Archtop Info

[hudgemonster]

I am a newbie to Jazz Guitar, and also happen to live in the middle of nowhere, ie. little chance to try out different guitars except by mail order.
I am looking for recommendations about a guitar to be used primarily acoustically. Have any of you experience with Bourgeois archtops, Gibson Custom Shop L 7, or Andersen Streamline? Volume, tone, playability, etc. Any other recommendations for a good, but not ridiculously expensive archtop?

Thank you,

Bobby

[hudgemonster]

Okay, Herr Professor. Does that mean that you have no experience with the L-7C, or that you choose to give me advice rather than let me know what you thought of the guitar in general? Namely, was the Greyhound ticket comment really necessary without knowing my situation?

Bobby

Expensive guitar owner:
Ryans, Collings, Alberico, Ramirez, Wingert

and

Wheelchair-bound
So, for me, paying shipping each way is often the best or only option..

[mahayana]

Hmmm....think I missed something here.

"Great acoustic archtops" sounds like a good topic.

I haven't played a lot of them. The one I have is an old Harmony, which does suffer from low volume and an unsophisticated fretboard.

Hope you guys can work out the bumps, it takes awhile to get to know people.

[mahayana]

Hudge, I have somewhat the same problem; the nearest "big city" (Abilene, pop.105,000) is 40 miles away and only has two guitar stores. Don't recall seeing any acoustic archtops in either of them, ever, but I'm going this morning and I'll ask about the models you mentioned. My experience is that individual guitars vary greatly, even the same model number from the same manufacturer can have superior examples and duds. A lot of the brand new ones sound bad until they are setup and intonated by a shop, and of course new strings take awhile to hold tune.

There is a Martin repair place here that I visited once; they got highly offended when I played one of the guitars they were proud of, pointed out that the upper register was incorrectly intonated. Not easy to design a fixed bridge that compensates for string size and action up at position 14 (not to pick on Martin).

[mahayana]

Well, I visited a large guitar store yesterday, and they confirmed that they never have stocked an acoustic archtop (they have plenty of electric ones). They suggested I check online, I did, there are plenty available.

Here's a link to Acoustic Guitar's discussion forum:

www.acousticguitar.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/018140.html

This discussion "Acoustic vs. electric archtops" has some interesting opinions about quite a few of the acoustic archtops out there.

[leonardaxelsson]

Hello, hudgemonster!

Check out www.eastmanguitars.com. I have an Ar810ce which kicks ass, both acoustically and amplified. It is the best archtop I ever played, Downbeat magazine wrote: "The Eastman can stand up against any archtop, regardless of price". And it only lists at 2500$.

You can here it out at www.underblueleaves.com. Take care!

Leonard

[mahayana]

This is the Harmony acoustic archtop I bought in pieces in a box for $40. This is after I reattached the neck and glued the top back on.

[mahayana]

The back is arched, too. Notice the god-awful greenish finish, the neck is poplar (I think)with maple fretboard. There was no bracing at all inside, the front and back are pressure-formed.

[mahayana]

And, clear-finished.

[Dgray]

A good friend of mine makes superb archtop jazz guitars, that can be played w/or without a pickup. His site is : www.leskornguitars.com

[Dgray]

Here's a more direct link for the acoustic :http://www.leskornguitars.com/evans-g.html

[RandyLloyd]

Hey fellas,

Better late than never - here are my 2c worth.

I am fortunate to own a 1937 Martin R-18. This is a 00-size acoustic archtop Martin made in a few variations from '32 to '42.

My dad bought it in 1946 after returning from S. Pacific. He died in'77, and I got this guitar.

Beautiful tone from the 68-yr old spruce top, mahogany back (flat), sides, neck, and rosewood fingerboard. Good volume (especially from a 00-size body) from the 4-3/4" thick body. After I did a complete neck and fret tune-up, it plays wonderfully with a nice low action. The neck is set at a substantial down angle providing pretty high string pressure on the rosewood bridge, helping with volume. The sustain is quite good as well. The finish is thin shellac (french polish, as on quality violins, cellos, etc.) which further enhances the bell-like tones from this fine old instrument.

There are a couple of these (2 months ago) in not such great condition on e-Bay, but if you are willing to put in the effort to restore, its a wonderful piece. They are not worth a lot for some reason, even though so few were made. The Blue Book puts value about $1700 in VG condition.

Warning: You'll have to have a custom case made if you get one, or use an oversize soft bag. With the string height line level to the table surface, the bridge and strings are at 6½" height - no standard cases made today are deep enough.

If anyone is interested, drop me a note and I'll send you a picture or two.

[jazzalta]

Kinda forgot about this thread. Hudgemonster, there are indeed handmade archtops that are relatively inexpensive. Eastman from China and Hofner from Germany make top quality guitars, totally handmade with solid tops and/or all solid wood. I have a Hofner New President and it stacks up well against a Gibson Wes Montgomery for example. I paid about 1/3 the price too. Look under "New Guitar" in this same category to see mine.