Godin ST Artisan

My guitar is a 1992 Godin Artisan ST 2 Ultimate. 22 Fret maple neck, limewood body. Controls include 1 ea. volume and tone (with push/pull) and 5-way selector. Pick-ups are 3 double blade single-coil sized humbuckers by Schaller. It's a beautiful blue paint job, still in immaculate condition. The Wilkinson VS100C convertible bridge is a work of art and joy to use. Combined with the locking Schaller tuners, you can dive-bomb, do double-string pulls, etc. and not pull it out of tune. All metal hardware is gold finished, save for the jumbo frets.

I can't rate this with much authority, as I currently have a crappy amp, but it sounds much better through the amp and has more variety in sounds and tone than my Strat.

I bought the guitar used on Ebay, and it's 16 years old. But it was beautifully set up. Original owner was a collector who died years ago and played it very little. It still had the original strings, and after tuning it up, it played beautifully, even with the old strings. No flaws whatsoever, this is as close to a mint-quality early 90's guitar as I've seen. All hardware works as it should, and the Wilkinson bridge is rock-solid.

As I said, it's 16 years old, and still looks new. I know it wasn't played much in that time, but it's a testament to the Canadian-built quality of the guitar. Always bring a backup.

I e-mailed the factory with the serial # after receiving the guitar, and heard back within two days with all the details they had.

I've owned various Fender strats over the year, and there is absolutely no contest. The Wilkinson bridge in and of itself is well-worth the price I paid on Ebay ($300)...combine that with the other quality features and, and I got a steal. I'm glad the sellers didn't realize what they had when they posted it on Ebay, or the price would have run up quite a bit higher.

If it was lost or stolen, I'd be devastated. I'd look for another, but I haven't seen any others on Ebay in the last several months.

Favorite feature is the Wilky. It's right up there with a Floyd Rose, but looks so much nicer.

The features of this guitar have already been stated above^. Although I would have liked a 5-way selector instead of the 3. and the locking nut actually cut my hand while playing. so it gets a 9. If the guitar had a 5-way it would have recieved a 10

The guitar sounds great. There is no two-ways about it. I play through a boss ds-1 distortion and a zakk wylde overdrive, when needed, and a marshal mg50. simple, and effective. it has an awesome sound. I play mostly classic rock and some iron maiden, and this does it all. It has a rather bright sound and i love that. The coil-tap sounds great. altho it takes a second or 2 to kick in, i like it. i hate the deep chugging of some guitars. the only thing i disliked was the floyd rose didn't bend back (raise the pitch) as much as i would have liked.

bought it second hand.

This guitar would survive a hurricane, mudslide, and a tornado and still play better than alot of others. The finish is pretty nice. It had a few chips in it from use and abuse and even with that it didn't go past the primer. The strap buttons are fine i guess (never had a strap button break on any guitar...)it came with strap locks. Gig without a backup? really you should never do that. If i ever came across another i'd use THAT as my back up.

i've been playing for about 6 years, mostly in and out of bands. This guitar is like our mascott. just the shape of it and the bright orange burst. If stolen or lost i think i would hold a funeral. nothing could replace her. i love the sustain on this guitar, "you could go off, have a bite, and it'll still be going" again the locking nut cut me. on the high e end of it while i was playing. it's obviously not a jem7 or something crazy but it's a great guitar. i was playing the ibanez js100 before this and it was a nice switch. ( i still use the ibanez as a back-up). other than a deeper floyd rose routing and a five-way needed it's about perfect.

I own 2 ST Artisans, one from 1990 with maple body, black Kahler Floyd Rose, 3 single coil sized humbuckers with curved blades and red sunburst finish. The newer one is from 1994. I don??t know the body wood, but the guitar is not as heavy as the red one, so it??s maybe alder or basswood. It has 3 single coil sized humbuckers with flat blades (designed by OBL), a golden Wilkinson locking tremolo with locking tuners from Sperzel(?) and a brown sunburst finish.
Both have a Strat-like body, are made in Canada, have a birdseye maple neck and a birdseye maple top. You can split the pickups via push-pull poti on both guitars, the newer one has also a passive electronic circuit which is activated when you split the humbuckers to "stratifie" the sound.
The necks are fairly thin with a flat radius and not too broad, on top an ebony fretboard with 22 frets and small position marks. A case was included.

