White Archtops

[Archtop 13]

You may have seen this posted elsewhere. Just finished the Guitar on the left. It is the 2nd in a continuation of the Albino Guitar series. Here they are both together. Thought maybe some Jazz guys would like to see them


A Couple more

[Broyale]

Nice guitars!
But, please...dump the Bigsby.

[Archtop 13]

I understand, they aren't for everyone.

[edh]

Very nice.

I do have agree, dump the Bigsby.

[mr. beaumont]

Bigsby's are to guitars as moustaches are to women.

I'll have mine without, thank you.

but these are pretty sexy, in a French chick sorta way.

[edh]

to funny mr. b.

[hot ford coupe]

Shades of the White Falcon. No Bigsby for me either.

[redwater]

Very apealing guitars! Johnny A would kinda like these...

A few years ago I built a solidbody with the same sharp edges on the headstock:
Unfortunately they broke after the first contact with a hard surface.

[Archtop 13]

Tough crowd! I can build you one with a Birdseye tailpiece, if you like. Haven't had any issues with my headstocks. They are almost all maple, though. Some woods can break off easier, mahogany. I think most people are pretty careful with their instruments, anyway.

[Woody Sound]

Tough crowd! I can build you one with a Birdseye tailpiece, if you like. Haven't had any issues with my headstocks. They are almost all maple, though. Some woods can break off easier, mahogany. I think most people are pretty careful with their instruments, anyway.

Now *that's* hot! I love the plain ebony fingerboard on the black guitar.

[redwater]

One of the most beautiful Archtops, at least for one guy of the tough crowd!

[GNAPPI]

Yeah, Bigsby's are too much for me too. Weird how tough it is to buy a Gretsch nowadays WITHOUT a Bigsby. Generally I don't go for painted archtop guitars either. Too much finish keeps the wood from resonating. Now a semi-hollow, no problem

[Archtop 13]

It takes no more finish to do color. It's just pigment in the second coat

[GNAPPI]

It takes no more finish to do color. It's just pigment in the second coat

Nice to hear that yours are done that way, I have seen a chipped paint job on an archtop that looked like it was painted by General Motors :-)

[Drifter]

Beautiful guitars, all of them. And I usually don't like painted archtops either, especially white ones. To me white archtops usually look like guitars for pimps or snobbish, overstyled boasters but not these! They have a very consistent, harmonic design, everything falls into place, including the Bigsby (yes, I like Bigsbys). The violin like f-holes, the very light brown fretboard (is that rosewood?), bridge base and truss rod cover made of the same wood, fretboard inlays with very little contrast to the wood, the modern style cupid's bow, a very modest binding that's not hard on the eye, and of course nickel hardware, gold would have ruined it all. I also like the overall shape - it's not Gibson but doesn't look like a copy either, it's a very original, stylish shape. In fact, I've never seen a nicer florentine cutatway. The headstock shape takes a little getting used to but it's not out of place at all, just different. There's just one thing that bothers me: The pickups seem to be very close together. Could it be a Byrdland scale? Oh yeah, and I don't like the transparent pickguard on the P90 version. I'd prefer it without a pickguard.

The black one is beautiful, too. Very nice tailpiece with that moustache shape. And nice, modern f-holes! Usually I'm not a big fan of f-hole experiments but those look great. Nice work!

[Archtop 13]

Thank you. Yes, the pickups are close together. This one was requested with 24 frets. So...pickups had to be close or one had to be left off. What I do is custom. Have to make things work, sometimes. Thanks for the thoughts. I like to hear people's dislikes & likes(of course)

[Archtop Guy]

Love your work. Everyone, check out his website. Very nice guitars.

[Hoji]

Good looking recurve there, Archtop_13.

[Archtop 13]

Thanks guys. I put a lot of effort into getting the recurve "right". It needs to be classic & functional.

[spiral]

Wow. What is so wrong with a Bigsby? It creates additional textures for your arsenal and you would think lovers of music that is supposed to be exploratory / inventive / expressive / improvisational wouldn't have such distain for it. Why the hate?

I'm a fan of white archtops (or white guitars in general) I own one. Nice work and thanks for sharing.

[Archtop 13]

Thank you! Yup, I like me some Bigsby, also. It's not going to fit too much into the Jazz world, that's expected. Every genre has it's style. I get that. We can't expect Brian Setzer to sport an Ebony tailpiece as much as we can expect Frank Vignola to ride a Merle Travis handle on a Bigsby.

[Woody Sound]

Thanks guys. I put a lot of effort into getting the recurve "right". It needs to be classic & functional.

What exactly is the "recurve?" I've always wondered. And what does it do?

[feet]

speaking strictly as a pimp:

things i'm not into- the white rings and knobs, the color of the fretboard (needs to be lighter or darker), and the extra frets. no reason to ever be there not sure how to feel about the archiness extending into the cutaway as it does, and paf looking pups are always (visually) disorienting to me on an archtop of this kind. would also prefer a chet handle on something like this.

things i love- the maple bridge base and the powder coated bigsby are astoundingly clever. block inlays, even on maple boards. and as a loving byrdland owner, the squashed pups (although the extra frets are superfluous). leaning toward liking the tone on tone binding, but i'd have to see more. also, european women and bigsbies.

all in all, i like the guitar, and i like that it bothers so many here.

[Archtop 13]

It may just be the pictures. The fretboard is a pretty "white" maple. Not going to get much lighter unless you put some white on top of it. A different handle Would be cool!

Recurve is the scooped out part along the edges of the guitar, on the top & back. The idea is that it allows the plates to move, somewhat like a speaker cone. The recurve is where you tune the Archtop.

[AmundLauritzen]

MAN! Those are beautiful, the white ones are real nice but that black archtop is just off the charts sexy!