[Steve DeRosa]

Grab a nice cold beverage of your choice, take a deep breath, and sit back - this is going to take some time...

• First off, if you haven't listened to (or played) many acoustic archtops you might want to get acquainted with their general tonal characteristics (very different from a flattop guitar - quicker response; narrower, midrange-biased tonal spectrum; harder/punchier attack; less sustain - and very unforgiving of technical deficiencies) before you consider laying down your money; there's no doubt they're unbelievably cool and classy-looking - what Ibanez justly referred to in a recent ad campaign as "guitar royalty" - and many players buy them for that reason alone, only to be disappointed when they don't meet up to their preconceived notions of tone. Archtops can be excellent blues instruments (and they're synonymous with the term "jazz guitar") - just don't expect the same results you'd get from an old National reso or Kalamazoo flattop...
  
  
• Addressing your criteria:
  
  
  • For reasons I'll explain below, I'd restrict myself to new instruments for a first purchase - good news is that there are currently more new archtops available on the market than there have been in nearly sixty years, ranging in price from $500 to $50,000+, so the only determining factor is how much you're willing to spend. The lowest-priced instruments (those under $1000) occupy the niche of the old Harmony/Kay student archtops from the '40s-50s - serviceable, playable instruments (far better-built than the originals, BTW) with acceptable tone, and a good inexpensive introduction to the genre for a first-timer; while some of these - the recently-discontinued Epiphone Masterbilt Olympic/Zenith/Deluxe, Gretsch New Yorker, Loar LH-300 - have solid tops (carved in the case of the Loar) I've found the effect on overall tone to be negligible. Frankly, if I were asked to recommend an instrument in this price range I'd go with the all-acoustic, all-laminated Godin 5th Avenue (FYI they make a single-pickup electric version as well as a two-pickup cutaway) which, although also recently discontinued, can still be had for around $400-500 as new-old-stock (or as little as $250-300 for a used example); interestingly enough, a laminated top doesn't have the same detrimental effect as on a flattop - upright bass players have been using laminated instruments for the last 90 years, and savvy working players in the post-WW II era often bought a 17" Gibson ES-150 (non-cutaway/single P-90 pickup) as a true dual-purpose acoustic/electric guitar. BTW, if you're interested in a contemporary instrument with similar capabilities the D'Angelico Premier EXL-1 ($799 street) - a laminated 17" cutaway with a suspended pickguard-mounted pickup - would fill the bill nicely (FYI I'm partial to the champagne finish)...
    
    When you reach the $1500+ range you're looking at all-solid-wood, fully-carved instruments made by one of the Asian firms, as well as some dual-purpose guitars like the Guild A-150 Savoy (similar to the aforementioned D'Angelico but with a solid top and a vintage-style DeArmond pickup - IMO a better choice for plugged-in postwar-style blues). There are generally two schools of thought here: close adherence to vintage designs and specifications - with tonal characteristics to match - and a more contemporary approach, adopting visual/tonal cues from present-day luthiers like Benedetto, Buscarino, Monteleone, et al.; again, you need to decide what your musical needs are, as well as what's most comfortable for you to play. By way of example, the Loar LH-700 - a near dead-on copy of a mid/late-1920's 16" Gibson L-5 - will get you that incisive, brash, old-time tone in spades, but if you're not used to playing vintage instruments you might find the period-accurate, thick deep-V 1-3/4" neck difficult to negotiate; similarly, the comparably-sized/priced Eastman AR605 possesses a somewhat softer, mellower tone, but has both a more modern-feeling neck and a 21st-century visual aesthetic...
    
    Crack the $4000 mark and you're beginning to get into the domain of hand-carved, luthier-built guitars - the only limits here being what you're willing to pay for fancier woods/trim - as well as upscale factory-production jazzboxes from the likes of Gibson and Heritage. While I don't think you'll be looking at one of these for a first purchase (although my father's mechanic had a rare circa-1950 18" Epiphone Deluxe that he bought brand-new and never really learned to play - I should have grabbed this one for the $200 asking price back in 1969 ) I'd strongly recommend playing one or more of these if the opportunity presents itself - learn what the big-ticket stuff feels/sounds like, and use that as one of your criteria for evaluating your purchase; should you decide to take the plunge - and/or you have very specific requirements - Mark Campellone will build you one of his highly-respected, all-handcarved 17" jazzboxes to order for just a tick under $5K (less if you want an all-acoustic instrument), about one-half to one-third what you'd pay for an L-5 or Super 400 from the Gibson Custom Shop...
    
    
  • Archtops are, by nature, highly-idiosyncratic and often-temperamental beasts, and few players/guitar techs born after the Eisenhower administration really understand what makes them tick; that said, I'd never buy a repaired/restored vintage archtop from eBay, Craigslist, newspaper classifieds, et al. Unless you're familiar with the specific needs of these instruments - neck geometry (extremely important, far above and beyond that of a flattop), bridge fitment (base contouring, range of adjustment), top contour (sometimes what looks like a "sagging top" really isn't - and sometimes it is), tailpiece alignment (I've seen a few that have been off-center), etc. - there's just too many ways to get burned, and I haven't even touched on the usual caveats of neck warp/twist, binding disintegration, improper refinishing, worn/non-level frets, and the like; IME too many of the instruments you're likely to find in the classifieds were "project" guitars for amateur would-be techs at one point or another, mostly around the time they went out of fashion, and it'll cost you far more to get them "right" than it would to buy a similar piece from a reputable dealer - or a new one with a full factory warranty...

Hope this helps...