Archtop Guitar Makers

Archtop guitar enthusiasts often enjoy the pastime of collecting guitars as well as playing them. Often times, however, it's difficult to find archtop guitar makers, especially ones whose work you like. That's why we created FineArchtops.com, to connect archtop guitar devotees with luthiers who custom craft these guitars.

When you visit FineArchtops.com, you're presented with 25 different luthiers who have chosen to make themselves available to archtop guitar lovers. Being enthusiasts themselves, they understand how difficult it is to find the artisans who create these beautiful instruments, and jumped at the opportunity to connect with fellow players and collectors.

Visit the Fine Archtops website at FineArchtops.com to get started on your journey today!

What We Do at Fine Archtops

Let's say you want a custom, hand-carved archtop guitar created. How would you go about doing that? Like most, you might search for someone who makes these types of guitars using a search engine. But there are many websites that aren't the official websites of archtop luthiers, and you might spend hours, if not days, searching for someone who can create the guitar you want. And when you finally find that person, they might be too busy! There has to be a better way, and there is -- Fine Archtops.

On the Fine Archtops website, you're connected with archtop guitar luthiers and their websites. Because we've partnered with these luthiers to list their bio and information on our website, we know the information is current. By following the link to the luthier's website, you'll be able to get in touch with them about building the archtop guitar of your dreams.

Visit the Fine Archtops website today, browse around and get to know the luthiers we've partnered with to help bring more archtop guitars into the world!

Archtop Guitar Accessories

If you're an archtop guitar enthusiast, you know that the guitar is just part of the overall experience when you're playing and performing. That's why we've added an Archtop Accessories page to the Fine Archtops website.

We've linked to several companies who sell accessories like jazz amplifiers, speakers, pickups, cables, effects, strings, cases, and many other types of archtop guitar accessories.

Click here to visit our Archtop Accessories page, or give us a call at 612-366-7120 if you want to add another archtop guitar to your collection!

Archtop Guitar Market

The evolution of the archtop acoustic guitar has made a lot of sense. It was designed for acoustic rhythm volume back in the 20's, and stayed that way until amplification opened the door to many other options. At that point archtop remained a mainstay only in jazz, but were fitted with pickups, rendering the original form pretty much obsolete.

Decades passed, and eventually both archtop luthiers and guitarists became interested in archtops again as an instrument style in its own right. Not because it was necessary for something anymore, but because it was desirable as a thing of aesthetic beauty and a vehicle for the craftsman's vision to be expressed. But now, because the archtop guitar's former musical niche was no longer an overriding concern, archtop luthiers tried new things - exploiting and tweaking the platform to see how it could sound if different variables were modified from the original classics.

And so here we are. At this time the archtop guitar market offers just about everything: Classic rhythm machines that hearken to yesteryear, with parallel bracing and lots of midrange volume; "modern" sleek touch-sensitive parlor instruments that flit between the sonic territories of steel flattop and nylon, landing in some unique hybrid place. Traditional looking things; outlandish things.

They run the gamut described above. In the future, it would be great to see some really new archtop acoustic guitar design elements and a bit less focus on slaying the customer with overwhelming aesthetic details. It has caused archtop guitars to enter the realm of the luxury item

To get in touch with archtop guitar luthier, visit Fine Archtops at www.FineArchtops.com.

