Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin - Very High Bridge Pickup

[Jehu]

I sent the pics along to Godin, so we will see what they say. I still have one month on the 1-year warranty from the store I bought it from, so I suppose that will be the first step if I decide to return/exchange it. But I'd still like to hear from Godin about the issue.

Thanks for the input, all!

[SuperFour00]

I sent the pics along to Godin, so we will see what they say. I still have one month on the 1-year warranty from the store I bought it from, so I suppose that will be the first step if I decide to return/exchange it. But I'd still like to hear from Godin about the issue.

Thanks for the input, all!

Don't wait to hear from Godin ... take the pics, the guitar, and maybe this thread, to the store and start the warranty process. Anything could happen between now and the end of the warranty. Or Godin could state they don't see a problem for some weird reason, that could jinx your store warranty. I'd be at the store tomorrow.

[jazzbow]

Now that I see a twist in the neck that makes it a straight forward warranty issue. The store you bought it from should take it up with the importers and Godin, not you.

[Jehu]

Alrighty, I succumbed to the wisdom of the Borg and took her in to the store today.

The sales guys saw the twist right away, but the when the tech looked at it he was sceptical. Then he tried to tell me that it was normal, due to the higher tension of the bass strings. After I convinced him that I am indeed not an idiot despite my Canadian accent, he agreed and wrote it up. Funny, the first thing he said when he picked up the guitar was, "Wow, why is your action so high?"

They are sending it to their repair shop for a closer look, and if the problem can't be fixed to the customer's satisfaction (not sure what black magic they can cast for a neck twist, or whether I would want the instrument back after such spells) they will replace it.

Thanks again, folks. Extra points to Jeff for spotting that twist with less than a month left on the warranty. Believe it or not, this is a $1700 guitar down in these parts, so it would have been a pretty big mozza ball to be stuck with.

[jazzbow]

Jehu, neck twist repairs require heat lamps and weird clamping devices, that's ok for elderly classics of value, but for an 11 month old guitar that should have properly kiln dried neck wood with straight grain is unacceptable.

Lets put it this way, if Godin had discovered such a defect at any part of its manufacture it would have been binned, so why should you have to accept an instrument that is not within Godins tolerances n'est pas?

$1700(NZD)/£865/$1475(USD)/€1090 is a lot of dosh mate, exchange for another one, it'll save a lot of heart ache.

.......

We are the jazzguitar.be/forum, you will be assimilated......

[D.G.]

Doesn't look twisted to me. All my guitars look like that if you sight down from the nut. I think it's an optical illusion. However, that's neither here nor there. If the guitar is still under warranty and the rear pickup is touching the strings with a good setup, it should be a warranty repair/replacement regardless of what the cause might be.

[Jehu]

Well the guy called today and said that the twist has completely vanished after a truss rod adjustment. We shall see...

[notablemusician]

A simple solution to this problem.
Unwind the strings enough so you can and hook the tailpiece which you then move to the side to allow access to the bridge pickup.The two screws and lift up the assembly. Remove the top cover then manipulate the mounting ring so you can slip it over the pickup and remove it completely.
Reinstall the pickup without the mounting ring so the underside will sit directly on the belly of the guitar. If wished you could put a thin piece of foam underneath before screwing down and you could even adjust the height by this means. I didn't bother as I play jazz so I'm happy that the neck pickup is higher than the bridge one.

If one wanted to go a little further with this modification, and it still very easy as far as literary is concerned, it would be possible to obtain double threaded screws with a wood thread on one side and a machine thread on the other probably about 20 mm total length and 3 mm diameter would be about right. When the wood screw end is screwed back into the holes which are already there it leaves to 3 mm threaded posts are sticking up would over which you can put standard pickup springs then reinstall the pickup and its outer cover on top. A simple 3 mm bolt and washer would allow the pickup height to be adjusted upwards and downwards.

I'm not at all bothered by the absence of the mounting ring as the appearance of the guitar from the front is exactly the same as before and you can hardly see any difference from the side.

So there you go, and no cost virtually no skill solution and a slight cost small-scale solution and the job is done.

The neck on this guitar is one of the most accurate I have ever played and it plays so well in tune but you probably need to adjust the bow in the neck, mine was way too tight so I slacked off about a third of a turn and got much cleaner playing. Also my bridge is fully down on the top Eastside and could go down further which speaks highly of the neck. I'm probably going to take about 2 mm of the underside of the top half of the bridge but haven't done so yet.

Really happy with this very interesting guitar with its cherrywood sound and its excellent single coil pickups which give me something approaching the sound I used to get on my 1943 Epiphone Broadway sadly and irreplaceable a stolen: I was born in 1943...

Love to all, Alan Normandy France

[Alter]

Number one symptom of guitars with a neck twist is they can never have a decent setup, and the resulting action is higher. So when you get the guitar back check the action and the neck thoroughly on every fret.. If it moved once it can move again in the future, and a neck twist isn't easy to fix. I would return the guitar if it was possible to do so.

[notablemusician]

I should have made it clear that my "simple solution to this problem." was regarding the over high bridge pickup problem at the origin of this thread.
Later posts veered onto the twisted neck trouble but I don't have that problem...