Recommendation for my first jazz box
I would like to dive deeper into jazz and was thinking of buying an archtop w following considerations:
- Price range around $1500. - I play exclusively with my fingertips. - I am not very comfortable with 1 11/16 at nut and prefer 1 3/4 ish. - I am looking for mellow, jazz, warm tone rather rocky/country overdrived tone. - It is desirable, but not mandatory, that the guitar is "loud" and nice unplugged. From a quick google search I was gravitating around: Peerless Martin Taylor Virtuoso because it's fingerstyle designed but doesn't seem to be popping around the "best jazz box" Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin CW II On the contrary, this is ubiquitous among reviewers, but I've heard that the sound is rather thin. Clearly will go to shops and A/B test as many as I can. What guitar would you recommend me to add to my list and what do you think of the twos above? Ll. |
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Hope this helps... |
Yes Steve - it helps a lot.
I am thinking of trying the one w/o cutaway https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guit...000?src=3XBACR to save a few bucks more. Ll. |
Nice guitar - fellow AGF'er Jeff Matz (AKA Mr. Beaumont) owns one and does some fabulous things with it - but IME the CW II offers more stylistic versatility thanks to the additional (bridge) pickup and cutaway; mine serves as my go-to blues/rockabilly/jazz-comping axe, as well as backup at any gig where I'm using either my P-90 goldtop Les Paul or Gretsch Electromatic semi-hollow - as I suggested above it incorporates many of the best elements of each - and as a fingerpicker I think you'll appreciate the extra definition and presence afforded by the bridge pickup...
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At that price point you may want to consider the various L5, L4, ES175 etc copies produced by Ibanez in the mid 1970's.... plenty of them around
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Uooo that's right there are those -- I'd love one of them!
Too bad has slim profile and 1 11/16 at nut :( BTW: no one comments on the Peerless MT? Ll. |
Does it have to be new? Some old Kalamazoo (made my Gibson) and Gibson archtops can be had in your range. KG-31, L-50, L-48 - all based on the original 16” L-5 design. I love my old Kalamazoo KG-31.
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They are super interesting but I wish to play amplified too.
Thanks for all these recommendations, Ll. |
Get a nice well-built Ibanez and swap electronics to do what you want. I’ve got an AFJ81 single-neck-pickup with a Benedetto pickup, and it’s great plugged in and audible unplugged, and it plays very well. I think I have $600 into it including pickup mods...
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It sounds great, looks great. And, best of all, when not playing plugged in, I get the wonderful fully-carved tone of an old Gibson archtop. I had the loaded pickguard custom made by this guy on Reverb: https://reverb.com/item/3245061-kay-...to-your-guitar |
I think Eastman Archtops are a fine option and most of them have the 1 3/4" nut you are looking for and very comfortable necks. Their arch tops range from the ES-375 variant to the floating pickup, more acoustic ones. And you have a good range of sizes as well.
When I demo'd several of them a few years ago, I thought the AR372 (ES375 variant) laminated series had a specific flavor (less acoustic, very warm plugged in); and the all solid carved series had another flavor (louder acoustically, and more acoustic plugged in). My least favorite was the 400, laminated back and sides and solid arch top series. I thought I could tell quite a difference between those and the 600 and up series. I ended up with an AR603CED-15, but I liked the 372 very much, just differently. I would certainly check out a used Eastman. |
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Steve, thanks for correction.
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