Unplugged both guitars offer a very brilliant tone with bottom. Especially the red one sounds like no other guitar I know, because the maple only construction is characteristic and unique.
Both guitars are modern Strats; the pickups sound - as a humbucker - fatter than a Fender with more power and mids - perfect for distortion, better than a standard Strat. The pickups fit in this guitar nicely - think about the brilliant unplugged sound. Normal Strat single-coils would not suit this instrument.
When you activate the single-coil circuit, especially the brown one sounds nearly like a very good Strat ??? well, nearly. I played many Fender Strats, some of them were more funky than the ???single-coiled??? brown Godin, some of them were not. The red one is not as ???fenderish??? as the brown one (maybe also the Floyd Rose causes this), but it??s OK.
All in all the guitars offer a huge variety of sounds ??? I wouldn???t exchange them.

The action is low, the pickups are adjusted, the factory setup was ??? as I remember ??? OK. Both guitars stay in tune, of course especially the Floyd Rose equipped guitar.
The Kahler Floyd Rose and the Wilkinson are both high quality pieces of work.
The lacquer finish is superb, a thin nitro lacquer. Really beautiful !!!

One coil of the middle pickup of the red one got broken a few years ago. Maybe this happened because the pickups aren???t protected by caps. It???s not a problem for me, because I use it exclusively as a single coil in position 2 and 4. This is the only trouble and I own it since 1991. I bought the other one a few months ago, because I love those ???old??? Godins and they are so cheap!! I couldn???t believe the ebay prices of these instruments. Buy one if you get one!!

I wrote one mail to Godin to find out the exact year of production and got an answer within two days.

I own a Fender Strat, two Teles Thinline, a Godin Acousticaster and the Artisans. The Artisans are the most versatile electric guitars. They are typical ???Super Strats???. This kind of guitar is a little bit out of fashion now, but this trend will change???
I owned one for 17 years and bought another one. I highly recommend this guitar! Look at ebay to get one.

I bought mine in 1997? from a music store in Maryland that was closing out their inventory. It came with a coil tap, and a three way switch that I had replaced with a 5 way. The three single coil humbuckers are double blade, and are the holy grail of pickups for me. THe body is basswood with a quilted maple top in red sunburst.It came with a locking Wilkinson tremolo, and locking Sperzel tuners. The neck is maple with an ebony fingerboard. The fit and finish are fantastic, I looked at this on the recommendation of a luthier I know who custom builds guitars. The top trim is natural wood, It is simply the edge of the top left a natural color and is stunning to look at.

This guitar will play any style perfectly. A luthier removed something from the tone control and it has a mind blowing assortment of tones with a coil tap. The pickup system cannot be improved on in any way. This is just plain it! The humbucker sounds have big balls, and the strat sounds kick derriere.

Everything was perfect, except the bridge pickup had a short in it. Godin sent a replacement very quickly, and it had a better sound than the original. The top is jawdropping because of the figure and color.

This is the only solid electric guitar I gig with, unless I'm playing somewhere with a high chance of theft. Then I use a G thousand. There is no reason to play another, I sold my Les Paul and my Strat stays in the back of the closet.

Had a warranty issue years ago, and it was dealt with promptly. Lately I've had problems contacting them about another Godin I own.

This would be my desert island electric guitar, and I would commit suicide if it got stolen. Of course I'd do a bad job of committing suicide and then go find another one in any of the sunburst colors. I love everything about it, and hate the fact that I only have it in one color. I've been playing 35 years, and this is unequivocably the finest electric I ever played.

My guitar was built in Canada. I bought it used in 1995, but I am not sure when it was made. Fairly thick (over 1/4") maple top with some subtle figuring on an alder body. Came with three godin single-coil sized humbuckers, Schaller locking tuners, I think, and a Wilkinson floating locking trem. All hardware is in gold, which is a mixed blessing. It has a Fender 25.5" scale, and a fairly thin ebony fingerboard. The radius is fairly flat, I'd say flatter than 12". Lacquer finish, which is hard to believe, considering this instrument was not too pricey. (I used a little lacquer remover in a discreet area to test this) One tone, one volume. The tone knob is a push/pull which cuts the coils on all the pickups. I can't remember if this is the way it came, or if a repairman did it for me when I was a teenager.

