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I actually prefer a 10' speaker to a 12' one for archtops, because there's less bass to worry about and more immediate response.
For solid state i'd get a Katana 50 (especially if you play electric guitar too), or a Dv mark LJ. Both cheap and nice sounding. Henriksens are better, but very expensive. The Bugera Ac60 is also great if you want an acoustic type sound, but it's discontinued.
I still prefer tubes though, a simple Fender pro junior will smoke all of the above in sound quality.
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03-17-2026 09:42 AM
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go to the thomann website. order these 3, keep the one you like and return the rest.
Bugera AC60 – Musikhaus Thomann
Boss Katana 50 Gen 3 – Musikhaus Thomann
Just a moment...
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I have a Taurus SH8 Qlone - it"s a great .Plays brilliantly with English cabinet with 12 call neodymium speaker-Matrix Elements.
Originally Posted by PaJaC
I also have two tube amplifiers from Elmuz with Jensen and Eminence speakers..Very good combos with lots of headroom.
With acoustic guitars, I use the AER XL.
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First, you have to understand power ratings. Any maker can rate an amp any way he or she chooses. In the “good old days”, power ratings were almost all in Watts RMS. This is a specific way to measure and state the actual steady state power output an amp could achieve and sustain with a given input signal level (eg 1 volt) and frequency (optimally across the entire audio band from 40 Hz to 10+ kHz) at a specific distortion level (eg 2% THD). A good tube amp in 1960 might have been rated 50 WRMS with a 1 volt input signal from 40 to 10 kHz at 2% THD. It was marketed honestly and reasonably as a 50 Watt amp. Originally Posted by PaJaC
A single mid frequency signal will drive an amp to higher output power than either a full frequency signal (eg white or pink noise) or a single frequency at either end of the spectrum. So to make one amp seem more powerful than the competition, we started seeing output power measured and rated @ 1000 Hz instead of a full frequency rating. The same “50W” amp above might now be rated 75W. Remove the distortion spec, push the amp with a higher input signal, and the same amp is now a “100W” amp. What’s left out is “at 1 kHz, 2 volt input, 10% THD”. Detailed specs are the norm for audio amps but never stated for guitar amps.
Along came “peak” power ratings, which is a rating of the absolute maximum power an amp will be pushing into a load just before it explodes (I exaggerate for effect). This is an instantaneous peak that cannot be sustained - the power supply couldn’t keep up, components would overheat and die, and the amp would be a pile of useless parts. This is the rating you most often see today. That “200W” BAM200 probably has an RMS output of about 100W or a little more into 4 Ohms and maybe 65 to 75W into 8 Ohms. The distortion is very low in modern amps up to their practical limit. Once you manage to push a class D amp into clipping, it sounds terrible. Many have fans and thermal shutdowns to protect against trying to reach that peak power in actual use, because you can’t.
Bottom line? Know exactly what power ratings you’re using when matching amps and speakers. Advertised power is almost never actual usable power. With careful use, you can drive a lot of “40W” speakers safely with a lot of “200W” amps. But the risk is yours - manage it well and you should be fine. Also remember that adding any distortion or O/D based effect increases the effective signal level, and high odd order harmonics (eg from square & triangle waves or induced by clipping) really rip at speaker cones and voice coils. If you use these effects, match speakers to amps more carefully and don’t push your luck.
There are a few good 6.5” drivers out there like the Eminence 6A that are rated to handle 100 WRMS into 8 Ohms, and some 8” units like the Eminence CannaBass that will take more than twice that. If building your own cabinet, there are many, many killer speakers for mobile audio from 4” up that handle amazing amounts of power and make great guitar speakers in well designed, solidly built cabinets.
In truth, most jazz guitar players rarely push 25W into our speakers. Unless you play in a band with a horn section, an aggressive B3, an angry drummer, &/or generalized severe hearing loss, you’re almost certainly not that loud. With master output level controls on many fine heads, you can limit your output level. Quilter Tone Blocks and others are now labeled in actual Watts to make this more practical. You just have to be careful.
Multiple drivers create a slightly “bigger” sound because the source of pulsations is wider. This produces an array of slight phase differences in the reflected sound compared to that from a single driver. Smaller drivers are closer to the classic “point source”, loved by many audiophiles because it makes for more precise stereo imaging (about which we don’t care). Multiple drivers also increase power handling, and loads can be combined to lower impedance (wired in parallel) for higher output from amps that can make it. Tube amps with transformer output coupling to the speaker make the same power into any load for which the transformer has a tap.