How to Choose the Right Wood for your Custom Archtop Guitar

If you are planning to have an archtop luthier make a custom archtop guitar, one of the most important choices you'll make is the kind of wood for the back and sides of your archtop guitar. This is typically referred to as tonewood and different wood types are going to product different sounds when your archtop guitar is finished. There are plenty of quality tonewoods available for your use, but if you're searching for a specific sound, you want to be sure to choose the correct wood type or you'll end up disappointed with your guitar, and you don't want that, especially after all the work that goes into making it.
In this article, you'll find information about some of the most popular tonewoods used when building a custom archtop guitar and the sounds that they will give you.
Brazilian Rosewood: An extremely popular wood choice in the construction of classical guitars, this wood is difficult to get and is often expensive because it's considered an endangered species. It's a beautiful wood though and produces a sound that is deep and warm.
Mahogany: From South America, this wood is yellowish-brown or reddish-brown in color and is an extremely sturdy wood. It's considered to be a very beautiful wood and is a popular choice as well. Tonally, it will give you a strong loud sound and a very warm mid-range.
Rosewood: Here's another extremely popular choice for a tonewood when building an archtop guitar. It features a beautiful appearance and has dark purple, red, and brown grain. The sound that this wood produces is beautiful, with a deep, warm bass response.
Curly Maple: This is an extremely hard wood and has a bright sound.
Koa: Found only in Hawaii, this wood can be expensive and is extremely popular in the construction of the ukulele. It's a beautiful wood with a golden brown color and it features dark streaks and a gorgeous natural sheen. The sound that it produces is extremely balanced because its bass response is less than what you will find with rosewood and its treble is less than that of mahogany.
There you have the major tonewoods that are used for the backs and sides of archtop guitars. Take your time choosing the wood that's right for you and you'll end up with an instrument that plays exactly how you want it. In fact, it's best if you take the time to play some instruments that have been made with each of the tonewoods mentioned here in order to see what you like best, especially if you are not familiar with them.
To get in touch with archtop guitar luthier, visit Fine Archtops at www.FineArchtops.com.

Why Play an Archtop Guitar?

Why would you want to learn to play the archtop guitar? Because you love the sound, because you love the feel of the guitar, maybe your hero in your favorite band is the lead archtop guitar player. Whatever your reasons, you have decided to learn and are looking for a quick route to stardom.
Contrary to popular belief, learning to play the archtop guitar is relatively easy. Like anything in life you need to be shown the basics and then it is just a case of practice makes perfect.
Although some people are naturally talented when it comes to musical instruments I have yet to see a student who picks up an archtop guitar and immediately blasts out a classic. To play guitar to a good level takes a lot of dedication and practice.
Although all this dedication and practice sounds like hard work it really isn't, if you have decided to go this far the chances are that you will actually enjoy the endless twanging that is needed to become competent.
Where to start?
Your starting point is your equipment. We always recommend you start with an electric archtop guitar. They are far more forgiving and easier to play than an acoustic. At the very least you will need a guitar and an amp.
You have your archtop guitar, your amp and a plectrum and you are ready to begin. First you need to tune your archtop guitar. There are various methods to do this ranging from simply tuning by ear to some ridiculously complex methods. By far the easiest way is to use a guitar tuner. These are cheaply available on the internet or from your local music store and are really easy to use. There are even apps for most smart phones as well as web sites that have guitar tuners.
There really is no excuse for not tuning and it is essential that you your archtop guitar is tuned, if you can't get hold of a tuner for some reason just pop into your local musical instrument store and they will be happy to tune it for you.
Guitar Chords
Chords are the basis of the guitar sound. Whenever you hear a big chorus in a song, these are chords. Chords are generated by playing 2 or more notes at a time. This sounds difficult but it just entails holding down 2 or more strings at a time whilst strumming the guitar. You should start with the C chord as this is the easiest to play and can be used endlessly. You play the C chord as follows:
• Index finger just behind the first fret on the second string (B).
• Middle finger, just behind the 2nd fret on the forth string (D).
• Ring finger behind the third fret on the 5th string (A).
• The first and third string are played open, whereas the 6th string is not played at all.
There are many more chords to practice and practice makes perfect. Practice swapping between chords as this is where most people fall down and can make the difference between sounding mediocre and sounding great.
Practice makes perfect but the right equipment can help tremendously!

To get in touch with archtop guitar luthier, visit Fine Archtops at www.FineArchtops.com.

