Quote:
Originally Posted by Theleman
I thought the Washburn J3 was a huge and heavy guitar, but the J5 and J7 are even larger.
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Historically, 16" archtops (particularly acoustic) are considered small-body instruments; adopted in the late-1920's as replacement rhythm instruments for the tenor/plectrum banjo, they soon proved inadequate in the days before amplification and larger sizes were put into production by the two powerhouse manufacturers - Gibson and Epiphone (an independent entity until their purchase by Gibson in 1957) - around 1934, which were quickly adopted by the rest of the industry. When ever-increasing stage volume, along with changes in technique (the guitar was emerging as a solo instrument by the late-30's) demanded amplification, many Big Band-era players simply added pickups to their existing 17"/18" instruments; as the electric guitar became the standard jazz instrument circa 1950 the major makers simply followed the prevailing format - Gibson's L-5CES/Super 400CES and Epiphone's Deluxe/Emperor "Zephyr Regent" models would quickly acquire the same prestige their acoustic predecessors held a decade earlier, and would become the "bridge" instruments as early-50's "bop-&-pop" morphed into rock-&-roll/R&B by the middle of the decade (FYI Scotty Moore - Elvis' first guitarist - used electric L-5 and Super 400 instruments through the late-1960's)...
If you're an aspiring jazzer, or into roots/Americana/early R&R and R&B, you
need at least one of these in your collection: they're just classy as all-get-out, you'll never achieve quite the same tone from any other type of instrument (IME they're the sweetest-sounding guitars in creation when played through a good tube amp), the current crop of 3" or wider straps make them far easier on the shoulder than the skinny straps of the 1950's, and thanks to the globalization of the guitar industry there's a greater variety of high-quality reasonably-priced new instruments on the market than at any time during the last 60 years or so - check out a few when you get the chance...