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Here is the first of a collection of archtops I plan to sell exclusively through jazzguitar.be over the next months. I have been a member here for quite a long time and have made many (over-long) contributions to forum threads - both about guitars and about improvisation and jazz in general.
The five or six guitars I will be selling are the 'keepers' that have emerged over a thirty year period of very careful buying and selling. I have been looking - all the time - for the best instrument to use in small-group jazz gigs - and have never intended to acquire a 'collection': so all the instruments are exceptionally good tools for playing mainstream jazz. They have proved themselves able to produce a nice fat, creamy tone, at the volume required for groups including piano and drums, without serious feedback problems.
I got this Heritage Classic after selling a fabulous L5CES because it was just a tad too big for me to live with comfortably. I found (in performance) that the Classic did everything the L5 was able to do (!!) without being awkwardly large. The Classic is both significantly thinner and less 'long' than the L5 - and this, it turned out, made all the difference for me as a guitarist of medium size (5' 10''). Like the legendary L5 - and unlike modern Benedetto style archtops - it is heavily built and has the fat tone that goes with this. The pickups are Seth Lovers.
I have upgraded both the tuners (Gotoh delta 510, 21/1 ratio) and the tone and vol knobs (Ibanez GB with grips). Both seriously improve the performance of the guitar - if a buyer wants worse tuning machines and vol/tone controls I have the originals.
The guitar is without scratches or dings - the frets are very nearly 100 percent. One of the things I love about this guitar is the string spacing - and alignment of strings on the fretboard. The nut width is 1 11/16'' and the strings are not right at the edge of the fretboard so that they can be pushed off the neck easily.
What really stands out about this instrument is its colouring - the sunburst is so wonderful it more than makes up for the rather humble finishing Heritage gives this guitar.
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09-09-2024 09:05 AM
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1956 es-125
Today, 04:55 AM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos