Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Has anyone played one of these? Can someone provide a review? They seem reasonably priced

http://www.godinguitars.com/godin5thavenuep.htm

A friend of mine has one that he favors over his PRS McCarty Archtop Artist guitar!

I've had one for a year or so - a black 5th Avenue. I'm very pleased with it - so much so, that it's the one acoustic I leave out on a stand all the time. It's very nicely made, and has a very comfortable (for me) neck. I'm no great expert on archtops, but I'd say that this is voiced more toward the flattop end of the spectrum than a traditional archtop - it has a decent amount of sustain, a pretty full bass, but still has the characteristic punch of an archtop when you chunk along at 4 to the bar. It seems warmer, and rather less brittle than most pure acoustic archtops I've heard. It's remarkably nice for fingerpicking as well, and maintains its character in the upper registers very well.

I wouldn't say it was particularly loud, but that's not really a concern for me, as I only ever play it at home. It sounds great with a good set of phosphor bronze strings on it (I prefer Elixir Nano PBs). I got the urge to put a pickup on mine, and it now sports a floating humbucker, hung off the pickguard. It's just a $15 Artec, which I bought to experiment with - it was, not surprisingly, rather unbalanced with the PB strings, so I put a nice fat set of nickel-wound Boomers on it. It sounds delicious plugged in now, and still surprisingly good acoustically. I have a set of D'Addario Chromes to try next!

It's a fun guitar, somewhat out of the ordinary, and it makes me want to play it. What more could you ask?

Here it is, before I fitted the pickup:

eatswodo wrote:

Sock monkeys for the win!

This guitar might be my next purchase i like it in the Natural finish.Oh and ive a Birthday soon.

They are wonderful guitars! I would have bought one by now if I didn't already own the guitar they were based on (Gibson ES-125):



Which, by the way, can be had for not much more than the Godin!

Thanks guys! David your review was a big help! These things seems to have good value considericould pick one up for under $500!

I've had my friends 5th Ave for a few days now, doing a truss rod tweak and setup for him. Now that I got the neck nice and flat with TI flats on it the guitar plays like butter, really. I find the neck a tad wide in feel but other than that it is a joy to play. Dave had a Kent Armstrong floating pickup installed on it; I can't say that I am a fan of the amplified tone, I think a better/different pickup is in order, perhaps a Benedetto pickup, which I suggested to him. The foam case the guitar comes in is interesting, I wonder just how long it will last? With the guitar in the case the whole package is extremely lightweight.

I went into my local guitar shop yesterday and they had a 5th Avenue with a cutaway and 2 p-90's in a walnut finish.

Very tempting, but no $$ in the guitar fund.