Green (Blue) Archtop

[GuyBoden]

New used Guitar Day.

I couldn't resist this Green (Blue) guitar.

It arrived today.

Here's some quick photos.




17 inch, carved solid spruce top, maple sides and back, ebony fingerboard, 25.5inch scale.

No plastic binding.

[marcwhy]

Wonderful, congrats!
Maker?

[2bornot2bop]

Is that a Yunzhi?

[GuyBoden]

Apparently, it was originally Blue, but then turned Green.

[Gitfiddler]

Apparently, it was originally Blue, but then turned Green.

I've read about how blue archtops transition to Green over the years. As an owner of a beautiful Heritage H575 blue-burst archtop, can anyone explain why this occurs? I don't care for green archtops and love the book "Blue Guitar, the Chinery Collection".

[Cunamara]

I've read about how blue archtops transition to Green over the years. As an owner of a beautiful Heritage H575 blue-burst archtop, can anyone explain why this occurs? I don't care for green archtops and love the book "Blue Guitar, the Chinery Collection".

Pretty much all the Chinery guitars have aged into green, as did the original D'Aquisto that inspired the collection. Instability of the dye, ambering/aging of the nitro topcoats are two theories given.

[jazzloverfat]

i like that color quite a lot. for some weird reason it makes me think of Maleficent... maybe the top of the headstock? but i don't get the heart cut-out.

[Spook410]

Looks like a single coil Armstrong.. how does it sound?

[Sleeko]

Blue to green I can sort of understand. But this transformation I just don’t get. That’s drastic to the point I thought Tal decided to go blonde.

[Gitterbug]

Interesting. No faux scrolls and the PU switch where it ought be in the production versions as well. The prototype history is probably well documented somewhere.

[Marty Grass]

Blue to green is commoned in nitrocellulose finishes. The white binding yellows in time. It may also be the blue dye that changes.

I have one blue guitar over ten years old that has no green. It was kept in a case though. Another older one is showing some green.

I had a blue Super Eagle that was greening out also.

[Herbie]

No no, You all got it wrong, it is Blue in Green, not other way round!

[GNAPPI]

I've been listening a lot to McLaughlin lately. My fave.

[RJVB]

Colour aside, what is that guitar and how does it sound?

[GuyBoden]

Colour aside, what is that guitar and how does it sound?

My latest guitar acquisition takes it's design inspiration from the famous Jimmy D'aquisto Blue Centura guitar. (I'm waiting for more detailed build info.)

Next week, I'll try an Armstrong floating Humbucker, so I can compare the Armstrong single and the humbucker sounds. The guitar came with three ebony pickguards for acoustic, single and humbucker.


The inspiration comes from this famous Jimmy D'aquisto Blue Centura guitar. (See pic below.) (It looks a bit green too.)

[marcwhy]

Colour aside, what is that guitar and how does it sound?

[I asked that in post #2! ]

[58flame]

Who made it?

[2bornot2bop]

The Armstrong Humbucker is a hand wired $200 pickup.

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

[Jimmy blue note]

So this is a late Jimmy D' inspired instrument taking its design from those late phase guitars.
It's pretty. But who did the build? How close does it come to the actual sound of the Jimmy guitar? Who did this? Imitation is nice but it's an instrument; the real metric of success is "Does it SOUND the way you hoped?" Who made it and how old is it?
Could you provide this information? I'm quite curious.

[GuyBoden]

So this is a late Jimmy D' inspired instrument taking its design from those late phase guitars.
It's pretty. But who did the build? How close does it come to the actual sound of the Jimmy guitar? Who did this? Imitation is nice but it's an instrument; the real metric of success is "Does it SOUND the way you hoped?" Who made it and how old is it?
Could you provide this information? I'm quite curious.

All I know is that someone in England had a guitar built based on the famous Blue Centura guitar. Unfortunately, the colour changed to green after it was built. He decided he didn't like the guitar, so I bought it.

At present, I'm fitting a Kent Armstrong humbucker, I'll make some recordings in the future.

[GuyBoden]

The Armstrong Humbucker is a hand wired $200 pickup.

