ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

Japanese Yen at all-time low. Guitars are cheap at Ochanomizu. Bought this 2017 King Snake Curtis Deep Body for about S$1600 (qualify for tax exemption with Passport). The specs are rather different from other ES175 clones. The thin Nitrocellulose finish, P90 pick up windings, bracing, etc. You can read about the specs in the attached text image. In summary a fat edgy tone with good sustain but without the feedback from the 85mm deep body.  

  2024 Archtop Tribute AT105 Classic with P90 The traditional sound of the jazz guitar is derived from the hollow body archtop (the wooden top of the guitar is arched) guitar that is the instrument of choice for most jazz guitarists. Musical qualities aside, IMHO hollow body archtop guitars are by themselves, one of the most beautiful objects  of art.  Here you see a Made-in-Japan Archtop Tribute ES-175 style guitar. Archtop Tribute is a brand developed by archtop fanatic Masaki Nishimura of Walkin.co.jp. Many archtop fans from all over the world make a pilgrimage to the legendary shop up three flights of stairs in the dark in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. To view his inventory of priceless vintage archtops. Gibson USA was the pioneer of jazz archtops but due to the high cost of production (especially wages) in ghe USA, it was no longer financially viable to produce archtops which have only a limited demand from jazzers and guitar collectors. . Thus they stopped production o...

  A MONSTER ARCHTOP. I got this monster made-in-China Farida 18" archtop from a friend in the UK relocating to Hong Kong and wanting to get rid of excess baggage. Farida is more well-known for their acoustic guitars, this archtop is no longer in production. You can gauge how huge this thing is by comparing with the '68 Morris copy of a Gibson ES175 (Left) which has a lower bout of 16.75 ", and the '78 Yamaha copy of a 17" Gibson L5-CES (Right) The Farida is heavy and won't fit into any standard archtop gig carrying-case. It is very well-made with an Ebony fingerboard, and very loud when played unplugged. And has an old-fashioned sound like those rhythm guitars in a 1930s big band going comp comp comp before electric guitars were invented. Looking at the tail-bridge, it's a copy of the 1939 D' Angelico New Yorker which probably has a valuation today of at least $50,000. Walking Down an Aisle with Eighty-Eight Guitars on the Celiing At the Hard Rock ...

L to R: 68 Morris ES175, 24 Ibanez PM 200, 16 D'Aquisto DQ-NYE, 78 Yamaha AE1200, 74 Epiphone Casino, 18 D'Angelico NYL-5