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Thanks for checking Tom. I appreciate that.
Danielle
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09-13-2014 12:32 PM
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Boy, I really like playing this guitar. It's like buttah....
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I just got mine and really love the way that it feels, plays and looks, but do any of you find the pickups a little weak? I'm thinking of swapping them but really hate to.
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Not to hijack, but I thought that pictures were necessary!
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This may be stating the obvious, but have you tried adjusting the pickup height ?
Originally Posted by djelley
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The pickups are what I'd call, "Moderate output." They're a tad on the polite side, with a somewhat soft attack, but not at all muddy and certainly not, "Weak." The neck pickup is great for Jazz, the bridge pickup produces a mellow twang that's great for Pop, and the two together produce a nice airy acoustic character. I use roundwound 11's on it. It's not my go-to rock guitar - I have a Tele with P90's for that (and an Eastman AR403ce with 12's on it for traditional Jazz) - but if I could have only one electric guitar, this would be it. By the way, it is a bit small-feeling when sitting, but perfect when standing with a strap.
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I am interested in this as well. I plan to be in the semi hollow market shortly and so far the Eastman T386 is my first choice. I'm wondering how this Godin and the T386 compare, I guess mostly sound wise. Originally Posted by Tom Karol
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Hey Jazz people! So I'm looking into a Godin Montreal Premier. The few mentions on here seem positive. Anyone else want to weigh in? My current setup is a Aria D'Aquisto New Yorker. Which is a fantastic guitar, but it's also a huge body mini humbucker. It's excellent for most jazz, but isn't the best for anything modern (i.e. Overdrive and effects.) It's also huge and not the easiest to carry around the city. So I've been looking into a thinline jazzbox for a while. I've played the new model by Comins, which is excellent and what I was planning on getting. But I can get a Montreal at a big discount. Thoughts?
Thanks and keep swinging!
P.S. Let me also be clear, I'm not replacing the D'Aquisto, just supplementing it!
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I have owned two of the Godin's you asked about (one with the Bigsby and one without), and for the money they really are one of my favorites. I'm not a big Bigsby fan (was hoping I would be), so I got rid of that one pretty quickly, but the other truly became one of my favorite guitars pretty quickly.
I hope that helps.
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FWIW, I'm not a frequent poster, but when I see a topic of interest, I tend to chime in.
I just got a new Godin Montreal Premiere yesterday, and so far, I would give it a big thumbs up for sound, build quality, play ability and value. It's black, with the Bigsby.
Now I'll add that these are what I call "Workingmen's (or ladies)" guitars. That does not mean they are cheap guitars. Not the bling as on my higher end Guilds, nor the price. The Bigsby is the licensed version, not the original. Single tone/volume controls, not the pairs line on my Starfire. But it all works and works very well.
This is the third Godin guitar I have purchased (Seagull 12, A6 Ultra, Koa top, and now this Premiere) and all are outstanding guitars, even more impressive when you realize they are made in North America, with quality materials and workmanship.
You can check out Slightly Touched Guitars. I have no skin in the game, just have had an overall excellent experience dealing with Gary, the owner.
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Here's the Godin Montreal Premiere I mentioned above. So far, it's killer.
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I owned both the Bigsby and non-Bigsby version, and would put them up against ANY guitar for the same money. Great guitars indeed! Enjoy!
Here are a few simple examples just played through a Roland AC33RW acoustic amp and picked up by my iPad. Nothing special, but just quickly recorded these clips after picking up the guitar. Tones got even better after I took a bit more time to dial things in, but these were just quick, off the cuff, plug and play examples, and I use the built in looper on the second one to try some R&B licks over People Get Ready.
Example 1:
Example 2:
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I've been playing my Montreal Premiere a lot lately and really enjoying it. But I should mention one thing: It's one of the most comfortable guitars I've ever owned to play while standing with a strap, but it sometimes feels a bit odd while seated without one. So I've taken to using the strap even while seated.
My Eastman AR403ce feels really comfy playing sitting down without a strap but a touch bulky standing up with a strap.
And my thinline Tele feels pretty good either way!
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Wow guys. Thanks for all the great info! And some sweet pics and playing
So it seems like there's a good set of info here. I'll try to get the money for the Godin soon and post some updates when I do. Thanks again!
