Godin Club

[Daniel B5]

Today's project was to give the Shifter Classic Res-o-Lite tuners. It took the hardware from 480g to 180g, and made a big difference to neck dive.

I used a 12mm socket to tap out the old ferrules, wrapped the Gotoh ferrules with two layers of aluminum tape to fit more securely in the existing holes, and a 15mm socket to tighten the ferrules.

 

[thisheregiraffe]

Nicely done! Looks good. Reducing weight of the tuners when I put Ultralites on my Shifter also made a noticeable difference in balance. Huge quality-of-life improvement IMO. Those basswood bodies tend to be a bit light, so heavy-ish tuners make the neck dive too easily.

 

[Daniel B5]

I put fresh strings (Regular Slinkies) on my BG-5 yesterday. Also put Schaller strap locks back on, as a previous owner had swapped in mismatched strap buttons. I'm noticing more of the wear and tear it accumulated prior to reaching my hands, but it's mostly minor cosmetic issues. New tuning machines will be next; the originals are getting a little loose, and one is missing a bushing.

I've mostly been playing the Shifter Classic V and the Ibanez SRMS805 recently, so it was nice to hear the BG-5 with full brightness. And that beautiful birdseye maple neck feels great!

 

[Avlamonte]

Hello all. Just picked up an A5 fretted. Got it from GC and planned on returning it if it wasn’t what I needed. That was definitely not the case. I love this thing!

Couple questions. I am not a big fan of the gig bag that came with it. Have any of you successfully looked for a gig bag that will fit its 15” width? I think the big Road Runner may work…have to take it in to check.

Also, for any of your fretted owners, any suggestion on strings? I think it has chromes on it now and am probably going to try black coated flats (and change out the chrome tuners to black).

Thanks much,
Allan

 

[thisheregiraffe]

I did a few mods to this Freeway 4 a few weeks ago, and I'm really happy with it. It's the first bass I reach for each day when it's practice/noodling time


Things I changed:

• Original tuners (one was failing) replaced with Gotoh GB707's. A very good quality, reliable tuner for what I think is a great price. These basses had similar looking Y-key tuners from the factory, so the GB707's are drop in replacements.
• Godin PJ pickups and pots replaced with an EMG PJAX set. VVT controls with EMG's active VLPF for the tone control. The original pickups were not bad, but they were IMHO the weak link in this bass.
• Strung it up with La Bella 750C copper tapes. I previously had some NPS rounds on it which sounded just OK. I am a big fan of tapes though, and I think tapes + active EMG pickups is a beautiful combination.

I can get a nice variety of tones depending on how I blend the pickups and roll back the tone. I am a big fan of bridge pickups in general, more of a fan of J basses than P basses, and I favour the J pickup on a PJ. I am loving the sounds I get out of this J pickup solo'd with the tone rolled back a bit. It's effortless to play. I like flexible strings so La Bella's light tapes work well for me. I set the action a smidge higher than most probably do, to account for how supple the strings are. Still plays so easily.

 

[Daniel B5]

• Godin PJ pickups and pots replaced with an EMG PJAX set. VVT controls with EMG's active VLPF for the tone control. The original pickups were not bad, but they were IMHO the weak link in this bass.

View attachment 7476315

The cream colour of those pickups looks so tasty against the coffee/caramel body!

 

[thisheregiraffe]

The cream colour of those pickups looks so tasty against the coffee/caramel body!

Thanks! Sound obviously trumps looks, but I am very happy with the appearance of this bass as well, and when it looks and sounds good it makes it just a tiny bit more satisfying to play I also put TUSQ saddles in the bridge - purely for aesthetic reasons - to match up with the pickup covers. I have never broken a string on bass, but now that I've used the String Saver / TUSQ saddles a bit on bass, I do believe there is some truth to Graph Tech's marketing about how the saddles impact tone and sustain.

 

[Daniel B5]

Picked up a Freeway 4 from the original owner today. It is all original, and has the standard RF noise (I will begin shielding it today) but the neck and body are in great shape. Pots aren't crackly. And I dig the navy blue body. Looking forward to giving this a proper workout once the shielding is in place. Then we'll see how the stock pickups sound.

Quick photo, as TB demands. Eventually I'll get better at more artfully presenting my basses!

 

[EliasA]

Picked up a Freeway 4 from the original owner today. It is all original, and has the standard RF noise (I will begin shielding it today) but the neck and body are in great shape. Pots aren't crackly. And I dig the navy blue body. Looking forward to giving this a proper workout once the shielding is in place. Then we'll see how the stock pickups sound.