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Everything everyone says is pretty good advice. Remember- multi array speaker cabs and 4x10 or 4x12s came from a day when the speaker cab was the PA to get noise into a big crowd. They are also as a consequence of design quite beamy. In my limited experience, the jazz guitar amp and speaker use is not about beaming noise off a stage, but as much for the other instruments and yourself on stage. Many modern amps come with built in line out for the PA arrays to get your sound out there. Small 6.5 - 8 inch cone size is as I understand a wider dispersion as compared to a 12 inch cone. But they need to be designed for the required wattage and cone travel and in a well designed cabinet to utilise that excursion and wattage capability and also to get away from a boxy frequency response. Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
cheers.
M
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This relates to the "point source" phenomenon I mentioned. A perfect point source (i.e. sound radiating from an infinitely tiny point) has 180 degree dispersion equal in all directions. So the energy radiates in a perfect, continuously expanding sphere. If that point source is on a flat plane (like a baffle), the radiation spreads in half a sphere because the board blocks the back half. The larger the source is, the narrower the radiation pattern. Low frequencies tend to be reinforced disproportionately within the "beam", making larger speakers "bass heavy" compared to smaller ones when both are mounted on infinite baffles (i.e. a simple board with no sides or back). Proper cabinet design for a specific speaker can overcome this effect, which is how small speakers are made to sound like big ones. Originally Posted by EastwoodMike
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"these small speakers are around 25-40W" isn't quite true. The power handling of a speaker is a question of the engineering of the speaker. Eminence Beta 6A, for example, which is similar to the OEM speaker used in the Henriksen Bud and Blu, is 175W. You just have to look a little harder than you've looked. Originally Posted by PaJaC
Trust the manufacturers. They won't put an insufficient speaker with a too-powerful amp in a combo. If you cobble together your own rig, however, you're on your own.
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This is probably outdated advice from an old dinosaur not up on modern tech - but after trying a few inexpensive but unimpressive (for jazz archtop at least) solid state fenders (Champion 30, Frontman 25) plus a surprisingly passable Carlsbro Kenwood acoustic guitar amp, I finally settled on an old but mint condition 1 x 12" 30-watt Yamaha JX-30 solid state amp that I was lucky to find, I now realise. For an 'as new' amp I didn't feel £250-00 was excessive, though they can be found far cheaper than that if you look around.
Made in the early eighties, the JX-30 gives a lovely jazz archtop tone with nicely detailed sound - and feels far more powerful than 30 watts when extended (with more to spare), but is admittedly quite heavy compared to say an ultra-light DV Mark Jazz 12, which to my ears doesn't sound nearly as nice.
I did read somewhere that back in the day, Berkeley College of Music bought a dozen JX-30's for their practice rooms - which may or may not be true - but does sound credible, given how nice my one sounds with my Greco FA-95 archtop (Kent Armstrong floater fitted).
Worth hunting down and trying out, I would say - the brown Tolex amp cover and speaker grill weave looks very 'boutique' too !
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To the OP, did you ever get your Eastman AR372? If so how do you like it? Is it a new production one or an older used one? I'm thinking of ordering one as I want something a little more lightly built. Originally Posted by PaJaC
Hi everyone,
I’ve completely fallen head over heels for the sound of popular 16" archtops. I’ve ordered an Eastman AR372 and I’m thinking about getting a solid-state amp for it. I don’t want to deal with tube amps — I already have one tube amp and it annoys me how many things you have to maintain, adjust, or service.
So I’m looking for a solid-state amplifier — combo or head — that can be bought in the European Union. A lot of people choose Henriksen combos, but they’re unavailable in the EU. Used amps that are no longer in production are also welcome.
I would greatly appreciate any recommendations
Nice profile pic. Those who know, know.
