I love Arch tops

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Permalink Reply by James P. Royle on December 9, 2008 at 8:40am

I love them. I like the way they look, sound and feel. I know very little about the history of the archtop, but I'm researching now. I'm thinking of going to a lutherie seminar/school and learning about how they are built, as well as building one myself. I just bought one also, so anything that you know about archtops and are willing to share would be appreciated! Actually I'm getting two, a Heritage 16 and a DeCava Stratford. The last thing I needed, but I'll have two to study and play, so I'm hoping that it will be worth it. Take care, Jim

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Permalink Reply by Richard Autenzio on December 9, 2008 at 4:43pm

Jeff "Omaha" Miller said:

I'm getting more and more interested in archtops these days myself.

I've been kicking around the idea of either a Godin Fifth Avenue or an Epiphone Emperor Regent. Right now I'm leaning to the Godin, but I'm not in any hurry, so we'll see.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Autenzio on December 9, 2008 at 5:02pm

Hi Jeff,

I don't have Godin 5th avenue but I did almost buy one of the newer ones. The Kingpin with P90 style pick up. Even though I am mostly intrested in the acoustic sound of archtops I do prefer to buy them with factory fitted picks. I did not buy a Godin because Some one told me that they had a post block so I held off until I could clear all that up. I have some archtops with post blocks and it does change the sound. I think my Asian Loar and Hagstrom have blocks in them.
I do hawever have a couple of Korean Epi Emperor Regents. I think that they are one of the greatest archtops I have owned for the price they sell for. Why? because they are a full 17" body with a full 25 1/2" scale and acoustically it sound like the traditional old boxes. Now if you area musicain which I am not and you are buying a guitar to gig with and you are going to plug in most of the time then the acoustics may not count for much as you will be more intrested in the plugged in sound. Sory I don't have a Godin as I could then have given you a better comparison. I have many other smaller Archtops like the Ibanez etc etc etc but no godin. Good Luck..............Richard

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Permalink Reply by Richard Autenzio on December 9, 2008 at 5:04pm

James P. Royle said:

I love them. I like the way they look, sound and feel. I know very little about the history of the archtop, but I'm researching now. I'm thinking of going to a lutherie seminar/school and learning about how they are built, as well as building one myself. I just bought one also, so anything that you know about archtops and are willing to share would be appreciated! Actually I'm getting two, a Heritage 16 and a DeCava Stratford. The last thing I needed, but I'll have two to study and play, so I'm hoping that it will be worth it. Take care, Jim

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Permalink Reply by Richard Autenzio on December 9, 2008 at 5:19pm

Hi Jim,
Archtop guitars are just wonderful pieces of work and if you really are in love with them as you say then you can contact me direct at richard@showbizsound.com until my new site is up and running. I think the first thing you have to consider with modern archtops is: Do you want an acoustic sound or a plugged in sound. If you are going to play it un plugged then you will want a sound that is pleasing that way. The most inportant and interesting thing about the history of archtops is why they were intoduced and how the size of these boxed has changed over the years, and why?
Good luck Jim.

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Permalink Reply by tejastani on December 10, 2008 at 3:22am

I had several old archtops pass through my hands when I was younger and dumber and thought that they were cool curiosities, but not my thing. When I was 16, a music store owner gave me a blond Epiphone Triumph Regent to "repair." It had several top cracks and shrunken binding. I realized I was in over my head and gave it back. When I was 20 or so, my landlord had a black flat-backed Gibson archtop with a vee neck (which was loose, BTW). It was quite old and beat up and had been taken as back rent from one of the other tenants. I couldn't fix it, so I gave it back. The most recent was a small-bodied May Bell I got for 25 bucks from a rural gas station owner. The back had come loose under the tension of heavy strings, which put pressure on the fingerboard extension and bowed it up like ski jump. After a couple of unsatisfactory repair attempts (planing the board, etc.) I let it go. Oh-- I also had an ES-125 with a melted finish in high school. I sold it 'cause it fed back too much through my 2-12 Bassman. Until my ship comes in, I 'll have to be content with my import Wechter Pathmaker. Strung with TI flatwounds, its Artec single-coil pickup does a passable sonic impression of a jazz box.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Autenzio on December 10, 2008 at 5:21am

