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hi evererybody,
i'm new here and i would like you to ask for advice.
after playing for over 25 years mainly rock but also some jazz i want to buy my first
archtop guitar. i like the shape of the gibson es 175 and found the peerless gigmaster jazz that would fit my budget. unfortunately it's hard to find any good sound examples for this model on the net. when i do a search i find a lot of videos of the peerless monarch though, which seems to sound great.
now i am tempted to maybe go for a monarch even though it seems a bit limited soundwise.
can somebody tell me if i can get a decent jazztone, interms of having some acousic flavour out of a gigmaster or even upload some samples? how do these two models compare in playability, neck dimensions, sound? any thoughts about one or the two models are apreciated.
unfortunately i have no possibility to test them myself.
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01-13-2013 12:58 PM
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Talk to Lou at guitar n jazz. He is very good at "describing" sound or doing sound comparisons. He sells this line so he's well versed.
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Limited...??
Originally Posted by mr. g
Did you play it actually? Try one than we'll talk...
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hi peterpanico
with limited i meant in comparison to the gigmaster jazz which seems to me more versatile stylewise.
i would love to go out and play one but i am located in switzerland and peerless is not even distributed in this country.
the only archtops in a pricerange below 1500 i could find in stores were the ibanez artcores, epiphones, hagstrom, godin...
but if you could write some of your impressions about the monarch. i would especially be interested in some information about the dimensions and the feel of the neck. (maybe compared with your ibanez)
any input is apreciated. thank you.
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Hi G Originally Posted by mr. g
I'll try to answer to your dilemmas,about being stylewise...well we could debate forever about it,in theory just one guitar can make it all,then you will find that some of them are better suited for "many styles" than some others,this can be true for the Monarch but...what you play in the end with your axe? The answer lies there....
I can say that everything I can play with my Ibanez PM 100 or Gibson CS336,can be done as well with the Monarch.....
then if you wanna go through Fusion oriented kind of music,or other modern stuff wich is not "clean old mainstream Jazz", so you'll need overdriven sounds,pedals and the likes ( a la Carlton,Gambale,Ford,Ritenour etc..etc...) then a semihollow 335 style,be it Gibson or whatever brand you prefere,is probably best suited ( for comfort,avoiding feedbacks on stage etc..etc...)
but you know Steve Howe did it all with a 175....even Ted Nugent does with a hollobody,so.....
In my experience when I wanna do that stuff,I switch to the 336 or my Tele H-S,or even the Strato,but it's me!
About the Monarch's neck,it's a joy to play,just like the Ibanez PM 100 one ( way better than the Gibson IMHO,but I do not get along well with Gibson necks...) it's a bit wider and thicker than the Ibanez,but both are nearly perfect and confortable to play,but again it depends on you and your hands,we are all different in that aspect;
quality overall is amazing,don't wanna enter in this "dangerous waters" trying to compare brands and pricetags but....
I said it all..... Not sure about the price of the Gigmaster Jazz,it is probably half the 175's price tag.....I don't think you could tell the difference in a blind test ( actually playing it blinded,without knowing wich of the two is, not just hearing it!)
But the average "feticist" guitar player NEEDS to see a certain brand on the palette,or even WANT to possess the ICON...
it does not matter the cost or anything else,so....once I had a phase like that too,don't know why but I needed a 175...
all the 175s I tried did not blow my mind or my fantasy,and since they are not what we call "cheap"...
I realized then, that the 175 "Myth" ,ceased to exist for me,then I mainly use the neck pickup so.....
Hope to have cleared some doubts,anyway just ask about anything you wanna know,I'll be happy to answer.
Or if you happen to come down here in Tuscany for a vacation,just pass by,I'll let you try my guitars....
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I forgot...the only thing I would swap on the Gigmaster,are the horrible Epiphone humbuckers,two Classic 57s would make it
really shine!
I also advise you to try,if you find one,a Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin II,the one with two P 90 style Pups....it's a great axe!
Great quality at a great price.....
I have already too many guitars here, otherwise......GASSSSSS.....
Last edited by peterpanico; 01-15-2013 at 06:26 AM.