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Thanks! The guitar will be delivered to me today. The guitar is new, absolutely never used, from a store in France Originally Posted by chris32895
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Please update on the site when you can! I want to know how the current ones stack up. Originally Posted by PaJaC
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I’m just getting back from work, and my guitar is waiting for me at home. I’m going to string it up with some TI 12-50s and I'll let you know in a few hours. Originally Posted by chris32895
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Awesome - happy NGD! Originally Posted by PaJaC
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Last time I played an Ibanez ASV10 (semi-hollow), and the neck is very similar. It’s your typical “C” shape like on Ibanez semi-hollows, Fender Stratocasters, etc. The neck is slightly wider than the Ibanez, but the difference is really subtle — and I say that as someone with small hands. Originally Posted by chris32895
Honestly, photos on the internet don’t do this instrument justice. At first I wasn’t too excited because sunburst is a color that’s been done to death on left-handed instruments. However, once the guitar arrives, the sunburst really stops being boring and actually looks very beautiful.
The binding is funny because it looks a bit like melon rind — it has light green stripes that remind me of that fruit or some kind of candy. Interestingly, I thought it would have a texture you could feel under your fingers, but it’s actually completely smooth binding with just a striped pattern.
The guitar sounds absolutely amazing, and it really does resonate acoustically, which surprised me since this is my first hollow body. Of course, it’s not a dreadnought acoustic, but you can hear this guitar louder than my other electric guitars. The overall sound quality is really high. The instrument has depth,and after switching to TI strings, the tone became darker and truly top-tier. However, it already sounded very nice with the original roundwound strings — brighter and more versatile.
In any case, there’s no way I would trade or sell this instrument for another one, because the bar set by Eastman is extremely high. I used to service guitars, and hundreds of instruments passed through my hands, though not many jazz ones. This guitar, however, is in a different league. There’s absolutely no sense of compromise here. It’s a precisely crafted instrument that sounds genuinely high-end, and I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Incidentally, the internal bracing is made of mahogany. I wouldn’t feel the slightest bit embarrassed taking this guitar on stage at a philharmonic concert (if only I had the skills
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As a left-handed player, I feel like I’ve already reached the highest level of mass-produced archtop instruments I’ve heard of. Beyond this point, there are only luthier-built instruments costing three times as much or more, and I don’t think the jump would be that dramatically large (though of course I take into account exotic woods, original designs, and hand-carved tops and backs from solid billets). Above this level, you’re really paying for artistry — or vintage guitars.
I’m extremely satisfied and have no intention of selling this guitar. The only thing that might change that would be if, sometime after finishing my law studies, I became a lawyer and genuinely had more money than I knew what to do with — then maybe I’d commission a custom luthier instrument, purely for my own whim and sense of beauty.
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Amazing, so happy you like it. That's the way all these NGD posts should go. Yes, the TS strings have a tendency to darken up any guitar, usually for the better. Originally Posted by PaJaC
As for the acoustic voice, you say you like it. Is there a little bass in it? I like it when the guitar's back vibrates against my chest when I hit the bass notes. Wondering if these have that.
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I don’t want this to sound like an insult — I just wanted to put it this way: I’m young, and I also work out, so I’m slim, and it’s hard for me to say whether I feel resonance on my stomach, because I hold the guitar slightly tilted, meaning I would really have to press it against myself to feel it there. However, I can easily say that I feel vibrations in the hand on the neck and slightly weaker ones in the hand resting on the body. You can feel that the neck, top, and sides transmit the vibrations to your hands, and you can definitely feel the sound of this guitar in your body. Originally Posted by chris32895
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Great! It's nice to hear it is not dead in your hands. Now you need an amp (which was the point of this thread). Originally Posted by PaJaC
I don’t want this to sound like an insult — I just wanted to put it this way: I’m young, and I also work out, so I’m slim, and it’s hard for me to say whether I feel resonance on my stomach, because I hold the guitar slightly tilted, meaning I would really have to press it against myself to feel it there. However, I can easily say that I feel vibrations in the hand on the neck and slightly weaker ones in the hand resting on the body. You can feel that the neck, top, and sides transmit the vibrations to your hand, and you can definitely feel the sound of this guitar in your body.
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I’ll be honest with you, even after a few days, I hate having to put this guitar down for even a moment. And I don’t think it’s just because it’s my first high-quality jazz guitar. It’s simply an outstanding instrument that inspires you to play. There are absolutely no compromises here. Originally Posted by chris32895
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Always a great feeling. Do you have a picture of the instrument? Originally Posted by PaJaC
I’ll be honest with you, even after a few days, I hate having to put this guitar down for even a moment. And I don’t think it’s just because it’s my first high-quality jazz guitar. It’s simply an outstanding instrument that inspires you to play. There are absolutely no compromises here.
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