# Godin guitars setup



## xuthal (May 15, 2007)

Got my Norman b20 folk a few weeks ago.Everything is great but i have a question,does the godin factories crown their frets?Mine's are not properly crowned and are flat on the top.I'm wondering if there is a purpose to this or just a lazy employee who didn't feel like doing a proper fret job on a lefty model.


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## Alain Moisan (Jan 16, 2010)

xuthal said:


> I'm wondering if there is a purpose to this or just a lazy employee who didn't feel like doing a proper fret job on a lefty model.


Don't blame the employees, they're acting upon the boss's requests!

Almost none of the factory made guitars are shipped out with their frets properly leveled and crowned. I've setup guitars over 3000$ (Les Paul Custom, for example) with the worst setup ever. Your Norman most certainly needs a basic setup with fret leveling and recrowning. But like I said, it's not specific to Godin (or lefty guitars for that matter), but more to factory made guitars in general.


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## Mike MacLeod (Nov 27, 2006)

I would concur. The best of the small high-end operations do a nice preliminary set-up including crowning, but, obviously, can't fine tune it to the player's preferences. A good shop will always include a set-up with the instrument - assuming that there is enough profit in the sale to offset the charges. It's not reasonable to expect a $75 service thrown in on a $300 sale.


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## xuthal (May 15, 2007)

I wouldn't normally complain but these frets are flat,like they were leveled and nobody thought to crown them,just left them like that.I paid nearly $500 for this guitar,i think i deserve a little more for the money.Is it a general rule you have to pay over a certain amount to get a decent factory setup?I paid alot of money for me for this guitar,i do like it,i just think a decent factory setup should be included in the price.


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## Alain Moisan (Jan 16, 2010)

Flat frets are definatly a bad thing, worth taking your guitar back to the store to have them fix it. Beats me how they got flat, but I would suspect a botched job made by the inhouse tech where you bought it.

A 'decent' setups that stores give when selling a guitar usually don't come with leveling/recrowning frets. They will setup the action, check the truss-rod and that's it. 

Like I said, bring it back to the store to show them and see were they go from there.


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## xuthal (May 15, 2007)

I wish i could,it's a long drive,half the province going down.I had to have it shipped here from regina so driving there and back for a crowning isn't really worth it,I'll do it myself.I'm still looking for a three sided file for another guitar i'm going to level and dress,hopefully i can find one so i can crown the frets myself.There are no techs in my town and i wouldn't know where to look.Where would be a good place to look for a file like this?I've tried home hardware,rona and will look at true value in the hardware section.So far I've turned up short.


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## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

George Heinl in Toronto. They are a violin shop but have all kinds of luthier tools and guitar parts (get their latest catalog to see what I mean). I got my crowning and nut files there. 
Super fast shipping from them too! Talk to Gary, he's a good guy.

http://www.georgeheinl.com/


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## Alain Moisan (Jan 16, 2010)

xuthal said:


> I wish i could,it's a long drive,half the province going down.


Bummer...

You can try Stewart-McDonald: www.stewmac.com

That's where I get almost all of my luthier tools. They're quite reliable and ship fast (use standard post, not Fedex or else they'll kill you with there custom fees.)

Hope this helps!


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## Alain Moisan (Jan 16, 2010)

if it's not too late, here is a little trick Frank Ford uses to recrown frets simply with 600 grit sandpaper.

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/Frets/D35Refret/D35refret6.html#27

If the flat portion of the frets aren't too large, it might do the trick.

Hope this helps!


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## xuthal (May 15, 2007)

Thanks Alain,I'm heading up town and ill pick up some sandpaper.I always miss some important parts of frets,it's a big page thanks again.I just got an email from their customer service,sounds like the frets were supposed to be that way.I'll crown them myself since it effects the playability of the guitar,enough to disrupt fingerstyle playing.


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## Alain Moisan (Jan 16, 2010)

Glad I could help.

The answer you got from Godin surprises me a bit though... I'll check on their guitars the next time I go by a music store, just to see if all the frets are flat...


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

you know, ive got 2 a and l amis, and i babysit a norman b20- all had the square tops on the frets. i looked at a bunch of new godins at a store to confirm, and they had it too- like the fret is dressed, but they use a flatter top-
in any case, the $75 i spent on a fret crowning file years ago was money really really well spent- before that i used the method alain points out- and ive also used the triangular type files- so time consuming to get nice results. a good crowning file is dead easy, and fast!


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