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hi peterpanico!
thank you for your detailed explanations and the invitation
i totally agree with you that there should be no rules for which instrument to use for which style. anyway, after playing solidbodys all my life, even jazz
and not buying a guitar for many years, i'm in the mood for a more acoustic sound. at least i already made my mind up that it should be a full hollowbody and nothing like a 335 for now.
but i'm still torn apart between the two peerless models...
you are also mentioning the gigmaster. so you have one yourself? i'm not so much a purist in terms that there must be the real deal displayed on the headstock, as long as it sounds and feels nice. anyway, can you compare it with the monarch, again
from the point of the feel of the neck? soundwise i guess that the monarch probably sounds warmer, more acoustic tone, no?
i'm actually not too fond about the godin's. i know it's secondary but the look doesn't appeal to me.
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Hi,unfortunately I do not own a Gigmaster Jazz,I've seen it and tried a bit this summer at Acoustic Guitar Meeting in the stand,for a brief moment,you know how it is in event like these....
lotsa people around,noise,so you cannot get much of an idea really,about
the neck it felt a bit slimmer than the Monarch's one,not thin just a bit slimmer,similar to the Pat Metheny Ibanez;
and the tone yes,if you are looking for a more acoustic thing,then absolutely go for the Monarch..also as I said,I rarely use the bridge pickup...
well you should at least try the 5th Avenue Kingpin II...you may well chenge your mind seeing it and "tatsing" iti'm actually not too fond about the godin's. i know it's secondary but the look doesn't appeal to me.
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Oh I forgot Mr.G,just look/hear, what a "cheap" guitar like this AG75,can do through a wonderfull Brunetti SingleMan 35,and through Grg's magic hands,do you really need a 175?
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MrG.Re your recent queries about the Gigmaster v Monarch. I had the same problem about 4 years ago as I still wanted to play some tunes acoustically. I like Peerless guitars as I knew that they had made for Gibson and Fender.So I tried all the range Monarch -Cremona- etc and finally chose the New York as it was the loudest when played as an acoustic. Just a thought!
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yeah man, i played the ibanez ak95. looks nice, comfortable neck, but very bright sounding and the electronics on it are just crap. the tone control is just on or off. also if you listen to it acoustically it just sounds plastic. but sure, with a nice amp and a little tweaking you can probably get out an ok sound. but then i'd rather just stick to my strat
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thanks for the input. yeah i probably have to figure out where i can go and play them. maybe plan on a trip to new york sometime soon
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It's always good to play them if you can, and that's a good excuse for a trip to New York City. While you're there you can check out some of the best jazz players on the planet.
You should know that these are two fundamentally different kinds of guitars. The Monarch is a solid top guitar with a floating humbucking pickup. It's basically an acoustic guitar with a pickup suspended above a free vibrating top. They usually avoid putting any hardware on the top so it can vibrate freely. These guitars can have a very sweet sound, but they're feedback prone above a certain volume. If you want more of the natural acoustic guitar tone, this is the one for you.
The Gigmaster is a laminated guitar with set humbucker pickups, like an ES-175. The pickup is screwed into the top, which isn't all that resonant anyway since it's laminated. It also has volume and tone controls mounted in the top. It's going to have more of an electric guitar sound, although it will have a hint of that hollow body sound, even when turned up through the amp. It will also will be relatively more feedback resistant than the Monarch, although any of these full-size archtops can feed back. These kinds of guitars have a more focused sound that cuts through the mix of a rhythm section better than a solid top guitar will. If you just play at home or just play solo gigs, you might not care about this, but it is a different animal than the Monarch.
Both types of guitar have their charms, and it would be good if you could play them to hear for yourself. I've heard nothing but good things about Peerless, so you might be very happy with either guitar. Good luck with your choice.
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Well a couple of knobs and a switch are easily replaceable with less then 10€ Originally Posted by mr. g
yeah man, i played the ibanez ak95. looks nice, comfortable neck, but very bright sounding and the electronics on it are just crap. the tone control is just on or off. also if you listen to it acoustically it just sounds plastic. but sure, with a nice amp and a little tweaking you can probably get out an ok sound. but then i'd rather just stick to my strat
there is people around here who is in love with Epiphones,wich are way worse than Ibanez budget archtops,on that side..
by what i meant is,you don't have to spend billions to get a nice sounding arc htop guitar,try for example the PM35,it's tagged at 700€ and it's a very good axe,or the Hagstrom HJ800....they may be easier to find around Switzerland,I mean Peerless are very good stuff but I would not go to N.Y. for sure,just because of them... (just joking)
G I have a Strat too, but it's a very different thing from archtops...really!!
