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Godin Radiator

 

Review of the Godin Radiator by The Man in the Jar

I chose to review the maple-boarded Radiator rather than the rosewood-boarded guitar pictured here.

Features of the Godin Radiator 

Tuners - Godin-branded sealed mini-tuners with black knobs. These felt exceptionally positive and tuning was a breeze.

Headstock - Quirky offset three-a-side with a screen printed R logo and a raised Godin logo. The string guide is a simple bar that spans the headstock's base providing excellent over-the-nut string tension.

Nut - White plastic set-in-slot type which is tidily finished.

Neck - The Canadian rock maple bolt-on neck is absolutely superb, easily as good as the best that Ibanez can turn out. It has a lovely slim depth profile that lends it the feeling of luxurious width in the palm of your hand. The maple has a beautiful grain that will age magnificently and the matt lacquer finish makes it feel like silk. If you've ever played an old hand-made Shergold or Hayman you will find this neck strangely familiar, it is that good.  

Fretboard - The maple fretboard is clean and bright with traditional dot markers in black. The short scale of this neck adds to its luxurious playability and allows Godin to give you the full 24 fret experience. As if things weren't good enough already Godin employ a technique that they call Ergocut. This puts an inward bevel on the edge of the fretboard and the fret-ends to create a wonderfully comfortable finish.

Frets - The 24 medium frets are all well finished.

Action - This is quite low from the box, but such is the stability of the rock maple neck I believe you could set it dangerously low if you chose to.

Body - The maple body is quite heavily chambered (hence the need for the extravagant scratchplate) so the guitar has a comfortable weight on the strap. The body shape is kinda' Les Paul shape but the slab of maple is even as thick as, say, a Strat. There is comfort contouring on the back of the body and the heel is nicely contoured too. The finish is a nice shiny black.

Bridge - The simple rectangle plate bridge is a top-loader. It holds six individual string saddles, each equipped with spring-loaded intonation adjustment. Each saddle also has two screws to adjust string height.

Pickups - Two Godin single-coil pickups have a very Firebird look about them. Each pickup's height is adjustable via two screws.

Controls - Each pickup has an independent volume control which allows you to blend the two pickups in any proportion you choose from 10/0 to 0/10. This of course dispenses with the need for a pickup selector. The third knob is a master tone control.

Scratchplate - Almost the entire front of this instrument is covered with a single ply black onyx scratchplate and it looks uber-sexy. The finishing touch is a screw-on badge on the upper bout that declares "Radiator Cool Sound".

Strap-buttons - Two quite small strap buttons live on the bottom of the body and the upper horn.

Output Jack - On the lower edge in an oval chrome plate.

Finish - This simply finished instrument is a joy to look at.

Accessories - One very high quality gig bag.

 

Sound of the Godin Radiator

The maple construction, chambered body and single-coil pickups put this little beast firmly in Fender-land. But although it would happily share a stable with the Telecaster and Stratocaster it does have a voice all of its own. The ability to blend the pickups is the Ace in the Hole here and I was happily twiddling from strident Blues sounds to ice-sharp country and back through middley soft rock progressions. And if you give it a little help from the amp-side EQ you can overdrive the Radiator within a hairsbreadth of classic rock tones.

 

Overall Impressions of the Godin Radiator

I must confess that this review was very easy for me because I actually own a Yellow Radiator. The short-scale and easy playability mean I use it regularly when I'm learning new stuff. The light-ish weight and flexible range of sounds makes it a first choice as a jamming instrument, especially when I'm having to travel any distance to the jam, as long as I'm fairly sure that heavy metal isn't going to be part of the agenda. It's an essentially player-friendly guitar that will always remain part of my collection, whatever else comes along. Hell, the neck is so nice that I bet if you string it with 009's it'll play itself. 

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