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Hi All.
Wanted to write a brief review of my newest acquisition - the ATC175 from Archtop Tribute Custom.
I purchased the guitar through Walkin’ Guitars in Tokyo. ATフルアコ/Full Hollow | WALKiN'
This was the first time I purchased a guitar overseas. I contacted the store directly and received a quick reply back from Masaki, who is the owner. Masaki is the luthier and founder of Westville Guitars and it seems he is operating the Archtop Tribute line, too. From what I deduce, the AT series is the lowest price point line and basically are copies of famous Gibson guitars and carry the same model numbers. E.g. Gibson ES-125 = Archtop Tribute AT125. The next price point up is the Archtop Tribute Custom line and there are only a few of these, including the ATC175 I purchased, which is a copy of the Gibson ES-175. And, then there are the highest price point, the Westville guitars, which are Masaki’s own modern designs inspired by artists such as Kurt Rosenwinkel and Pat Metheny among others.
At the moment, almost all of the AT and ATC models are sold out. But, more are in production. I emailed Masaki earlier this year inquiring about the ATC350BK - Barney Kessel tribute guitar - and there were a few in production. I asked him quite a few very specific questions about the neck profile, measurements, etc and he answered every question promptly by email.
Anyway, when I saw a new batch of the ATC175s pop up on the Walkin’ web page, I emailed Masaki directly and asked about purchasing the ATC 175 and he placed it on hold for me. He gave me several payment options and I opted to use PayPal cause I’m familiar with it. He shipped it via DHL on May 27 from Tokyo and it arrived on my doorstop on May 31 in Florida in perfect condition.
I am no authority on archtops (not even close), but I wanted to share my experience because I think it may be useful to others. I have only in the last few years started playing archtops. In that time I have played a lot of guitars in the $1000-2000 range, including several solid carved top Eastmans, Ibanez, Guild, and a 1965 Gibson ES-125. I’ve also played but not owned several Heritage guitars - the Eagle and H575. I thought the Eastmans were wonderful, particularly the acoustic (unplugged) sound. The Heritages were nice but I felt way overpriced. Then, I purchased a Comins GCS 16-1 archtop in the low $2000 range and it really felt like a big step up in quality, attention to detail, setup, fit and finish. It has been my main guitar for about a year. I have only positive things to say about the Comins GCS guitar and about Bill Comins himself. I digress.
The ATC175 is absolutely awesome. The construction, fit, finish, setup, playability are all top notch for a guitar in this price range. Ultimately, with exchange rates, fees for PayPal, guitar case, DHL shipping and all my total was 327,153 JPY or ~ $2,338 as of today. The neck profile is 22-22.5 mm at 1st fret, 24-24.5 mm at the 9th fret. Masaki was kind enough to set it up with Thomastik-Infeld flatwounds for me. The intonation is spot on. It sounds good acoustically and plugged in. I am particularly happy with the sound of the P-90 - it is amazing. It is punchy, very balanced across strings, and the B and high E string are really warm sounding, not shrill. As I’ve posted on this forum before my favorite player is Martijn van Iterson, who famously plays an ES-125, and this P-90 sounds very close to his tone, very close.
I’m not sure what else to add. If anyone out there is looking for a Gibson style archtop and only wants to spend ~$1000-2500, I think this deserves consideration. Bear in mind this is one of the ATC models, so this is probably a step up in quality over the AT models, but I can’t say how much as I have no experience. I can vouch for the quality and playability. It is on par with the Comins GCS models - different feel but pretty close in terms of quality. I also felt very comfortable dealing with Masaki, who was prompt with all emails and provided all the information I asked. I had a good experience with buying overseas and also the DHL delivery service was fast and tracking the package was easy. No problems with US Customs at all.
Of course, you could try your hand at a vintage Gibson, but I have decided not to go that route. It would cost > $5,000 minimum and you don’t always know what you are getting in terms of feel. I feel like this is about as close as I can get to playing a 50s Gibson ES-175 and it is BRAND NEW. Anyway, hope this helps someone who is weighing options of getting an archtop in this price range. Here are a few pics.
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06-03-2023 03:56 PM
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Beautiful guitar.Enjoy!It's seems like it is a crapshoot with customs,sometimes they charge fees and other times they don't.I always see guitars overseas that i like but just don't want the aggravation of fees that might happen.
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Nice post - thanks for sharing!
Just to add to this. I actually got to play one of these a couple of weeks ago (although with a humbucker, not a P90)
I was honestly blown away. It was like the platonic ideal of a 175- at least the sound I hear in my head
The quality was amazing. This isn’t surprising.
But it wasn’t stiff or bright or sterile. This maybe did surprise me. It somehow had ‘mojo’ (don’t like that word) and it for sure had ‘thunk’ (love that word)
It also had a nitro finish
I can’t claim to be a 175 expert, especially compared to many on here. But I’ve owned a couple and have played a few others. Mostly models from 2000 onwards. I actually liked this better than any of them - with the exception of 50s model I once played
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I have been trying to contact walkin for days and get no reply by email.
Would you share the email address that you used.
Thanks,
Scott
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That looks great—the perfect guitar!
I was lucky enough to get a used Gibson 175 in 2020, right when the COVID craziness was kicking in. They’ve gone up in price quite a bit since then.
I am just curious, how does this avoid a Gibson lawsuit? It is reminiscent of the lawsuit guitars. Even uses the same mustache headstock profile, which I thought was one of the bases for the copyright.
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They avoid the lawsuit by not selling them in the United States. I have an Edwards/ESP semi hollow or "E-SA" that also has the Gibson open book headstock. A nice guitar. The worst part about Japanese guitars IMO is having to order them overseas and deal sometimes with sellers doing the shipping that don't really understand the paperwork you have to have arranged, or just dealing with the shipping company themselves. It can be hard to get answers if something is held up. It was a headache getting mine but I reckon since OP went through a dealer it wasn't so bad. Japanese guitars are a great deal IMO.
Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
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Masaki at Walkin most definitely knows how to handle international shipping. If one wants to have the purchase of one of these go as smoothly as possible, I recommend working with him directly. Originally Posted by DawgBone
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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No doubt. I was merely referring to the private seller I dealt with. I don't think he was familiar with CITES and the like so it held my guitar up a couple weeks in customs and created some real confusion for me and the shipper. Add to it the language barrier for communications. It was passable but less than ideal. I have noticed, and heard, that there are a large number of ebay guys in japan who offer guitars for sale that they don't actually own, they just take pictures from local shops and list it. You buy the guitar from them, they buy the guitar from the shop, and ship it to you. Not a scam just a common way of doing business in Japan. My seller was honest, just inexperienced, that's all. I would definitely limit my purchases to actual shops like Walkin as you mentioned or Ishibashi going forward. Best-dawgbone Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
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