Fun Question Of The Month--March

MikeK · 6:56AM

Last night on a gig with master guitarist Marc Lingle (who I met through this forum), I had the opportunity to try out his Gibson Tal Farlow archtop. I found it to be a superb sounding & playing instrument. The experience made me think about all of the cool archtops out there, so my question is this:

What's the coolest archtop you've ever played? It doesn't have to be one that you owned. Please limit your responses to 2. I'll start with mine:

1) my friend's old 80's Epiphone Joe Pass. It had that cool red sunburst finish. He sold it to me and I replaced the neck pickup with a '57 Gibson humbucker. Like a fool, I sold it back to him a few years ago, and I sometimes regret having let it go.

2) Marc's Gibson Tal Farlow.

voutoreenie · 9:03AM

All of the $25k+ "real" Benedetto's I got to try way back in the day while attending a mid-2000s NAMM show, were all so good I don't even know how to describe them...also ended up meeting Cindy Benedetto, she was super rad and liked my playing so much that she sent me a bunch of cool swag (picks, strings, super nice Benedetto leather strap, Bendetto polish/rags, etc.)
Gibson Johnny Smith from the 70s - customer brought traded it for some crazy expensive custome Taylor we had in stock (Ikr??), was the dreamiest archtop I've ever heard through an amp, just gorgeous butter tone that played like a true piece of the cross...really wish I could have afforded it but even with my discount was still way out of reach

Sorry for kinda breaking your rule but I'll also say every carved Epiphone I've played from the late 40s into early 50s would all easily qualify as runners up and are still a deal in the vintage archtop world (don't get the electric "zephyr" series tho, which are laminated back/sides; unlike Selmacs, everything carved is the standard for any high quality acoustic archtop, especially old Epis).

BillDaCostaWilliams · 9:45AM

A second hand Guild Artist Award that they let me play in a guitar shop when passing through Berlin one time.

Everything I played sounded so good on that instrument - felt like I was high-level musician that afternoon.

paulmcevoy75 · 10:21AM

To be honest I mostly don't get archtops. I'm never sure if they're supposed to sound good acoustically or not. If not, then what's the point? But then, acoustically, I think Selmers or flat tops sound better. Just my stupid opinion.

I did get a chance to play Matt Munisteiri's L5 for 2 hours once and that is a beautiful guitar in every way.

I spent an afternoon once playing many of the Blue Guitars collection. Oddly, I didn't really love the Jimmy D'Aquisto there even though there's a lot of things that inspire me. If I remember correctly, I really liked the Gibson and the Collings in the collection more than any of them.

oh and a runner up, a friend in town here has a Gibson Howards Roberts and that does sound really good through an amp...it was very fun to play. And I have a french archtop I got in a trade, a Guidon, and I love it.

I dunno though, I think perhaps the most likeable thing about electric archtops is that they aren't great acoustically and don't have a lot of sustain, so they get a nice percussive sound with a pickup. Might be heresy.

bbwood_98 · 12:18PM

Benedettos from the Bob makes guitars era pretty much amazing guitars all around.
D'aquisto and a Monteleone at Rudy's Music (somehow I got permission to check a few more wild things out!).
A really brilliant though very archtop sounding older Gibson L50 owned by Adam Perlmutter (he bought this in college from David Sheppard guitars unless I am very mistaken).

There have been others (Justin Lee's Comins archtop that he's had for years is pretty damn nice both acoustic and electric) (Buscarino nylon I got to try a few times in the post college years were pretty amazing archtop yet nylon guitars) (Mary Halverson's two guitars- the Guild Artist award and the Scipio are both beasts and somehow sound amazing electric - could be the dearmond 1100 pickup) . I am a pretty big fan of the mid punch intensity of the acoustic archtop. Sometimes they even sound good as electric guitars too.

Ps. @scot very fond memories of Greensboro and gypsy guitars and HCNC!