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I got one recently (without the Bigsby) and couldn't be happier with the playability, tone, action, and quality. It's my first Godin after over fifty years of brand loyalty to Gibson. The Godin folks are also prompt to reply to questions and give respectful, useful replies.
They are very lively and responsive guitars. I bought one mainly because I wanted a mahogany neck because they sound and feel so warm. It is definitely NOT a ES 335 type of sound, but the sounds it has are very rich and usable. They are extremely responsive and very acoustic in nature despite the fact it's a laminated electric. All three pickup positions sound great and are immediately usable for various types of music. They all sound airy, the guitar has a lot of natural sustain and open-sounding resonance, almost like it has its own reverb built in.
If someone stole mine I'd replace it in a heartbeat. This is the first guitar i've owned that I felt so positively about since I bought a brand-new Gibson ES-335 in 1968. They are so resonant and generally pleasing to play that I think of it when I'm laying in bed trying to go to sleep.
Yup, these guitars are that good. Godin is now the largest guitar builder in North America and with good reason. I would not hesitate to recommend Godin guitars to players and students, they are excellent and well worth the money for the quality.
The strap buttons should be larger diameter, that's the only fault I can find other than I wish they didn't put so much branding on it. Personally, I think pickups and pick guards without brand names are way classier and more traditional. and the "Made In Canada" didn't really need to go on the front of the headstock, although the pride of the company shows in the quality of what they produce. These are very minor concerns, however.
It is a very "tight" guitar in that there are zero buzzes, rattles, hums, there's nothing loose or anything like that. Built like a very light tank but it weights way less than my solid mahogany '79 Les Paul, it's a very light guitar and yet very solid.
Thank you Godin for answering my dream request, this is the guitar I've been searching for for many years. Perhaps someday Godin will have their own "Custom Shop" and if they ever do I'd order one of these with fancier inlays, binding on the neck and all gold-plated hardware. It's too good of a guitar not to be able to get one with a more traditional look to it to show off what a classy instrument it really is.
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I like mine. I've had it for a year and it's the nicest guitar I've ever owned. Mine has a very nice sunburst finish. The reduced-mass center block lightens it and gives it an airy, acoustic tone. It's also got Graphtech Resomax hardware standard, which I like. Pickups are very nice and I feel no need to change them for anything else. The main issues I have noticed:
1. The fretwork was not great. After about 6 months, I wanted a new setup with lower action. I adjusted the bridge myself but couldn't get it as low as I wanted without a few distinct buzzing notes above the 12th fret. I brought it in to a luthier shop to ask if it needed a fret leveling, and they were shocked at how uneven the frets were. Some of the frets were even popping out of the fret slots. Definitely needed a fret leveling. The guitar had gone through a season change from a cold winter to a hot, humid summer, but I was still disappointed that it needed such serious work for a fairly new instrument. They glued the frets back in and gave it a leveling and setup and it's fine now.
2. I prefer thin, flat necks, and the neck is a bit too thick and round for my tastes. Not a deal-breaker, but I've got other guitars with necks I like better.
Also, the luthier said that mine was the first time he had seen this model, but that it was very similar the Comins.Last edited by logictweek; 02-25-2015 at 04:58 AM.
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Hmm ... fretwork on mine was impeccable and still is after a year and a half.
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I just enjoyed the mother of all, once in a life-time, guilt-ridden guitar buying sprees ...
I bought three Godin's within the space of 4 hours. 2 new and 1 second hand.
I almost feinted from giddy excitement by the time I went to be that night.
(I had been saving up for over a year, to be fair).
I bought the new Godin Montreal Premier Supreme, which is a version with a Richlite neck, Symour Duncan Jazz pickups and flametop.
I've ordered a Godin Session Custom 59 and got a great deal since I bought the two guitars at the same time ... but this one hasn't been delivered yet. Not sure it is available anywhere yet.
And I bought a second hand 5th Avenue Kingpin which was going for an absolute song on ebay (less than £300), which was a spur of the moment impulse buy and wasn't too far from the guitar shop I was visiting.
.......
