Godin 5th Avenue

[jpmist]

I'll pitch in with my experience with a similar archtop. This is a Gibson ES-300 circa mid 1940's.

My take on these large body archtops is that they're meant to be amped primarily. With so little energy being passed to the body from the bridge it's wasn't nearly as loud as it looked. The back and sides were literally 1/4" plywood so not much resonance or sustain.

[ducktrapper]

I'll pitch in with my experience with a similar archtop. This is a Gibson ES-300 circa mid 1940's.

My take on these large body archtops is that they're meant to be amped primarily. With so little energy being passed to the body from the bridge it's wasn't nearly as loud as it looked. The back and sides were literally 1/4" plywood so not much resonance or sustain.

Thing of Beauty!   

[jpmist]

Thing of Beauty!   

Very kind! But picture doesn't do it justice as to how beat up it got. I got it as a teenager and took it to the beach a lot. It had a argument with a sliding glass door a friend closed on it so it had quite a few cracks and scratches. It does have a cool vibe, but once I got my first normal grand concert guitar it collected dust, sadly. It finally got sold off to someone who wanted to restore it so it's in far better, more deserving hands.

[Silence Dogood]

I really like these types of guitars, hollow-body "archies," as I've heard some people call them.  I don't play jazz, but I think these kinds of guitars are capable of so much more than that.  Anything sounds good on a good guitar. 

I was in my local GC the other day and went over to that section of the store.  I picked up several models: guitars from Epi, Gretsch, et al.  They all felt like absolute junk.  I'm guessing it was mainly just poor setups, but it makes me wonder how they expect to sell guitars that are sent to the market so uncomfortable to play?  I get that setups are expensive, take time, etc, but I'd not have wanted any of those guitars at any price.

Oddly enough, I then ventured over to the used section and spotted a Dean hollow archtop with three P90s.  Blond, no Bigsby, etc.  Just a butt-ugly, gawd-awful-looking guitar.  I picked it up out of curiosity and was absolutely floored at how pleasant it was to play. There is a policy at my local GC in place that makes a used guitar unavailable for a certain amount of time, in case it was stolen.  So this guitar isn't actually up for sale yet.  If it was I'd have likely walked out with it. 

As far as the Godin stuff, I like it, but there is always something *off* to my eye about the aesthetic.  Everything they make looks sort of "tacky" to me, like it's overdone.  Maybe it's a Canadian thing and perhaps styles and taste vary slightly within cultures.  Same goes for the Seagulls, Art/Lutherie, etc.  Often times the rosettes look toy-like to me and genuinely ruin the look of the guitar.  YMMV.

[William2]

I actually like the looks of the Loar LH 600 and LH-700 archtops. They are all solid wood, and the tops are carved. I had an Eastman 805CE and it had a carved top. I really didn't need to plug it in, and it sounded very nice.

[Silence Dogood]

I have been spending quite a bit of time learning about these kinds of guitars.  Gretsch makes several high-end models in Japan.  Lots of models to choose from, and many with ebony boards which has become a must for me having been spoiled by Larrivee. 

Guild has a nice one called the Manhattan that looks great too.  Ebony board, And one of them comes with P90s.  They look absolutely great, but I have to admit, I'm somewhat hesitant about shelling out $1500 for a guitar built in Korea.  There very much exists in my mind a 20th century mental block when it comes to country of origin. Example: I cannot consider anything made in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and on some level Korea, "high-end."   I've tried and I cannot.   Korea slightly straddles a fence here and maybe putting my hands on one of these Manhattans could change my mind.  But when I see "Made in China" on a label, the guitar mentally goes down in value for me.  I could get along with a used MIC guitar, but I know I'd never see it as high-end. 

Side note about Larrivee: one of the things I really admire about them is that they don't have line of cheaper guitars made somewhere else.  Every Larrivee is a real Larrivee.

[Silence Dogood]

I'm getting tired of waiting for Larrivee to build something similar. 

Like you, I would love to see Larrivee make a guitar like this.