Archtop guitar
Encyclopedia
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
or semi-acoustic
Semi-acoustic guitar
A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of electric guitar with both a sound box and one or more electric pickups. This is not the same as an electric acoustic guitar, which is an acoustic guitar with the addition of pickups or other means of amplification, either added by the...
guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
players.
Typically, an archtop guitar has:
- 6 strings
- An arched top and back, not flat
- Moveable adjustable bridgeBridge (instrument)A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air.- Explanation :...
- F-holes similar to members of the violin family.
- HumbuckerHumbuckerA humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have higher output than a single coil pickup since both coils are connected in series...
pickups. - Rear mounted tailpieceTailpieceA tailpiece is a component on many stringed musical instruments that anchors one end of the strings, usually the end opposite the end with the tuning mechanism the scroll, headstock, peghead, etc.-Function and construction:...
, stoptail bridgeStoptail bridgeA stoptail bridge used on a solid body electric guitar or archtop guitar is a specialized kind of fixed hard-tail bridge...
or Bigsby tremelo - 14th-fret neck join
History
The archtop guitar is often credited to Orville GibsonOrville Gibson
Orville H. Gibson was a luthier who founded the Gibson Guitar Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1896, makers of guitars, mandolins and other instruments....
, whose innovative designs led to the formation of the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd in 1902. His 1898 patent for a mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, which was also applicable to guitars according to the specifications, was intended to enhance "power and quality of tone." Among the features of this instrument were a violin-style arched top and back, each carved from a single piece of wood, and thicker in the middle than at the sides; sides carved to shape from a single block of wood; and a lack of internal "braces, splices, blocks or bridges … which, if employed, would rob the instrument of much of its volume of tone." However, Gibson was not the first to apply violin design principles to the guitar. Guitar maker A. H. Merrill, for example, patented in 1896 a very modern looking instrument "of the guitar and mandolin type … with egg-shaped hoop or sides and a graduated convex back and top."The instrument featured a metal tailpiece and teardrop shaped "f-holes," and strongly resembled the archtop guitars of the 1930s. Another transitional design is the parlor guitar
Parlor guitar
Parlor or parlour guitar usually refers to a type of smaller-bodied guitar smaller than that of a concert guitar.The popularity of these guitars peaked between the late 19th century until the 1950s...
fitted with a floating bridge and tailpiece. These inexpensive instruments, manufactured by companies such as Stella
Stella (guitar)
Stella was a brand of guitars. The Stella brand was owned by the Oscar Schmidt Company and was founded around 1899. Stella produced low-mid level stringed instruments. Stella guitars were played by several notable artists including Leadbelly and Charlie Patton. Doc Watson began playing on a Stella...
and Harmony
Harmony Company
thumb|right|250px|A collection of Harmony guitars:SS Stewart gold acoustic, H73 [[Roy Smeck]], H37 Hollywood, Silvertone 1446, H44 StratotoneThe Harmony Company was an American company that, in its heyday, was the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the USA...
, are associated with early blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musicians. The earliest Gibson designs (L1 to L3) introduced the arched top, and increasing body sizes, but still had round or oval sound holes.
In 1922, Lloyd Loar
Lloyd Loar
Lloyd Allayre Loar was a Gibson sound engineer and master luthier in the early part of the 20th century. He is most famous for his F5 model mandolin, L5 guitar, H5 mandola, K5 mandocello, and A5 mandolin....
was hired by the Gibson Company to redesign their instrument line in an effort to counter flagging sales, and in that same year the Gibson L5
Gibson L5
The Gibson L-5 guitar was first produced in 1922 by Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA under the direction of master luthier Lloyd Loar, and has been in production ever since. It was considered the premier rhythm guitar in the big band era...
was released to his design. Although the new instrument models flopped commercially and Loar left Gibson after only a couple of years, Gibson instruments signed by Loar now are among the most prized and celebrated in stringed-instrument history. Perhaps the most revered instrument from this period is the F5 mandolin, but probably the more broadly influential was the L5 guitar, which remains in production to this day. The mature Gibson archtop guitar and its imitators are regarded as the quintessential "jazzbox".
John D'Angelico
John D'Angelico was a luthier from New York City, noted for his handmade archtop guitars and mandolins.In 1952, he hired Jimmy D'Aquisto as an apprentice, who would eventually buy the business from the D'Angelico family...
of New York and his student Jimmy D'Aquisto
Jimmy D'Aquisto
James L. D'Aquisto was an American guitar maker best known as the premier maker of custom guitars. He served as an apprentice to John D'Angelico from 1952 and was considered his successor after the latter's death in 1964....
, William Wilkanowski
Wilkanowski
William Wilkanowski was a Polish-American violin-maker.-Early life:Wilkanowski was born in Poland in 1886. By the age of 17 he was a trained violin maker...
, Charles Stromberg and Son in Boston, and by other major manufacturers, notably Gretsch
Gretsch
The Gretsch Company was founded in 1883 by Friedrich Gretsch, a twenty-seven year old German immigrant recently arrived in the US. Friedrich Gretsch manufactured banjos, tambourines, and drums, until his death in 1895. His son, Fred, moved operations to Brooklyn, New York in 1916...
and Epiphone
Epiphone
The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market...
. In Europe, companies such as Höfner
Höfner
Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instruments, with one division that manufactures guitars and basses, and another that manufactures other string instruments....
and Hagström
Hagström
Hagström is a musical instrument manufacturer in Älvdalen, Dalecarlia, Sweden. Their original products were accordions that they initially imported from Germany and then Italy before opening their own facility in 1932. During the sixties, the company started making electric guitars and later...
took up the manufacture of archtops. Archtop guitars were particularly adopted by both jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
musicians, and in big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
s and swing bands.
Gibson's ES-150
Gibson ES-150
The Gibson Guitar Corporation's ES-150 guitar is generally recognized as the world's first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and it was designated 150 because it cost $150, along with an EH-150 amplifier and a cable.After its introduction in...
guitar is generally recognized as the world's first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and it was designated 150 because it cost $150, along with an EH-150 amplifier
Instrument amplifier
An instrument amplifier is an electronic amplifier that converts the often barely audible or purely electronic signal from musical instruments such as an electric guitar, an electric bass, or an electric keyboard into an electronic signal capable of driving a loudspeaker that can be heard by the...
and a cable. After its introduction in 1936, it immediately became popular in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
orchestras of the period. Unlike the usual acoustic guitars utilized in jazz, it was loud enough to take a more prominent position in ensembles. Jazz guitarist Eddie Durham
Eddie Durham
Eddie Durham was an American jazz guitarist, trombonist, composer and musical arranger of the swing music medium born in San Marcos, Texas, probably best known for his work with musicians like Cab Calloway, Willie Bryant, Andy Kirk, Glenn Miller, Jimmie Lunceford and Count Basie, among others...
is usually credited with making the first electric guitar solo, but it was ES-150 player Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian
Charles Henry "Charlie" Christian was an American swing and jazz guitarist.Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra...
who popularized the jazz guitar as a solo, not just a rhythm instrument. The ES-150's top was not carved on the underside, making it unsuitable for acoustic use.
Cutaway (guitar)
In guitar construction, a cutaway is an indentation in the body of the instrument adjacent to the neck of the instrument, designed to allow easier access to the upper frets....
body and two electric pickups, equally playable as either an acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
or an electric guitar. This innovation was immediately popular, and while purely acoustic archtop guitars such as the Gibson L-7C
Gibson L-7C
The Gibson L-7C is an archtop acoustic guitar and one of the few archtop guitars still in production from major makers without an electric pickup.Gibson first introduced the L-7C in the late 1940s.-External links:* web page....
remain available to this day, they have become the exception. In 1958, the L5CES was redesigned with humbucking pickups; Most but certainly not all subsequent archtop guitars conform loosely to the pattern set by this model. The electric archtop was particularly popular with jazz musicians Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow
Talmage Holt Farlow was an American jazz guitarist. Nicknamed the "Octopus", Farlow's extremely large hands spread over the fretboard as if they were tentacles. He is considered one of the all-time great jazz guitarists. Michael G...
, Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. Generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century, he was noted in particular for his vast knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies...
and Johnny Smith
Johnny Smith
Johnny Smith is an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist.-Early years:...
.
Other manufacturers introduced electric archtop guitars, notable examples including the Gretsch White Falcon
Gretsch White Falcon
The Gretsch White Falcon is a visually distinctive guitar commercially introduced in 1955 by Gretsch. While it has seen vast and substantial changes to its body shape and features through the years, and is currently offered in several styles, the White Falcon has always maintained a striking and...
and various Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
models. Some of these instruments have a distinctive "twangy" sound and were taken up by country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and early rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
artists such as Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
and Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran , was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues", captured teenage frustration and desire in the...
