NAMM-2025 & archtop guitars

[Hammertone]

It came. It went. Nothing particularly earth-shattering that I saw. Very little archtop guitar representation, which is not a surprise. I didn't have time to make it downstairs to Hall E, unfortunately - maybe there was something there among the lovely flattops from Collings, Santa Cruz, et al. The folks at Ibanez (as per a related thread) had a couple of models. Eastman had a few. D’Angelico as well. That's it. Höfner gave up on these before Covid (but the Jazzica will be back, one of these days). They're making a handful of German Verythins, but I don't consider laminated semis with blocks to be in the same category as hollow archtop guitars. Sure, there are a few factories making inexpensive laminated and pressed archtops, but I think the small independents will continue to carry the flag for now, for carved, hollow, archtop guitars.

[Hammertone]

For the record, the Verythins are Verynice.

[jim777]

Is that one on the left in the pic a relic, or an old guitar? It looks great

[mr. beaumont]

I miss my Verythin from time to time. It was a great guitar, I just wasn't playing it very often for some reason...

[Hammertone]

Is that one on the left in the pic a relic, or an old guitar? It looks great

The one on the left is a new guitar that has been reliced. Both are new Verythins, finished in shellac (like violins), with solid spruce center blocks, laminated front and back plates, one-piece maple necks, and ebony boards. According to Höfner, rim depth is 30 mm (1 3/16"), nut width is 44 mm (1.73+"), and scale length is 644 mm (25 ?"). For convenience, in the past, I've called it 1 1/4" rim depth, nut width typically between 1 11/16" and 1 3/4" and scale length of 25 1/4". The takeaway is that these are very different in sound and feel compared to Gibson ES-3x5 guitars.