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While it might be brighter than a Gibson its not an edgy guitar. You can really get wonderful tones from it. Its just a different animal. As someone else mentioned, if its to metalic sounding try flatwounds. I love the roundwound tone but some dont. If you like rounds try Thomastik Bebops. They are like a half round. Once you have a few hours on them they break in to a nice mellow tone with resonance. Embrace the metal
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02-16-2026 02:50 PM
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Yes, sometimes I do this. I think this achieves my best sound, when playing solo and being creative. But when I want to strum swing style, with more of a thump attack, nothing is as good as a pick.
I have quite a few V-picks that I experiment with for different sounds and approaches. Also a couple of picks by Hense. Actually, the strangest thing is that one of my Hense picks (Jazz Mundo) turns out to be the best pick I have for playing when plugged in. But when I am not plugged in, it feels and sounds like I'm making no connection with the strings, and so I usually put it away. But when I plug in and use that pick I get a smooth, yet connected sound and even feel like I'm connecting with the strings well.
It's the only pick that I have this dichotomous experience with.
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But E1 and B are plain unwound steel. The OP clearly says that " I find that the first two strings are really loud and steely sounding". Flats won't help that since at least the first 2 strings are unwound.
Originally Posted by Sigmund451
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Anyway, bright and metallic compared to expectations was also my first experience with my hollowbody Artcore Ibanez unplugged. A few years and experiments with varying action and relief, change of bridge from TOM style to wooden, pick stiffness, picking location and picking attack has changed things to the better. Partly I think the sound has improved to the better and I may also have gotten used to the way it sounds unplugged. I found the picking/plucking technique to the what changed tone most.
If I want a really smooth sound I play throgh an amp - even at quiet levels.
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Coming from classical guitar i used to play the L-5 in a certain way that works fine for acoustic playing, now playing amplified requires far less strength. You cant EQ a brightly played guitar to sound dark indeed. It must be played dark too, so experimenting with picks and picking techinic is a great idea.
On the videos i seen on internet it doesnt sound bright and thin at all. It might not be an Super400 amplified, but if you stick into it a set humbucker it will sound amazing, or you might find it good enough with the mini humbucker (i find all guitars sound thin with them by the way).
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12th Fret has some options that would be at least worth checking out. Bass amps can actually be quite good for jazz guitar; they've got some Ampegs and an Acoustic Image Contra at a very nice price. I have an AI head that I have had for 15 years at least and it's been solid and dependable, but the caveat is that the guy who designed and built the amps passed away a few years ago. I don't know what servicing options there are. Acoustic amps often have a lot of EQ options on the high end for dealing with piezo pickups; I once got a really good sound through a Fender Acoustisonic with my archtop, which was also a very bright axe. I've never tried a Fishman but there are a couple options listed on their website. I thought of them as Ed Bickert was one of my guitar heroes and he had his guitar worked on there.
Another option would be adding a parametric EQ in front of the amp you already have to shape the high end frequencies; this would be a very reasonable cost option.
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Yes, with the Fender Princeton Chorus amp I have, I had to add a Boss Equalizer pedal. It does make a big difference, but at some point I am going to go shopping for a different amp.
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James,
if you decide to upgrade the pickup on that Eastman, Kent Armstrong(handmade in Vermont) makes an overwound version of his 12-pole adjustable PAF, called PAF-0, which is perfect for the extra bright Eastmans. It would require routing a larger hole in your fingerrest since the pickup consumes larger real estate.
I didn't see if you responded with what strings you have on there but rather than going with darker flatwounds, to address your specific situation, i suggest you go with a roundwound brighter set which will allow you to more heavily eQ the treble of the amp without making the flatwound strings boomy. This results in a more balanced approach to darkening your tone since the plain strings are presently so much brighter than the wound strings.
Lastly, you MUST have a tone control, full stop. I have archtops without it and eQing at the amp just does not affect the resonant frequency of the guitar signal the way a classic .022uF cap can. I enlisted a pedal wiz in the Netherlands who whipped up a mini tone control pedal, which I've found to be superb for every guitar because it allows me to switch between 5 different values of capacitors in real time.
Good luck!
MikeLast edited by mikeSF; 02-18-2026 at 01:25 PM.
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Perhaps worth trying to swap out the B and E strings with a higher gauge.
Seems to do the trick for Rich Severson
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Hello Mike,
Thank you for your comments. Rich Severson really does have a beautiful sound and touch!