. Similar models remain popular in rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
.
Gibson's last innovation in archtop design was the creation, in late 1950s, of "thinline" models with a reduced body depth, notably the Gibson ES-335
Gibson ES-335
The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial thinline arched-top semi-acoustic electric guitar. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958, it is neither hollow nor solid; instead, a solid wood block runs through the center of its body...
and Epiphone Casino
Epiphone Casino
The Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. It is essentially Epiphone's version of the Gibson ES-330...
. These were more feedback resistant and easier to play standing up. They are classed as semi acoustic guitars, although not all semi-acoustic guitars have an arched top. Thinlines became popular with mainstream pop and rock artists during the 1960s. The 335 and similar guitars were taken up by, and remain steadfastly popular with electric blues players; B B King's various "Lucilles" are based on 335s.
The 1970s and 1980s were a low point of interest in archtops, with many rock and pop (and some jazz and blues) players switching to solid body guitars.
Interest in archtops was revived in the 1990s. Archtops had long been expensive instruments, with a level of finish and ornament to match. Boutique luthiers such as Roger Borys and Bob Benedetto
Robert Benedetto
Robert Benedetto is an American luthier. He is best known for founding Benedetto Guitars, Inc. which makes hand-carved archtop guitars. Before the company became a division of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Benedetto made each guitar himself...
brought the aesthetics of the instrument to even greater heights, making them attractive to collectors, and also continuing to innovate in technical design. The Benedetto style of acoustic/electric archtop has itself been copied by luthiers such as Dale Unger and Dana Bourgeois
Dana Bourgeois
Dana Bourgeois is a luthier who heads a small guitar shop, Pantheon Guitars, in Lewiston, Maine.He makes traditionally styled acoustic guitars used in bluegrass and other acoustic music genres....
. Most of the accessories (pickguard
Pickguard
A pickguard is a piece of plastic or other laminated material that is placed under the strings on the body of a guitar, mandolin or similar plucked string instrument...
, bridge, tuner buttons, knobs, etc.) are made of wood (ebony or rosewood) instead of metal and have a clean acoustic look. It is estimated there are nearly 100 archtop guitar luthiers in North America alone.
Contrastingly, mass-market archtop guitars became more affordable in the late 20th century, due to a combination of low labor costs in Asian countries and computer numerically controlled manufacture. Most major guitar marques include at least a couple of archtops in their range, albeit not necessarily manufactured at their own facilities. Ibanez
Ibanez
is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as well as the first brand of guitars to mass produce...
sell an extensive range of archtops under the Artcore
Ibanez Artcore Series
The Ibanez Artcore series is Ibanez's line of semi and full hollowbody electric guitars.-Background and press:The first Ibanez Artcore models were released by Ibanez in mid-2002 whose goal was to offer an affordable range of full-hollow and semi-hollow body guitars that appealed to entry level...
marque. The Samick
Samick
Samick is the name of a Korea-based musical instrument manufacturer, one of the largest in the world.The name refers to the entire Samick Musical Instruments, which owns several manufacturers of pianos, guitars, and other instruments. The company started as 'Samick Pianos' in 1958, manufacturing...
corporation sells archtops under its own name as well as manufacturing for other companies. Jay Turser
Jay Turser
Jay Turser is a stringed instrument manufacturer owned by US Music Corporation, located in Mundelein, IL. Jay Turser produces guitars, basses, mandolins and banjos in a variety of models ranging from low-cost, entry-level to mid price points that are considered by many to be an excellent value for...
and Eastwood
Eastwood Guitars
Eastwood Guitars is a Canadian / Korean company set up by Michael Robinson which reproduces an array of classic electric guitar designs.The company was established by Michael Robinson in 2001 because he wanted to re-create affordable and playable versions of rare vintage electric guitars that have...
are brands specialising in archtops. Gibson sells inexpensive Asian-made archtops under its Epiphone
Epiphone
The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market...
brand, such as the Epiphone Dot
Epiphone Dot
The Epiphone Dot is an archtop electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone since the 1990s. It is the cheaper "alternative" to the Gibson ES-335...
.
Renewed interest in acoustic music has also led to the revival of purely acoustic archtops, such as the Gibson L-7C
Gibson L-7C
The Gibson L-7C is an archtop acoustic guitar and one of the few archtop guitars still in production from major makers without an electric pickup.Gibson first introduced the L-7C in the late 1940s.-External links:* web page....