Quick photo, as TB demands. Eventually I'll get better at more artfully presenting my basses!
View attachment 7487502

Make sure to oil the fingerboard because it would look fantastic if it were a bit darker.

 

[thisheregiraffe]

Picked up a Freeway 4 from the original owner today. It is all original, and has the standard RF noise (I will begin shielding it today) but the neck and body are in great shape. Pots aren't crackly. And I dig the navy blue body. Looking forward to giving this a proper workout once the shielding is in place. Then we'll see how the stock pickups sound.

Quick photo, as TB demands. Eventually I'll get better at more artfully presenting my basses!
View attachment 7487502

Nice! These passive Freeway 4’s are great basses. I have two and like them a lot.

 

[Daniel B5]

Make sure to oil the fingerboard because it would look fantastic if it were a bit darker.

Oh yes, that, and there will be a thorough cleaning to remove two decades of accumulated gunk. Of which there isn't much, thankfully; the owners were primarily guitar players and never really learned to play bass, so it didn't get a lot of use. But it stayed in their music room in their house, so benefited from the humidified climate they maintained for all of their instruments. I had a nice chat with the couple; lovely people!

 

[Ric Vice]

Hello all. Just picked up an A5 fretted. Got it from GC and planned on returning it if it wasn’t what I needed. That was definitely not the case. I love this thing!

Couple questions. I am not a big fan of the gig bag that came with it. Have any of you successfully looked for a gig bag that will fit its 15” width? I think the big Road Runner may work…have to take it in to check.

Also, for any of your fretted owners, any suggestion on strings? I think it has chromes on it now and am probably going to try black coated flats (and change out the chrome tuners to black).

Thanks much,

I’ve owned a fretted Godin LR Baggs Acoustibass since @ 2000 of all the strings I really like Ernie Ball Slinky Cobalt Flatwounds I liked them on my fretted Godin as well as my new (used) Fretless Godin LR Baggs Acoustibass. Great sustain , definition, and clarity. As far as cases go it depends on your budget, but you may want to invest in a good padded case, because you need to protect the hollow-body nature of the bass. The Sadowsky padded cases fit my bass.

 

[Daniel B5]

Introducing my 2002 Freeway 5, purchased from a storage wars dude who found it behind a couch in the space he won the auction for. $380 including a (slightly stained) Godin canvas gig bag.

I've shielded it, gave it a complete setup, slapped on freah NYXLs, and polished it up, and it plays great!

The stock pickups are decent but sound a bit microphonic, so I'm going to try a vintage "stacked" (humbucking) set of pickups from MJS. First time ever swapping pickups. I intend to learn how to solder by the time the pickups arrive. Will also order new pots to make a clean sweep of the electronics. (The input jack seems fine, after I bent the contact in a bit to hold tighter)

And this is the 2003 Freeway 4 that I purchased the week before. If the pickup swap on the 5 is a success, the 4 might undergo the same treatment!

 

[thisheregiraffe]

Sweet lookin' Freeways! IMHO they are great quality instruments, especially when you consider how inexpensive you can find them on the used market. The electronics can be a bit of a weak link, but I don't think that's always the case. And if you do find one with electronics issues, the bass is a nice mod platform.

My 2006 Freeway 4 seems to have a fairly similar finish to yours, although a different colour. My is black with a very subtle sparkle that looks really nice in the right light.

My 2009 Freeway 4 has a similar look to your 5 with the maple veneer on top. The finish over top of it is darker on mine though. I really like how clearly you can see the top's figuring on your Freeway 5!

Good luck with the soldering, I'm sure you'll get hang of it without too much trouble. It's a relatively simple thing to do, but at the same time it's a skill that requires some practice to get good at. If you replace the pickups and pots then the old ones would be useful to practice on.

 

[Daniel B5]

I played my 2004 BG5 this week and noticed that the G&B preamp injects a very noticeable hiss, even when the treble pot is at the centre detent. If I roll off the treble, the hiss goes away, but that's obviously not ideal.

When I reached out to Godin for info about this bass last year, they said it had active pickups. Looking at the wiring, I think they might have been mistaken: the soapbar pickups don't have any direct connections to the battery. This model has Godin pickups, not the EMG or SD pickups that previous models came with.

I'll have my soldering station and supplies in place soon. I'm adding "convert this to passive to see how the stock pickups fare without a preamp" to my list of projects...