Guitar are all different no matter what style they are. Sometimes you find a guitar which surprises you. I am an archtop lover but the guitar I use the most at the moment is a flat top. Now, that is a suprise? Has any of you guitar lovers tried a Epiphone performer. Well what an interesting guitar. It sound more jazzier than a lot of archtops that I have that don't respond because many of them now are built just to plug in. This little Epi has a magnetic pick up fitted as well as the under saddle acoustic pick up and it is a very sweet little guitar when fitted with Gibson light L5 strings. It comes with bronze strings. I don't know why because magnatic pickups work better with nickel or silver strings. Plugged in it sound very nice to me with the magnetic pick up and has a sound half way between an arch top and a flat top. Now, for all you archtop lovers, D'Aquisto in his latter years tried very hard to make an arch top a more flexiable instrument and thus the Centura acoustics and Solo's have a sound half way between an arch top and a flat top.
If any of you old farts like me remember the old John Lennon flat top with the magnetic pick up, well, it the same thing it used nickel or silver strings.
Anyway, not being a snob about guitars I'll leave you all with that bit of info to think about.

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Permalink Reply by James P. Royle on December 10, 2008 at 6:46am

Richard Autenzio said:

Guitar are all different no matter what style they are. Sometimes you find a guitar which surprises you. I am an archtop lover but the guitar I use the most at the moment is a flat top. Now, that is a suprise? Has any of you guitar lovers tried a Epiphone performer. Well what an interesting guitar. It sound more jazzier than a lot of archtops that I have that don't respond because many of them now are built just to plug in. This little Epi has a magnetic pick up fitted as well as the under saddle acoustic pick up and it is a very sweet little guitar when fitted with Gibson light L5 strings. It comes with bronze strings. I don't know why because magnatic pickups work better with nickel or silver strings. Plugged in it sound very nice to me with the magnetic pick up and has a sound half way between an arch top and a flat top. Now, for all you archtop lovers, D'Aquisto in his latter years tried very hard to make an arch top a more flexiable instrument and thus the Centura acoustics and Solo's have a sound half way between an arch top and a flat top.
If any of you old farts like me remember the old John Lennon flat top with the magnetic pick up, well, it the same thing it used nickel or silver strings.
Anyway, not being a snob about guitars I'll leave you all with that bit of info to think about.

Hi Richard, The Decava I'm getting has no pickup and the Heritage has a floating neck pickup. I'll get back to you about the sound of each. Check out the DeCava website! I can't believe that I'm getting this guitar. It's way beyond me but I got a tremendous deal on it. The heritage Sweet Sixteen, is, what it is! I shouldn't have that guitar either, but I love the story of the workers not leaving Kalamazoo and making a go of it. I try and support people with courage, like that and they are true artisans. Just my opinion. I will check out the contact info you gave me. Thanks, Jim

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Permalink Reply by tejastani on January 10, 2009 at 6:58am

The flatwound strings I have on my Wechter flat-top sound great on Beatles songs-- plugged in or unplugged. There was a jazz guitarist (Hungarian, I think) named Gabor Szabo who played a flat-top with a sound-hole pickup.

Richard Autenzio said:

Guitar are all different no matter what style they are. Sometimes you find a guitar which surprises you. I am an archtop lover but the guitar I use the most at the moment is a flat top. Now, that is a suprise? Has any of you guitar lovers tried a Epiphone performer. Well what an interesting guitar. It sound more jazzier than a lot of archtops that I have that don't respond because many of them now are built just to plug in. This little Epi has a magnetic pick up fitted as well as the under saddle acoustic pick up and it is a very sweet little guitar when fitted with Gibson light L5 strings. It comes with bronze strings. I don't know why because magnatic pickups work better with nickel or silver strings. Plugged in it sound very nice to me with the magnetic pick up and has a sound half way between an arch top and a flat top. Now, for all you archtop lovers, D'Aquisto in his latter years tried very hard to make an arch top a more flexiable instrument and thus the Centura acoustics and Solo's have a sound half way between an arch top and a flat top.
If any of you old farts like me remember the old John Lennon flat top with the magnetic pick up, well, it the same thing it used nickel or silver strings.
Anyway, not being a snob about guitars I'll leave you all with that bit of info to think about.

