Selmac or Archtop?

Stringswinger

I play both archtops (I have four hollow body archtops) and selmaccs (I have three). They are different animals. If I could only have one it would be an archtop. Better sounding guitar for a variety of music. I'm lucky to have a choice of both.

Gitanes and Eastman's are very good for the money. That said, I've never played a Gitane that held a candle to my Dupont or played an Eastman that held a candle to my L-5.

A great guitar inspired you to play better. Save your $ and get a guitar that inspires. And keep saving and have a Selmacc and an archtop.

BTW, I played a Selmacc at our set at Djangofest SF last week. At Djangofest NW I plan on playing an archtop at our set there. Come see the show!

Cheers,

Marc


www.hotclubpacific.com

klaatu

Hi Nick -

Yes, big time fan of The Day the Earth Stood Still, glad you picked up on that. I've got it on DVD - one of those movies that really stand up well to repeated viewings. Although right now the Birelli Vienne DVD is getting a lot of playing time. At least Klaatu doesn't make me want to take up knitting or something.

Too bad the Eastmans didn't impress. To each his own, I guess. Individual instruments can vary a lot, as you would well know. I've heard of people who have played half a dozen seemingly identical Eastmans in a shop and finding one that clearly stood out.

Mine works for what I'm trying to do with it. It has a lovely sound on lead and an impressive bark on rhythm playing, and it just seems to improve on almost a monthly basis. Just wish I could find a solution to using bronze strings with the floating pickup, other than total pickup replacement. I'm reluctant to experiment, given the cost. I've already sunk some money into a Pickup the World archtop pickup and have not been overly impressed with it, although many people rave about them. Again, it's all in what you are looking for.

Someday a Selmac!

Klaatu barada nikto ...

klaatu

Hard to see what make of archtops those are in the video. The headstock is never seen clearly enough, given the constant camera movement and the resolution. It looks like the name might start with a "C" or "G." Not a Guild.

It appears to be a single pickup ES-175 clone. Definitely not a solid top, as the pickup is clearly mounted to the surface and probably routed into the top.

Anyone know the name of the tune?

nwilkins

It is Paulus Schafer and his group playing Joseph Joseph. He is playing some kind of relatively cheap electric archtop.

dennis

MinorBlues wrote:

Check out this clip of gj being played on an archtop. Sounds real good...anyone know what guitar that is...or who's playing it for that matter?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4u4zxGlEDc8& ... ypsy%20duo

those are cheap noname guitars built in japan... they have that only becauyse they dont have the money to buy selmacs... (they spend their dough on luxury cars)

MinorBlues

Well there you go. You don't need a $4,000.00 guitar to sound good afterall

klaatu

Boy, you said it. Someone once told Chet Atkins his guitar sounded great. He put it down and said, "How's it sound now?"

I think I've ID'd the guitars in the video. They appear to be Crafter LA-500/N model (see picture below). Crafter is a Korean company that seems to have a pretty big presence in Europe. I tried a couple of their acoustics a while back and they were not too bad as low-cost Asian factory-built guitars go. Same league as Yamaha.

wolftone

I play a Yamaha AEX1500, this is a made in Japan plywood box with a piezo pup that you can mix in with the single floating humbucker. On its own this is not a very acoustic guitar, and the piezo by itself sounds really harsh. Mixed, it gives the overall sound some sparkle. The other day I swapped out the stock humbucker for a Bartolini and am about to replace the tone pot with an EMG EMX (scoops out the mid-range). This should make a good rhythm guitar out of it. The Yammies are about 800.00 on ebay lately. Nice comfy axe, not too large.

Campusfive

Re: Eastmans

Someone said they'd never heard an Eastman hold a candle to their L-5. I suspect that you have a 60 to 80 year old guitar that is well taken care of and set up well. Also, it might be parallel braced. You are comparing it to a brand new guitar - that is clearly not a fair fight.

Now I have played dozens of golden age archtops and many of them sound like crap. They have not been taken care of, are beat and dead sounding. My Eastman 805 non-cut sounds better and louder than almost every vintage archtop I've played. The only exceptions are John Collins' 50's D'A Excel and this beautiful 40's Epi Deluxe I've played. However, my other Eastman, an 810CE ie cutaway, was still significantly louder than the non-cut Deluxe.

So you've got a guitar that sells for $8000-$12000 (or maybe even $20k if its a 20's 16") and in your case rightfully so. It clearly seems like you have the pick of the litter of a very rare breed. It's really not a fair fight to compare the two. Don't dump on something because you have a really nice guitar.

I can say that my Eastman is definite better sounding than any archtop I've seen sub $6k. Oh yeah, and the street price is around $1500-1600. That's a no brainer for me. Oh, and I don't have $6k.