NGD - Archtop content!

[ronbo]

Been looking into acoustic archtops lately, not even really sure why, I don't really know much about them, but remember my Grandad's old Harmony archtop and like the idea, the style and the tone when I do hear them. So I got a PM from someone on another forum recently letting me know he had an Eastman AR series available after I had commented that I'd like to get my hands on one...took me about 10 minutes of serious pondering before I emailed him back and accepted his kind offer. Well it arrived yesterday and I must say I am thrilled and impressed...beautiful burst, plays like a dream and sounds really cool and is quite loud...Very different from anything else I own or have played! This is an AR-610, very sweet, all solid, carved Mahogany and Spruce - 17" lower bout. Beautiful instrument, warm woody sound with great volume and projection, good sustain, but not too much so you can still get that nice percussive tone you'd expect in an archtop. Very happy with the mahogany also, I know Maple is generally the go to wood for most builders, but like the extra bass I feel you get from mahogany. I also own an Eastman AC508 GC and briefly owned an AC512M all-hog OM and have been fairly impressed with Eastman's build quality and tone, not just for the price either - definitely at the top end of the Asian imports that I have played. Really not very experienced with archtops, but figured the best way to get there was to own one, and was happy to find that the affordablility of this one didn't come at the expense of quality...not sure you can find another archtop that looks, plays and sounds this good for anything near the price, I know I couldn't! Not entirely sure how to approach it yet, good blues and jazz tones, might even work for some of that old-timey and bluegrass stuff my local neighborhood pickers are playing (please bluegrass guys, don't shoot me, I know it ain't a dread!) but I'm digging it!

Think I'm going to enjoy learning about acrchtops with this baby!!! Guess I'm gonna have to learn some jazz chords now...


So here are some pictures: Eastman AR610 - 17 inches of Mahogany/Spruce, F-hole sweetness!

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[Jim Owen]

Hi Ronbo,
That is a beauty. I have an Eastman Mandolin--and I think the build quality and tone is stunning.

I've never owned an archtop, but I've heard them played in all sorts of settings (except Bluegrass). I've noted that no one much complains when Dave Rawlings plays his archtop at folk festivals. (I have to admit that he made me rethink my attitude about archtops and versitility).

[Glennwillow]

Hi Ronbo,

Great looking Eastman archtop! Love that sunburst! Congratulations!

- Glenn

[Edbuff]

Ronbo

Great guitar, I own one of these also and they are the best value for the money. I use mine for chord melody jazz and it is one of the sweetest sounding guitars for that kind of music. good luck

Ed

[Dru Edwards]

That's a beautiful burst, Ronbo! Sounds like you've had great success with Eastman. Enjoy.

[Archtop Guy]

I love these guitars, and you gotta be really happy with the price / performance ratio! We are in a new age of quality affordable archtops.

Yeah, by all means learn those jazz chords, but you know already, don't limit the guitar to that. As they say, there's no such thing as a jazz guitar, only jazz guitarists.

[philo426]

I like it!Can you post a vid clip of you playing it?

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Archtop Guy

...We are in a new age of quality affordable archtops. Yeah, by all means learn those jazz chords, but you know already, don't limit the guitar to that...

Gorgeous, Ronbo - I've been looking for one of those myself for a while now...

As far as what type of music to play, if you're really looking for something out of the ordinary - as well as a new technical challenge - you might want to scout out some of the material from when archtops were the last word in the development of the pure acoustic guitar, roughly 1925-1940; many of the players of the day looked upon them as "serious" or "legitimate" instruments (I got into a major brouhaha with one of my college music professors over his pejorative use of the latter term), treating them as full and equal members of the orchestral string family (the term "orchestra guitar" was in fact often used to describe archtop guitars, well into the 1960's) and either adapting material from the classical repertoire (as did Andres Segovia), or composing new works in the classical idiom. Although this style is all but forgotten today except among hardcore archtop aficionados (and anyone who slogged through the first-edition Mel Bay books of the '50s/'60s) it represents a parallel - and unquestionably American - line of artistic development to the Spanish classical school, imposing its own set of equally rigorous technical and interpretative demands on the player; if your chops and reading skills are up to the task Mel Bay's Masters of the Plectrum Guitar contains many of the better-known works, in addition to which a number of performances are available on YouTube (search "archtop guitar" and/or Harry Volpe for starters). For the listener this long-lost style of music still retains its considerable emotional power and artistic merit, over seventy-five years after its heyday; one can only wonder what might have been, had the classical archtop guitar realized its full potential, progressed and developed to become the predominant style in serious music circles...

[jersey]

I'm very interested in archtops like this but I'm wondering how loud are they? Can they hold up in a jam with other flat-top acoustics?

[Bluemonk]

Originally Posted by jersey

I'm very interested in archtops like this but I'm wondering how loud are they? Can they hold up in a jam with other flat-top acoustics?

Can a Maserati outrace a VW bug?

Seriously, I would ask whether the flat-tops could hold up.

[jersey]

Seriously, I would ask whether the flat-tops could hold up.

Really? I have never played an archtop before so I have no idea. It just seems like they would be a little on the quieter side.

[Bluemonk]

Originally Posted by jersey

Really? I have never played an archtop before so I have no idea. It just seems like they would be a little on the quieter side.

The overbuilt ones, maybe. But a good acoustic archtop will explode with sound. They project forward, while a flattop will surround the player with sound. So yes, they may seem quieter in that respect, but no question, in general an archtop will cut throught the mix better than a flattop.

[Tobias Music]

That's an awesome guitar. Nice job. We are blown away by the quality of Eastman. We just had one of the BLUE AR580ce's delivered. I'll try to get some pictures of that posted too. Great company, great guitars.

[dchristo]

man, that's a beauty. I sure would love to here it

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by jersey

...It just seems like they would be a little on the quieter side.

The relative physics of flattop and archtop guitar construction - far too involved to discuss in this post - largely determine how much volume is perceived by the player; in short, a typical flattop guitar develops its tone inside the body, leading to a more immediate perception of volume and tonal depth, whereas an archtop develops its tone in front of the top, with the body acting as a resonant chamber ("natural reverb" is an oft-repeated catchphrase among archtop lovers as being one of the hallmarks of a fine instrument). As regards the ultimate volume potential, one can easily hear a solo violin in a 3000-seat concert hall or an F-style mandolin in a full-tilt bluegrass breakdown, and a well-constructed archtop possesses similar projection and carrying power; bear in mind that the larger instruments were designed to be heard unamplified over a 16-piece horn section, and the best archtops will just keep getting louder the harder you play them, with no distortion or compression (an apocryphal story exists, that a player was asked to lighten his stroke on his 19" Stromberg Master 400 when the only part of the rhythm section that could be heard from the theater balcony was the guitar). One general rule here is that you'll need to break in a carved-top instrument for a while before it reaches its full volume/tone potential - think years (decades, in some cases) as opposed to weeks/months for a flattop instrument - so you'll need to make it your main squeeze for the foreseeable future; not to worry - consider it a lifetime partnership and, just like a significant other, it often takes time to develop and appreciate the finer qualities...