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I just purchased a used archtop from my friend, California luthier Mark Blanchard. Mark is an inventive guy. He has a patented truss rod design that he builds and supplies to other luthiers and builders (Benedetto uses them for example).
US7507887B1 - Precision double acting truss for stringed musical instruments
- Google Patents
This archtop was built by Mark back in 2007 and it has been with a single owner until 2021 when he tried to sell it unsuccessfully through a reseller. Mark purchased the guitar back from the reseller late last year. I wasn’t really in the market for another guitar, but this one really “spoke to me” because its acoustic potential, so I decided to go for it.
I own two wonderful flattops that Mark built for me. Mark is primarily a flattop builder, but also builds some archtop and nylon string guitars as well. Mark took a hands on archtop building course in 2002 with Tom Ribbecke and Linda Manzer to learn the basics. He had already been building guitars for a decade prior to that. I believe this guitar was his fourth archtop guitar, but his 93rd guitar that he made.
Tonally, Mark was trying to blend two styles: The clarity, projection and articulation of an archtop with some of the warmth and richness of a flattop. This is the only one of this model he ever made. To achieve this he carved the top and back plates thinner and flatter. He braced the top in a hybrid fashion adding a UTB, tone bars and finger braces. He created a smaller, smaller diameter round sound hole to drop the air resonance of the body and increased the rim depth from the standard 3” to 3-7/16” for additional internal volume in a 16” guitar.
Here is what the top bracing and carve looks like. Mark keeps detailed notebooks on all of his builds. The extra bracing (UTB, tonebars and finger braces) is their for extra structure due to the flat arch and thin carve.
The fiddleback Bigleaf Maple back is thick at the center seam and tapers to less than 1/2 its thickness at the recurve.
The prior owner added a Lollar gold foil pickup which looked odd placed over the sound hole, had an aftermarket finger rest with a tall/large potentiometer knob, and also added a K&K pickup. The tall, large potentiometer knob actually interferes with your right hand when picking. It also has some minor wear and tear that needed some nitro drop fills. Mark is also going to make a Ebony new finger rest and will return the guitar to its original acoustic state.
This is the guitar before he will make his modifications:
Year: 2007
Model: Hybrid Archtop
Serial #: 093
Dimensions:
Scale Length: 25-1/4”
Nut Width: 1-3/4”
Saddle Spacing: 2-3/16”
Lower Bout: 16”
Upper Bout: 11-5/8”
Body Length: 20”
Body Depth: 3-7/16”
Sound Hole: 3-5/8”
Neck Shape: C
Materials:
Soundboard: Carved European Spruce
Back & Sides: Carved Bigleaf Maple
Bindings: Snakewood
Neck: One Piece Honduran Mahogany
Fretboard: Gaboon Ebony
Finger Rest: Gaboon Ebony
Bridge/Saddle: Gaboon Ebony
Tailpiece: Gaboon Ebony
Finish: Nitrocellulose Lacquer
Fret Wire: Jescar EVO 0.047” x 0.104”
Tuners: Waverly, Snakewood Buttons
Case: Hiscox
Mark is about to exhibit at the La Conner Guitar Festival in Washington State. He has started the nitro drop fills this week which need time to fully sink before sanding/buffing. I don’t expect to receive the guitar until June/July. I will take some photos then.
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04-28-2023 08:35 PM
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Congrats Bob! I’m sure it will be fantastic when you receive it. Thanks for sharing the story and keep us posted. I love round hole acoustic Archtop’s - they have unique timbre which I find inspiring. Would be great to hear some sound clips one day.
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Thanks…
I will set it up with 80/20 brass strings first and also try 92/8 PB strings to see what I like best and keep it as a pure acoustic archtop like my 16” Comins Zelig archtop.
One of the things I could not believe is the owner (or someone) used a sharpie to mark the bridge position (see the dots!). Mark thinks he can remove those with some sanding and local touch up. The worst ding is in an odd spot, adjacent to the low E string side of the upper bout next to the fretboard extension (bottom photo). The main ding will always be there, but a nitro drop fill/sand/buff will close up the wood. Most importantly, he says that the thinner, flatter top with his bracing has held its bridge position across 16-years structurally. When one tries something “new” or “non standard” that is always a risk. Also, having the person who made an instrument set it up is a plus. The last photo is a shot from one of my other guitars on Mark’s bench. He has made some unique tools to evaluate the fretboard and relief.
It will be probably 8 weeks until I get it.
Originally Posted by QAman
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Beautiful instrument! With the thin plates I imagine it sings.
AKA
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Mark started to rough carve a new Ebony finger rest for the guitar.
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Man, that is a beauty.
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Bob, You always purchase some beautiful and interesting instruments and I'm sure this will not be the exception but I'm really impressed with Mr. Blanchard's neck deflection gauge setup.
