China the gift that keeps on giving

[Hep To The Jive]

It should be called NGD really but anyway.... I found this very cool looking non cutaway acoustic archtop on the Taobao (Chinese ebay kinda app), that's the previous owner installed a pickup in . I was looking for something like that, never being able to afford the real deal like Gibson or vintage Epiphone, I couldn't pass on this. Farida is the Chinese company I believe, I don't think they import guitars to US, never heard of them while there.

It sounds ok, but mainly I bought it for the look, it's just got the vibe! Around $800 US, it's pretty affordable I think. And it's pretty unique, I don't think this model in production anymore, at least I couldn't find any info on it anywhere. So here it is, and a little video, unplugged sound.

[Christian Miller]

Hi Hep! It’s been a minute.

I think it sounds great on the recording.

[Jabberwocky]

Looks very pretty. Reminds me of the Rozeo Ladybug.

[Ol' Fret]

Farida was established in 2004. "On average, it produces around 13,000 guitars per month", mainly "OEM instruments for a selction of other brands" (Farida Guitars - Wikipedia ).

The build and sound quality of the instruments is generally very good, IMHO, on a par with most guitars coming from major American or European "manufacturers" - or should I say resellers?
Today, Farida seems to make mainly steelstring western guitars under its own brand name. The brand is more known in Japan and GB; sometimes the guitars offered for higher prices, especially in Japan.

I got a pair of mighty 18" Farida archtops, cheap as chips, indirectly from Warwick (plus a blue 16" two-pickup model). Someone told me these were examples made by Farida for Warwick just to show off what they were able to produce. So my guess is that Farida makes guitars for Warwick - whatever Warwick might tell themselves - and many, many others brands.
These guitars are underrated: mine have nicely selected solid (pressed) Sitka spruce tops, laminated flamed back and sides, ebony FB, very clean inlay and binding work. The nut width is matching to the big bodies: 46mm. And the tone is there, whatever you'd expect from a good, pressed 18" archtop guitar.

Btw., just one word to the general "carved" archtop guitar production today - at least, since the last 25 or so years. It was discussed in another thread. Even top notch pro players are easily misled: the CNC machines do 99.9 per cent of the final carving process. If the manufacturer, subsequently, in addition to the CNC process, would make one single scraper stroke by hand, it s gonna be considered to be (and sold for) "handcarved". It's clear as daylight that globally very few luthiers are still working out the arching curves and gradations by hand, according to the old-fashioned violin maker's 80/20 per cent rule:
remove 80 per cent of the wood by any sort of machines - for example, the shaving horse, later the manual duplicarver, today the CNC - in 20 per cent of the overall manufacturing time. Then remove the last 20 per cent of the wood by hand, which takes 80 per cent of the time.
Of course, the hot-pressing of solid woods in shapes is a much quicker process, resulting in uniform instruments, of which, in direct comparison, some think these could lack a bit of what makes the "character" of a particular instrument: the usually wider range of modulation of acoustic tone found only in real handcarved instruments. But that is often simply not what archtop guitar buyers and listeners do wish for. Ok, I have to admit, it can be fun to fumble around pickups, electrics, amp modulation, etc., but it is not so much when playing a hollowbody archtop guitar with subtle amplification, just loud enough to be heard ten meters further. Well, I don't spot / hear such guitars often in large venues, the more in intimate settings - which is what I'm looking for.

Farida Guitar & Ukulele: Home – Fariduausa (faridausa.com)

A 2009 brochure link, where they offered a wider model range: Farida Guitars UK 2009 Catalogue by Alistair Fletcher - Issuu .
However, the 13,000 guitars per month, mentioned above, have to end up somewhere ...

[mr. beaumont]

I didn't know Farida did archtops!

Their Gibson style flat top copies are very well thought of.

[Hep To The Jive]

Hi Hep! It’s been a minute.

I think it sounds great on the recording.

Thanks mate, I guess I just can't compare it to a real vintage archtop, how it really supposed to feel and sound. But yea, I do enjoy playing it, that's for sure.

Now I need a proper jazz gig to try it out, which don't come too often lol.

[Hep To The Jive]

Farida was established in 2004. "On average, it produces around 13,000 guitars per month", mainly "OEM instruments for a selction of other brands" (Farida Guitars - Wikipedia ).

The build and sound quality of the instruments is generally very good, IMHO, on a par with most guitars coming from major American or European "manufacturers" - or should I say resellers?
Today, Farida seems to make mainly steelstring western guitars under its own brand name. The brand is more known in Japan and GB; sometimes the guitars offered for higher prices, especially in Japan.

I got a pair of mighty 18" Farida archtops, cheap as chips, indirectly from Warwick (plus a blue 16" two-pickup model). Someone told me these were examples made by Farida for Warwick just to show off what they were able to produce. So my guess is that Farida makes guitars for Warwick - whatever Warwick might tell themselves - and many, many others brands.
These guitars are underrated: mine have nicely selected solid (pressed) Sitka spruce tops, laminated flamed back and sides, ebony FB, very clean inlay and binding work. The nut width is matching to the big bodies: 46mm. And the tone is there, whatever you'd expect from a good, pressed 18" archtop guitar.

Btw., just one word to the general "carved" archtop guitar production today - at least, since the last 25 or so years. It was discussed in another thread. Even top notch pro players are easily misled: the CNC machines do 99.9 per cent of the final carving process. If the manufacturer, subsequently, in addition to the CNC process, would make one single scraper stroke by hand, it s gonna be considered to be (and sold for) "handcarved". It's clear as daylight that globally very few luthiers are still working out the arching curves and gradations by hand, according to the old-fashioned violin maker's 80/20 per cent rule:
remove 80 per cent of the wood by any sort of machines - for example, the shaving horse, later the manual duplicarver, today the CNC - in 20 per cent of the overall manufacturing time. Then remove the last 20 per cent of the wood by hand, which takes 80 per cent of the time.
Of course, the hot-pressing of solid woods in shapes is a much quicker process, resulting in uniform instruments, of which, in direct comparison, some think these could lack a bit of what makes the "character" of a particular instrument: the usually wider range of modulation of acoustic tone found only in real handcarved instruments. But that is often simply not what archtop guitar buyers and listeners do wish for. Ok, I have to admit, it can be fun to fumble around pickups, electrics, amp modulation, etc., but it is not so much when playing a hollowbody archtop guitar with subtle amplification, just loud enough to be heard ten meters further. Well, I don't spot / hear such guitars often in large venues, the more in intimate settings - which is what I'm looking for.

Farida Guitar & Ukulele: Home – Fariduausa (faridausa.com)

A 2009 brochure link, where they offered a wider model range: Farida Guitars UK 2009 Catalogue by Alistair Fletcher - Issuu .
However, the 13,000 guitars per month, mentioned above, have to end up somewhere ...

That's a great info, thanks!

[stringmann]

Hep, I always thought this comment was a cool compliment: "it sounds like an old record...", and I would apply it to your recording above. Sounds good!

[Hep To The Jive]

Hep, I always thought this comment was a cool compliment: "it sounds like an old record...", and I would apply it to your recording above. Sounds good!

Thanks, it is a cool compliment!