Godin’s Custom Microtonal Double-Neck: Inside Angine de Poitrine’s Viral Live Gear

The music world is still reeling from the explosive rise of Angine de Poitrine. Since their KEXP session sent shockwaves through the underground music scene, the masked Québécois math-rock duo has captured the internet’s imagination with dense, angular time signatures, cryptic time-traveling lore, and a striking aesthetic.

But for gearheads, the real obsession isn’t the papier-mâché masks; it’s the otherworldly instrument slung over the shoulder of guitarist/bassist Khn.

As seen in their recemt live performances, Khn has debuted a pristine, highly optimized iteration of their iconic double-neck instrument, custom-built by the legendary Godin Guitars.

Here is the exclusive breakdown of how this custom guitar came to be, its technical upgrades, and how it is shaping the modern microtonal movement.

From Basement Prototype to World Tour Ready

Angine de Poitrine’s signature sound relies on an aggressive departure from traditional Western music scales. Originally, Khn performed using a heavy, homemade double-neck prototype modified with a saw in a Saguenay basement by drummer Klek and local luthier Raphaël Le Breton.

Godin Guitars

However, with the duo’s massive 2026 international tour selling out venues from Europe to New York in minutes, the band desperately needed a reliable, road-ready backup instrument. Because Le Breton was tied up with prior commitments, Quebec’s own Godin Guitars stepped up to manufacture a high-tier, specialized custom touring unit.

Custom Build

While built strictly as a private instrument for Khn rather than a commercial signature model, the Godin build introduces massive structural and electronic refinements over the band’s original rough-around-the-edges prototype.

Technical Specifications: The Godin Custom Build

1. 24-Quarter-Tone Microtonal Fretting

The core of the instrument is its custom fretwork. The upper neck features a standard 6-string electric guitar configuration, while the lower neck operates as a 4-string bass. Both fingerboards are meticulously fretted to split the traditional 12-tone octave into 24 quarter-tones, enabling Khn to hit the dizzying, microtonal intervals that give the duo their signature alien harmonic tension.

2. Major Ergonomic and Weight Reductions

The original basement-built prototype was notoriously heavy, causing severe physical strain during the band’s frantic, high-energy live-looping sets. Godin engineered this custom model to maximize chambering and weight distribution, dramatically reducing the load on Khn’s shoulders without sacrificing the sustain required for their crushing math-rock riffs.

3. Redesigned Output Route and Controls

• Dual Bottom Outputs: Unlike the original prototype—which awkwardly placed a guitar output jack right on the face of the body—Godin relocated two dedicated output jacks cleanly to the bottom edge.

• Independent Passive Routing: The electronics are fully passive and completely independent. The top guitar neck and bottom bass neck split into separate signal paths, historically routing to a Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120 and a Hartke HA2500 amplifier stack respectively.

• The “3” Dice Knobs: To maintain the band’s Dadaist, polka-dotted aesthetic, the instrument features matching black-and-white graphics. Godin also paid homage to the original build’s dice knobs, swapping out the previous “69” dice for custom ones displaying “3”s.

Fueling a Global Microtonal Revival

Godin’s engineering mastery has solidified Angine de Poitrine’s live presence, but the ripples of this guitar’s design are being felt across the entire instrument industry.

The mania surrounding Khn’s double-neck configuration reached such a fever pitch that in May 2026, Eastwood Guitars launched a highly successful crowdfunding campaign for their own “Microtonal Doubleneck 4/6” commercial tribute model. Pulling direct inspiration from Angine de Poitrine’s layout, Eastwood’s release aims to bring the frantic world of quarter-tone math rock to everyday players.

Whether through boutique factory builds or DIY replicas, the polka-dotted revolution sparked by two “random dudes” from Saguenay is officially rewriting the rules of modern guitar playing.

If you want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes for DIY gear enthusiasts inspired by the band, check out this video demonstration of a luthier building a DIY microtonal hybrid Inspired by Angine de Poitrine’s Custom Rig, which highlights the meticulous fret-mapping required to achieve the duo’s signature quarter-tone sound.