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Mark is doing a nice job cleaning up some of the more overt “road rash” on the upper bout on this 16-year old archtop. Plenty of nitro drop fills followed by a solven rich overspray to melt it in a bit. Now another month to let it harden so he can wet sand and buff. The sharpie marks by the bridge are also gone.
Mark is having fun restoring an old friend to its original acoustic glory…
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Sharpie marks are better than Tal Farlow using a couple of wood screws as stops for his bridge!
That's a beauty and I hope we get to hear a clip or two.
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Not Tal bad, but you can see the sharpie dots here (below) that he sanded out. Mark told me even without the strings on the bridge felt glued to the finish. He had to refinish that whole area. If you look at the UV darkening of the top from 16-years of exposure, there is no missing where the bridge goes (reverse tanlines)… Originally Posted by Cunamara
Additionally, that volume knob on the finger rest was CRAZY. My picking hand would hit it all of the time (hence the new finger rest).
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Good News: Mark has the guitar drop filled, touched up, assembled and stung up. He wants to let it settle in for a week before finalizing the set up prior to shipping it.
Bad News: I fell yesterday and klutz that I am, I broke my ring finger on my right hand, so no playing for 3-4 weeks. A bit frustrating when receiving a new instrument.
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Oh, that's a bummer. Good luck with the recovery. On the plus side, that guitar looks AMAZING!
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The guitar looks amazing ! Sorry to hear about your injury . I’ve had finger injury’s, don’t try to push it - let it heal properly. Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7
Good News: Mark has the guitar drop filled, touched up, assembled and stung up. He wants to let it settle in for a week before finalizing the set up prior to shipping it.
Bad News: I fell yesterday and klutz that I am, I broke my ring finger on my right hand, so no playing for 3-4 weeks. A bit frustrating when receiving a new instrument.
Wishing you a full recovery - keep us posted.
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What a beautiful guitar. I bet it sounds spectacular!
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Thanks gents…I saw the orthopedist today and I have indeed fractured the middle plalanges of my fourth finger in my right hand. He was actually more concerned about the localized edema (swelling) that my tendons while sprained are intact. I should be back in action in 3-4 weeks. The guitar will arrive in about two weeks.
on another note, here’s the back. It has a mahogany neck.
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Iim7,
It’s a good thing we have these hands that break our falls. The injuries would be much worse if we didn’t!
Stay strong bro. Sometimes a break (ar, ar..) can be good for us.
That is a real beautiful guitar. It is worthy of your well conceived collection. You search in the roads less traveled and always seem to find truly unique and captivatingly beautiful guitars.
And you always share them with. I am glad for that. It shows me there is quite a world out there beyond Gibson’s!
Beautiful!
Joe D
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Thanks Joe…
Mark is a good friend and he is one of the rare luthiers who makes a variety of types of guitars. While he primary work is focused on steel string flattop guitars, he also made some archtops and nylon stringed guitars. Mark learned his archtop basics with Linda Manzer and Tom Ribbecke back when they gave joint courses 20+ years ago.
After allowing the guitar to settle in under string tension, he felt that the strings were too low at the nut (The open D and A were buzzy). He decided to make me a new bone nut. At this point, the guitar is nothing like it was at the reseller before it returned to him. He is putting the Hiscox case inside an insulated soft sleeve for shipping. He lives in the Sierra is the high desert and it has been 100+ F for weeks. I should get the guitar next week. My finger is better, but far from playing.Last edited by iim7V7IM7; 07-21-2023 at 05:15 PM.
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Good News: The guitar arrived and it is beautiful…
Bad News: My ring finger which I broke on July 15 is still keeping me from playing it….
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How frustrating for you, but it does look gorgeous, and you'll be playing it before long.
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Nice! If you can, I'd keep her out of the case and exposed to music or whatever ambient sound you have going on. You can't play her yet but that way at least she can open back up a bit already!
Was that a glue spill on the right wing of the bridge?!
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I assume you are speaking to the “before” photos taken at the reseller. I have no idea what it was, but its gone now. Mark spent a bunch of time refinishing it. I showed those photos so you could see where the prior owner had used a sharpie to create dots to mark the bridge location…
. Those are all gone. He refinished the area (among other areas).
Originally Posted by RJVB
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You assume correctly, I didn't use past tense for nothing. Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7
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The unsuccessful reseller actually put up a couple of videos about this guitar (you can even see the sharpie marks in the 1st):
This one has an acoustic impression from about 1:16:
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Mark told me that when the guitar was returned to him it was nearly unplayable. The action was messed up (needed a new nut), the after market pickguard flexed and the pot interfered with a player’s pick hand and it had dead, flat wounds on it. He designed it as an acoustic instrument. This is partly why he put so much work to bring it back to life for me.
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Well, indeed, on most of the above recordings it sounds as just another e-guitar (to me at least), and I wasn't really that blown away by the acoustic sound (but that could be the player and/or the recording).
I'm waiting to be blown away by the difference after Mark's intervention
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