John Bohlinger demos the Canadian-made Godin Stadium Pro, a highly versatile guitar with TV Jones Starwood and Lollar T Special pickups, providing fat tones from country to hard rock, all on a sleek Laurentian basswood body with a Rock Maple neck and high-gloss finish.
Godin Stadium Pro Electric Guitar - Pacifik Blue with Maple Fretboard
A quick glance at the Stadium Pro presents the structure and style of a true American classic. An under-the-hood investigation, however, reveals outstanding modern playability. The guitar's basswood body transmits a balanced, high-chime tone belying its light weight, making performances and recording sessions a breeze with no compromise to your sound. Likewise, the semi-gloss neck and silky smooth fingerboard motivate supreme access to all 22 frets at lightning speeds to ensure you're capable of mastering any playing situation. Topped off with high-ratio tuning machines, a Graph Tech nut, and a custom T-Ashtray tailpiece, the Stadium Pro summons righteous vintage tones with maximum intonation stability.
The brighter side of the mahogany equation.
Bold voice for a small-bodied, all-mahogany flattop. Great value. Excellent build quality.
Strong midrange could prove too strident for some.
$899 street
Godin Fairmount Composer QIT
godinguitars.com
I'm a big believer in the all-mahogany, small-body acoustic formula. In the studio, through a nice microphone and signal chain, a mahogany concert-, grand-concert-, or auditorium-sized guitar can make the sweetest sound you ever heard. And in a good fingerstylist's hands they can exhibit a lovely dynamic range—albeit usually within what you'd call the "mellow" spectrum.
Godin's Fairmount Composer QIT puts a cool twist on the all-mahogany formula (in this case the back and top are solid mahogany and the sides are layered). It possesses much of the contoured, warm trebles and bottom end that make guitars like the Martin 00 and 000-15 and Guild M-20 such inviting companions. But the Godin adds a perceptible dash of extra midrange that makes it a much bolder-sounding guitar for strumming. If you're a fully indoctrinated all-mahogany, small-body player (with all the biases toward low-key, toasty tones that such associations imply) these strong mids could come off as just a touch too forward. Some of this extra stridency may certainly abate as the guitar ages. But many players will probably care less if it does, and instead savor the extra presence that makes the Fairmount Composer a killer compact accompanist for more boisterous, and soft-to-loud dynamic picking.
The Godin adds a perceptible dash of extra midrange that makes it a much bolder-sounding guitar for strumming.
Like so many Godin family products, the Fairmount Composer is immaculately put together and is super playable. There are some interesting design idiosyncrasies—the back bracing seems extra robust, for instance—and Richlite was used on the fretboard as a wood conservation measure. But given the $899 street price—with a very nice set of electronics and tuner, at that—this Canada-built concert-body is an excellent value that can hang with instruments that cost many hundreds more.
The newest addition to the Radium family will include Godin's custom Zebra humbucks and Cajun Nickel single-coil pickups.
Godin Guitars is proud to announce the launch of the Radium Matte Green as part of its high-quality Radium Series.
It offers an H-S-H pickup configuration for a multitude of tonal possibilities with a pair of hot Custom Godin Zebra Humbuckers and a Godin Custom Cajun Nickel in the middle. It also presents other unique features compared to the more traditional single cutaway solid-bodies, such as a short-scale (24.75") set-neck and a highly stable 3&3 headstock design for comfortable playing and bending.
The guitar also comes equipped with a re-invented vintage-style control plate, which has a volume, push-pull tone, and an angled 5-way switch that follows the natural sweep of your right hand for easy pickup selection.
This model has Canadian Laurentian Basswood body with an eye-catching Matte Green semi-gloss finish and a Mahogany neck, topped by a Rosewood fretboard. The Radium Matte Green…taking it up a notch
Godin's long-standing reputation of quality and vision is put on display with this new model—built entirely in Canada.
$799 US (MAP)
godinguitars.com