Devoted 15" guy ...I think these days most players either migrated to archtops from solid body electrics or have to switch between them. My arm dynamics just adapt to the smaller body after decades of teles or strats or even 335's with the shallow depth.
Depending on the builder's goal, the usual benefit of a 16, 17 inch is the deeper acoustic bass from the larger body.
(All other things being equal)
The transition from music before the 60's to music after the 60's has resulted in louder drummers and louder amplification. In the 50's it was string bass (often unamplified) and a 15-20 watt amp.
Since then feedback has become an issue and my experience with full bodied archtops with a band often had me dialing down the bass on the amp to not get buried in the mix. Why 16,17" if I was dialing down the bass? I could get the EQ of the 15 into the amp without the struggle.
If you can relate to this ... the 15" goes a long way to adapting the archtop sound to a modern setting.
If I was to play my Monteleone (17") then all this gets thrown out the window because it feels and sounds like a Steinway. BUT ... Touring around 3 countries (pre pandemic) and hitting with some incredible but excitable drummers rendered the Monteleone useless. Even in duo the singer liked to be right next to me and she likes voice in the floor monitor.. I was getting that wooooof off the 17" in duo !
After searching, I discovered the Howard Roberts fusion and although it sounded like an electric ham sandwich (thanks Frank Zappa) ,the ergonomics had me feeling like a figure skater on the board.
I found a permanent soulmate in the Koll Ultraglide. If you have seen this model ... Saul Koll and I projected the first one and I sent him the dimensions of the HR. I`m sure he tweaked it but it was from that pedigree.
Suffice it to say , it doesn't sound like an electric ham sandwich. To counteract the loss of the larger body we put the K&K contact pickup inside the body and I can dial in a taste of it for that sexy string noise and a richer harmonic content. This is especially essential because I work alot in duo with a singer. In my eyes I'm getting the beauty of an archtop sound in something that is a little more unique. I love the archtop because if you want it to NOT sustain ...the envelope will drop off and you get a punch with a decay ....much like a stacatto trumpet player.
The guitar will stand up to a jab (I use 12's) yet still sing with sustain if desired. This is what a sax player does with long notes vs. tongued notes. If I try this on the 335 for instance, the note doesn't go into decay ...the inherent sustain from the solid block doesn't allow for me to cut off the note like a Clifford Brown phrasing does. I know ...put 12's on a 335 and listen to someone do it ...I have. BUT ...in my hands I can only get there with an archtop.
The thing is that you want a creamy dense thick note and you need it in a split second. A solid body either chokes out on the percussive jab or takes too long to deliver the juicy part of the note in a machine gun phrase. This Koll Ultraglide does things for me that I haven't heard in other archtops at a drummer volume. Each build is different but I'm convinced the 15" body is ground zero for this tone. In my case there is NO F-hole so Saul also had to build around a biased EQ. Here are some examples.
Can you hear the acoustic blend in the note ?
solo at 2:30
or here?
Brazilian music is based on the acoustic nylon so the K&K blend gets me a bit of that air into the electric archtop.
and
with a band that a normal 16,17" would feed back over. If you got this far ..check out the popping in and out of the faster phrase at the end and the rich fat treble notes.
This is a post as much about paying tribute (aka pimping) to Saul Koll's build as it is to the 15" body
Charlie Garnett - Franken Tele
Yesterday, 08:52 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos