SD Review

The SD combines the easy feel of a short scale (24¾") with the added snap of a rock maple neck. The SD is available with the Godin Leaftop finish, which applies a highly figured maple veneer to the top.

Features:	9.7
Sound:	8.7
Action:	8.7
Reliability:	9.5
Impression:	9.8
Overall rating:	9.3
Users rating:	7.6
Comments:	2

Featured review by: unregistered, on july 19, 2004

Price paid: $ 300.2

Purchased from: Used

Features: It's made from Canadian parts and assembled in the USA. It has a 24 and three quarter inch scale and it has 24 frets. It has a Rock maple neck and a leaf maple body. There's a volume and a tone Switch and a 5-way selector that helps make this guitar extremely versatile. It has a standard SC-SC-HB pickup config and they are Godin pickups. They have Godin tunrs that don't fall out of tune often. It came with an awesome gig bag that will fit everything you need for gigs. // 10

Sound: I play classic rock, blues and some punk. It fits the classic rock and blues styles to a T but the punk leaves a little to be desired. I use it with a Line 6 Spider II Amp and I can configure it to match any sound perfectly. Some settings give a little feedback but for me it has provided a crisp clean sound 99% of the time. It has great range, I can play blues licks and then Switch it up to play some Guns N' Roses, it's great. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar had one chip and loose strap buttons because it was used but I covered it up with a little back paint and replaced the strap buttons with some stronger ones. Everything else was spot on. And this was a used guitar, thats quality. // 8

Reliability & Durability: This guitar has withstood many live gigs. The hardware has lasted and looks like it will last even longer. The strap buttons needed replacing after wear. I would and have used it without a backup on several occasions. The finish is lasting great and with a little polish it looks good as new. // 10

Impression: This guitar has filled 9.5/10 of my needs and I'd be hard pressed to find one that filled all of them, especially for the price. I feel that I should have payed about twice the price. There are certainly better and equally as good guitars out there, I own a Epiphone Les Paul and a Fender Highway 1 Telecaster. I love the Godin more than both these guitars. If it was stolen I would go out and buy another one. I love the way this guitar feels in my lap and on stage, I hate the fact that some features especially on high gain are pretty noisy and on stage especially this is an inconvience. I only wish it came with some slightly better tuners and pickups. Otherwise this is recommended. // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on november 15, 2004

Price paid: $ 304.15

Purchased from: Long And Mcquade

Features: Purchased in 2004. A quality instrument with Canadian made parts assembled in the USA. The bird's nest maple fret board has 24 medium frets. The body is satin black with a bone pick guard and a five Switch with a tone and volume knob, both metal. Two Godin single pickups and a Godin humbucker. Tuners are non locking, but this guitar stays in tune very well. They rarely need adjusting. Gig bag is awesome heavily padded with lots of extra nooks and pockets for all your items. // 10

Sound: A very versatile guitar. I play a huge variety of genres including punk, hard rock, heavy metal, pop, blues, and country. I am using a Marshall 250DFX amp as well as a Zoom 1010 pedal. The pickups are quite quite considering the price of the guitar. In general I would say the guitar has a bright sound to it. Probably in part due to my choice of bird's nest maple for the fret board. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: Fit and finish is excellent. Set-up was just right and for me, at least required no additional fiddling. No flaws in the finish or fit. One minor item is the cap on the five way came loose, but crazy glue solved it. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This is a solid guitar. I don't play live, but if I did I think it would stand up to the rigors very well. Strap buttons are very solid, in fact it comes with locking strap pins installed, you just have to get the male end and you're in business. I've had the guitar for ten months and play on average about 12 hours a week with no noticeable scratches or thinning spots in the finish. // 10

Impression: I think this guitar is far above what a person would usually get for this type of money. If you like to play a variety of music, like I do, than this guitar is perfect. If it were lost or stolen I would get another in an instance. // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on july 03, 2009

