'm Looking to buy an electric Archtop guitar. Any recommenda

djangoisgod

'm Looking to buy an electric Archtop guitar. Any recommendations? Or should I buy a pickup for my gypsy guitar( and which one)?.

andre

What do you want to do with it? Are you looking for versatility? Or excellence on 1 or 2 styles?
Is it for gigging or mainly home practice? Do you have an amp? Which one?...
You need to tell us a bit more, mate!
PS Important; Do you use right hand gypsy picking mainly, with a fat pick? Standard style/pick? Fingerstyle?

JSanta

There is a lot of additional information that we'll need to give you proper feedback, especially budget. That being said, my main guitar is an Eastman AR610CE and it's just a fantastic guitar. Many Eastman's can be had on the used market for $1200 and below. Great value for the money. My teacher plays a Thorell and he was very impressed with my inexpensive Eastman.

slowlearner

For the money I don't think you can go wrong with Eastman. I have one and the build quality is amazing for the price. The ebony fingerboard and polished frets are slicker than cow slober on a frozen doorknob. The models you might consider are the 804 and 805. They have a Selmer-like squared off cutaway and typically have a floating pickup at the end of the fretboard. The 804 is an oval hole model and the 805 is the f-hole. Both feature figured maple sides and back. Ebay usually has a fair selection.

Duozona

I also love the Eastmans, but was lured into Peerless after doing research, playing a few, and stumbling across a crazy eBay deal about two years ago on a now discontinued model. They come up on eBay, mostly form one of two dealers, Doc Dosco in LA area and a guitar store in New Jersey. The Peerless factory is in Korea and has made guitars for decades for lots of the more known name labels.They are bullt well, play and sound great, and start around $1200, get nice around $1800, and start getting really nice around the Cremona model. Do some homework on the relative pro-con of laminate, solid top, carved body, might be suprised what opinions are whether you will amplify or use acoustic.

The Ibanez Artcore and Epi Joe Pass models are popular forays in archtop, but IMHO dont have much acoustic tone, which for me is a must, I have to love it unplugged to even want to plug it in.

-Chuck

JSanta

Duozona wrote:

I also love the Eastmans, but was lured into Peerless after doing research, playing a few, and stumbling across a crazy eBay deal about two years ago on a now discontinued model. They come up on eBay, mostly form one of two dealers, Doc Dosco in LA area and a guitar store in New Jersey. The Peerless factory is in Korea and has made guitars for decades for lots of the more known name labels.They are bullt well, play and sound great, and start around $1200, get nice around $1800, and start getting really nice around the Cremona model. Do some homework on the relative pro-con of laminate, solid top, carved body, might be suprised what opinions are whether you will amplify or use acoustic.

The Ibanez Artcore and Epi Joe Pass models are popular forays in archtop, but IMHO dont have much acoustic tone, which for me is a must, I have to love it unplugged to even want to plug it in.

-Chuck

I echo this as well. I had an Ibanez AF105FNT Custom, and while it played nicely, there was very little acoustic tone, especially compared to my Eastman. Peerless is making some fantastic archtops. The Martin Taylor model that I've played was superb in every way.

JSanta

Double post, sorry

Bones

Amplified acoustic archtops (or any acoustic) are prone to feedback. If you don't want to play at high volume its ok but if you are in a full band with piano, drums, horns, etc. playing in a loud venue (like a bar) you may have trouble getting enough volume without feedback and your single note lines will be hard to hear.

What volume levels are you looking for with the amplification? Maybe a semi-hollow would work best if you are looking for more volume (than you can get out of a GJ guitar with a mic or pickup). Once you put a pickup on it, a lot of the tone is coming from the pickup and the amp anyway so the semi-hollow is not a bad compromise.

djangoisgod

I play primarily jazz and my jazz designated amp is a nice solid state gibson from 1969. I was looking at the Epiphone emperor regent? es 175? Or the Eimers Gypsy Jazz electric? What is your electric rig and why do you like it?

djangoisgod

I use a Wegen Gypsy jazz mainly.

JSanta

djangoisgod wrote:

I play primarily jazz and my jazz designated amp is a nice solid state gibson from 1969. I was looking at the Epiphone emperor regent? es 175? Or the Eimers Gypsy Jazz electric? What is your electric rig and why do you like it?

The Eimers is a very expensive instrument, especially compared to the Epiphone, heck, even the Gibson.

What kind of budget are you shooting for?