate to think about it. I would probably buy another just like this one, although I might scrape together a couple more shekels and buy an LGX instead (same guitar with a curly maple top and six saddle transducers (one for each string) providing acoustic output as well.) Either way, I would get another Godin. No question about it.
I compared this guitar to an Aria Pro 40th Anniversary Les Paul knock-off; an Ibanez Joe Satriani Special; another Ibanez double-humbucking humdinger; a US Masters Strat knock-off; and a bunch of under-$300 jobs like Peavys and Lotuses. Also a Japanese Telecaster (which I had a hard time resisting.) I picked this one because it is more versatile, with the Strat Emulation Switch and 8 on-board pickup coils. It also just plays better, what can I say?
I know there are better-sounding, smoother-playing guitars out there. But I'd be willing to bet they all cost twice as much as this one does. Nothing I've handled comes close.