-
I'm playing two archtop guitars, in addition to 10 other solid bodies, semis, and acoustics. It is more than I have ever owned and played, and I'm feeling like a potential hoarder. My only rational on the jazz end is that they were each under $5K. I'm not a professional, but can make a case about the others having their place, depending on music genre or style, but two archtop guitars...not so sure. Professional or otherwise how many of you own more than one archtop guitar?
Last edited by tomvwash; 09-03-2020 at 09:59 PM.
-
09-03-2020 09:03 PM
-
Most of us.
You need a back-up. What if you drop that sucker? What if it needs to go into the shop?
Plus - You may have one with a longer scale and one with a shorter scale, you may have one laminate and one carved etc.
-
I like your thinking...
Originally Posted by GTRMan
-
All of my guitars are jazz guitars including my Les Paul, my Strat, my Martin Dreadnaught, my classical, and naturally, my two Gypsy guitars and my ten archtops.
-
I don't consider myself owning jazz guitars, I consider myself owning archtops on which which I play music. I used to be an archtop collector but had to downsize when I kept evacuating from hurricanes. I couldn't take all of them with me. I held onto only what would not sell because of modifications on some guitars.
-
Like Marco (SS), I play jazz on every one of my guitars...classical, flattop, archtop (carved and laminate), solid-bodies, baritone, etc.
I prefer playing jazz on a carved body, full-scale archtop. However, I let the venue dictate the guitar I take to the gig. Society gig in an upscale venue (e.g., university concert hall), carved archtop. Bar gig--where bumps and scratches are more apt to occur--out comes the partscaster.
-
Because sometimes you want to play one they doesn't have a bigsby
For whatever reason, hollow bodies are the biggest rabbit hole for me, guitarwise. So many variables, and they all really make a difference. Solid vs lam, spruce vs maple and floating vs set in pickups being three of the biggest categories. Then you have the pickups themselves, the scale length and the woods used. It somehow all seems to matter more than with solid bodies, to my mind.
I purposely ended up with three wildly different archtops: a g400, a g6118 and a byrdland. Love them all, can do different things with each, but they're so different that I could easily justify a few more. Mentally, anyway. Like a "normal" one (or two), or just more gretsches. That's a whole other category filled with even more variation than the more traditional archtops.
-
I have 6. One is not enough just as one line of coke or one injection of heroin is not enough. Or one cup of coffee in the morning. Yes, I'm an archtop addict, but there are worse addictions. Caffeine addiction isn't so bad, as long as coffee trees don't go extinct because of climate change.
-
I have far more guitars than my ability justifies and have been in this position for the past 50 years at least, BUT all of my instruments have been available for my professional musician friends to borrow and use whenever they need them. Some have been out on loan for a few years but they have always come home eventually [well other than a 1930's Gibson and an 1800's Vihuella which turned up at pawn shops - but they had been borrowed by a country musician!]
-
The bare minimum for playing jazz guitar is:
Carved solid woods
- 17" acoustic. Maple (AAA preferred) back, spruce top, ebony fingerboard. Choose carefully. This is the guitar you will be buried with.
- 18" acoustic. Same woods as 17". Of course it's too big to hold. But that sound..
- 16", 17", or 18" with mahogany back/neck. Woody tone. Nothing else like it.
- 17" electric. One or two built in humbuckers. P90 may be substituted. Can't tell it's solid/carved plugged in but that has nothing to do with it.
- 17" sort of electric. Floater or Rhythm Chief. Can also be your acoustic archtop if on a budget.
- 16" or 17" oval hole. Or a Ribbecke halfling of not on a budget.
- Gypsy jazz guitar(s)
- Something overpriced that stays home because jazz history
Not carved solid woods
- Arched, inexpensive and reliable (modern, often Korean made, under $1500) for dubious locales and weather
- Gibson ES175 or similar because Joe Pass and because they actually work pretty well.
- Gibson ES335 or similar (Heritage 535, something Japanese, older Ibanez, et al)
- Any one of the many versions of a plank of wood with a pickup on it
Less than this, you simply don't have enough.
-
I used to think there was a perfect guitar for me and all my guitar purchases were about finding that one guitar. Boy was I naive.
There are a wide range of desirable qualities that cannot co-exist in one guitar. I tend to stick with one guitar for a couple of weeks deeply believing it's my favorite guitar. Then something starts bothering me about it. I switch to another guitar which becomes everything I'd ever want in a guitar. After a while, I get a bit bored of how beautiful it sounds or a frequency in it's overtones in a particular fret starts sounding harsh, then the cycle continues.
-
Because collecting is a whole lot faster and gets results a whole lot easier than practicing which takes time and sucks.
Because collecting wives is frowned upon and very expensive.
Because every time an article or photo of a sexy guitar is out there, it's speaking JUST to me.
Because I'm imperfect as a player, but a guitar on sale if perfect in every way.
Why have many guitars? Why does a dog lick his balls...because he can.
-
You need one with P90s, one with PAFs, one with a solid top and a free-floating mini-humbucker, one with a solid top and a free-floating single-coil. And indeed one with a Charlie Christian pickup. You may need additional archtops with Bigsbies. Et cetera ad infinitum.
-
It’s quite affordable compared to a harem
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Truth??? It is enough. Especially if you have 10 other guitars.
Last edited by Jim Soloway; 09-04-2020 at 10:32 AM.
-
I have one hollow body archtop and one semi-hollow with an arched top (not sure if that counts for these purposes, but full disclosure, yada yada; by reading this post you agree to hold me harmless and resolve all disputes via arbitration in Guam). I don't need both, and would be fine with just the semi-hollow. But I do play and enjoy both. Not really interested in have an additional archtop, but am sporadically interested in a different one. Collecting is a spectator sport for me. [I am not a pro (in the sense of making a living from music), but I do sometimes perform in public for pay, both jazz and not-jazz. I prefer having more than one type of electric guitar, but calling this a need would be a stretch.]
John
-
Being true to one archtop means being untrue to all the rest.
-
One Gibson ES-175, three ES-3x5s, one ES-135; one Epiphone Emperor Regent, one '45 Epiphone Zenith, one 30s Kalamazoo acoustic, one 50s Kay, one 30s Washburn - made acoustic, one Ibanez AG-95. I have had several others, which have been re-homed to make room for the central horde. I have gigged with all the electrics and some of the acoustics.
Why do I have many guitars?
Because I like them, and I can.
-
I'd certainly be content with the one, if it was a 1937 Epiphone Deluxe. In fact, any Epiphone 17" guitar from the Broadway to the Deluxe would suit me just fine.
Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
-
You said it yourself. You're hoarding. The question is, what are you going to do about it?
-
Archtop and a tele will cover more bases than 2 archies.
-
For some reason I never have felt guilty about owning more than one guitar. If it affected someone else I probably would, but nobody has ever told me that it does.
-
There are some bases I just don't care about covering.
Horde and hoard are different words.
-
It's very simple and there is a mathematical formula ... P = n+1
Where P = the perfect number of guitars, n = the number you currently have, +1 = the one you covet and will buy next ...
-
I have a carved-top for more intimate settings and an "acousticy" sound. And I have a laminate for louder situations. That's it for my "archtops." Don't get me started on my others.
Reply With Quote
Video: The Harmonic Minor Scale in Jazz
Today, 10:47 AM in Improvisation