Bishop - cool custom archtop

**Hammertone** · 09-11-2020, 04:04 AM

They're doing amazing things with 3D printers these days. Or they're writing songs of love. Or something like that.

I spent some time with my pal Ben Bishop, a fan of nice archtop guitars and a wonderful jazz musician, playing his very new 17" archtop guitar, and thought I'd post a few quicky pix, with his blessing. I think that some of you are interested in such things. Better shots to come soon enough.

The phrase "in the tradition" comes to mind. Anyway, it was refreshing to play a guitar specifically built to generate as much acoustic sound as possible. And the operation was a success. It sounds great. It plays great. Wow, just wow.

Specs are essentially Johnny Smith, but with 3 1/4" rims and a shellac finish. Plenty of decorative cues from some classic instruments. A few small bits to be adjusterated. Not yet another trendy version of a 16" L-5. More on this to come, but ... wow. This really made my day, and no unlucky punks were involved.

**cmajor9** · 09-11-2020, 05:38 AM

Very nice! Would love to hear it.

**Hammertone** · 09-11-2020, 05:52 AM

**2bornot2bop** · 09-12-2020, 01:09 PM

What did 3D printing have to do with the guitar. You glossed over that fact. I dig the look. Touches from a Guild, and an L5. Gorgeous result!

**Hammertone** · 09-12-2020, 03:01 PM

The old school method of instrument-building requires a lot of work: rough-carving front and back plates; planing, scraping, and sanding the graduated plates to get them to be the right arch and thicknesses; installing the top bracing; tuning the plates, and so forth. Rims need to be thicknessed, steam-bent and so forth. Necks need to be glued up, rough-carved, then hand-carved to just the right size, shape and feel. After the box is glued up, the recarve needs to be worked on some more. Even with the help of various machines and jigs, that is a lot of work, and the fine scraping and sanding to get the plates and the neck just right are quite time-consuming. Some particularly gifted luthiers have a real feel for the wood and are able to build remarkably responsive acoustic instruments. It requires talent and hard work. It requires full immersion into the world of the wood.

Now, all one needs to do is program all of that into the 3D printer and - presto! - a remarkably responsive acoustic archtop guitar like this one appears. Hey! Wait a minute, that's not how it works, and that's not what happened here!

**2bornot2bop** · 09-14-2020, 09:01 PM

Damn, that archtop looks gorgeous! It looks typically 70’s Guild. But with a Cupid’s bow like it should have!

**gitman** · 09-15-2020, 07:24 AM

I dig your wordage, Dude !

**Kirk1701** · 09-15-2020, 01:06 PM

That's very attractive. Very much a Johnny Smith style instrument. Sort of a cross between the Guild and Gibson models.

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