Godin Guitars is a Canadian manufacturing company headquartered in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

that specializes in

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the s ...

s. The company was founded by Robert Godin , and is currently led by Simon Godin. Range of products currently manufactured by Godin includes

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and acoustic guitars and

basses Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass ...

. The company also produced

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of ...

s, and ouds (named "multi oud") in the past.

Overview

Godin started building Robert Godin's guitars in 1972 in

La Patrie, Quebec La Patrie is a municipality of about 815 people in Le Haut-Saint-François Regional County Municipality, in Quebec, Canada. It is located at the base of Mont Mégantic. Some industries specializing in the field of forestry have settled in La P ...

. The head office is located in

, and they build instruments in five factories in three locations in Quebec, Canada. Godin Guitars makes instruments under several different labels. ''Norman'' makes entry- to pro-level acoustic guitars. ''Art & Lutherie'' makes entry-level budget acoustic guitars. The ''Simon and Patrick'' brand make mid- to high-range steel-string acoustics. ''La Patrie'' manufactures classical guitars. ''Seagull'' makes solid wood entry- to professional-range acoustic guitars. Guitars under the ''Godin'' brand are primarily mid-range to top-of the-line electrics that are made of high quality wood from the northeastern part of North America. They have many models that feature

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

hex pickups (

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

-equipped) and some with piezo pickup-equipped bridges. ''Godin'' 'SA' guitars have piezo bridge pickups which provide six separate outputs via a Roland GK 13-pin output jack, making them compatible with Roland GR, and other guitar-synthesizer units, and the Roland VG series of guitar modelling units. Leonard Cohen at Edinburgh Castle

Godin's guitars have won several awards, including ''

Guitar Player ''Guitar Player'' is an American popular magazine for guitarists, founded in 1967 in San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and politica ...

'' magazine's Editors Pick for the LG, Exit 22, and Freeway Classic. Godin's popular LG Hmb is made of mahogany with a mahogany neck and a rosewood fretboard. The scale length is 24.75", the neck radius is 14" and it has 22 frets. The 2004 model features a five way switch for neck, neck-split to single, neck and humbucker in parallel, bridge-split to single and bridge. The pickups are ceramic. Godin is well known for the Multiac series of hybrid guitars which are available in steel string or nylon string versions, incorporating both piezo and magnetic pickups.

Brands and products

References

External links

Official website
{{Guitar brands Guitar manufacturing companies Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Canada Manufacturing companies based in Montreal Manufacturing companies established in 1972 Canadian brands 1972 establishments in Quebec Design companies established in 1972