Price paid: C$ 250

Features: Canadian parts assembled in the US of A. And I have to say if that's what it takes to make a guitar this great, every manufacturer should do the same. I haven't owned anything but this guitar a Gibson Flying V and a really old Acoustic which is why I wont have much to add, I was just blown away by the quality of guitar for the price. Mine was the typical ebony with white pick guard with the maple fret board. It had one minor scratch in it and I got a really (REALLY) terrible Washburn amp with it. For that price the amp was just a bonus. It was my first electric and was very easy to learn on. // 10

Sound: Amazing, I never really appreciated it until I started to get better. I can now officially say that the pick ups are good. Some slight rattling at first, but an Allin key quickly got the bows out of the neck and now its nothing but smooth classic rock and blues. // 9

Action, Fit & Finish: I didn't get this guitar new so I don't know how good the factory setting were, but I do know that it was on the original strings when I got it and they still had some nice sound to them. The guy who owned it b4 me had it for about 2 years before I purchased it from him and he basically learned the intro to thunderstruck and stopped playing so it was basically Brand New minus the scratch on the front. I found that the top knuckle needed to be filed to fit the new strings I bought but other then that it was excellent. I found that playing my amp at mid level with the guitar set to high tone was a great sound. As mentioned on the other reviews, the SD has a 5 way slidable sound adjuster. I found that on the second highest level with a mid level sound coming from the amp was very clear. I was stunned at the sound quality for a guitar of this price. // 9

Reliability & Durability: The finish is wonderful. Its a high gloss, yet it doesnt scratch. My cousin has the Epiphone les paul. beautiful guitar when he got it but with greater care maintaining it, it still ended up with scratches. Where as myself I wasn't always the kindest to the guitar when I started playing and no damage. It even had an unfortunate run in with the floor one jam session and nothing more then a slight chip on the bottom. // 10

Impression: I got the guitar about a year and a half ago. When the original person perchased it, he bought it for 450 with amp, and since then this specific guitar has done nothing but increase in price with little advancement. Its now currently going for 799 plus tax at The Music store near my house. And even though it is still worth every penny, its a guitar that grows with you while learning. If you're looking for a starter guitar or even something to pick up to fool around with with a good sound and you can pick one up for cheaper then 400, buy it! // 9

overall: 9.6

Reviewed by: NotOld, on july 03, 2007

Price paid: $ 355.5

Purchased from: Long and McQuade

Features: This guitar was built with 22 medium jumbo frets on a neck of maple. The body is a sort of thinned down Les Paul with a pearl finish to top it off. A string-through-body bridge is used under a configuration of s/s/h pickups (5 pickup settings). The SD uses passive electronics, with 2 knobs given; tone, and volume. I was also given a gig back upon my purchase. // 10

Sound: This guitar fits my musical style perfectly. I play alternative, rock and ART rock. I plug the SD through a Fender FM65R and an Original Dunlop Crybaby Wah and it handles beautifully. It gets a little noisy on the neck setting, but otherwise, it's pretty good. It has a full sound all of the time. // 9

Action, Fit & Finish: The factory set up was good, I just had to adjust the action and Switch the 9's for 11's. Everything was perfect except that the bridge springs have rusted a little. I've fiddled with it's features but found that they are already set up correctly and to my liking. // 9

Reliability & Durability: My guitar will definitely withstand all of the Live play I give it. There is no giving up in this baby. the strap buttons are solid, but my strap won't stay on, so I've decided to buy a strap lock sometime this summer. I already gig without a backup because I am too damn poor to buy another guitar, and I would love one just incase, but I doubt that I would need it. // 10

Impression: I play alternative, rock and ART rock and the Godin SD is an amazing match. I've been playing for a year and a half and I own a wah pedal and a Fender FM65R. If it were stolen, I would kick the theif's ass back to the alleys, I love it that much. I love the maple neck because it is so comfortable and playable. The only thing I wish it would have is a locking nut because I use Standard tuning and don't like fine tuning every time. // 10

overall: 9.8

Reviewed by: VernisterGodin, on january 13, 2006

Purchased from: TheGuitarStore

Features: My Godin SD was made Assembled in USA and Handcrafted wood from the land of south park (Canada). It's the 2004 model of the SD, it has 22 maple rock frets, it has abit of a arch top (which is good)and is neck bolted-in. The finish is red, black pick guard and the body is original Godin style, it's a string-thru body guitar and has a 5-way pickup selector and the pickups are: H/S/S (Humbucker - Single Coil -single coil), all original Godin pickups, with wonder bar (Bendy stick). // 10