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Permalink Reply by John J. Cebula on January 24, 2009 at 10:38am

Richard,

Are you mostly interested in "pure" acoustic archtops, or the electric versions? If you haven't discovered it by now, there's a Yahoo jazz guitar group you might be interested in joining.

Forty years ago (!) someone gave my dad an archtop found in an attic. I don't even know what make it was. The back was cracked, and the finish was some variation of sunburst. I stripped and sanded the body; then stained it and varnished it. I painted the neck and fretboard with black enamel. I must have bought a new bridge for it, because a few years ago I found the original bridge in one of my dad's tool boxes.

Of course, the strings were almost 3/4 inch at the 12th fret, so I could only play open chords in the first position. I don't what became of the guitar, but now that I know a thing or two, I'd love to be able to redo it all.

I associate archtops so closely with jazz that I'm always a little surprised when I see photos, especially pre-1950s, of folks musicians, etc., using archtops. I think their great guitars, in any case.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Ruxton on January 24, 2009 at 4:29pm

I love archtops, too. You can find very cool and affordable USA-made (1976 and earlier) Harmony acoustic and electric archtops on eBay and in used instrument stores, although many have rather high action, even with the adjustable bridges set all the way down. The better-grade models are all with solid woods, and the top-of the line Harmony Cremonas (which were also sold under different brand names) have carved, not pressed, tops! I have a '52 Cremona, beat-up cosmetically, but very playable, and a late-1930s "Crest" by Harmony - essentially a Cremona marketed through Wards or Sears or some other catalog house, and both sound and play great. They're loud, balanced, and the high notes ring sweetly, unlike most more modern laminated archtops which are thin and tinny on the high E string as you get around the 10th fret or higher.

The better-grade USA-made (1968 and earlier) Kay archtops are also pretty cool and affordable, especially the 17" models, but many of these also suffer from high action. These were also sold under many different store-brand and distributor names.

Another good used electric if you can find one, are the older (early-to-mid-1990s) Washburn J-6 models. I played with one of these in a large swing band, and it had the all sound and playability of the much more expensive Gibson L-5CES which it copies. A player who owned a '70s L-5CES tried mine, and said he liked the feel of the neck of my Washburn better than his own Gibson!. The recent Japanese-made higher-end Gretsch Eldorados are also excellent solid carved top instruments with very comfortable necks and relatively affordable. The lower-priced current Gretsch Eldorado models are laminated and made in Korea, and I haven't tried those. Personally, I'm not fond of the current Epiphone archtops, and I see a lot of them in used instrument stores, suggesting that players want to get rid of them.

Flatwound strings should definitely be used on an electric archtop, but for an acoustic archtop, I find that D'Addario Flat-tops really bring the best out for acoustic archtop tone and projection. These are round-wound strings that are ground almost flat on special centerless grinding machines. You usually won't find them in most music stores, but you can get them with quick delivery from juststrings.com.

Have Fun, and Keep on Pickin',

Bill

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Permalink Reply by Richard Autenzio on January 24, 2009 at 4:34pm

John J. Cebula said:

Richard,

Are you mostly interested in "pure" acoustic archtops, or the electric versions? If you haven't discovered it by now, there's a Yahoo jazz guitar group you might be interested in joining.

Forty years ago (!) someone gave my dad an archtop found in an attic. I don't even know what make it was. The back was cracked, and the finish was some variation of sunburst. I stripped and sanded the body; then stained it and varnished it. I painted the neck and fretboard with black enamel. I must have bought a new bridge for it, because a few years ago I found the original bridge in one of my dad's tool boxes.

Of course, the strings were almost 3/4 inch at the 12th fret, so I could only play open chords in the first position. I don't what became of the guitar, but now that I know a thing or two, I'd love to be able to redo it all.

I associate archtops so closely with jazz that I'm always a little surprised when I see photos, especially pre-1950s, of folks musicians, etc., using archtops. I think their great guitars, in any case.

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