An archtop guitar is a steel-stringed acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with blues and jazz players. See also Acoustic Guitar (magazine An acoustic guitar is a Guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of Electric guitar with both a Sound box and one or more electric pickups. The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles The Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue notes It emerged as an accessible form of self-expression Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States
Typically, an archtop has:
- F-holes similar to members of the violin family. The violin is a bowed String instrument with four strings usually tuned in Perfect fifths It is the smallest and highest-pitched member
- Humbucker pickups. A conventional humbucker (or Humbucking pickup) is a type of Electric guitar pickup that uses two coils both generating string signal A pickup device acts as a Transducer that captures mechanical vibrations (usually from suitably equipped Stringed instruments such as the Electric guitar
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History
The archtop guitar was invented in the 1890s by Orville Gibson, founder of the Gibson Guitar Corporation, who was primarily a mandolin builder and had previously built archtop mandolins. Orville H Gibson ( 1856 - August 21 1918, Chateaugay New York) was a Luthier who founded the Gibson Guitar Corporation The Gibson Guitar Corporation of Nashville Tennessee, USA is a manufacturer of acoustic and Electric guitars The company's most popular guitar A mandolin is a musical instrument in the Lute family (plucked or strummed
In 1922, Lloyd Loar was hired by the Gibson Company to redesign their instrument line in an effort to counter flagging sales, and in that same year the Gibson L5 was released to his design. Lloyd Allayre Loar (1886-1943 was a Gibson sound engineer and master Luthier in the early part of the 20th century The Gibson L-5 Guitar was first produced in 1922 by Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo Michigan, U The L5 introduced a number of innovations, the most striking being the violin-like f-holes. Although the new instrument models flopped commercially and Loar left Gibson after only a couple of years, Gibson instruments signed by Loar now are among the most prized and celebrated in stringed-instrument history. Perhaps the most revered instrument from this period is the F5 mandolin, but probably the more broadly influential was the L5 guitar, which remains in production to this day.
Archtop guitars were subsequently made by many top American luthiers, notably John D'Angelico of New York and his student Jimmy D'Aquisto, William Wilkanowski, Charles Stromberg and Son in Boston, and by other major manufacturers, notably Gretsch, Epiphone, and Selmer of Paris. John D'Angelico (1905-1964 was a Luthier from New York City, noted for his handmade Archtop Guitars and Mandolins In 1952 he James L D'Aquisto (1935-1995 was an American guitar maker best known as one of the premier makers of custom Archtop guitars He served as an apprentice Gretsch is a US Musical instrument manufacturer currently being distributed by Guitar company Fender and Drum craft company The Epiphone Company is a Musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos Archtop guitars were particularly adopted by both jazz and country musicians, and in big bands and swing bands. Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. A big band is a type of Musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late Swing music, also known as swing jazz, is a form of Jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United
In 1951, Gibson released the L5CES, an L5 with a single cutaway body and two electric pickups, equally playable as either an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar. In Guitar construction a cutaway is an indentation in the body of the instrument adjacent to the neck of the instrument designed to allow easier access to the upper See also Acoustic Guitar (magazine An acoustic guitar is a Guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings An electric guitar is a type of Guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current which is made louder This innovation was immediately popular, and while purely acoustic archtop guitars such as the Gibson L-7C remain available to this day, they have become the exception. The Gibson L-7C is an Archtop Acoustic guitar and one of the few archtop guitars still in production from major makers without an electric pickup. In 1958, the L5CES was redesigned with humbucking pickups; Most but certainly not all subsequent archtop guitars conform loosely to the pattern set by this model.
Interest in archtops has been revived by luthiers such as Roger Borys and Bob Benedetto. Robert Benedetto (born October 22, 1946 in The Bronx, New York) is an American Luthier. Borys, the understudy of D'Aquisto, builds his guitars in a small shop in Vermont and authentically recreates the beautiful aesthetics and tonal qualities of his mentor's instruments. The Benedetto style of acoustic/electric archtop has been copied by luthiers such as Dale Unger, Dana Bourgeois and others. Dana Bourgeois is a Luthier who heads a small guitar shop Pantheon Guitars in Lewiston Maine. Most of the accessories (pickguard, bridge, tuner buttons, knobs, etc. A pickguard (also known as scratchplate or golpeador in Flamenco music, and uncommonly a fingerrest) is a piece of plastic or other laminated ) are made of wood (ebony or rosewood) instead of metal and have a clean acoustic look. Currently, many brands, such as Yamaha, Epiphone (owned by Gibson), Eagle, and Jay Turser produce affordable archtop guitars. The Epiphone Company is a Musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos The renewed interest in rockabilly music has led Guild to introduce a Rockabilly model electric archtop with single-coil DeArmond 2000 pickups. Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of Rock and roll music and emerged in the early 1950s
Construction
The top or belly (and often the back) of the archtop guitar is either carved out of a block of solid wood, or heat-pressed using laminations, and the belly normally has two f-holes, the lower of these partly covered by a scratch plate raised above the belly so as not to damp its vibration. A sound hole is an opening in the upper Sounding board of a stringed Musical instrument. The arching of the top and the f-holes are similar to the violin family, on which they were originally based. The violin is a bowed String instrument with four strings usually tuned in Perfect fifths It is the smallest and highest-pitched member