Sound: The sound is awesome! To be honest I never really liked Godin guitars but when I tested the SD, it was like, oh my god! It rocks! I'm using a Marshal MGX30, the single coils are kinda a bit noisy in a light buzzing way, the humbucker has no problems totaly silent, I like to play it on the humbucker, it has a nice hard rock sound to it, and if ur amplifier has contour then it sounds like punk rock so this is pretty much what I usually play but it can do much more than just rock, you can play blues (if you know how). // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar was in perfect condition when I got it, and it's still is until now. The action? Great! the pickups are adjusted perfectly and this guitar is almost flaw-less, just that the single coil pickups abit buzzy, and the strap buttons could be better its kinda small so odinary leather/nilon straps won't hold on so try using the Planet Waves one, other than that, everything is all good. // 10

Reliability & Durability: Well, this guitar was made for long term using, and ofcourse it will withstand live playing, the hardware looks like its fragile, but it's just to decieve you, all of it is strong and though, the strap buttons are solid but small, so your guitar might drop at a certain angle. From my experience I not that good to go play myself, I would need a backup but I think other people with good guitar practise wouldn't need a backup. // 9

Impression: This guitar is the exact match for me, dispite the single coil buzzing, I don't really play the middle or use the single coils, I just use the humbucker exelent, clean distortion sound. I've been playing guitars for 4 years, all self-thought. Would find a guitar lesson if I had time. If it were to be stolen, dammit that sonnawabitch is going down. And maybe I would by the quilt maple top one, hehe. The few things that I really love about this guitar is that its light, not so big, its string-thru body, has wonderbar (Bendy Stick), and the exterior is awsome, I recomend this Godin SD to anyone who plays usually using clean distortion, I hope my review will help anyone. // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on july 16, 2004

Features: So far this guitar has been vary reliable. I have transported it to a couple of gigs, all of which it has taken with nothing to show for it, on the body atleast. The finish seems like it's going to stay on the guitar for a while. The only part about it thats not too reliable are the strap buttons, the strap has fallen off a few times and I am definately considering getting them replaced. Other than that I can definately sum up this Godin as solid. // 8

Sound: For the time being I play anything that branches out of the rock genre as well as some funk. I am currently running my Godin through my Fender Stage 100 amp which I haven't had too many problems with thus far. the neck or middle pick-ups alone can be kind of noisy when not in use especially when heavy gain is introduced although some of the sounds you can create with those same pick-ups alone completely makeup for this minor draw back. Over-all the guitar is more than a little versatile as I can get some sounds that sounds like they deserve to be from a Gibson, flowing out the amp. // 6

Action, Fit & Finish: // 6

Reliability & Durability: // 8

Impression: I have owned this guitar for almost a year now and so far I havent had any major problems with it, atleast none that can't be fixed ver time. I have been playing classic metal (which I do want to get out of soon!) and this guitar has definately done it's share to help me out. If this guitar was stolen or destroyed I would definateley buy another Godin but maybe not specifiallly this model. Personally what I love about this guitar was how much I put into it and how much I got out. For a $400 guitar it sounds like a $700-800 at the least. Down the road I may have the pickups replaced with Fender Strat or tele pick-ups but thats all the treatment I believe it really needs to be actually "perfect" in my mind. Anyway, I definately recommend this guitar to any guitar player who is starting (especially over any Squier and even some epiphones) or for anyone who wants a more versatile guitar than the one they have right now. // 10

Comments

[slash N @xl]

I played several Godins at a music shop, and this SD series rocks. It beats the hell out of any Fender.

And its xtSA models beats the hell out of a Gibson LP.

[steve.howard]

I own this guitar, don't have a full review to write but I do have a note - replace those single coils ASAP, they hum terribly and are just horrible distorted anyway - thus, all I ever really used was the bucker in the bridge. I put a Seymour Duncan SCR-1 in the neck and an SHR-1 in the middle and I use all of the positions now.