Any Godin experts here?

[davehux]

I love the look of these, but this one seems a bit of an oddity

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Godin-A4-Ultra-Fretless-SA-Bass-Guitar-/221007333575?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item33751048c7#ht_500wt_1202"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Godin-A4-Ultra-Fretless-SA-Bass-Guitar-/221007333575?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item33751048c7#ht_500wt_1202[/url]

It's not an Ultra, as it doesn't have the extra, visible, bridge pickup. It doesn't have the weird extra long thumb rest as shown on all adverts for an A4 SA. The headstock says 'Assembled in the USA from parts hand crafted in Canada'

Is this the Godin equivalent of a Fender MIM?

[ikay]

I'm not a Godin expert but this blurb from the Godin website may be of some help:

"[font="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"]We are a Canadian company with our head office located in Montreal and we build our guitars in several different locations, five in Quebec and one in New Hampshire. For those of you keeping score, that adds up to six factories spread out over about 1000 kilometers. So why not just have one giant guitar factory? Although there are some obvious inconveniences associated with spreading ourselves out this much, the up-side is that these smaller operations promote a more intimate working environment which gets everybody more involved and this is reflected in the instruments themselves.[/font] [font="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"]Godin guitars are assembled in our Richmond, Quebec and Berlin, New Hampshire factories. The necks and bodies are all made in our original location in La Patrie, Quebec.[/font]"

I don't think 'assembled in USA' means it's in any way inferior to a 'manufactured in Canada' Godin. The bass on ebay isn't an Ultra as you rightly point out but I think it is a current A4 model (it has the individual RMC saddles rather than the earlier single saddle Baggs transducer).

[waynepunkdude]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFZh92MUOY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFZh92MUOY[/url]

[davehux]

Cheers Wayne. It's all perfectly clear now.

Thanks for the extra info ikay.

Are these a poor man's Rob Allen? They are £1100 new so I think she may have a job getting a grand for a BIN