GODIN RADIUM-X
Mixing magnetic and piezo pickups, Godin is back with serious intent if this Radium-X is anything to go by. But it comes at a price. Worth a punt? We plug in…
It’s been a while since we featured a Godin electric in these pages, actually just over two years, back in issue 467. And you don’t need us to tell you that quite a lot has happened since then. World events, factory shutdowns and the rising price of raw materials, parts and shipping have all played their part. So you have to doff your cap because if Godin is to retain – or, perhaps more accurately, regain – some market share, then this new Radium-X is quite a statement of intent.
Multi-voice, innovative guitars have been a cornerstone of Godin’s output over recent decades: instruments built with purpose in mind. The Radium-X falls bang into that category with its blend of pickups – standard magnetic with less-standard piezo – creating a ‘hybrid’ electric-plus-acoustic platform. But before we get there, there’s plenty going on with the instrument itself.
The body shape here has already been used on the standard Radium and Stadium models, a Telecaster-inspired outline with a pulled out bass-side shoulder and slightly thinner treble-side horn. The back is mahogany, two-piece centre-joined, and by tapping our fingernails around the body it sounds like it’s fairly extensively chambered on the lower bass side of the body, behind the vibrato rout, and quite extensively on the treble side, too. That hollowed structure, around 36mm deep, is topped with a 15mm thick one-piece swamp ash top that has a shallow violin-like carve, giving an overall depth of 51.6mm and a rim depth of approximately 40mm. Outwardly, the back is carved, too, with a deep ribcage contour that flows into smaller chamfering around the back’s edges. The heel is left pretty square but somehow suits the rather classic style: the deep red stain to the mahogany recalls the craft of the jazz-era archtop, as do those nicotinestained two-piece inlays, which also feature on a trio of new Godin 5th Avenue Jumbo models, the Montreal Premiere Limited and the solidbody Summit Classic.
Finished in Rustic Burst ‘semi gloss’, it’s super smooth to the touch… the deep red recalling the craft of the jazz-era archtop
This evocative vibe continues with the mahogany neck, which has a head-splice around the position of the two lower tuning machines, but you really have to look closely to spot it. That very classic threea-side headstock is dead classy, although here it’s faced with a black/white/black plastic laminate, giving echoes of Godin’s Radiator. We’ve previously criticised Godin