Montreal Premier is superb. So comfortable. A dream. It is very resonant and perhaps just a little too 'jingly' at the moment; perhaps because it has a floating tail, the arched centre block and brand new round-wound strings. Am replacing strings tonight with flatwounds which should do the the trick.
But the absolute revelation is the 5th Avenue Kingpin with P90. I am getting such a creamy, woody tone from the neck pickups ... I've spent more time playing it that the Montreal. And it was the Montreal I spent a year hankering after.
...
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It could have been me not storing it properly and doing my own setups. I'm not sure if it's standard practice to glue frets in at the factory, but that was something that they said hadn't been done. Originally Posted by Tom Karol
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I am currently getting a re-fret on an old Martin acoustic and the luthier is gluing the frets in. He said Martin didn't (and as far as I know still doesn't glue the frets) but he felt they should be glued mainly because he said it improves the sound as well as making the neck more stable over time.
Storage conditions for any guitar are pretty important, I was told by a knowledgable guy at Ring Music in Toronto (the incredible Tony Desmarteaux) that we should treat our guitar the way we'd treat ourself as far as temperature and humidity go. Improper storage, especially in northern-latitude countries where we use a lot of dry heating the winter and also have very humid summers, can kill guitars. When the wood dries out things can go very wrong, bridges can come flying of as the glue lets go. Don't laugh, it happened to another friend in Canada from the dry heat in his home during the winter. Woke him up in the middle of the night, apparently it sounded as if the guitar has exploded.
If you let a guitar get too cold, the finish can get completely weather-checked, the surface breaks up into a zillion tiny cracks and that's it .... no viable repair option other than refinishing. Not good.
So, if your Montreal Premiere was stored in less than ideal conditions with drastic humidity and temperature changes a lot can go wrong. I learned about this when I moved to Canada from a much warmer climate and a couple of old Gibsons got weather checked just leaving them in the back of the car overnight, a mid 60's SG Standard and an early 60's Dove acoustic. That was a hard and expensive lesson!
If my frets come loose I will report it back here, but I'm not expecting them too. I did find that the frets on mine are not perfectly level and the factory setup has the action a bit higher that I'd like, but I like very low frets and have a very soft touch.
I haven't touched the setup since it arrived because it was made in Quebec and Quebec has very different weather than we do in British Columbia. So, it seems smart to wait a month to let the guitar settle in to it's new local weather paradigm and then I'll set it up. If satisfaction isn't obtained, I may get the luthier to touch them up. I don't know what humidity and temperature changes the guitar endured during a winter shipping halfway across Canada, whether the trucks and warehouses along the way were heated or if it went by air for any part of the trip. It's hard to know if Godin could have levelled the frets a bit better or if shipping annoyed them.
Having said that, I am very, very fussy about frets and buzzes of any sort. The guitar arrived set up well enough to go straight to a gig and have no real issues at all. It's just not "100% perfect" and for that price (considering all the competition in the market) I guess I expected perfection. I am still extremely happy and satisfied with the purchase and quality, however. I would buy this guitar again without hesitation.
For what it's worth, I chose the "regular" MP over the more expensive model because the stop-tailpiece gives less ringing harmonic overtones because the string length from the bridge is shorter than on the Supreme. I find floating tailpieces introduce more harmonic overtones at lower frequencies where you can hear more of them and sometimes they can be irritating. (In photos of the old jazz masters from the forties and fifties you can sometimes see where they've used a piece of felt material threaded through the strings by the tailpiece to dampen unwanted ringing overtones. Mandolin players use rubber grommets for the same purpose.)
Also, I really wanted a mahogany neck with a real rosewood fretboard. The rosewood on mine is one of the best examples I've seen in many years and the neck adds a lovely woody component to the overall tone.
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I take your point about the floating tail piece adding jingly harmonics. Its definitely noticeable when I listening to the guitar through headphones. Might try experimenting with a bit of felt.
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I just posted recently about my Montreal Premiere. Got it last Friday.