When I bought my guitar, it had flat wounds and I really loved how they felt, but as time went on I graduated to half rounds and then to round wounds. I currently am using D'Addario Nickel Wound XL Jazz Medium ( 13 . 17 . 26w . 36 . 46 . 56 ). I prefer the brighter sound of wound string to flats. My issues with brightness and a steely sound has been only with the first two strings. Changing the gauge has not really changed this for me. At the moment I am liking the feel of the heavier strings.
The pickup I have is one I had changed from the original factory model Kent Armstrong ( which had no poles ) to a Lollar pickup that has 6 poles. ( floating mini humbucker ).
When I was shopping for the pickup I saw the 12 pole Kent Armstrong and might have chosen it but I found customer service, in terms of communicating with me, poor with the the people I spoke with at Kent Armstrong, where as the customer service with Lollar was excellent. So I went with Lollar.
(Note: At the time I was shopping for the pickup, when I went on the Kent Armstrong website, I kept being redirected to another supplier that was selling the the Kent Armstrong products, however now I see that Kent Armstrong has their own website. Maybe that was part of the customer service issue I was experiencing).
So far, I have concluded that unplugged, it is the pick that makes the biggest difference with my sound, or use no pick.
Plugged in, I need a different amp.
I did feel robbed of a tone control, and noticed that Eastman started adding tone controls after 2005 to their archtops.
Maybe at some point I will have one installed.
James
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Kent licenses his designs to some manufacturer and those pickups are no good. The ones I'm talking about are handmade(to order) by Kent himself in his shop, and he answers his phone and will build any custom pickup you want, very affordably. He stocks the PAF-0. Originally Posted by James Cosman
I know it's after the fact, but for future searchers to this thread, his customer service is unbeatable and he is a fine supplier in this industry. Anybody who's interested, PM me and I'll give you his direct phone number. Not sure it should be posted here by me, that's all.
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Thanks Mike!
I like my Lollar pickup. In terms of the bright, steely sound I get from the first two strings, I'm sure it is supposed to be that way, it just has meant that I have to be careful how I touch/play those strings. Not used to such dynamics!
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Lighter strings do not automatically translate to brighter tone. Some jazz greats got wonderful tone from lighter strings, e.g. Ed Bickert used 10s with a plain 3rd and Jim Hall used 11s IIRC. Mechanically, lighter strings should actually produce fewer high harmonics because they're not as stiff. LIghter strings and a smooth fat pick made of nylon, polycarbonate, casein, or a similarly warmer sounding material combine to produce a nice, warm jazz tone with more sustain than you get with thicker, stiffer strings. Part of the "thunk" in the classic CES amplified tone is from use of heavy strings, because their vibration decays faster after being plucked. So you might try going to 11 and 13 to see if that mellows out the tone a bit on your guitar.
If you want custom Kent Armstrong hand wound pickups, you need to call his shop directly. He's still in Vermont (or, at least, he was last year when he sent me a few pickup surrounds to experiment with on one of my guitars), and his website is now Armstrong Pickups. I suspect you were contacting WD, which is a major outlet for his production stuff. For hand wound KA pickups and personalized interaction, call the Vermont shop (802-843-1065). I can't imagine that you'll be disappointed with the response, advice, and products you get. Having said that, Lollar makes wonderful jazz pickups and they're also great people with whom to deal.
You have a few alternatives to add a "tone control" noninvasively. Cables have enough capacitance to affect tone, and a longer (15 to 20') inexpensive cable will add enough to audibly roll off your highs. I say "inexpensive" because the boutique cables are almost all low capacitance. You can also just add a capacitor to one end of a cable, bridging the hot and ground leads. The general range is 0.022uF to 0.047uF. But a bag of assorted values is about $6 on Amazon, and you can play with them to your heart's content until you find a tone you like. A good graphic EQ pedal will let you do even more than a simple tone pot. Picking gently will also give you a warmer tone, and doing it over or close to the pickup will make it even more so. Unless I want a brighter tone for fusion, blues etc, I pick over the end of the fingerboard.
See what you think of my 810CE7's tone. It has TI JS113 flats plus a 75 Chrome 7th and the original KA floater (no exposed poles). It has a tone control that I keep set at about 3/4. I also keep the guitar's volume pot at about 3/4, because the tone is a bit warmer when the pot is not wide open.The pick is a Dunlop Jazztone 204, and it was recorded through a BAM200 head on a close mic'ed Toob Metro BG+. The choice of material was to demonstrate how well the little Toob keeps low tones separate and distinct - so it's a bit bass heavy. But I think the unwound strings speak for themselves in this:
Here's the same guitar through a home built small 1x12 cabinet loaded with a Bag End 12" driver and driven by my BAM200.