, The Loar Lh-600 and Godin
Godin (Guitar Manufacturer)
- History :Godin started building Robert Godin's guitars in 1972 in La Patrie, Quebec.Godin Guitars' head office is located in Montreal, and they build their instruments in six factories in four different locations, three in Quebec and one in New Hampshire....
5th Avenue.
Recent technical innovations include Ken Parker
Parker Guitars
Parker Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses, started by luthier Ken Parker in the early 90s. Parker is most famous for making the Parker Fly....
's use of carbon fibre in high-end acoustic archtops, and the Godin Montreal hybrid guitar
Hybrid guitar
A hybrid guitar is an electric guitar with the ability to produce a signal with the tonal quality of an acoustic guitar in addition to a typical electric signal from a magnetic pickup, allowing a wide tonal pallette performers with a varied repertoire...
.
Construction
Archtops usually have 3-a-side pegheads and necks similar in width to a steel-string acoustic rather than an electric. High end models traditionally have "block" or "trapezoid" position markers.The top or belly (and often the back) of the archtop guitar is either carved out of a block of solid wood, or heat-pressed using laminations, the latter being a less expensive construction method. The belly normally has two f-holes, the lower of these partly covered by a scratch plate raised above the belly so as not to damp its vibration. The arching of the top and the f-holes are similar to the violin family, on which they were originally based. The contours of the arching profile are usually derived in an ad hoc fashion. The tops of Gibson's archtops were parallel braced. X-braced designs were introduced later, giving a tone closer to that of a flat-top guitar. Sitka spruce
Sitka Spruce
Picea sitchensis, the Sitka Spruce, is a large coniferous evergreen tree growing to 50–70 m tall, exceptionally to 95 m tall, and with a trunk diameter of up to 5 m, exceptionally to 6–7 m diameter...
, European spruce, and Engelmann spruce
Engelmann Spruce
Picea engelmannii is a species of spruce native to western North America, from central British Columbia and southwest Alberta, southwest to northern California and southeast to Arizona and New Mexico; there are also two isolated populations in northern Mexico...
are most often used for the resonant tops of archtop guitars, although some guitar builders use Adirondack spruce (Red spruce), or Western red cedar. Archtop guitars often have Curly maple or Quilted maple backs. Full-sized archtops are among the largest guitars ever made, with the width of the lower bout in some cases approaching 19 inches (47 cm).
The original acoustic archtop guitars were designed to enhance volume: for that reason they were constructed for use with relatively heavy strings. Even after electrification became the norm, jazz guitarists continued to fit strings of 0.012" gauge or heavier for reasons of tone, and also prefer flatwound strings. Thinline archtops generally use standard electric guitar strings.
Many tremolo systems cannot be fitted to an archtop owing to the need to cut large holes in the belly to accommodate the mechanism, with the exception of the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece and the long tailpiece versions of the Gibson Vibrola. These vibrato systems mount on the surface of the guitar and need no body routing.
Various use of the term archtop
Although archtop normally refers to a hollow-bodied, arched top instrument, some makers of solid-bodiedSolid body
A solid-body instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electric pickup system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings....
guitars with carved bellies also refer to these as archtop to distinguish these from flat top guitar
Flat top guitar
A flat top guitar is a type of guitar body model which has a flat top . The term "flat top" is usually used to refer to the most popular type of steel-string acoustic guitars; however, electric guitars such as the Fender Stratocaster, the Fender Telecaster and the Gibson Les Paul Junior or Special...
s. For example, Gibson refer to the standard Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
as an arch top to distinguish it from flat top models such as the Les Paul Junior and Melody Maker
Gibson Melody Maker
In 2007, the Melody Maker became a separate model. It now has a smaller single-coil pickup than the P-90, a wraparound bridge/tailpiece unit, a mahogany neck, and a pickguard similar to the original Melody Maker...
.
A continuum exists from these solid body, purely electric instruments to purely acoustic instruments similar to the original Orville Gibson design, including:
- Solid body instruments, such as the Les Paul standard, with a carved but non-sounding belly.
- Instruments with semi-hollow bodies constructed from plates of wood around a solid core, having no soundholes, such as the Gibson Lucille or Brian MayBrian MayBrian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...
Red SpecialRed SpecialThe Red Special is an electric guitar owned by Queen guitarist Brian May and custom-built by May and his father. The Red Special is also sometimes named in reviews as the Fireplace or the Old Lady, both nicknames used by May when referring to the guitar. A guitar that would define May's signature...
. - Instruments with a solid core but hollow bouts and soundholes (usually f-holes), such as the Gibson ES-335Gibson ES-335The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial thinline arched-top semi-acoustic electric guitar. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958, it is neither hollow nor solid; instead, a solid wood block runs through the center of its body...
. In these, the bridge is fixed to a solid block of wood rather than to a sounding board, and the belly vibration is minimized much as in a solid body instrument. - Thin-bodied semi-acoustic guitarSemi-acoustic guitarA semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of electric guitar with both a sound box and one or more electric pickups. This is not the same as an electric acoustic guitar, which is an acoustic guitar with the addition of pickups or other means of amplification, either added by the...
s, such as the Epiphone CasinoEpiphone CasinoThe Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. It is essentially Epiphone's version of the Gibson ES-330...
. These possess both a sounding board and sound boxSound boxA sound box or sounding box is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibrations at certain frequencies, known as resonances...
, but the function of these is purely to modify the sound transmitted to the pickups. Such guitars are still intended purely as electric instruments, and while they do make some sound when the pickups are not used, the tone is weak and not normally considered musically useful. - Full hollowbody semi-acoustic instruments, such as the Gibson ES-175Gibson ES-175The Gibson ES-175 is an electric guitar manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, currently still in production. It is a 24 3/4" scale full hollow body guitar with a trapeze tailpiece and Tune-O-Matic bridge...
; these have a full-size sound box, but are still intended to be played through an amplifier. - Fully acoustic instruments with either a pressed laminate wood or hand carved top. One example in the latter category, almost cello-like in construction, is the Gibson L-5. For amplified use, these guitars are fitted with floating pickups in the neck position attached either to the base of the fingerboard or the edge of the pickguard. The finely tuned soundboard is left to vibrate freely as no hardware other than bridge posts come into contact with it. Today's carvedtops may also incorporate piezo electric pickups. These instruments have a full-size body and a powerful acoustic tone suitable both for chords and for melody work.
All of these types may be loosely described as archtop, but only the last possesses the characteristics most often associated with the type.
Basses
Archtopped 4-string bass guitars have been manufactured since the use of electric pickups became popular. The most famous example is the HöfnerHöfner
Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instruments, with one division that manufactures guitars and basses, and another that manufactures other string instruments....
violin bass used by Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
.
Other variations
4 stringFour-string guitar
-Guitar family instruments with four strings:* Bass guitar* Braguinha* Cak used in Kroncong music* Cavaquinho* Celovic used in Tamburica orchestras* Cuatro Venezolano* Tenor guitar* Ukulele-Guitar family instruments with four courses of strings:...
(tenor), 7 string
Seven-string guitar
A seven-string guitar is a guitar with seven strings instead of the usual six. Some types of seven-string guitars are specific to certain cultures . The standard 7-string guitar tuning is BEADGbe...
, 9 String
Nine-string guitar
A nine-string guitar is a guitar with nine strings instead of the commonly used six strings. Such guitars are not as common as the six string variety, but are used by guitarists to modify the sound or expand the range of their instrument by adding three strings...
and 12 string
Twelve string guitar
The twelve-string guitar is an acoustic or electric guitar with 12 strings in 6 courses, which produces a richer, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar...
archtops have been manufactured.
A few luthiers offer archtopped Maccaferri guitars.
The Mohan veena
Mohan veena
The Mohan veena is a stringed musical instrument used in Indian classical music. It derives its name from its inventor Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt...
, is a cross between an archtop and an Indian veena
Veena
Veena may refer to one of several Indian plucked instruments:With frets*Rudra veena, plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music*Saraswati veena, plucked string instrument used in Carnatic musicFretless...
.
Some electric archtops also have piezoelectric pickups, making them hybrid guitar
Hybrid guitar
A hybrid guitar is an electric guitar with the ability to produce a signal with the tonal quality of an acoustic guitar in addition to a typical electric signal from a magnetic pickup, allowing a wide tonal pallette performers with a varied repertoire...
s.
See also
- Archtop mandolins were developed at the same time for similar reasons.
External links
- Girasoli Parlor Jazz Guitar - Downloadable plans for a small-bodied archtop guitar designed by R.M. Mottola, on the Liutaio Mottola Lutherie Information Website.
- Specialist archtop dealer
- Vintage Guitar Info
- The Archtop Jazz Guitar by Fernando Alonso Jaén
- Archtop Guitars and Books