|
I've been lucky enough to own a bunch of archtops over the years. I just love 'em for low-volume jazz combo work. :-) Currently I'm using a very nice Guild Artist Award as the main jazz axe, and a cheapo Epiphone Emperor Regent as the backup. One mid-price instrument that's really worth a look IMO is the Hofner Jazzica, a tres cool ultra-contemporary design with a great sound. ;-) In the budget category, some of the new Ibanez models offer a LOT of guitar for the money, particularly the Artcore series.
One thing you may want to explore is the differences between the floating pickup models, and the ones with pickups already embedded in the top. (One isn't better or worse than the other, they're just different.) You'll likely also find that guitars with a true <u>carved spruce top</u> have a different quality than those with any sort of laminated top.
There's actually quite a bit of good arcthop info buried in the TDPRI archives, btw. Try doing a search on "archtop" "jazz box" "artist award" (my personal fave) ;-) etc. Have fun "shopping" and best of luck, CS :-)
__________________
"I go online sometimes, but everyone's spelling is really bad. It's depressing." – Tara, from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
"It was born at the junction of form and function." – Bill Kirchen, from "Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods"
|