The Acoustic Guitar Forum

Go Back   The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > Archtops

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #16  
Old 11-05-2013, 09:31 AM
zabdart zabdart is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 9,306
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spook View Post
When they route out the top to install a fixed pickup it impacts the acoustic ability of the instrument. The larger guitars withstand this better but there aren't too many 18" archtops out there. Floating pickups or no pickups are nice for the acoustic sound.
This is the basic argument. We all have Charlie Christian to thank for this. Basically, archtop guitars were adopted by the guitar playing community as the instrument of choice back in the '20's because their "cutting power" allowed them to be heard through the mix of horns in a jazz band. However, they were pretty useless as solo instruments in that context. Then Charlie Christian came along with his Gibson ES-150 and everything changed. However, when Charlie turned his volume control down to "off" so he could play rhythm, his guitar turned virtually inaudible.
Now, basically, you're dealing with two different areas of physics here. One is the physics of acoustics, or vibrating air, and the other is the physics of electromagnetism, which is how a magnetic pickup makes an electric guitar generate its sound. I'm not going to go into that here. If you want more detail, PM me.
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 11-05-2013, 02:56 PM
Spook Spook is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 882
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by simply rod View Post
The pickups are staying in the Artcore, though I'm considering replacing the neck pickup with either a Dimarzio Steve's Special or an Entwistle HDN, and adjusting the polepiece height where needed. I'm also planning to try out the K&K Definity or Pure Archtop. My last resort is an LR Baggs T-Bridge.
I've bought a K&K Definity and played with it a bit. So far I've had a very positive initial impression. I'll be actually installing it today. I'm also having a Pure Bass, which I'm assured by the folks at K&K is the same as their now discontinued archtop model, installed in another archtop and should have that back in a day or two. I'll be testing these out through a small PA and Jam 150 later this week. Will report in later.
__________________
Spook
Southern Oregon

Last edited by Spook; 11-05-2013 at 03:10 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 11-19-2013, 05:35 AM
Alter Alter is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 301
Default

one big factor in deciding should be how you are planning to use the guitar. Smaller bodies, laminated woods, electric pickups and bracing etc exist basically to fight the feedback factor that can make a great sounding acoustic archtop unusable live. Thats one major reason gigging players use electric style archtops live.

Regarding tone, it has to do with technique a lot too. But for electric sound, think george benson. For acoustic, think more of a woody sound, less knack, someone like .. say Mark Whitfield (for a modern player)
__________________
Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
Reply With Quote
Reply

  The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > Archtops

Thread Tools





All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:30 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Copyright ©2000 - 2022, The Acoustic Guitar Forum
vB Ad Management by =RedTyger=