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  #1  
Old 05-05-2015, 09:38 PM
Sada Yairi Sada Yairi is offline
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Default Suggestions please - archtop acoustic, cutaway

Ok, I'm consulting the experts here. I'm after an acoustic (f-hole) archtop and I can't find many options to suit what I want, so I'm looking for suggestions please.

Purpose: This guitar will be used mainly acoustically, and mainly for blues, jazz, and some old-school classic rock. I'll occasionally amp it up, so I do need a pickup.

Features: Acoustic body (at least 3 inch depth I think). Venetian cutaway. Floating neck pickup.

Preferences: 9-10 inch radius fret board (ideally ebony but that seems unrealistic). Matte finish.

Price range: Max $1300AUD, so about $1000USD (with case).

So far the only close options seem to be (with corresponding limitations):
Guild A-150 savoy (no matte finish available)
Washburn J600 (wrong fret board radius)
Godin 5th Ave jazz (wrong fret board radius & too expensive)
Eastman 503 (non-floating pickup, body too thin?)
D'Angelico EXL-1 (probably too expensive)

Any ideas? Thanks very much.
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  #2  
Old 05-06-2015, 11:58 AM
amyFB amyFB is offline
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Maybe you could try out the different models from your short list and narrow down the options.

The kinds of music you "mainly" plan to play covers a wide range. If it were me, I'd want one guitar for country, blues and folk, a archtop for jazz, and a stratocaster for rocknroll.

My suggestion is you have one song from each genre ready to test out on the guitars so you can tell before purchase if you are going to be satisfied.

good luck.
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  #3  
Old 05-06-2015, 03:22 PM
Pnewsom Pnewsom is offline
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It's difficult to push deep body 'acoustic' archtops very hard in an loud amplified environments. They tend run away with acoustic feedback, the kind where the strings start to vibrate on their own, not the squeeling pickup kind.
That's why many have the pickups mounted into the top, and thin line models like the 335 were introduced. This of course kills the acoustic tone.
You can get away with it up to a certain point by carefull volume control and right hand palm muting, but it gets to be a pain after awhile.

They do sound great up to that point though.
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Old 05-06-2015, 05:26 PM
Sada Yairi Sada Yairi is offline
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So this guitar will be used acoustically, and just occasionally amped up. I already have several electrics to cover that ground, so I'm not worried about feedback etc.
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Old 05-06-2015, 06:17 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Youzhi will build one to your exact specs for about that price:

http://yunzhiguitar.diytrade.com/

A few guys around here own them and have given very favorable reviews - you might want to look into this alternative...
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Old 05-06-2015, 09:17 PM
Sada Yairi Sada Yairi is offline
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I am going to follow up on the Yunzhi option. Scares me a little bit, but at least worth looking into.
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  #7  
Old 05-07-2015, 08:03 AM
Archtop Guy Archtop Guy is offline
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Check out The Loar LH-600, not exactly matching your list, but...

LH-600

My advice would also be to stay open minded until you've played some on your list. A guitar is not just a list of specs.
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  #8  
Old 05-07-2015, 07:06 PM
Sada Yairi Sada Yairi is offline
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Thanks for the ongoing input - I'm looking at all these options. The LH-600 doesn't have the cutaway, and the 650 has a Florentine rather than Venetian cutaway, but still worth playing so I'll try and find one.
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