Mid-Depth Jazz Archtop Guitars

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A jazz archtop guitar's tone is a composite of  the type of wood(s) used in it's construction, the. pickups, the material and design of the bridge, as well as the type of strings used and also the size and the depth (thickness) of its body.
Full-bodied electric jazz archtops like the Gibson 16" lower bout ES-175 and the 17" lower bout Gibson L5CES are known for their woody  tone, a tone much cherished by jazz guitarists. They are also very resonant. Both guitars  have a depth of about 3.5". One big disadvantage of deep body archtops especially if the top of the body is solid carved wood is that they are prone to feedback, which makes them less playable, especially for live performance on a stage.  L5CES have solid carved Spruce top while ES-175 have laminated Maple top which is less prone to feedback.
Guitar manufacturers have sought to reduce the feedback by reducing the depth of the body.
Here, we see two made in Japan archtops
(Left: D'Angelico NYL-5, Right: Archtop Tribute AT205MD ) which have a mid-depth (2.88")  body that is less than a full-bodied archtop yet deeper than a thin line semi-acoustic like the Gibson ES-335 which also has a center block, or the fully hollow Gibson ES-330 and Epiphone Casino.
In my opinion the slight loss in resonance, sustain and woodiness is not noticeable by non-guitar players, and worth it for making the guitars more performance-friendly.
p.s. these two guitars are part of my collection. Like most made-in-Japan guitars they are extremely well-made and with great attention to detail. I do use them for live performance as they have no feedback. The D'Angelico  NYL-5 is a rare guitar and much sought after by collectors.

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