Green (Blue) Archtop

[RJVB]

But maybe your builder wasn't up to that task.

From what I understand the OP isn't even interested in an optimal acoustic response, probably even the opposite.

I suppose that with (archtop) guitars too there is a point where making the top even thinner may still increase the sound quantity but probably at the expense of quality? I've known a viol player and beginning builder who built his first instruments with the top as thin as possible; they were powerful indeed but also had a hollow/cheap quality to their sound. (Which is more or less what a few very experienced builders I knew then had predicted.)

[Jimmy blue note]

From what I understand the OP isn't even interested in an optimal acoustic response, probably even the opposite.

I suppose that with (archtop) guitars too there is a point where making the top even thinner may still increase the sound quantity but probably at the expense of quality? I've known a viol player and beginning builder who built his first instruments with the top as thin as possible; they were powerful indeed but also had a hollow/cheap quality to their sound. (Which is more or less what a few very experienced builders I knew then had predicted.)

Yup. He went to far. In lutherie, there is a point where an overbuilt and "choked" top comes alive. It approaches a sweet spot, getting louder and more open with material removed. The luthier must know the effect of the graduations, archings, wood, tap tuning response and flex. Removing wood has two effects: The mass removed is a linear function, the flexibility is exponential. You take material off and you don't know when to stop or where to remove the material and in the carving, you'll literally pass the "Sweet spot" in a couple of shavings. Then the instrument goes from a tonal harmonically tuned guitar to a floppy piece of cardboard.

This is why beginner luthiers overbuild their first guitars.
This is why middle grade luthiers build pretty guitars that can't sing.
This is why a master grade luthier can consistently build remarkable and beautifully sounding instruments consistently. You can read the wood and your fingers and ears tell you when to stop carving.

That's why the good ones get the big bucks (big exception-Mark Campellone knows his stuff and he's got the master's touch and he manages to keep the prices down, same with the best Eastmans-bless them)

[RJVB]

Yup. He went to far.

Sadly I moved to France and we lost contact so I have no idea how well those first instruments survived, but I saw he's an appreciated builder nowadays.

[Jimmy blue note]

Sadly I moved to France and we lost contact so I have no idea how well those first instruments survived, but I saw he's an appreciated builder nowadays.

Classic apprentice luthier journeys and errors:
1) Graduations are wonky and inconsistent. This is learning to remove wood, to "read" wood and how to measure. It takes a LONG time to carve your first plates. It's slow and tedious.
2) Graduations become more smooth and consistent. Plates are carved too thick. This is because after you put in weeks of carving/measuring/carving/measuring, you become blind to the progress you're actually making. The last thing you want to do is carve too much out and ruin all your work, so when you notice some response, it seems fantastic and you stop before you ruin all the work you did. 99% of the time this is way too soon.
3) You build a few clunkers and realize you ruined all your work by not going far enough to free the sound; the plates are choking the sound.
4) Repeated occillations between to thick and too thin until you intuit the "zone" through experience, and the guidance of the master.
5) You can sense and know what you want to achieve. You then spend a journeyman's span of time until it becomes second nature. You can see the faults in your own work (and others') and you begin to correct them as a matter of course.
6) You know your hand, you know your craft and you know the ideal as your nature. You create your masterpiece and you are considered a master.

I guess this applies to lutherie, playing music, any living art.
Just because something can be marketed and sold doesn't necessarily mean it's a master's work. But sometimes it can be perfect for the task at hand.
I've been perfectly happy with instruments that did exactly what I wanted them to do.

[GuyBoden]

Guy and the Green Guitar.

[GuyBoden]

Here are a few theories on the “blue to green” phenomenon.

My favorite sounding and looking of all the “Blue Guitar Collection” is the Hollenbeck “Ebony n Blue”. Outstanding instrument.

That is a lovely looking guitar @GuyBoden. I really like a green burst finish on an archtop. Two of my favorites are the vintage German Neubauer and Rodebald Hoyer “Broadway”.

Last week, I took the pickguard off my Green (blue) guitar to install a floating Kent Armstrong humbucker.

Underneath the pickguard it was more of the original Blue colour than green, so direct sunlight maybe a possible explanation for the blue guitars turning green

[Mick-7]

Last week, I took the pickguard off my Green (blue) guitar to install a floating Kent Armstrong humbucker.

Underneath the pickguard it was more of the original Blue colour than green, so direct sunlight maybe a possible explanation for the blue guitars turning green

The scientific term for that is "photosynthesis," but this would be the first time I've heard of a guitar doing it. Hopefully you won't wake up one morning and find vines growing out of its f-holes.

[Spook410]

The Armstrong Humbucker is a hand wired $200 pickup.

It should sound much better than the Asian made “Armstrong” provided by Yunzhi.

Don't think Yunzhi offers an Asian (or any other) Armstrong. Things may have changed in the last few years, but what they used to provide was unusable and always went straight to the landfill.

On the up side, I learned to install my own electronics and became a big Armstrong hand wound fan for Benedetto type carved builds.