NGD: Godin 5th Avenue Jazz

Ben Randolph

Ben Randolph

Power User
About two and a half years ago I started my foray into jazz. It’s been a wonderful journey, learning the solos of Wes Montgomery. In that time, I’ve developed a great love of jazz music. Since then, I’ve been playing on Strats, a Telecaster with a neck humbucker and an SG. These guitars, especially the latter two, get great jazz tones, but for a while I’ve wanted to explore the world of hollow bodies.

I considered the budget archtops from Ibanez and Godin, the mid-price ones from Eastman and Peerless and the pricier ones from Gibson. I’ve been intrigued by Godin’s 5th Avenue Jazz for a while and had an opportunity to play it at a little shop in Maryland last year, though I was not in a position to buy. I thought it gave a wonderful value for the money, as is true with Godins in general.

I decide to pull the trigger on a Piano Black Godin 5th Avenue Jazz last week. It came setup absolutely perfectly out of the box. The neck with its ebony fretboard is an absolute dream to play and the neck mini-humbucker sounds perfect. Also, the included TRIC case is very nice.

Here she is!





 
Looks great! I never played a Godin archtop but I only heard good things about them :)

Jens
 
Sweet! Looks great Ben. Years ago I bought a Heritage Sweet 16 for my jazz box. Still have it. I string mine with Thomasik 13's Flatwounds. Love the tone and feel. There is just something very organic about jazz on an great archtop. Congrats.
 
It came strung with roundwounds, which are D'Addario Chrome 12s, I believe. I bought a set of Thomasik 12 Swing Flatwounds, but have not put them on yet. I've read where going from rounds to flats involves setting up the guitar again, and this one is just perfect out of box so I haven't slapped the new strings on yet!

I took to the neck instantly. The guitar is super-comfortable to play. Some jazz archtops just feel a bit on the bulky side to me, coming from my favorite SG and Strats, but this one just fits like a favorite pair of jeans.
 
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Ben Randolph said:
I took to the neck instantly. The guitar is super-comfortable to play. Some jazz archtops just feel a bit on the bulky side to me, coming from my favorite SG and Strats, but this one just fits like a favorite pair of jeans.
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I totally get that. That is why I got the Sweet 16. It is a 16" body rather than the typical 17" or mighty 18". I found it in a small music shop in Mansfield. Being a fellow Texan you know what I'm talkin' about. I traded a Historic Gibson 335 for it. Even swap. My Gibby was valued at $100 more than the Sweet 16 so the shop owner threw in a couple of sets of strings. Deal done.
 
Geezerjohn, sometimes that perfect guitar just picks you :) I totally understand about your Heritage. Great company. They folks in Kalamazoo were nice enough to give me a tour of the facility on an off-tour day. I was visiting my good friend to go see Roger Waters perform The Wall in Grand Rapids, and we swung by the Heritage factory while I was there. I spoke with an ex-Gibson worker who actually worked on one of Wes Montgomery's guitars! It was amazing!
 
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