I changed the pickups to Seymour Duncan Hot Rail, SD Cool Rail, and SD lil' '59. (I guess I just wanted to try different sounds). The original pickups were very brittle and harsh sounding. I was not happy with them at all. Changing the pickups warmed up the sound considerably. Acoustically, this guitar has some amazing sustain, but with plenty of definition. Quite amazing, really. Very hypnotic. A little on the dark side, sonically, but I am planning to change the pots to 500k 's to brighten it up somewhat. (not looking to rewire that push-pull, though) I reversed the wires on the middle pickup to get that 2/4 position Strat "quack". With stock wiring, the 2/4 position gave me a significant increase in volume, something I didn't want. The pickups I'm using now are just too hot.

I've had this guitar worked on a few times. It now plays exactly how I want it to. The neck hasn't moved on me in a while, which is a good sign. I've gotten the frets dressed once, and they were pretty low to begin with. I'd say the fret wire is slightly fatter than vintage with the same amount of height. The neck is slim, but not too slim. The heelblock is not as obtrusive as it is on, say, Fender. Quite comfortable.

Fine, no problems.

No info on this.

I've had this guitar for about 9 years. I've owned other guitars, as well as played many countless guitars as a guitar tech, and I can honestly say that no other solidbody makes me as happy. I've played other Artisan ST's from the same period and they all, for the most part, had the same beautiful sound as mine did. I remember when Godin went to New Hampshire and they started making similar guitars, they just weren't the same. These guitars had an opaque finish on the back so you couldn't see what wood the body was made of. They sustained quite nicely, but they lacked the same acoustic zing as the older ones do. I didn't give it great numbers on the other categories, but I am giving it a 10 here because these instruments are more, way more than the sum of their parts. I am always shocked to see these guitars go for peanuts on eBay.

I believe its from 1998, handcrafted in Canada.
It has 24 frets.
solid-top
CONTROLS are: 1 volume, 1 tone, 5-way strat-style-selector, pushpullswich to swich between humbucking sounds and single coil sounds.
PICKUPS are: either 3 hums, or singles (as stated in 'controlls'), They're Hotrails with Godin printed on them but I believe it are custom made Duncans.
The guitar is entirely made out of Maple with a nice shiney black finish.
The body is compearable with a strat, but just that bit nicer.
It features a regular tremelo-bridge (but I removed the tremelo..bah)
The tuners, are (I believe) non-locking, and Schakkers (not sure..but Godin usually uses this ones)
The neck is also made out of maple, not to big, not to small, and kinda thin.
I got a couple of picks with it too, jeuj.

It suits my music style perfecltly since my music style is versatile and this guitar is, well i'll say the most versatile guitar I've ever seen.
I'm using it through either a Trace Elliot Tramp (40watts) and sometimes a Boss ME-30. It Sounds nifty.
Barely any dusturbing noise.
Very rich, and full, and bright, and...
Me like.

action a bit too low (even some fretbuzz!)
pickups are adjusted perfectly, everything was perfect
EXCEPT FOR ONE THING, and I seem to have this with ALL the guitars I buy, the lockthingie, to put your thingie on that holds your guitar on your body (dah, I'm dutch, sorry), the upper one was 'loose' "het draait gelijk zot" is what we would say back here, but this was easily fixed with some superglue....I hope.

Live playing? Yes.
Hardware strong? Yes, however the gold is butugly.
Quite thin finish, but that's what makes it look attractive, you can see the wood through the black finish.
Depend on it? Yes.
gig whithout backup? No, never.

buh

I wish it hand't have those nastybutuglyclichelookingyuckyebah golden hardware thingies on it.

22 frets, no fret position markers on fretboard (looks kewl), shiny black finish, Locking ?schaller tuners (not as good as sperzel but still pretty good), The most awesome feature is the LOCKING WILKINSON TREM -it locks and unlocks when you turn the trem arm. Apparently some Bastard had patented this design in ?1894 and went after Wilkinson for it; so they are no longer make it - shame. 3 dual blade single coils. Strat sytle body

Great. Smooth, silky, buttery. Good variety (I think you can split one of the dual blade hums)

At least three guys had this guitar before me. I picked it up at a good price, and then found out why - The guitar body has a "pseudo-carved" top with a sharp edge that goes all the way around the perimeter. Playing it more than 15 minutes was painful - that damn edge keeps digging into your right forearm. Hmmmm, maybe Godin hired a fancy Italian furniture designer to make the guitar body but they sure didn't consult a real guitar player. Sooooooo - no problemo! I just introduced the guitar to Mr. Disk Sander and put a strat-style relief on the body. A little black paint and voila! - a great playing, comfortable guitar.