Archtop Guitar History

In 1894, Orville set up shop as O.H. Gibson, Manufacturer, Musical Instruments. Surviving examples of his workmanship—early mandolins, archtop guitars, harp guitars and such curious experimental designs as a lyre-mandolin and harp-zither—are ornate and exquisitely detailed. Now as it so happens, Kalamazoo was the epicenter of the American furniture industry, and in a whimsical fluke of destiny—like some odd confluence of Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Ford—five local businessmen decided to ground Orville Gibson’s baroque visions in the great American entrepreneurial tradition of capitalization and modern production techniques—they hoped to propagate an entire new generation of American string players. They realized that there were more efficient ways to compartmentalize the individual steps and streamline the construction of Gibson’s fretted-string designs—although handcraftsmanship remained a fundamental component.
Thus in the fall of 1902, Orville entered into an agreement with these Kalamazoo businessmen to establish the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company, Limited. In exchange for a lump sum of $2,500 and a series of monthly payments, Orville Gibson authorized the new company to make use of his name, transferred his original 1898 patent for an archtop mandolin and undertook a two-year program of tutelage. The company subsequently expanded on Orville’s best ideas while dispensing with his idiosyncrasies. Yet ultimately it was the achievements of these early Kalamazoo craftsmen and their descendants that perpetuated the Gibson name, even as the company’s marketing mavens conveyed Orville’s mystic sense of superiority with the born-again fervor of a missionary. It was the golden age of string bands.
In various incarnations, the Style O remained Gibson’s top-of-the-line model into the early ’20s, when in 1919 the brilliant composer, acoustical engineer and string player Lloyd Loar was hired to head up the Gibson design team. And though Loar didn’t actually build any archtop guitars, like a great editor or conductor, he harmonized the collective talents of his designers and archtop luthiers into a consonant whole, leading to the development of a celebrated family of Mastertone instruments (bearing his personal signature of quality): these included the famous Mastertone banjo series, the F-5 mandolin, the H-5 mandola, the K-5 mando-cello and in 1924, the trendsetting L-5—America’s first f-hole archtop guitar.
The L-5 consolidated all of the Loar team’s patented breakthroughs for fretted-string instruments for the first time in one guitar. With the invention of the truss rod in 1922 by Orville’s old crony Ted McHugh, the old triangular style necks could be streamlined and the playing action slackened. And the L-5’s elevated fingerboard, height-adjustable bridge, floating tailpiece and elevated pickguard allowed the top to resonate as freely as possible. This original L-5 had a three-piece neck, a small 16-inch body (of spruce and birch, then maple), and a 24-inch scale length (to further reduce string tension and soften the action). Popularized by Italian émigré Salvatore Massaro (better known as Eddie Lang), the archtop orchestral guitar became the preeminent rhythm and solo voice in the earliest days of recorded jazz, and its dominance as a rhythm instrument in the swing era spawned a new generation of enhanced models, beginning in 1934, when the L-5’s own body dimensions were expanded to 17 inches and its scale-length increased to its present 25 inches: the classic noncutaway design Gibson recently honored with a Custom Shop reissue.
Its pervasive influence was subsequently reflected in the work of gifted archtop luthiers such as Epi Stathopoulo, Elmer Stromberg and John D’Angelico, who expanded on the ideas of Orville Gibson and Lloyd Loar with important refinements of their own. As a result, in one form or another, Orville Gibson’s vision of an archtop guitar has endured for over a century. Even today, despite the practicality of solid-body electric icons like the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul, semiacoustics (such as the original Gibson ES-335 and the new Paul Reed Smith Archtop Guitar and Hollowbody designs) and electric-acoustics crafted entirely from pressed laminates (such as the venerable Gibson ES-175), guitarists remain enamored with the rich sonority, depth of tone and acoustic intimacy of a handcarved archtop guitar. Thus 21st century luthiers find themselves happily occupied with adventurous custom orders from jazzmen and intrepid hobbyists, inspired to experiment with new combinations of materials and construction methods—because while the modern player hungers for something timeless, inevitably, as the music moves forward, they’re drawn to explore something new.
To get in touch with archtop guitar luthier, visit Fine Archtops at www.FineArchtops.com.