![]() On really good acoustic archtops you can feel the top almost see it move. A fully vibrating top and the carving pattern is critical. Just being loud does not make an archtop great. Have someone in front of you listen, or have someone play it while you listen in order to hear the real volume. Builders are starting to install sound ports in the sides to allow the player to hear the archtop better, but they're still uncommon. You don't need a huge body to equal a flat-top's volume, and don't be confused by the volume you hear while playing. A thick poly finish inhibits acoustic tone and volume, while a thin finish allows it to come through. The finish is thin and somewhat brittle, but it's far beyond a high school shop project. A carved solid spruce top is the driver for that. It doesn't sound as good because of the lack of depth, and the bass is especially lacking acoustically, but it's certainly loud enough. My Eastman T145, 15" bout, 1.75" depth, is louder than my Ovation and Gibson J45. ![]() Archtops can be very loud, but the player usually doesn't hear the volume well, because they're directional. If you get a change go play one and see what you think.Īrchtop guitars were developed because more volume was needed. I would expect the carved top on the 503 would be even louder. When I first got it it took a lot of getting used to the sound because the acoustic volume while playing amplified was a strange experience, like I had two different sounds competing at once. opinions?It is certainly not as loud acoustically as a flat top, but I have been quite surprised at how loud my AR403CE is acoustically. I also really like Eastman's classic finish, but I've heard people say it's really poor quality (I think it was something along the lines of "high school student's first shop class project") Peerless have a 17"x3" body, and the Jazz Artist Series ones come in around the same price as an ar503ce, but then I might have to settle for laminate or non-flamed maple. Going up to something like an ar605ce or ar805ce you get a 16"x3 1/4" body, but the price goes up and it'll be harder to find one I could afford. The ar503ce's 16"x2 9/16" body and set-in pickup concern me since I'll be treating this more as an acoustic, although the price is great. Two big things I'm considering are price and body size. I've heard complaints about Eastmans sounding too bright, but I think that brightness would work for me. I really dig the clean look and the wood tailpiece and pickguard. I'm not really a fan of the "blingy" archtops, and I'm finding myself really drawn to Eastman and Peerless. I'm trying to stay below $1200ish, and even that's pushing it. I'm obviously not expecting the kind of volume I get from my flattop now, but I don't want it to be overly quiet either. So I'm shooting for better playability, I'll be doing a lot of acoustic playing, and it'll be used for rock and folk as well as jazz. I've been noticing that it doesn't play quite as well as I'd like (it's set up well, so it would take a lot work to improve it further) which makes complicated playing and fine articulation a little more difficult than it needs to be, and while it's got an awesome deep tone, it's not the most nuanced and tends to lose a lot of detail in chords. I'm in a similar situation, I'm looking to trade up from my Ibanez EW20ZWE-NT flattop to a used archtop. I was going to make a similar thread, but since this one's already here Ill ask here.
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