The most acoustic-sounding electric?

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by hesson11

Ibanez Artcore AF105F NT...

The guitar also came with an extra rosewood bridge, which I want to use to replace the hunk-o-metal that’s on it now. As a long-time acoustic player, I’m still a bit averse to any metal on a guitar...

My first step will be to replace the strings. I’ve got a set of nickel round wound and a set of flat wound chromes , both D’Addario .010s, and I’m trying to decide which to try first. (The guitar is shipped from Ibanez with .010s.) Any clues as to what I can expect with each of these?

I've concluded that even a well-amplified acoustic guitar doesn't sound much like an acoustic guitar when plugged in. The Ibanez comes pretty darn close to some of the better amplified-acoustic sounds I've heard. I think the fact that it has a floating pickup may have something to do with it; that's supposed to leave the top more free to vibrate than does a pickup that's mounted directly on the guitar top itself.

I'm not sure how I'll like it in a year, but I'm kind of having fun with it right now. AND it's a breeze to play!

How ya doin', Bob - haven't seen you around here in a while...

In order:

• The rosewood bridge is the first thing I'd replace - TOM's are great on solids and semi-hollows, but IME they kill a lot of the body resonance on a full-hollow guitar like yours - but make sure the bridge base is properly fitted/contoured to the curvature of the top for optimum tone transfer...
• As far as strings are concerned, what you can expect from 10's (of any kind) is far less "acoustic" tone color, more "steely" than "woody" in character; FYI Jeff's got it 100% right here - heavier strings and a wound G to get the top vibrating, to which I'll add a good pro setup to get the action down to where you want/need it...
• Building on the previous point, as a whole laminated archtops don't suffer as much from poor acoustic tone as their flattop counterparts; in the early-postwar days of dedicated "electric" guitars - Gibson ES125/150/300/350, Epiphone Zephyr, etc. - many in-the-trenches club players would set their instruments up with heavy-gauge strings and ultra-low action (PSA: flatwounds will allow you to set the action much lower than roundwounds - don't hesitate to go up a gauge or two in the interest of tone) for double duty, and some of the better 17-inchers (the postwar ES-150 in particular) could rival their carved-top stablemates for tone/volume...
• While the 22-fret neck allows the pickup to be positioned closer to the bridge than most other suspended-pickup jazzboxes (clearing up a lot of the stereotypical '50s jazzbox "mud" and adding some high-frequency response), don't expect a true "acoustic" tonality. One old-timers' trick I've seen that can add some "air" to your amplified tone is to run the tone control wide open, back off on the guitar's volume knob (and/or use the amp's low-gain input if you have one) so as not to hit the first gain stage with too hot a signal, and use the amp controls to set the volume you need - or, if you have the money/inclination, swap in a Fishman archtop bridge and a blend control that'll allow you to go from full-magnetic to full-UST, in place of the tone control...

Moving on to the next step, you'll want to think in terms of a mid-powered tube or analog solid-state amp that'll deliver the clean headroom and dynamic/frequency range that brings out the best in these guitars. BTW, if you can get it cheaply enough don't be afraid to buy more power than you need - it's about tonal fidelity rather than rock-style volume (I routinely use a Fender Frontman 212R or Randall "grey-stripe" RB-120 1x15" combo - 100 and 120 watts respectively - with my Godin CW II, even for home practice) - and although many players have been successful with the current generation of compact, high-power 1x8"/1x10" jazz combos, this old fart prefers the more traditional tonality of 12"/15" speakers with a full-hollow guitar...

Use it well and often...