ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

  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...

 Archtop jazz guitars are beautiful, and I have quite a large collection. Here are some of them with their names and brief descriptions in the captions. 2016 D'Angelico EX-63. Reissue of last model by John D'Angelico before his death in 1964 2023150th Anniversary reissue of legendary Epiphone Zephyr with the unique 'gold brick' pickups A 2024 Guild with the unique D'Armond Rhythm Chief pickup that gives typifies the sound of 1950's jazz scene in the USA A 2024 Ibanez Pat Metheny PM3C with the Charlie Christian pickup A 2024 Tokai copy of a Gibson ES175 extremely well-built and having a tone as good or even better than a Gibson A 1968 Ja[an-made Morris copy of a Gibon ES175. As good or even better than a Gibson.  A rare Blue-label 1974 Made-in-Japan Epiphone Casino. Beats paying 6000-8000 dollars for a USA made of the same. Just as good or even better from a player's perspective.  An extremely rare 18' giant archtop made in China by Farida. A copy of the ...

In the last seven years or so, one combination of archtop guitar, amplifier and speaker cabinet has come to be regarded by many mainstream jazz guitarists as de rigeur . From the jazz joints in clubby Manhattan, New York City to the boisterous jazz scene in Miami, Florida, and even in mid-west cities like Cincinnati, Ohio this combination or 'rig' as musicians call it has found a place in the equipment collection of every professional jazz guitarist and become a standard by which other rigs are to be judged. Granted a proficient jazz guitarist can play good jazz even on a Fender Stratocaster put through a Twin Reverb , still there is no other sound that evokes the magic tone of a jazz guitar better than an archtop , fully hollow-bodied and big-bodied, out through an amplifier and speaker that faithfully reproduces the acoustic qualities of such a guitar. In this aspect, the Acoustic Image Clarus Series 2R/ [ see http://www.acousticimg.com/ ] Raezers Edge [see http://ww...

The type of guitar on which a person plays jazz is usually an Archtop, a big hollow-bodied guitar that gives the fat, mellow tone typical of a jazz guitar. [for picture of an archtop, see my previous article on Eastman:Made-in-China jazz guitars]. Although no one can argue that archtops give a superlative tone for jazz, they do have one problem: feedback. That hollow body is very prone to feedback, and makes an expensive archtop [those with the carved instead of laminated top] become like an uncontrollable thoroughbred horse when playing in a live band situation. Trying to do some inspired playing while that big wooden body is vibrating underneath you, and could at any moment suddenly turn into a howling monster is impossible. Also, archtops are great when you are playing alone or in a very quiet small band setting. At open jamming sessions, in noisy clubs, and playing with drums and horns, archtop tones, though sweet, cannot cut through the noise. A Fender Telecaster, on the other ha...

The sound of an electric jazz guitar playing a jazz standard in the quiet of the night, with all those luscious chords and chord melody sends thrills and chills up and down my spine. The sound of an electric jazz guitar has come to epitomise urban sophistication, cool factor and maybe wealth. Look at all those advertising clips from banks to luxury cars or chic restaurants that use the sound of an electric guitar jazz quartet playing in the background. Look at the popularity of Diana Krall's band which always includes a jazz guitarist. And marvel at how her guitarists Russell Malone and Anthony Wilson so fittingly complement her music. In my view the sound of an electric jazz guitar has a charm and authenticity all it's own. An instrument in it's own right, distinct from the acoustic guitar from which it was derived. Until about 4 years ago, a jazz guitar player who wanted a good carved- top would probably have to buy an American-made Gibson . An L-5 would set you back abo...

"The Electric Guitar Sourcebook, by Dave Hunter [Backbeat books 2006] is a new book on what makes a guitar sound the way it sounds. Dave tells you that every part that goes into the making of a guitar contributes in some way to the total tone of the guitar. From all important factors like wood and design, to seemingly inconsequential factors like it's bridge, nut, scale length, and frets. The problem is that all these components inter-act in a non-linear way to give the total effect such that the whole tone is more than the sum of it's parts. This would seem to explain what many guitarists already know-that no two guitars will sound exactly the same. Or more importantly for them, why they must have a particular guitar. In an interview with Fender Custom Shop Master Builder, Chris Fleming, Hunter's question was " How much difference is made by the mere fact of a guitar having been played or not played over the years ?" Chris Fleming: That makes a difference, p...

The extraordinary powers that musicians have still mystifies me. For example, the fingerboard of the violin is only a few inches long. Each note is only a millimeter or less away from the next. So when you consider that an accomplished violinist can play at great speed and his fingers must always be in the correct position within 0.5 mm for him to play each note pitch accurately [note out by half a tone is still discernible as out-of- tune by the human ear], it is really a wondrous feat. But this is just a technical feat. Even more interesting is our ability to 'feel' the chord changes in a song. In a simple song with a Root chord, a 4th and a Dominant Seventh,[e.g. in C key, it is C, F and G7 chords it is usually no problem for an average musician to know when to change ]. But ask most musicians and they can't explain how they know when to change. It is just a 'feeling' and it's quite unerring in it's accuracy. Folk songs, church songs, country songs ...