The Archtop Project

[fws6]

Was this discussed before ? Havent seen it 1955 D'Angelico New Yorker — The Archtop Project

[AllanAllen]

Huh, I always assumed the center of an X brace would be in the center of the bridge. Where it actually is makes more sense.

[Cunamara]

Interesting website, I am hoping for more profiles of instruments. I've been keeping an eye on it for the past month or so. I was really interested to see the asymmetrical bracing of the L-5 series. The sound samples are interesting, so far I most liked the L-5 for the kinds of things I would want to play.

[supersoul]

I was really interested to see the asymmetrical bracing of the L-5 series

that surprised me too, it goes way over on the bass side.
The taptone spectrum plots are also really interesting to me. All of the D'Angelicos had really steep valleys. The L5 was flatter in comparison. They all had clusters of peaks from 200-250hz.
I also liked the moving CT scans, seeing those instruments unfold, slice by slice.

[Woody Sound]

Interesting website, I am hoping for more profiles of instruments. I've been keeping an eye on it for the past month or so. I was really interested to see the asymmetrical bracing of the L-5 series. The sound samples are interesting, so far I most liked the L-5 for the kinds of things I would want to play.

Under the "Archive" there is a 1930 L5.

[RJVB]

That's (mostly) Tom Nania's project; I've been following his work on IG for a few years now and mentioned it here several times.

He's currently working for d'Addario.

[Cunamara]

I hope he gets more opportunities to do this with more instruments. It's fascinating to a layman who knows little about actually designing and building an archtop guitar, might be even more fascinating to those who do.

The voice of the L-5 in the sound sample was so different from many archtops: deep and resonant, almost like a classical rather than the bright cutting rapid decay tone many archtops have. But I am sure it can do that rhythm chop as well. I have been rather obsessed with that sound, I admit, and find myself looking around for old 16" Gibson acoustic archtops to try (rare birds around here, there is a very beat up 1950s L-50 at a local shop which I want to check out). Also interested in the Loar LH-700 which seems to approximate the old L-5.

And after getting my ES-175 I also notice that (as I get older) I am more comfortable with the ergonomics of that than with my 17" archtop, which has a great acoustic voice of it's own.

[RJVB]

The voice of the L-5 in the sound sample was so different from many archtops: deep and resonant, almost like a classical rather than the bright cutting rapid decay tone many archtops have.

I'm certain that many archtops can sound exactly like that if they were built to be a full-fledged acoustic instrument, not a tool with an almost single purpose in mind. I've heard archtops described as having the immediacy of a good classical, and my own impression when I rediscovered the instrument a few years ago via RMK's videos (starting with a Villa-Lobos prelude) was that they (can) sound just like a particularly nice, large guitar. Nowadays I've come to think of them of having the sound signature of a small-body guitar with the fullness of sound (and volume) you can only get from a large-body (anything above 16.2" or so is "huge" in my book).

[kamlapati]

The voice of the L-5 in the sound sample was so different from many archtops: deep and resonant, almost like a classical rather than the bright cutting rapid decay tone many archtops have...

Agreed. I've had listeners tell my that for years. I think it's the even response across the full range and the relative lack of high overtones compared to, say, a Martin flattop.

[gitman]

Thanks for posting this, it's very interesting indeed ! The sound of the guitars makes me think it was recorded employing a close-miking technique with a sensitive condenser microphone. The player uses a very light touch and even then the mids really come through ! What I miss is the clear bass response - for that one would have to get the top really moving but since this type of instrument was meant (and built) to be played with a flatpick and a strong attack it is not a big surprise. The sustain and tonal richness of the '55 New Yorker is remarkable though, the L5 I find rather dull and flat sounding. It will be interesting to hear the Monteleone guitar which looks very similar to the model that Paul Ricci plays.

[Cunamara]

I suspect that to modern ears we may prefer X-braced rather than parallel braced instruments. X bracing has been the norm for a long time now.