In the late 90s, I started to get a lot more gigs that required lots more travel. Dealing with a large and expensive arch top on multiple flights was… not fun. I was never a big solid body guy (talking guitars, not physique here), but I started looking around for an instrument that played great, had a wide tonal palette, looked cool, and (#1 for me) would fit into an overhead bin on a plane.
That January, a bunch of us went to the NAMM show in Anaheim. I stopped by the Godin booth and saw this LGX model. Blew me away! In addition to the 2 pickup setup, there’s a piezo (with a separate output jack!) AND a MIDI output. I was still into the MIDI guitar world at the time, and this instrument seemed like a perfect fit for me. I met the rep, sent him my info and CV, and we worked out a relationship where I got to specify the type of pickups and the custom koa top (really beautiful!)
I set it up like a jazz guitar…round- or flat wounds, .012″ on top. My wife gave me an amazing Levy gig bag. (Funny story…I was teaching at a workshop in Shanghai, playing with saxophonist Dave Liebman. He looked at the gig bag and said “Mike, that’s the most beautiful gig back I have EVER seen!” (Dave is not always so…eloquent.) 🙂 Anyway, the point is, every place I went, players (and not just guitarists) were commenting on how full and round it sounded. And, with the new gig bag, NO AIRLINE GRIEF!! I still use this axe a lot when traveling, especially nowadays.