@Jazzuki about this
They are meant to be played though an amp,the "bare" acoustic sound,once plugged in,does not mean a thing...MrG.Re your recent queries about the Gigmaster v Monarch. I had the same problem about 4 years ago as I still wanted to play some tunes acoustically. I like Peerless guitars as I knew that they had made for Gibson and Fender.So I tried all the range Monarch -Cremona- etc and finally chose the New York as it was the loudest when played as an acoustic. Just a thought!
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hi jonathan,
thank you for your detailed information. i'm actually aware of the different technical specs. originally i was looking for an es 175 style guitar and came across the peerless gigmaster. when looking for sound samples for this one i found a lot of clips of the monarch and was impressed by the sound of it. that was when i started comparing the two. but in the end i probably first have to determine what purpose i will use the guitar for since as you mention they are two different animals.
and of course new york is great and i will hopefully go there again sometime soon, but at the moment i don't have the possibility.
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thank you for all your suggestions!
i had an expierience with a hagstrom hj 800 that i don't want to get into. they sure are nice guitars. it was just a complicated story after all. i have this attitude that if things get too complicated, i'll drop it and look further. then it's probably not meant to be this way. and now that i found peerless guitars i'm actually already happy that things went this way
and of course, i wasn't comparing my strat with any archtop. i was just saying i would not buy any cheap archtop that doesn't convince me, like the ibanez artcores. then i'd rather not buy any new guitar and just stick to what i have.
hey and actually i found the detailed specs of the peerless necks. according to that the gigmaster jazz and the monarch have identical necks. they don't seem too thin though. they seem to have some flesh to the bone. definately thicker than ibanez necks
neck dimensions (peerless gigmaster jazz, monarch)
radius 400mm (15,75")
width at nut 43mm (1,69")
width at end fret 57mm (2,25")
neck depth:
21,5mm (085")@1st fret
21,9mm (0,86")@3d fret
23,0mm (0,91")@6th fret
24,1mm (0,95")@12th fret
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mr.g
Loads of useful posts here. As we all know , if you can try and compare before you buy you are likely to know "instantly" which sound / archtop is for you.
In so saying I appreciate "trying" a Peerless can be very dificult as stockists are relatively "limited".
I too researched the Forum extensively before my own recent Archtop purchase, . I tried Archtops that I could, "locally " , Ibanez Artcore ,Epi's, and concluded from numerous comments that I was unlikely to go wrong with a Peerless - the one make I couldn't get my hands on easily.
I knew the neck pu was the only one I was likley to use ,so within the Peerless range , and within my budget , the Monarch was the one for me. As I have said in iother posts , if it was good enough for Bill Nelson , who was I to argue.
Took delivery of mine a couple of months ago and play it at every opprtunity to the extent that in my current mindset , the remainder of my guitars are feeling unloved.
Matt Otten www.mattotten.com has certainly helped put Peerless in the "frame" , and with my set up ( Monarch though AER Alpha 40 ) , the sound is essentially "identical" to that which Matt produces on Youtube - even though he channels his through his PC for web recording
The Monarch is beautifully made and , in my opinion a joy to play.
Good luck
RobJazz
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Mr G,
quick flight to East Midlands Airport UK then onwards to Foulds music (or flight to Manchester, then onto Sounds Great Music)......I was there today and they have both!Speak nicely to the Dans and they could probably arrange the lift from the airport. Try, buy, fly (back to France) and then paddle across Lake Geneva with the guitar to avoid any Swiss/Europe taxes if they apply.
I just swapped the mini-humbucker out of my Monarch and replaced with an Aaron Armstrong PAF width floater. Result is very good but it is still a carved top sound not a laminate sound. Peerless have nice vanilla necks but the pickups need swapping out. There was only 1 Youtube track for the Gigmaster Jazz last time I looked but it will sound much better with a decent humbucker. Neither is ever going to sound like a Gibson whatever pickup you put in but both guitars will sound very good with a better pup.
Good luck Sir!Last edited by Chimera1to1; 02-01-2013 at 02:43 PM. Reason: other airports are available
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