Very durable. The locking trem works great. Beautiful workmanship.

Hey, they're Canadian so they're guaranteed to be friendly eh?

I give the guitar a 9 only after the modification described in "fit and finish" If it were stolen, I'd like to replace it but probably would have a hard time finding another. My favorite feature - awesome tone.

This one, like my other Godins, is "hand-made in Canada" like the sticker on it reads. I bought it recently, used. I believe this particular example is a 1998 (listed for about $1300 then).
It has a strat-shaped body, no pickguard, and a beautiful finish (grayish-brownish-green semi-sunburst). It has a faux binding (masked paint job around the body to look like two pieces of wood).
It has 22-frets, 3 stacked humbucker pickups (Godin passive pickups), and the standard Strat-style controls: volume, tone, and 5-way pickup selector.
The trim on mine is finished in gold. It has locking tuners and a Wilkinsin style floating/fixed bridge.
It came with a nice coffin-style hard case.

I love the sound. The bridge and neck pickup are both very full: both bassy and bright. It is quite versatile, but I will admit to not using nearly all of its capabilities. I play it mainly through a combo-amp: 60watt Crate (with a single Celestion 12" in the cabinet).
It sounds beautiful both with overdrive/distortion and with a clean tone. I typically use it for jazzy, bluesy, and hard rock tones - but I has more potential for versatility. Even for its list price, it has an excellent tone - and for the price I paid for it used, it is absolutely mind-boggling.

I bought the guitar used, and it is setup pretty good. It wasn't perfect, but is not too terribly difficult to fix (much easier than my other Godin which had a Floyd-Rose). It is intonated well, even after whatever abuse its previous owner dished out. The action is nice and low (just how I like it), though honestly not as low as some other axes I've enjoyed playing. Everything else was adjusted fine from the moment I first played it (before I decided to buy it).

I haven't had it very long and have only used it a few gigs. I won't put a number down for this category for those reasons, but I do have the utmost confidence it it. My other Godin could take anything. I would definitely use this guitar on a gig w/out a backup.

Never had to deal with them.

I've been playing for just over ten years now. For the first few years, I didn't have enough money for a real instrument. A Godin G-1000 was my first "real" guitar, and I have been in love with Godins since. They can't be beat for the money. On my Artisan, I think the finish and trim is absolutely gorgeous. And it sounds amazing. If I have need of another instrument, it will definitely be a Godin.

A cute little sticker on the back of the headstock says that this instrument was built in Canada. 22 Frets, 5 Dual-blade humbucking pseudo-single coils - passive. One volume, one tone, 5 way selector switch. Tone switch is a push-pull pot for a midrange cut for an even more pseudo-single coil sound. Bookmatched basswood body with a figured bookmatched maple top with a lovely wine/rose finish. A slight burst effect to the finish and faux-binding (exposed maple) around the top of the body. Birdseye maple neck with ebony fretboard. Strat style design with a Kahler Floyd Rose trem system. Fairly thin neck with pretty low action and low frets. Came with a hardshell tolex-covered case and a couple of hex keys for the trem.

I play a sort of textural-experimental blues derivative. This guitar is great for that because of the variety of tones. Through my tanface Tube Driver 100W 1x12 Combo amp it has a real smooth distortion sound, better than any other guitar I have played. The clean sounds are a bit boinky, but the mid-cut switch helps some. The mid positions excel for funky gut sounds. Actually has a fairly "sterile" tone by itself, but that means with a bit of touch I can push it all over the place for the tones I do. Very polite and focussed sound by nature, it can get very rude through a properly distorted amp. This guitar is so quiet, except for the output jack which needed replacing after 4 years. The only guitar I can do nearly an entire set on. (except for tunes that need alternate tunings) I have a Mex Strat and a Epiphone Les Paul and this one covers 95% of each of those guitars' sonic territories and does some tricks that neither of them can.

The guitar was set up perfectly from the factory, and is still in perfect intonation after 6 years of brutal use. Godin guitars are works of art and this one is no exception. There were zero flaws in the instrument as it was purchased.

The guitar is pretty tough and all the hardware was of excellent quality. Wear problems -- output jack, upper strap button has come out a couple of times, high "E" string on nut is a little funky as of late. Otherwise, it is still my workhorse guitar.

