Your next guitar?

[Uncle E]

I tried out Eastman Archtops. They are hand carved full wood [not ply] and made in china, so go for a cheaper price than the Gibsons.

They sound alright amplified but are not the sound I am after acoustically.

I go to the two major trade shows in China every year and have played thousands of guitars there. Despite the fact that these guitars were all brought to show off the manufacturers and were probably better than what those manufacturers were consistently able to offer, I'd say only 10% of them were playable, even fewer were of genuinely high quality, and that there were hardly any great acoustics or semi-hollows.

[Uncle E]

- with 335 styles, and Gretsches even more, your chances of findng an adequate modern equivalent are pretty good, I know as a player I'll take my MIJ Gretsch RHH over any vintage one I ever played, similar for my (both MIJ too) Sheraton and Tokai semis

The MIJ Gretsches are huge steps up from the Korean ones. The same thing goes with Epiphones, the MIJ Sheraton I had as a kid was far, far better than any Korean one I've played. Then again, that Sheraton was better than most Gibsons, even vintage ones. That was a great guitar.

- with acoustics and solidbodies however the best examples I've encountered have all been vintage

I'll take my Taylor 810 over any vintage Martin or Gibson I've played. Certainly, I totally acknowledge that there have got to be some great examples that would outdo my Taylor but I've never come across one.

- perhaps the most striking example are vintage Juniors and Specials - that big chunk of solid, 50 years+ Honduras mahogany totally dominates the tone, good luck finding that kind of resonance in a current guitar.

My '59 Special is a bad sounding guitar but that's mostly because of the thick refinish. The word has gotten out about how much of a difference the finish makes but I feel like that general population is still unaware of that.

- please note I didn't explicitly mention PUs and other hardware, all over the place imho, slight advantage for modern stuff mostly

I used to have a '68 Les Paul in which someone had installed early patent sticker PAF's (the guitar originally had minibuckers). That was a fantastic sounding guitar and when I took those pickups out and put them in my Ibanez Les Paul, the Ibanez became fantastic sounding! IOW, those are some magic pickups.

[hibidy]

*warning* TNC comment coming up!!!!! *warning*

No way eric, pickups all sound the same, all guitars sound the same, all cables sound the same......it's all placebo.


*end of construction*

[Dean Aka Nekro]

rectus_dominus - i imagine that they are useful for attaking fellow band members with to win an arguement but other than looking like weapons i am like man. Have fun with the one you just got back

Dean/Nekro

[stk]

My bandmate just bought a Fender Baritone Special.


This thing kicks nine kinds of serious arse (through dual tube stacks), and feeds back beautifully to boot



So that's my next envy purchase

[xtp]

I tried out Eastman Archtops. They are hand carved full wood [not ply] and made in china, so go for a cheaper price than the Gibsons.

They sound alright amplified but are not the sound I am after acoustically.

I go to the two major trade shows in China every year and have played thousands of guitars there. Despite the fact that these guitars were all brought to show off the manufacturers and were probably better than what those manufacturers were consistently able to offer, I'd say only 10% of them were playable, even fewer were of genuinely high quality, and that there were hardly any great acoustics or semi-hollows.

That sounds cool, china is a place I have always wanted to visit. I think me and the girl spend far too much time watching subtitled chinese martial arts movies.

Sadly though it tends to confirm the conclusion I came to. The Eastmans have really nice finishes, but fall short in the sound department.

I might have to go on holiday in America in a year or so.

[Uncle E]

It's actually pretty amazing to see just how much the quality out of China has improved over the last three years. The upper level Squiers, for example, are as good as anything coming out of Korea. I got a friend of a mine a 100% solid wood, hand made classical guitar for $200 that's phenomenal but, like I said, I had to go through A LOT of terrible ones before finding it.

[xtp]

It's actually pretty amazing to see just how much the quality out of China has improved over the last three years. The upper level Squiers, for example, are as good as anything coming out of Korea. I got a friend of a mine a 100% solid wood, hand made classical guitar for $200 that's phenomenal but, like I said, I had to go through A LOT of terrible ones before finding it.

Actually I purchased a strat squire that I am using as a basis for my strat- les paul project.

It was made in china and the body is really nice. I like the tone. The sunburst is as good as any sunburst I have seen on more expensive guitars. I am not very good identifying wood so not sure what it is made of but the grain is not offensive.

I admit everything else on the guitar was crap and the only part I am keeping is the body.

[Uncle E]

With the recent Squiers I've played, the actual fret dressing has been surprisingly good (this is the area where all the manufacturers fell the most short before) but the fret sizes were way too small. Also, be careful of ash bodies from China, the ash they use is super heavy and much different sounding from American swamp ash.

[xtp]

With the recent Squiers I've played, the actual fret dressing has been surprisingly good (this is the area where all the manufacturers fell the most short before) but the fret sizes were way too small. Also, be careful of ash bodies from China, the ash they use is super heavy and much different sounding from American swamp ash.

I dont like the neck the guitar came with it is quite thick [other than my natural aversion to the rosewood fretboard], if i was going to keep it on the guitar I would send it to my luthier to get it thinned.

The bridge was the worst aspect. Somehow it affected the intonation, when I put the replacement on the differance was quite amazing. I had thought the guitar had a problem neck, but it was all caused by the bridge.

I thought the body looked like ash, I read some of the cheaper woods have to be painted and not used as sunburst. I also read some squires were ply. The tone of this body certainly lends itself to the P90 sound, it also has quite a lot of sustain.

I was visiting a friend last week and we had both guitars setup, it weighs about the same as his American Strat, maybe maginally heavier. It was fun comparing the difference in sound between the P90's and the strat pups.

[rectus_dominus]

My bandmate just bought a Fender Baritone Special.


This thing kicks nine kinds of serious arse (through dual tube stacks), and feeds back beautifully to boot



So that's my next envy purchase

Aaa, looks nice How does that thing sound compared to more well-known guitars?

[stk]

My bandmate just bought a Fender Baritone Special.
This thing kicks nine kinds of serious arse (through dual tube stacks), and feeds back beautifully to boot

So that's my next envy purchase

Aaa, looks nice How does that thing sound compared to more well-known guitars?

Well it's a baritone, so slightly longer scale, top string tuned to B naturally. Guitars *always* sound better detuned, anyway.

Based on Jaguar body, very light.

From what I can tell it plays very nicely, and sounds absolutely - thick, warm, can do that spy/cowboy/twin-peaks "twang" if needed, but also excels in tough-as-f**k powerchord sledgehammer .

[Dean Aka Nekro]

I think the bucker's in that Baritone 7ender are there own 'Enforcer' humbuckers. They are pretty good as stock pickups go i think

[stk]

I think the bucker's in that Baritone 7ender are there own 'Enforcer' humbuckers. They are pretty good as stock pickups go i think

They sounded pretty damn good to me - held it together well pushing dual vintage Bassman stacks at high volume, and feeding back with a really smooth, controllable tone.

[Ian B]

I wouldn't mind one of these. A rare prototype Fender/Macaferri acoustic with plenty enough useful features