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Originally Posted by
palindrome
Now, this is from Thomans own "Harley Benton" line of gear (likely made in China) and as such a low end instrument pricewise and I don't know anything about the build quality, sound and playability, but I think it's a pretty and well propotioned guitar (maybe except for the satin finish). The body shape is very well balanced and Gibsonesque. At that price, it's a "beater" one can bring anywhere - provided it plays OK or can be set up to do so. Just forget all about resale value..... :-)
Last edited by oldane; 03-11-2014 at 03:15 PM.
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I heard prey tell there is a small guitar company called Gretsch that makes pretty much nothing but all mahogany archtops. I believe all except their Country Clubs are mahogany. I know my 6120 is.
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Some of my favorite guitars are Heritages, so I've gone out of my way to collect some over the years. My first serious purchase was an early 90s Golden Eagle with maple back and sides and a spruce top. The guitar had a very clear sound that was well balanced in volume and tone. If I were to describe its tone on an EQ scale, I'd visualize it as straight across. That became my point of reference for the model.
I later picked up a Mahogany Eagle with mahogany back and sides and a carved spruce top. This guitar was a bit more powerful in the mids than the maple backed guitar, and seemed to have a bit less top end bite. Were I to graph this one's sound on an EQ curve, I'd start lower in the trebles and spike the mids a bit. It cut through the mix very well and was pretty much what I expected to hear from an instrument that replaced the "brighter" maple with "darker" mahogany.
The last of the Eagles I acquired was a Mahogany Eagle with mahogany top. This one really took me by surprise in that it didn't conform to the dark midrange sound that I had associated with the wood. It had a thinner top than either of the other guitars and had far more top end than either. I would venture to say that it has more in common with the maple backed, spruce topped Golden Eagle than it does with the mahogany/spruce Mahogany Eagle.
My conclusion from this limited sample is that the construction of the guitar has far more to do with the resulting sound than the species of the wood used to carve the instrument. Not to say that wood type doesn't influence sound, but that construction methods such as bracing, carve thickness, body depth, etc. have more of an impact.
In terms of aesthetics, most mahogany guitars I've seem look more spartan than their flame maple counterparts, but I have an Eastman T186 with a flame mahogany back that warrants some attention for its beautiful figure. I'll see if i can post a picture when I get home from work.
I had no idea most Gretsch guitars were made exclusively from mahogany.
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Originally Posted by
palindrome
Now this is 25.5" scale guitar. I'm thinking Charlie Christian pickup and swing baby!
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