The few times I have tried to contact Godin, they have responded promptly and with the information I needed.

I have been playing for almost 10 years, and I got this guitar in '92 to be a step up from the Squier I started out with. If this guitar was stolen or lost I would be heartbroken as this guitar has helped define my style and sound alongside my first-year Tube Driver combo amp. I love this guitar to death. the only think I may do is replace the trem system with one that has a built in piezo. Maybe. After all this time I have yet to play another guitar that comes close to it in playability -- the MusicMan EVH's, Ibanez S series vcome close, but they are all missing the total package for me. The only guitars I will consider buying are Godins. This is the one I fell in love with, and all the others I have played are of the same excellent quality and feel.

This series was discontinued shortly after Godin started manufacturing in the early nineties... I believe this one was built in 1991... It has a psudo-strat-style body with an agressive cutaway for high fret access, solid rock maple with a birdseye maple top... The neck is also rock maple with a rosewood fingerboard and jumbo frets. This baby has a transparent blue finish that fades to black along the edges... The Pickup configuration is three double-blade godin single-coil sized humbuckers -- one in the neck position, and two paired up at the bridge position. The wiring is some custom job that runs the two in series (passive). I've been (unverifiably) told that the pickups are a modified Bill Lawrence design. The 5-way selector gives you standard pick-up configurations, plus there's a push-pull tone knob for coil-splitting both the bridge-position pickups. Finally the bridge is a licenced Floyd-Rose with standard lock nut and Grover machine heads (which I have replaced with locking spirzels and removed the lock nut)... The hardshell case that came with her is very durable and form-fitted...

This guitar is one of the best sounding guitars I have ever played... Because of the hard wood of the body and neck, it is very resonant and full, even when played acoustically... When plugged in, she starts to really sing -- especially with the paired bridge position pickups (my favorite position is the centre, which combines all three pickups for a really full and chunky sound, but very tight with enough high-end for extra definition...) THIS BABY SMOKES FOR PLAYING METAL!!! But don't mistake me -- it actually has a great bluesey sound, with a lot of clarity... I pay a lot of 6-string jazzy chrds, and you can hear every note, even when fully saturated... Cleans are prestive, and the chunk can blast your head off!!!

I use a Mesa/Boogie SimulClass 2:90 with a Rocktron ProGap preamp, and early Intellifex effects processor through a Mesa Rectifier cab (Celestion Vintage 30 loudspeakers)... I've played everything from top 40 to Metal, and she sings through all -- it's my primary guitar...

From the factory, the setup was great... However, within about a year and a half, the lock-nut stripped on me, so I had it removed and replaced the nut, and added locking Spirzels... It was here that I started having problems with intonation... Now, it could be that the people I had working on her really couldn'g figure it out, but for a few years, I had a lot of problems with 6-string chords in around the 7-11 frets -- Everything else would be in tune, but chords played there would be out ever so annoyingly slight...

The finish is great (shows off the birds-eye top beautifully), and the routing job for the Floyd is also very commendable... I have since heard that this model had some intonation problems with the neck (slight twisting), but over the years, it corrected itself... (??? -- dunno -- it works great today, but for a while, I even ripped out the Floyd and had a friend engineer a solid block filler for the router hole, and bolted on a non-trem brigde, which did nothing to fix the problem... I have no idea to this day how it corrected itself after I recently reinstalle the Floyd...)

This guitar is my main squeeze -- the sound kicks my ass, and I love it to death, even through the intonation debaucles... The finish is very durable, and I have abused the guitar to no end in live situations... I have had to replace the 5-way switch once, as well as the 1/4" input, and volume pot, but this is standard wear and tear... Again, the intonation issue was my only problem with it for about 4 years, but it's fine now...

These guys are great to speak with -- if you can get ahold of them... I live reletively close to their main plant in Quebec (only a few hours away), so the rep (and Robert himself) has dropped by the store a few times and answered questions... They try, but it's still a reletively small operation, and they are BUSY!!! To get an answer or replacement parts (neck, etc...), expect to wait at least 4-6 weeks for a response (I have no idea how the response time is for those who live in the US or abroad...)

if it were lost or stolen, I think I would be lost -- I have only ever seen one other of these guitars in my life, and have never heard anything that sounds quite like it... I love Godin guitars -- superior craftmanship and choice of woods and hardware for a very affordable price for a professional instrument...