REAL cello archtop guitars

[Nighthawks]

This guitar is very cello like... and for sale for 13,000. It was made by David Morse in 1981. If you are interested in it's purchase, please do the research yourself to prepare for a serious exchange of information. I love the Koentopp look.
The Morse is the best sounding electric guitar I've played and I own 2 Treniers!

[oldane]

I too have drooled over the pictures of the Koentopp archtops.

Some older archtops has a bit of violin vibe - for example Epiphones, Strombergs from the 1930s (not the ones after 1940) and gretches. If not for anything else, then for their F-hole shape.

That old cello shaped guitar with the sharp edges at the waist must be nasty to have on the lap.

[AlohaJoe]

The's currently a beautiful 17" Landscape at Archtop.com for under 2K.
http://www.archtop.com/ac_05AR1.html

[cmajor9]

There was a luthier in Hamburg, known for making cello-style archtops in the 30s and 40s–Felix Starke. His guitars use the name "Este."

Here's a link to an article with many photos. Its in German, but you can use Google Translate, or just look at the photos:

Schlaggitarren.de – Hersteller

Here's a YouTube video someone made (of course, the pickup was added later):

[Klatu]

They all sounded good, but my favorite was the mid heavy tone of the Benedetto.

[Eddie Lang]

marc dewaey guitars -

[Jehu]

That's quite the fretboard radius!

[Eddie Lang]

That's quite the fretboard radius!

Yes, indeed!

It has frets and I believe that it is tuned like a guitar, but I suppose that its looks seem closer to a viola de gamba. It is probably played with a bow.

[Rob MacKillop]

Seems to me to be an arpeggione, a six-string cello tuned like a guitar, or one tone below a guitar, same relative intervals. It was bowed. Schubert wrote a wonderful sonata for it. Photos and info here: http://arpeggione.voila.net/arpeggione.pictures.en.htm

[Jehu]

Thanks, Rob; I'd never heard of an arpeggione. Cool dragon holes. The individual fret-lets are interesting.

[Rob MacKillop]

Well, they've always been rare. Schubert played the guitar, and some of his songs were published with guitar accompaniments before the piano versions appeared. He wanted to write ensemble works for guitar, but found its voice was easily drowned out by almost any other instrument. So I think he saw the arpeggione as near-associate, loud enough to compete with other instruments. John Williams recorded the sonata Schubert wrote for the arpeggione, but arranged for the louder modern guitar and string quartet. It's a fine piece of music.

[Rob MacKillop]

The "individual fret-lets" (as good a description as any) are not unknown in the guitar world. See this article:Page 52 - Soundboard Vol. 38, No. 4

[Eddie Lang]

Thanks, Rob! All very cool information. I knew about Schubert's love of guitar, but I'd never heard about the aperggione.

One of Schubert's biographers wrote that he may have used his guitars for composing when he was too broke to own a piano. Some say that he owned two guitars, while others say that it is rubish. So, who knows? I don't, but I like to think​ that he did.

[Hammertone]

They all sounded good, but my favorite was the mid heavy tone of the Benedetto.

De gustibus non est disutandum. I much prefer the first ESTE.
Staerke was the granddaddy of German archtop builders along with Franz Hirsch. VERY hard to find guitars built by either of these guys.

I suppose all non-cutaway archtops with really violin-like f-holes all have that vibe, like late-1930s Masterbuilt Epiphones, but a nice violin varnish finish on a modern archtop has a lot to do with it as well:

[Klatu]

How much louder are your committees than recent French polished New Presidents? I've got a New President that is a canon. I can't imagine what it would sound like with an additional inch inn the lower bout.

[Hammertone]

Those aren't Committees, they are Chancellors.

Chancellor - 17" lower bout, 3" rim depth, carved spruce top, carved maple back, solid maple rims, 25 1/4" scale.
New President - 15 7/8" lower bout, 3 5/8" depth, carved spruce top, laminated anigree back and rims, 25 1/4" scale.
Otherwise with similar features. The smaller guitar has less bass and is a bit brighter and punchier-sounding.
More info here:
Hofner Chancellor

Sort of like comparing a Gibson L-4C and a Gibson Legrande, but with those, the scales lengths are different (@24 3/4" vs. @25 1/2"), whereas with the Hofners, the scale lengths are the same.

[Восток]

Although beautiful, they seem uncomfortable, and ergonomics is my top priority when picking an instrument.

[Hammertone]

Although beautiful, they seem uncomfortable, and ergonomics is my top priority when picking an instrument.

Which instruments are you talking about here?

[Восток]

^^

Cello style guitars

[Jehu]

Check out this crazy thing that I just stumbled upon (rather than, you know, doing my job):

Wardle | German Carve

[mmdavis]

Rob, you might be interested in the Kay violin-style guitar sn 4 which I used to own and is now residing in the Dutch Archtop Museum. A simple and elegant instrument. See the pictures on the DAM website below.

From the DAM website:
“...Kay’s fascinating Violin-Style guitars, “distinctively new and different style guitars” that were offered in 1937 and ’38, primarily through the distributors Tonk Brothers and Continental. Actually, what was new and different about these archtops was the use of “oversize” tops and backs that extended over the rims to provide a “lip” reminiscent of the protruding edges on a violin.
The guitars were made of laminated birch and maple veneer with a laminated spruce top that was, as always, pressed rather than carved. The 19-fret necks were set in and featured ebonized hardwood fingerboards. All were finished in a thin “antique violin” brown lacquer. Several variations in headstocks can be found. Some featured a flat, normal width head that ended in a round horizontal scroll similar to those found on some ’60s Baldwin Burns guitars. Others had a very narrow pointy headstock carved into something like a cello scroll head.” References :
Michael Wright, VG‘s Jan. ’07

kaypictures |

[Rob MacKillop]

This is an old thread, and I've moved on. But that Koentopp...!

[Dennis D]

Here's an early Epiphone from Dave's archives.........Those cello guitars just reminded me of these, I guess....