Archtops are generally fitted with thicker strings (higher gauged round wound and flat wound) than conventional acoustic guitars, and have extra strength to allow for this. See also Acoustic Guitar (magazine An acoustic guitar is a Guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings
Although any true archtop has a rich tone unamplified, most archtop guitars have some sort of pickup/microphone system, and many are intended primarily for this purpose and so are semi-acoustic electric guitars. A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of Electric guitar with both a Sound box and one or more electric pickups. An electric guitar is a type of Guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current which is made louder Most pickups on modern archtops are humbuckers placed in bridge and/or neck positions. A conventional humbucker (or Humbucking pickup) is a type of Electric guitar pickup that uses two coils both generating string signal Since archtop guitars are prone to acoustic feedback when used with high-gain amplification, it may be problematic using them in certain types of performance situations. Audio Feedback (also known as the Larsen effect after the Danish scientist Søren Larsen who first discovered its principles is a special kind of Feedback
Some archtop guitars have Bigsby vibrato tailpiece or other tremolo arm systems. The Bigsby vibrato tailpiece (or Bigsby for short is a type of Vibrato device for Electric guitar designed by Paul A A tremolo arm or tremolo bar (also called a "whammy bar" or "wang bar" is a lever attached to the bridge and/or the Tailpiece of Most tremolo systems cannot be fitted to an archtop owing to the need to cut large holes in the belly to accommodate the mechanism, but the Bigsby and the long tailpiece versions of the Gibson Vibrola can both be fitted. A tremolo arm or tremolo bar (also called a "whammy bar" or "wang bar" is a lever attached to the bridge and/or the Tailpiece of
Although factory production of purely acoustic archtops has almost died out, the L-7C acoustic archtop is still available from the Gibson custom shop. The Gibson L-7C is an Archtop Acoustic guitar and one of the few archtop guitars still in production from major makers without an electric pickup. Archtop guitars are likely to remain in production in some form as long as interest in jazz guitar and early rock and roll music persists. See for example the Lee Ritenour L-5 Signature guitar. Lee Mack "Captain Fingers" Ritenour (born January 11 1952) is an internationally acclaimed guitarist recording artist composer and producer
Various use of the term archtop
Although archtop normally refers to a hollow-bodied instrument, some makers of solid-bodied guitars with carved bellies also refer to these as archtop to distinguish these from flat top guitars. A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of Electric guitar with both a Sound box and one or more electric pickups. A solid body electric instrument is a String instrument such as a guitar, bass or Violin built without its normal Sound box and relying A flat top guitar is a type of guitar body model which has a flat top (as opposed to archtop) For example, Gibson refer to the standard Gibson Les Paul as an arch top to distinguish it from flat top models such as the Les Paul Junior and Melody Maker. The Gibson Les Paul is a solidbody Electric guitar originally developed in the early 1950s The Gibson Les Paul is a solidbody Electric guitar originally developed in the early 1950s The Gibson Melody Maker is an Electric guitar made by Gibson Guitar Corporation.
A continuum exists from these solid body, purely electric instruments to purely acoustic instruments similar to the original Orville Gibson design, including:
- Solid body instruments, such as the Les Paul standard, with a carved but non-sounding belly.
- Instruments with a solid core but hollow wings, such as the Gibson ES-335. The Gibson ES-335 was the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody Electric guitar, released by Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1958. In these the bridge is fixed to a solid block of wood rather than to a sounding board, and the belly vibration is minimised much as in a solid body instrument. The sounding board or soundboard is the part of a String instrument that transmits the vibrations of the strings to the air greatly increasing the Loudness
- Thin-bodied semi-acoustic instruments, such as the Gibson ES-355. The Gibson ES-335 was the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody Electric guitar, released by Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1958. These possess both a sounding board and sound box, but the function of these is purely to modify the sound transmitted to the pickups. A sound box or sounding box, (sometimes written soundbox) is an open chamber in the body of a Musical instrument which alters the instrument's tone quality Such guitars are still intended purely as electric instruments, and while they do make some sound when the pickups are not used, the tone is weak and not normally considered musically useful.
- The prototypical archtop, which although most often fitted with one or more pickups and normally amplified if pickups are fitted, also retains a full-size body and a powerful acoustic tone suitable both for chords and for melody work.
All of these types may be loosely described as archtop, but only the last possesses the characteristics most often associated with the type.
See also
- Mohan veena, a cross between this guitar and a sitar. Mohan veena is a stringed Musical instrument used in Indian classical music The sitar ( Hindi: सितार Urdu: ستار Persian: سی تار) is a Plucked stringed instrument.
External links
- Jones Acoustics, archtop luthier in State College, Pennsylvania.
- Museum of Musical Instruments.
- Holst stringed instruments, archtop guitar and mandolin luthier Steve Holst.
- American Archtops, Dale Unger's site.
- Rizzolo Guitars, archtop luthier in Australia
- Sagitarius Guitars, archtop luthier in Czech Republic.
- Gagnon Guitars, archtop luthier in Portland, Oregon.
- Patrice Blanc, archtop luthier in Grenoble, France.
- Foster Archtop Guitars, archtop luthier in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Girasoli Parlor Jazz Guitar - Downloadable plans for a small-bodied archtop guitar designed by R. M. Mottola, on the Liutaio Mottola Lutherie Information Website.
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