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The Great Archtop Shoot out (sound clips)

Kuz

By Kuz
in Heritage Guitars

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Kuz Experienced

Kuz

Posted
Posted

OK, I had a couple of requests for sound clips of my 3 Archtops.

 

Same backing track

Same strings (Thomastik George Benson Flat wound 12-52)

Same pick

Same "amp" settings (Axe-Fx modeled Fender Twin 2x12 with Ribbon mic, delay, reverb)

Tone & Volume knobs all full up on each guitar

And.... Same crappy playing (did one quick pass for each guitar over the backing track for "Misty", each take is only 1 min long)

 

SO you pick which guitar is on which track!!!!

 

Three tracks labeled Archtop Shoot Out #1, #2, and #3

 

The three guitars played are my Florentine Golden Eagle with HRW, Blond Golden Eagle with floating pickup, and my Custom 575 with Seth Lovers (Neck pickup)... now pick which guitar is on which track!!!!! One should be fairly easy, the other two are more difficult to choose. But think about the properties of a Large acoustic Archtop with a floater, a Top mounted humbucker on a big Archtop, and Dual top mounted humbuckers smaller archtop.

 

Winner gets the booby prize of jamming with me at PSP4 (and I buy the first round!!!)

 

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=933379&content=music

 

Enjoy!!!

 

John

 

Florentine Golden Eagle

th_Front2web.jpg

Blond Golden Eagle with floating pickup

th_BlondeGoldenEagleFrontweb.jpg

Custom 575 with Seth Lovers (neck pickup)

th_Web1.jpg

schundog Mentor

schundog

Posted
Posted

I'm gonna say...

 

Blonde Golden Eagle

 

Custom 575

 

Florentine Golden Eagle

 

All I know is I got all "Misty" trying to make my decision, haha. BTW, you are jamming with me at PSPIV whether you like it or not!! :laugh_mini:

ronalr Contributor

ronalr

Posted
Posted

Well I don't know... but geez they all sound great kuz :icon_thumright: ...beautiful tone on all but I think I like # 1 the best....and I love your playing as well....sweet....thanks for sharing...

skydog52 Mentor

skydog52

Posted
Posted

Nice playing John. They all sound great.

 

I would keep them all! :icon_biggrin:

Kuz Experienced

Kuz

Posted
  • Author
Posted

OK, I like #1 best too.

 

But I am going to let the contest run for a while. I will PM the people that responded with the correct order.

MartyGrass Veteran

MartyGrass

Posted
Posted

1 sounds like a HRW.

 

2 sounds like a Seth.

 

 

All three sounded really nice.

 

 

 

What would be a real hoot is to mix in a solid body and semi-hollow. I'd have a better chance at getting a few right.

koula901 Mentor

koula901

Posted
Posted

My guess is Clip #1 is Florentine Golden Eagle

Clip #2 is Custom 575

Clip #3 is Blonde Golden Eagle with Floating Pickup

koula901 Mentor

koula901

Posted
Posted

P.S. Nice playing, John! And tremendous tone, my hair stood on end when I heard Clip #1 - like buttah!

fxdx99 Experienced

fxdx99

Posted
Posted

John - knock off the practicing right now because you are getting too dang good. That's some nice playing there, some nice tracks. I have no idea which is which, but I'd guess...

 

1 HRW

2 Floater

3 Seths

Kuz Experienced

Kuz

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Wow, this is funny.

 

Some of you members are 100% WAY off and the other half is 100% perfect right on!!!!

 

Well, since the response has been really good and I don't want to PM everybody, HERE are the answers!!!

 

Track #1 is..... The Florentine Cutaway Golden Eagle with HRWs (this guitar is just the epitome of a big archtop with a top mounted humbucker; lots of bass, big & warm, but still has the ringing highs, and still a lot of the acoustic qualities despite the top mounted HRW. This guitar is my favorite archtop for tone!!)

 

Track #2 is..... The Blond Golden Eagle with the floating pup (this is pure acoustic, old school, jazz box. The top is vibrating and it sounds VERY acoustic, thus less bass with more ringing high end, but VERY even from the Low to Mids to Highs. Not one tone dominates. I really prefer the Humbucker archtop tone, with 20 years of playing this guitar will open up and hopefully I will learn some chops!)

 

Track #3 is.... The Custom 575 (Changing to flat wounds has made this baby a very satisfying jazz archtop. It is a little darker because the acoustic qualities are muted some by the dual top mounted Seth Lovers. BUT this guitar is much less likely to feed back and can definitely deliver the good for deep, rolled off highs-sounding jazz. I am not sure this guitar wouldn't be choice one to gig live playing with a small combo group!!)

 

Alright, well back to practicing those altered substitutions and 2-5-1 vamps!!!!!

 

Thanks for everyone playing and those that won, I am sorry about your prize!!! LOL

jazzrat Collaborator

jazzrat

Posted
Posted

Boy, great tones from all of them. I will dissent a little I actually thought the top end

on the 575 was a little smoother. The slight acoustic edge from the GE's is a nice sound

but the treble might have a tiny bit of sizzle that I did not hear from the 575.

Nice playing and great comparison

Hfan Proficient

Hfan

Posted
Posted

Didn't have a chance to vote but I would have been wrong anyway. My favorites where 1, 2 + 3 in that order. And don't sell yourself short, you played well, very musical.

brentrocks Rookie Copy

brentrocks

Posted
Posted

As usual John, your playing is fantastic!

 

i didnt get my guesses in on time....i was wrong anyway... :drunken_smilie:

MartyGrass Veteran

MartyGrass

Posted
Posted

I listened to all three tracks twice. I knew within 15 seconds that the first was the HRW. It's distinctive to me.

 

I was less confident that the second had Seths, and I got that wrong.

 

There are a couple of other ways to make a fair comparison among the guitars. The first is to record their acoustic sounds. If you are like me (and I'm not recommending you should be!), you spend a fair amount of time playing without amplification.

 

The second way to compare the guitars is with half amplified and half acoustic tones blended. This may be where the natural GE shines best. Who knows?

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to post those beautiful solos and get us thinking.

Kuz Experienced

Kuz

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I listened to all three tracks twice. I knew within 15 seconds that the first was the HRW. It's distinctive to me.

 

I was less confident that the second had Seths, and I got that wrong.

 

There are a couple of other ways to make a fair comparison among the guitars. The first is to record their acoustic sounds. If you are like me (and I'm not recommending you should be!), you spend a fair amount of time playing without amplification.

 

The second way to compare the guitars is with half amplified and half acoustic tones blended. This may be where the natural GE shines best. Who knows?

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to post those beautiful solos and get us thinking.

 

Yea, I get your point, but I am ALWAYS going to play these Archtops through some type of an amp (My tube amps or the Axe-Fx like on these clips). SO where I do test guitars playing them acoustically BEFORE I buy them (when possible)to make sure they will be loud and not dead sounding. But after that, I am only concerned with how they sound amplified, because I don't play them acoustically. I have my Collings Acoustics if I want to play a dedicated acoustic guitar.

 

Just my way, YMMV.

Blunote Community Regular

Blunote

Posted
Posted

I would have guessed:

 

1- Seths

2-HRWs

3-Floaters

 

And been wrong. And I own a set of Seths and a set of HRWs.

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