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05-05-2024 06:45 PM
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I know the term “jazz box” is commonly used, but I really think that it does archtops a disservice. They are so much more versatile than that. Thanks for sharing the video.
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I should get one of those Zephyrs before they all disappear
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Agreed. There are a bunch of good players who used archtops and didn't play jazz, or only played some jazz. Mel Brown, blues/soul/jazz ES175. Fenton Robinson, blues, Byrdland. Charles Dennis, blues w/BB King band Byrdland. Eric Gale, funk/soul etc L5/Super 400. Any of those good archtop guitars plus Twin reverb makes a pretty good rig for just about anything short of metal or hard rock. I have seen several younger guys using the GB Ibanez guitars lately....
Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
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Wah-wah Watson was all over Motown recordings using as L-5 for another example. Though I hesitate to bring him up by name, because of the gut reactions he generates, there is a very well known guy who used a Byrdland to do hard rock and played it live all the time. Originally Posted by DawgBone
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Speaking of Funk Brothers, Robert White. Not a Funk Brother, but Freddie Stone was a funk brother (in multiple other senses) and Motown archtopper. Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
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There is always the Nuge with a Byrdland and Twin reverb so I guess I was wrong about archtops not being applicable to hard rock. Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
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Yeah, those are flippin' SWEET. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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They're 25 1/2" scale too. The standard 24 3/4 archtop scale is too small up the neck for me. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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If I am 6'4" and can fit my fingers in those upper regions of a 24 3/4" scale then so can you. Fortune favors the bold. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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I just don't see why I need to play something I don't like when there is another option available. Originally Posted by DawgBone
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I play a 24.75" scale archtop as my main "jazz guitar," but there is absolutely something special about a 17" body and a long scale.
Should also mention that on my frame my 575 looks like a Les Paul. And a Les Paul looks like a ukulele
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I mean it's all about what you like but I used to like 25.5 scale also. "Because it's easier to fit my fingers up high" was also my excuse. But 3/4" over the course of 21 or 22 frets means how much extra space? Answer: not much. Outside of your tonal preference that sort of complaint is all in the mind IMO. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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It might not be mathematically a lot, but I definitely feel the difference between the two scale lengths moving between the L5ces and the ES175, or from my Hagstrom I (24.75) and Telecaster (25.5). I love them both, but I definitely have to adjust when I move to the longer scale. Originally Posted by DawgBone
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I dunno, after getting my Broadway, my old faithful flying V just seemed cramped. My friend has a ES175 and it seems cramped too. I have an Eastman that's 25" scale which I like okay. I could let that guitar go too though. I just like the Broadway so dang much, it's all I really play. The zephyr 150 looks cool with all the vintage bits and bobs... maybe I'll just get some of those white knobs for my Broadway.... Originally Posted by DawgBone
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Back when..had the great fortune to see Larry Coryell several times in small clubs ripping apart his Super 400 giving birth to fusion lines. Originally Posted by DawgBone
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I see a lot of archtops in videos and occasionally in concert not in the jazz realm. For instance--Bonnie Raitt's vintage ES 175. And all the Gretsches out there popularized by Brian Setzer among others.
That said, there have been a lot of innovations in solid-body and acoustic amplification, which perhaps nullifies the archtop advantages of balanced sound with little feedback (if set up properly).
Heck, Billy Strings, arguably the most influential young guitarist around now, has a magnetic pickup on his flattop and runs it through a huge pedal board to play tones that would put most prog rock guitarists to shame.
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I've seen video of Steven Stills playing an archtop (Guild?) with Crosby-Stills-Nash-Young, and Joe Walsh sometimes played a Guild archtop with The James Gang. Seems like I've seen a clip of that with them playing "Walk Away" but I can't find it now. Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
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Stills and Young played Gretsch White Falcons with Buffalo Springfield and still play them a lot to this day. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
Joe is usually playing a Tele or a Les Paul, but he has a signature Duesenberg semi-hollow that is drool-worthy:
Alliance Series Joe Walsh | DUESENBERG GUITARS
The internet says that he has been spotted playing a White Falcon as well. The archtop of choice of Laurel Canyon apparently...
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For years I thought that 25.5 was too long for me. So I stuck with 24.75.
Then, I got my Yamaha Pacifica 012, which is 25.5 and it felt fine. It's because the neck is small in every other dimension.
Now I play the Yamaha and a 24.75 Comins regularly and almost never think about the difference in scale length.
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Brings to mind this guy Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Should also mention that on my frame my 575 looks like a Les Paul. And a Les Paul looks like a ukulele
I saw the first few minutes of the video and thought you don't need an archtop to do that, so playing into the GAS thing instead of focusing on the music and technique, but for me he makes some valid comments about why having one of these may open up your horizons and make you a better player.
Regarding the scale length question, I certainly feel a difference at the top and at the bottom there's a Gm11 voicing I've been practising (1135X3) which is definitely more of a challenge on a Strat than on a 24.75".
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I switched from strats to ES' in 2015. After lots of playing on it by the time I brought it out to gig it wasn't a problem. I'm in it for the humbuckers and the slinky bending. And a Gibson has better natural high end sustain than a strat IME. I couldn't continue living that way, lol Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Do you still have the V?
It's strange that you mention having had one (you're a jazz guy) because for a long time I have felt the V had the most "air" like an archtop over all the other main Gibson solid bodies. I don't know if it's cause it's lightweight or just the shape or what. I've had 3 different V's. A Gibson faded, an Epiphone custom 58, and a Hamer Vector and sold them all cause I can't lean back on the couch with them. I can't do the bolt upright classical position for hours on end. They all sounded great. The deal breaker was how you gotta sit with them.
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I got the V when I was in an oldies band. We played a lot of kinks and I thought it was funny that it was period correct but also “the string guitar for the gig.”
I really liked it, balanced perfectly standing up easy to play all over the neck.
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Couple of notable Gibsons not playing jazz. There's many others. Scotty Moore, Steven Stills, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley to name a few. Everything old is new again at some point.
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Not exactly a youngin's music, but very far away from jazzboxing:
Plus basically any of Michael Watts's recordings on big blue archtops (just too unfair to link here because basically no guitar can sound better than that - regardless of how you like the music).
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