Best archtops?

Bones

Ha, believe it or not, I've been in 2 'acoustic' bands that had the cops called to house parties that we were playing at. Too funny. The cops showed up and said something like 'hey, that sounds pretty good!'

PS- remember that one time Scoredog??? :-)

PPS- at the other one the lead player started playing an acoustic version of some 60s rock protest anthem type thing (I can't remember which one). Those GJ'ers are so RADICAL!

bopster

I got the Epiphone Masterbilt Century Zenith Classic, 16” archtop, and for $650 (including shipping), I am satisfied with it for Eddie Lang, Freddie Green and Charlie Christian stuff. It has a built in mic/pickup that does not sound like a piezo. If anyone is interested, I can post sound samples:

I’m backing up folks in this video:

DeuxDoigts_Tonnerre

I have an Eastman AR810CE-SB Uptown Archtop. Wonderful guitar for the price. Sounds great acoustically, though not as loud as my gypsy jazz guitars, but very nice tone. Has built-in floating pickup and it works really well for rhythm and lead when I do rock and blues covers when I perform solo with backing tracks. I tried a few of the less expensive archtops at the big box store, and none of them came close to matching the tone or feel of my Eastman.

Lango-Django

Bopster, that guitar sounds great for rhythm.

If you have any tracks of it playing lead, I'd love to hear 'em...

Will

bopster

@Lango-Django - this is the guitar on the lead.

Lango-Django

Bopster, thanks for posting, that is a very sweet sounding guitar!

True, the entire world may be going to hell in many ways, but OTOH it is truly amazing that one can buy a beautiful looking archtop for $650 which sounds like that!

The next question for me is, what strings do you use?

bopster

Not quite Eddie Lang gauge strings, but a little heavier than our GJ needs.

Lango-Django

Thirteens... yow. Oh, yes, I remember them well.

But I've come to really love those tens and elevens...

ronzo4600

The next question for me is, what strings do you use?

Try the Martin Retro, custom light monel. Available in 10's and 11's for the archtop. I use them on the Dupont and Gibson and they're more than adequate for GJ and aren't nearly as fatiguing as 13s, 14's or 15's.

Russell Letson

Light-gauge strings--especially sets with a .010 or .011 high E--might be easier on the hands*, but they're not going to serve the sound of an archtop well. I've put lightish Monels or other pickup-friendly sets on my Eastman and gotten decent electric sound, but for the guitar to speak in its best voice acoustically, I use mediums--.056-.013. (Though I sometimes drop a gauge on the high E and B, because as a rhythm player I don't depend on those all that much.)

One of the most annoying things about test-playing acoustic archtops in shops is that they're often strung too lightly (and sometimes with flatwounds) and as a result sound anemic.

* And on a really well-set-up archtop, the heavier strings aren't all that much harder to play, though you're not going to get the bends you do on a light-strung Selmer-style. Of course, hands vary, and mine, so far, still can manage mediums.