Archtop Guitar
Archtop Guitar
Archtop guitar was basically the choice of professional players in the first half of the XX century. Right now only jazz style is requiring that special
tool. That unique, fat, midrange tone with lots of vibe comes directly from arched top of that classic instrument which is a class in itself. Did you ever play one yourself? You definitely owe it to yourself to try one. But be careful, you might be hooked. And no, I'm not joking here.
Thou shall not fret over frets..
First archtop guitar appeared toward the end of XIX century thanks to Gibson founder, Orville Gibson. He didn't have any idea about violin or cello construction but apparently liked the look of arched top on classical string instruments. He also started to increase the size of his guitars, L-5 model (1922) has 17" body and Super 400 (1934) is 18" wide at the lower bout of the body. Super 400 was $400 creation. Thanks to new design and bigger size, guitar was successfully competing with banjo and by the end of 1930s practically dominated bandstand of jazz and dance orchestras.
Other manufacturers and luthiers followed suite with their own models of archtops - Gretsch, Epiphone, Guild, Kay, Harmony, and my favourite - John D'Angelico from New York, who is the most renowned carved-top guitar maker.
All archtop guitars built before invention of pickup and developing guitar amplifiers were carved from solid spruce (top of the guitar). Gibson started to manufacture pressed arch plywood (laminated) top guitars with introduction of the most popular model ES-175 in 1949.
Collectors still searching for desirable models of solid top guitars, such as Gibson L-5 and Super 400, Stromberg Deluxe, Epiphone Emperor, D'Angelico New Yorker.
I think it's time to deconstruct..
Top of the high end archtop is.. well.. arched by carving solid spruce (in most cases) and strings attached to the tailpiece in the manner of cello or violin. As the result, top vibrates from downward pressure of strings on the top through the bridge. That makes it sound totally different from flat top guitars where strings attached to the bridge via pins. That arrangement also requires different type of bracing inside of the guitar - most archtops have parallel bracing vs. X-bracing on majority of flat tops.
Back of the guitar is also arched and carved from solid woods on most expensive ones. Maple is the choice here.
Surprisingly, even laminated top variety sounds good acoustically, without amplification. Strum a couple chords on old Gibson ES-125 and hear that for yourself. Did you try Samick LaSalle or Ibanez Artcore? Both of them have plywood top and, at the same time, sound decent unplugged.
Dressed up and ready to work..
Fine archtop guitars usually feature floating pickup, attached to the pick-guard or to the end of the neck, to allow the top of the guitar to vibrate freely and thus to preserve the natural tone of the soundboard. On the lower end models, pick-ups mounted directly to the top of the guitar by means of cutting it, sacrificing the quality of the tone. Classic examples of floating pickups are DeArmond and Johnny Smith models.
Most famous contemporary makers of archtop guitars are James D'Aquisto (apprentice of John D'Angelico) and Robert Benedetto. The most custom archtops, that I see lately, are from Bill Collings, John Monteleone, Steven Andersen, Linda Manzer, and Mark Campellone. Gibson's only current production model of carved archtop is Custom L-7C.
Expect to pay tens of thousands of dollars for carved models of the top makers, or you can find used production model for couple thousands. Models from the first half of the XX century made by Kay, Vega, Harmony cost less than that but practically unplayable now.
Players and their axes
Frank Gambale - Yamaha AES1500
Freddie Green - Stromberg, Gretsch Synchromatic 400Jim Hall - D'Aquist
Steve Miller - D'Aquisto
Archtop luthiers and manufacturers
Mark Blanchard - Hybrid (16 & 17-inch models)
Historic archtop guitar makers
John D'Angelico - world's greatest guitar builder.
James D'Aquisto - 1935-95, apprentice of John D'Angelico.Epiphone - founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulo and later joined by his son Epaminodas (Epi), bought by Gibson in late 50s.
Harmony - Chicago, the Cremona series archtops were top of the line instruments.
Kay - Chicago
Regal - Chicago
Rodier Brothers - Kansas City. The Rodier Artist A-500 was $500 retail priced in 1940.S.S. Srewart - this brand goes back to Samuel Swaim Stewart (1855-1898), Philadelphia.
Stromberg - Charles and Elmer Stromberg from Boston.Willi Wilkanowski - NY, Brooklyn' violin maker, made about 30 archtop guitars in 1937-1941. Johnny Cash used to have one of those.
About this time of night, I like to buy OGOGO archtop..
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