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

Mr. Kent Armstrong has stated that his Asian pickups are all wound by a person whom he personally trained, and that he personally uses that person's parts in his own workshop unless working on something outside of the ordinary.

@Cunamara posted the actual quote here a couple of years ago.

Well, as of 3/2019, Kent Armstrong USA posted:

"Just a FYI Kent has not licensed anyone in China to build his pickups......He does have a Korean partner who builds and sells Kent Armstrong pickups which he builds to Kent's specifications...."

and then Kent posted:

"I saw the posts asking about my pick-ups made abroad.
In answer to all, my Korean partner builds to my specifications faithfully. I use his parts here in Vermont to make conventional pick-ups like humbuckers and single coils. I also use them to prototype for customers wanting to have them made in Korea.

I can promise you that my Korean ones are every bit as good as the ones I would make here in my shop.

Most sincerely Kent Armstrong"

Kent Armstrong Pickups


FWIW.

And that’s exactly what he told me. When I got my Eastman 810, I was curious about potential improvements in pickup sound quality for it, given how many posts we’ve seen here about the “need” to replace the pickup that Eastman puts on them. I was and still am very happy with the sound - but just as things could always be worse, they could also be better.

So I called Kent to discuss a “hand wound” upgrade. He told me that the stock ones on Eastmans (identifiable by the printed info on the label - the ones he makes himself have hand written labels) are no different from the floaters he makes himself. He suggested that if I like the sound I have, there’s no reason to waste money on one that differs only in who made it.

He offered to custom make a new one if I could describe exactly what I wanted to change. But I honestly can’t think of a specific change that would make me any happier than I am now.

Kent Armstrong (or maybe it was Aaron, I forget which one) chimed in here on a pickup thread not too long ago to say that the MIK pickups use the exact same components from the same suppliers as the hand-wound ones, and that the only differences are the hand-winding vs automated machine winding (not young female factory-worker winding) and the ability to get custom-spec pickups from the hand-wound operation. I can't vouch for this being true, but I can vouch for him having said it.

John

Interesting

[RJVB]

The Blue Centura is an acoustic instrument and this looks like one too. IOW, you can already answer the questions how it sounds... unless you did with someone in England [...] decided he didn't like the guitar ...

[GuyBoden]

The Blue Centura is an acoustic instrument and this looks like one too. IOW, you can already answer the questions how it sounds... unless you did with someone in England [...] decided he didn't like the guitar ...

True, but I'm using it with pickups, I've put some D'addario wound strings on the guitar.

It sounds ok acoustically, but I've heard much better, I had a carved top Jimmy Foster that sounded much better than this guitar.

[Jimmy blue note]

All I know is that someone in England had a guitar built based on the famous Blue Centura guitar. Unfortunately, the colour changed to green after it was built. He decided he didn't like the guitar, so I bought it.

At present, I'm fitting a Kent Armstrong humbucker, I'll make some recordings in the future.

Thanks for the answer on that GuyBoden, I'm always curious about different luthier's take on the late acoustic D'A's because they were, in addition to radical looking and beautiful guitars, much more than the consmetics. Their graduations were very thin, almost as if Jimmy D realized that every archtop before that point had been overbuilt to find the best acoustics.
People like the looks but very few luthiers have the chops to pull off the thin tops needed to get that pure and rich woody acoustic voice that has that enormous dynamic range and nuance.
When I worked with Al Carruth, we did regraduations on other guitars, but only on ones we acquired and felt the right to experiment on. There's an unwritten code that says you don't touch another luthier's graduations; they are that builder's most personal voice. But on instruments I acquired and wanted to see how much hidden acoustic potential I could unlock, we'd regraduate.
It's shocking how much richer a carved archtop could be improved with properly graduated plates. But maybe your builder wasn't up to that task. Anyway, it's a very pretty guitar and it may be that it was destined to find its best voice coupled with a pickup.
Good luck and enjoy your new guitar!

[Gitfiddler]

Thankfully my 2007 Heritage H575 BlueBurst has not shown any signs of turning green.

This leads me to ask if it is the type of lacquer applied to the finish or a possible reason blue archtops gradually fade to a greenish hue??