Acoustic Archtops?

mavuser

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they look like electric archtops, just missing pickups. and no saddle-type or other "acoustic electic" pickup either...no pickup at all, nowhere to plug it in. So, it is basically an acoustic guitar, that I have never seen played, or heard. how do they sound? loud enough to play with a flat top acoustic dread/jumbo etc? would it sound good with a pickup, of any kind? artist award pickup?

does an A-50 sound the same as an X-50 that is not plugged into an amp? are they actually the same thing, sans electronics?

i don't have one on my radar at all. and don't want one or need one. I just never realized they cannot be plugged in. fascinating!
 

DThomasC

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does an A-50 sound the same as an X-50 that is not plugged into an amp? are they actually the same thing, sans electronics?

They are basically the same thing, though cutting a hole in the top and attaching a pickup might have some affect on how the top moves, don't you think?

Early big-body archtops were used to accompany bands with horns, so they had to put out a fair bit of volume. More strumming chords than single note runs in that case, but still... Pickups were added later.

Maybe check out youtube?
 

Neal

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I think you would be happier with an X-50, if you want to plug in, rather thn using a floating pickup on an A-50.

The A-50/X-50 are both made from maple laminate (top, back and sides), and as such, they are a lot quieter and less responsive than an X-braced flattop. They have a nice "chunky" sound acoustically, very fundamental, with very little sustain or overtones.

Plugged in, my X-50 becomes a completely different animal. Deep, bluesy, wonderful.

I play it unplugged from time to time, and experimented with acoustic PB medium strings for a while to get the best from it acoustically. But a good flattop will usually be a better choice than a laminate archtop for acoustic playing.
 

gilded

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The 'modern' acoustic archtop guitar came into being in the '20s.The job of the acoustic archtop guitar was to cut through the mix of sounds in a Big Band and send the chords to the horn section so they could play in tune. They were designed for that specific task. To do that, they had to come up with a guitar that emphasized more of the mids, not the bass and treble.

Flat top guitars couldn't do it, because their job is to distribute more bass and treble in an area relatively close to where the player is sitting and/or serenading. In other words, flat tops should be big enough for a circle jam, but maybe not quite big enough for a coffee house.

Acoustic Archtops will project further than a flat-top guitar, too.
 

Quantum Strummer

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I have a Gibson L-50 archtop from c. 1940. It has a very crisp, dry sound. More high end presence ("air") than a typical flattop, tighter bass than most flattops larger than a parlor I've ever played. Stick a pickup in it and it turns into an ES-150 (by 1940 Gibson was using a P-90-ish pickup near the bridge rather than the Charlie Christian style neck p'up).

Check out Pete Townshend's Street In The City from the Rough Mix album with Ronnie Lane. He plays a D'Angelico archtop on the song and gets a characteristic archtop sound.

-Dave-
 

AcornHouse

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Here's a back to back comparison of an acoustic archtop vs a flattop. (Why they're not tuned to the same pitch I'll never know. I think he tuned each by ear, without reference to each other. )
 
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bobouz

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I've owned a lot of acoustic archtops, primarily from the '30s & '40s. A crisp & dry sound would accurately describe most of those, and I'd add percussive. The best of these would have carved solid spruce tops, but pressed solid spruce or pressed solid mahogany can also work very well on less expensive models. In the '20s, a very good example of what the acoustic archtop could do was provided by Eddie Lang. Listen to any of the Lang-Venuti work from that period - it's wonderful stuff. As mentioned, then cutting through the big band became the goal in the '30s. Finally in the late '30s, Charlie Christian changed everything with his electric Gibson ES-135 while playing for Benny Goodman.

Although many will sound rather thin, I've had a number of acoustic archtops that provided a satisfying full range sound when fingerpicked, including a current NS Guild Savoy A-150b, but the tone is still much more percussive than a typical flat-top.
 

walrus

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I had both a '63 A-50 and a '65 X-50, although not at the same time. The X-50 was certainly nice unplugged, but the A-50 sounded a bit more full - seemed to have a more balanced sound than the X-50. But the difference was not very obvious, as the bodies and woods, etc. are the same. Perhaps as was mentioned above the lack of a pup cutout on the A-50 gave it a bit more punch.

I must say, the A-50 was a blast to play. It's one of those guitars that I would take back if possible. The fretboard had an "electric" feel to it, and solo runs in particular sounded great. Even though the two models are essentially the same, that particular A-50 had a better feel to it (for me).

walrus
 

marcellis

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they look like electric archtops, just missing pickups. and no saddle-type or other "acoustic electic" pickup either...no pickup at all, nowhere to plug it in. So, it is basically an acoustic guitar, that I have never seen played, or heard. how do they sound? loud enough to play with a flat top acoustic dread/jumbo etc? would it sound good with a pickup, of any kind? artist award pickup?

does an A-50 sound the same as an X-50 that is not plugged into an amp? are they actually the same thing, sans electronics?

i don't have one on my radar at all. and don't want one or need one. I just never realized they cannot be plugged in. fascinating!

FWIW, I think archtops need a pick-up--preferably magnetic. You lose 1/2 of what the guitar can do without one. And a floating pickup detracts nothing from the acoustic tone.

I have discovered though that my archtop sounds more natural with electric strings -- even if it's unplugged - as it usually is.
 
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The Guilds of Grot

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I've never played them back-to-back.

M-85004.jpg


rt006KE.jpg



Maybe next time I'm over to the vault.
 

swiveltung

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IME NOT loud enough to compete with a normal acoustic.
The last archtop acoustic I had was a '37 Martin R18. What a wonderful guitar it was. Over 75 years old with no truss rod and the action was the lowest of any of my guitars including electrics! Just sold it this spring. Great for sitting and playing on the porch alone, but dont compete with soundhole acoustics.
 
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walrus

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Rawlings pretty much plays one guitar, it's a 1935 Epiphone Olympic, as in the video parker_knoll shows. I had a 1933 Olympic for a while, but found it a bit too small to be comfortable - Rawlings really sounds great with it.

And he still plays it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyWTzAoZhzE

walrus
 
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