I have owned a Loar 600 and 700, an Eastman AR805 (sadly just traded) and played recent Peerless models.
Last week, a jazz playing pal and I went to investigate the new "archtop" replicas.
The Loars are, indeed loud, but they tend to be poorly made with a problematic neck angle, and unfinished areas under the neck extension.
I don't think that Peerless make any real acoustic archtops ...I may be wrong - never seen one, can't find any such things on their website.
The Epiphones are not really arch tops - as they seem to have mildly arched laminated tops, but they were all eminently playable, and have some sort of hidden electrics (with barn door controls). They are finished in some sort of hard satin.
Eastman, seem to be focusing more on semi-acoustic electrics now but they can and have made outstanding acoustic archtops. I already miss mine. Look for AR8xx and above.
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Silly Moustache,
Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer.
I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom!
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