I could not be happier with this guitar. On the used market, reasonable in price. Mine was well cared for. Previous owner has many guitars (including 3 or 4 other Godins), stored carefully in a humidified room. He had the bass side up higher than I like, for fingerstyle. I got it down to just about right. It's as low as I want it. Probably need to tweak the truss rod, but as is, close to perfect for me. Getting the tiniest bit of fret buzz on a treble string - probably cause I lowered the bass side enough to affect treble strings too. So I may raise it a touch.
Frets and neck feel very good. My only knock on this guitar at all is that the adjustment wheels on the bridge are hard to work. They're totally smooth, hard to get a grip. And that's it.
No, it's not a 335. Which is just fine by me. I am appreciating it for what it is. Thought before I'd even tried it that I'd probably end up swapping in Seth Lover p/us. But now I'm not so sure. The neck p/u is growing on me. This guitar is pleasing in many ways. They really got this design right. It's feels good in the hands, sounds great, plays very well.
MD
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Hey Drew, please share your findings regarding the felt here after you've experimented. I do this on my Epiphone 175 and a Gretsch 5120 and the difference is audible even acoustically. Sometimes I do it on my Telecaster headstock if the G string is ringing between the nut and the machine-tuner.
Mad Dog, I don't know anything about these bridges (yet) but mine has slots at the top of the height adjustment wheels for what looks like a small screwdriver. Perhaps they are meant to be raised and lowered this way rather than being turned like a tune-a-magic bridge? Please share here if you discover any insights into MP bridge adjustment magic.
I agree with you completely Mad Dog, I was think of swapping in some Sheptone pickups but after playing these for a few days I'm not so sure. This guitar has the personality of Marilyn Monroe and is almost as good looking plus sounds fabulous out of the box. (I'll never know what Marilyn felt like, but this guitar sure does feel fantastic!)
For those looking for info, the neck feels to me very much like the necks on the '50s Les Paul Juniors and some of the older 335's. Not too fat but with a bit of meat, not too wide but wide enough for easy chording above the 12th fret. And the curve of the fretboard feels very natural and comfortable. (Gosh, am I thinking of Marilyn again?)
This guitar is a perfect match with a 60's blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb, Pro Reverb, etc., heavenly tonal bliss for many styles of jazz, blues, and just about anything else. I suspect it may be more versatile than a 335 overall, it sure seems that way.
One way to find out how good a model of guitar is that seems to be reliable is to look for used ones. These are relatively hard to find used and if you do find one the resale value is relatively high, this is a very good sign that people that own them are quite content with what they have.
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Regarding bridge height adjustment, someone mentioned that it's hard to turn the thumbwheels
Mine has tiny slots at the top on the bridge posts and using a jewellers screwdriver I was easily able to raise and lower the bridge without turning any thumbwheels. I checked on the Graphtech site but couldn't find any info, so tried it and it works.
The strings that come stock on the Montreal Premiere are the standard D'Addario 10-46 set but branded by Godin, I asked Godin and they confirmed this.
I am kinda shocked since I have used only D'Addario's on all almost all of my electric guitars since the 70's. But they never felt as stretchy and easy to bend on my Les Paul, Telecaster or Gretsch 5120 as they are on the Montreal Premiere. It's eerie that they could be the same strings yet respond so differently to the hand.
I attribute this new bendy-ness to the MP design and am even more blown away.
It would be really great if Godin offers a version of the MP with separate tone and volume controls. You kinda get the sense that there are a whole lot more wonderful tones you could get from the guitar if only you could "get at them" in the same way you do on a 335. It's also useful for creating a volume boost for soloing by simply flicking the pickup switch rather than having to dive for a knob and hope you got it right ... if you have to change the volume AND switch pickups at the same time it's easy to lose a beat in the process.
This guitar is kinda like a "Budget Byrdland" but with a more comfortable scale length.
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I had a Kingpin and currently have a 5th Avenue which I installed a floating pickup on. I love the light weight and resonant sound of these little guys, as well as the super comfortable neck.
The Premiere has the same neck as far as I can tell, superbly constructed, nice range of sounds with the pickups. I was GASsing for one for quite a while but came up with a deal on a Peerless Sunset, which takes care of the thinline thing for me. I think for stage use the Premiere would be pretty awesome with its light weight, thin profile and center block to control feedback.Last edited by Doctor Jeff; 02-27-2015 at 01:33 PM.
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