From: richard@purch.Columbia.NCR.COM ()
Subject: Re: Arch tops vs Flat tops
Keywords: acoustic, arch-top, flat-top, jazz
Organization: NCR Corp, E&M-Columbia, Columbia, SC
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 15:34:36 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.042247.17595@reed.edu> rseymour@reed.edu writes:
>In article <1992Nov11.001612.7657@mdd.comm.mot.com> knapik@mdd.comm.mot.com  
>(Jim Knapik) writes:
>> 
>> Never having had the opportunity to play an early model arch top acoustic,
>> I was wondering what their strong points were relative to flat top
>> acoustics in the same class or by the same manufacture.
>> 
>> I am interested in trying one out, say the L-5 or New Yorker, but with them
>> being a little bit hard to find, I was wondering if I should spend the time
>> to find one, or just  settle for another flat top.
>> 

stuff deleted...

>
>	Arch-top and flat-top guitars have completely different sounds. An  
>arch-top tends to have little sustain, give a warm and mellow sound, and is  
>usually used for jazz music. Flat-tops come in many varieties (i.e. steel  
>	These reason arch-tops (also known as carved top guitars) sound so  
>different is that the top plate is carved from a relatively thick piece of  
>wood. The arch in the wood tends to give a large amount of structural stability
>to the face sheet, so the sound dies out much more quickly (i.e. it takes a  
>much larger amount of energy to vibrate the face sheet, so the energy of the  
>string is dissapated faster). 

stuff deleted...

>--
>Robert Seymour				rseymour@reed.edu
>Departments of Physics and Philosophy
>Artificial Life Project			Reed College
>Reed Solar Energy Project (SolTrain)	Portland, OR

Some good stuff was deleted but I wanted to add one thing. There are different
"classes" of jazz guitars if you will. You are interested in an acoustic
archtop guitar. I think most L-5s that you find will be electric instruments,
meaning that they have pickups and knobs installed on the face of the guitar.
Also they have a parallel bracing system on the face of the guitar. A Guild
Artist Award, Bob Bendetto guitar, Heritage Golden Eagle and some Super Eagles
have no hardware installed on the face of the guitar and use an "X" bracing
system for the face. I believe that the X bracing guides energy to the full
face of the guitar whereas the parallel bracing tends to kill the energy on the
face of the guitar. All Johnny Smith guitars (Guild, Gibson, Heritage) follow
these same basic design guidelines as well as D'Aquisto guitars. I have a 
Heritage Golden Eagle and it is LOUD acoustically. It does have a pickup so
that you can amplify but the pickup is a floating model connected to the
pickguard. I also might point out that many archtop guitars are made with a
two piece "book matched" spruce top similar to the flat top guitars so that they
can function acoustically. On the other hand, I have a Yamaha L-5 copy that has
an extremely tight grain spruce top, mounted pickups, and parallel bracing. 
While this guitar exibits the smaller amount of sustain and mellow tone as 
mentioned above, it is extremely versatile in that I've played jazz, blues, 
and I'm sure that I could even do rock gigs with this guitar. I usually play
it acoustically around the house. 

To recap, if you want an acoustic archtop, look for X-bracing and a spruce
top. There were some custom L-5s and Super 400s were made this way for awhile
too. I've always been partial to archtops so this discussion is a bit stilted.
8^) Heritage guitars are a good deal as well as the Artist Award. Mandolin Bros.
in Staten Island, NY will ship a guitar to you so that you can check it out if
you can't seem to find one local. Good Luck finding a New Yorker!

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