Godin Empire P90 Mahogany

From the land of Godin comes another great guitar at a shockingly good value. The Godin Empire P90 has all the classic elements of a great rock and roll guitar: Mahogany body, punchy P-90 pickups, high quality hardware and and true musical soul. The Godin Empire scores big on value, looks and sound.

The Godin Empire P90 will blow you away for value and sound:

• Mahogany body and neck, 7.0 pounds
• 24.75" scale mahogany bolt-on neck, 12" radius
• Dual action truss rod
• 1-11/16" width at the nut
• Rosewood Fingerboard
• Kluson-style tuners
• 2 Godin P-90 pickups
• 3-way pickup switch
• Wrap tailpiece
• Schaller strap lock buttons
• Godin deluxe gig bag
• Made in Canada
• List price: $720

For 2014, Godin dropped the Richmond sub-brand, and now the Richmond series is part of the Godin lineup of guitars. The Empire is slick single cut-away mahogany-bodied guitar that is somewhat reminiscent of the old Gibson Melody maker, but with its own unique Godin styling that keeps it from looking totally retro or dated. The body is nicely contoured and very comfortable to play, and at around seven pounds, the trim mahogany body and wrap tailpiece resonates wonderfully.

The Empire P90 uses the same pickups are their Godin Kingpin. These pickups obey the golden rule of a good P-90: Don't over-wind them and make them into dull, stuffy blobs. Far from dark and brooding, the neck pickup of the Empire has pleasant upper brightness, a full but balanced midrange, and plenty of characteristic P-90 punch. It's got a pretty strong output, and overdriven tones full, somewhat creamy in nature. Fortunately, they don't smear the notes or totally lose definition when gained up.

The bridge pickup is clean, and like the neck it's commendably open sounding, and does not suffer from the midrange darkness of hotter P-90 pickups. The mahogany body provides its own midrange enhancement, but this guitar is perfectly capable of clean, jangly rhythm tones. Distortion tones are textbook P-90: Chunky, tight, with a lot of snap and dense harmonic content. Both pickups also turn down really well, and some of the best sounds -- especially with distortion -- are not with the controls full up. We found the coolest rock tones on the bridge pickup were with a slight roll-off on both the volume and tone controls. Explore a bit and you'll find some hidden gems.

In typical Godin fashion, the 22-fret neck features nicely polished medium frets, and rounded fingerboard edges that feel broken-in out of the box. The Gibson-scale length provides comfortable string tension, and the satin finish mahogany neck feels as smooth as graphite. The pairing of the 1-11/16" nut width and typically slim Godin neck profile feels great for both chords and single note runs; very much like a Gibson 60's neck profile. While the guitar has a fixed compensated wrap tailpiece, tuning and intonation was not an issue, and the solid one-piece construction makes for good sustain and ring.

Guitars are about soul, and fancy binding or flame maple tops do not guarantee personality. The Empire P90 has character to spare, and at the price it's really a no-brainer. For a player at any level, there's no hesitation in recommending the Godin Empire P90.