Godin Montreal Premiere HT Trans White w/Deluxe Gig Bag

The Godin Montreal Premiere is a classically styled semi-hollow electric that combines high quality hardware and workmanship at a price point that is very attractive for a North American made guitar. Lively, clean, and easy to play, the Godin Montreal is a versatile instrument that brings the virtues of semi-hollow tone for both pros and enthusiasts alike 

A Guitar Player Magazine Editor's Pick, the Godin Montreal Premiere is packed with highly quality features:

• Semi-Hollow Canadian Cherry Body, 6.4 pounds
• Double white binding
• Truss-style carved spruce core
• Mahogany set net, 24-3/4" scale, 22 medium frets
• Rosewood fingerboard
• Seymour Duncan SH-2n neck pickup
• Godin Custom Humbucker bridge pickup
• 3-way pickup switch
• Global volume and tone controls
• Graphtech Resomax bridge and tailpiece
• Schaller strap locks
• Dual action truss rod
• Godin Deluxe padded gig bag
• Made in Canada

While cherry may not qualify as a "classic" tonewood to traditionalists, it turns out to have some very attractive qualities. Cherry is acoustically loud, clean and produces a very clear midrange with nice upper end detail. Sonically it is crisp like maple but with a little more harmonic complexity and stronger bottom end. It's also a domestically (Canada) sourced and sustainable wood, which never hurts.

A couple years ago Godin updated the Montreal to use a Seymour Duncan Jazz neck pickup. The SD Jazz model is a moderate output Alnico 5 humbucker that emphasizes clarity and note definition. In the Montreal the tone is round, clean and at no point mushy or lacking definition. It's a great match for this type of guitar, and while they call it a jazz model it's perfectly voiced for pop and funk also. The Godin humbucking bridge pickup meters at about 16K ohms, which would imply a pretty hot output. In practice, the bridge pickup sonically and output-wise matches up pretty well with the neck. The bridge pickup has a nice fat midrange that makes it punchy without sounding particularly dark. At the upper end it's got plenty of clarity, but the nickel cover and relatively hefty 16K DC resistance keeps the pickup from being overly bright. The boosted and distortion tones are lean with a lot of top end sparkle and harmonics -- it's a semi-hollow after all --  and are well suited to crunchy blues and fusion more so than the chugging low end needed for harder styles of music. The spruce center core effectively manages any feedback issues, so you can crank this guitar without fear of it howling.

The Montreal neck profile is somewhere between a late 50's "Kalamazoo" profile and a Slim 60's. We measure about .860 at the first fret, and .915 at the 12th. It's reasonably chunky down low, with a very mild taper. The fretwork consists of nicely finished medium frets and a factory setup that affords low action that is virtually buzz-free even when played aggressively. Godin guitars are very consistent out of the box (or gig bag), and require very little -- if any -- adjustment to get them dialed in.