Quote:
Originally Posted by Laser Bob
Whenever you cut a hole in an archtop guitar (For pickups, tone and volume controls, etc.) you destroy a goodly amount of it's acoustic value. If you can find a contemporary guitar without holes cut in the top try it out - If not look around and see if you can find (and afford ) a vintage archtop - We have a 1940's Gibson L-7 in the shop right now ( dual pickups and control knobs mounted in the pick guard assembly - no holes!) and she's quite sweet acoustically and very bright and balanced when played through an amp - Best of both worlds eh?
B
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Huh. That's troublesome. I was hoping to get one with a removable pickguard, i.e. with the pickup and controls cut into the body, because I like symmetry and don't use a pick anyway. I'm looking for a non-cutaway for the same reason, thought the extra acoustic volume helps. Is there a less obstrusive type of pickup, say, one that's attached to the fretboard and only has a wire hole going through the body?
I've lately been playing a friend's cheap old spanish guitar with a massive crack along the front - apply a little pressure and you can see inside - and I don't notice any tone or volume problems, apart from the fact that the treble strings are bloody plastic, so maybe I'm insensitive to this kind of thing. But it might be a different story with archtops - are they more easily put off-balance than flattops?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluemonk
Generally speaking, I wouldn't say the bass on an acoustic archtop sounds palm-muted. While a flattop might give forth a deep rumble in the bass, an archtop will have a clarity to the bass register without that rumble. On a good, well-intonated archtop, the tone of the bass strings fretted high will sound quite close to the same note fretted lower on the thinner strings.
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That actually sounds very appealing.