I absolutely love its tone.
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They sound great even played through my phone without headphones. Nice playing too!
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Thank you for your sharing your experience and these two tracks Rob! They sound great! I especially like the second one!
James
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It's my pleasure. But I wanted you to hear what my E1 and B sound like, so you could compare. Do you hear the same brightness and steely character in mine that you do in yours? I'll record an acoustic clip when I get a chance, so you can hear it unamplified. Originally Posted by James Cosman
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I thought I was getting thanked there, for the two clips. I’d be happy to be!
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By the way, I have an Eastman 910CE arriving tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it is on the treble-bass scale.
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I thought i remember you having a 910 years ago or was that just the acoustic version?Irregardless,i hope you enjoy your new guitar. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
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That’s right, Chaz. That was a stunning guitar, but very loud (normally a good thing for an acoustic archtop). It got sold along with a few other guitars, lutes and a theorbo, when I became ill and my wife wasn’t working either due to her illness.
So now things are better for both of us, and I’m returning to playing. The cutaway version of the 910 with the floating pickup is carved differently, not so open and loud, I’m told, and should fit me perfectly, at least that’s what I’m hoping. We shall see.
I took interest in this thread in case it is too thin and trebly. It has been an interesting read. Best wishes to James! I hope both you and the guitar get attuned to one another.
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I love my 910,its one of my go to the grave guitars.Even though prices are up on the 910,i still think it's one of the best buys out there.I haven't been able to try the new torrified wood version,i'd be interested to see if soundwise it makes a difference. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
That’s right, Chaz. That was a stunning guitar, but very loud (normally a good thing for an acoustic archtop). It got sold along with a few other guitars, lutes and a theorbo, when I became ill and my wife wasn’t working either due to her illness.
So now things are better for both of us, and I’m returning to playing. The cutaway version of the 910 with the floating pickup is carved differently, not so open and loud, I’m told, and should fit me perfectly, at least that’s what I’m hoping. We shall see.
I took interest in this thread in case it is too thin and trebly. It has been an interesting read. Best wishes to James! I hope both you and the guitar get attuned to one another.
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The sound in your two tracks is very balanced and smooth. I think in addition to what you have done with your setup it is also due to you as a guitarist.
I have much less experience with both jazz and with amplification. Something I have shied away from for years. Most of the time I play my archtop unplugged. When I do I enjoy the very different sound I get but struggle with dynamics and clarity. I get clarity but too much punch, if I touch the string too hard. Or I control the dynamics but lose the clarity. My Fender Princeton Chorus is very punchy. I have Bass and Treble at 0 and , with Mid being at 3. My Boss Equalizer does control the dynamics but I find that I do lose clarity. The sound seems more synthetic.
Your sound is very nice. Clean, clear, bright without being harsh.
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Thank you Rob, I hope your new guitar works out for you. I love my Eastmen, but I just have not yet learned how to play it yet, especially amplified.
Having so much more experience with flattop guitars, both nylon and steel, where the dynamics are very dependant on what you put into them, having the archtop guitar being so sensitive continues to evade me.
So far.
James
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I will add to this very civilized conversation that a couple of years ago a 1934 Orpheum archtop guitar appeared at the 12th Fret guitar store in Toronto, on consignment I guess. It looked very old with the varnish worn of in many places, but it played easily and beautifully and it sounded great! Very balanced with lots of clarity, response and projection, and not at all difficult to control.
I only played it acoustically so I don't know how it would sound plugged in.
I wish I had had the money, as I thought it an excellent acoustic guitar! It was selling for $2300 Canadian I think.
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I believe that most of your concern is adapting your playing technic to the new thing.
As someone said there is no gain (for me) to go further 012.
013 is too stiff for me, and it also loses sweetness (said by my father who is not a musician). 012 is the gauge where you get everything for.me, even in flat top acoustics
I had a Fender Princeton chorus like 20 years ago. Is not the same as a Fender Princeton.... if i am not wrong it was a brighter amp. Boosting the mids is the key there
I would first try to get the sound you want coming from your right hand and then from the amp.
One thing i love from Polytone is the low cut, this mid focused boxy sound we asociate to jazz guitar comes from it. Not only the high cut.
A boost around 400khz makes the trick too, sadly Fenders amps cuts around 650khz
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