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Beautiful semi-hollow body guitars


Dan Furr55

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Folks,

             I want my next guitar to be gorgeous..........and full bodied enough for a solo gig. Currently I use a hummingbird and a cheap Ibanez semi. They both sound great through

          a PA or my two amps. LOve to use two amps spread out and down on a volume of 3. I play Eagles, Rolling Stones, and other assorted light rock, and folk.

 

            For a new gorgeous guitar I have noticed the Uptown Kat,  JoePass Epi, Ibanez AF95something, love Gretches but Ive got one, and theyre a little twangy.

            What do you think FOR A DROP DEAD GORGEOUS STAGE GUITAR, held by a guy sitting on a stool, playing classic songs? 

 

            Dan

             

 

         

             

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37 minutes ago, daddymack said:

Gibson Byrdland

That'sa  good one.

 

One of my favs is the Gibson L4.

I was gonna buy one when the ES 275 came out.

Mine has a  nice flamed maple top.

 

I wasn't worried about the price either, I just wanted some I'd dig a lot that was a full hollowbody. 

I have a ES 135 with classic 57's

 

Montreux Burst, High gloss Nitrocellulose lacquer finish, 3-ply AAA figured Maple/Poplar/Maple body with a thermally engineered chambered Maple centerblock, Thermally engineered quartersawn Adirondack Spruce bracing, Multi-ply binding, Bound 12” radius Rosewood fingerboard with the Celluloid Split Parallelogram inlays and medium jumbo frets on a rounded C shaped Mahogany neck, 24.75″ scale length, 1.687″ wide bone nut, MHS II bridge and neck pickups with the 3-way toggle switching and volume/tone controls for each, ABR-1 bridge and locking Aluminum stopbar tailpiece, Kluson tuners, With Gibson hardshell case.

 

 

I'm not sure what Gibson is making now for jazz box guitars. I hope JC doesn't kill that.

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Thanks guys, those Gibsons are really nice............ but out of my reach.

 

 

                      Im thinking the Joe Pass Epi is the poor mans substitute, and may be my next purchase. But I love Ibanez too. So well see. 

 

Dan

 

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Dan Furr55 said:

Thanks guys, those Gibsons are really nice............ but out of my reach.

 

 

                      Im thinking the Joe Pass Epi is the poor mans substitute, and may be my next purchase. But I love Ibanez too. So well see. 

 

Dan

 

 

 

Can't go wrong with and Ibanez George Benson or an Artcore

D'Angelico Excel EXL-1 Hollowbody, don't rule it out. A friend of mine has one and picked up the guitar again after a 50 years lay off.

The Godin's are a bit less classy, but made in Canada.The P90 like pick ups are charming imo I have chromes on my 5th Aves. The have one called the Montreal too. Thinner body too.I like floating bridges on jazz boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

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it doesn't sink...:badump:

The L4, L5 and L5-CES are pricey as all get-out, but they are eyecandy...Guild Starfires are great too, I regret selling mine way back when, the new 'Newark' model looks great. The Epi Emperors and Broadways are cool as well, and the Ibbie George Benson is a good choice, but come on, Dan, give us a budget number.

I am a fan of the new D'Angelico line, I have the Premiere DC [335 on steroids], and have been eyeballing that Excel EXL-1 for months. There are some interesting Deans out there too, I like the Palomino...I came very close to getting the Boca 12, but the Danelectro was a c-note less $, and I am amazed at how it sounds, even acoustically...in my little Fender Champion 600 it sings nicely...need to set up a bigger amp...😉

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1 hour ago, Dan Furr55 said:

Thanks !     

 

                            What is good about a floating bridge?

They tend not to effect the tone of the top of the archtop  guitar. It the only way to mount a bridge on one.

 

Remember the bridge doesn't anchor the strings down, like on a Les Paul Jr with wrap around bridge tail piece.

Before the pick up was invented it's what jazz box guitars , like on a mandolin.  The guitar was mostly a parlor instrument back 100 years ago. Not very loud. My grandfather said when he my grandmother would go out it was big band horn band  music they'd go see.

 No PA's back in the 30's.

 

My dad was born in 1939, and grew up on early rock and roll.

I have a Dobro 33H round neck  too. I purchased that in 1992 is, at Elderly music. It's amazing and I still have no pick up in it. That was a way to make the guitar louder.  The other dobro I own is a F60 round neck. That came for a shop outside of Nashville. Nobody in Nashville wanted a round neck dobro. I got a super deal on it.

This is not me, but they are cool.

National Resophonic still is a round. I think the tooling for Gibson Banjos and Dobros is laying in the Cumberland River.

Dobros were available with a slightly larger cone. 

I talked to the ladies in Huntington California  at OMI, after I had issues with the first 33H I ordered. Elderly ordered me another. I thought it was dented, but OMI called it a flex mark.

Nationals are really nice, but the ones I have played have really chubby necks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is what is on my Gretsch Tenny Rose and my Chamber Power Jet too.

 

 

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There's a festival here in town called Freshgrass and I have meet the owner of Eastman guitars a few times.

The guitars are made over seas, but set up in CA. It's another company to look at. I thought they were very nice for the money.

Some of their stuff is not inexpensive.

 

 

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6 hours ago, Dan Furr55 said:

PS I love that song Dallas, bought that album in 1970. Love the song Be Careful With A Fool too........... Johnny Winters is amazing.

 

Mikeo, is that you playing Dallas?.............thats Great!

I wish.

That's a  killer version imo

 

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I'd suggest getting an older Ibanez AF-95 if want a beaut of a guitar (I think mine is early 2000's). The wonderful double MOP fret markers, pick guard in same wood as guitar, lovely tail piece. I believe all that is gone in current models. Gretsch knobs just for fun. Use the money you save to buy some better pickups. I put some StewMac golden age HBs that made a HUGE difference in sound. Put  10151614809238361.jpg.3bccdb9d9f8a04737f27da39eca94e7f.jpg

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8 hours ago, Emory said:

I'd suggest getting an older Ibanez AF-95 if want a beaut of a guitar (I think mine is early 2000's). The wonderful double MOP fret markers, pick guard in same wood as guitar, lovely tail piece. I believe all that is gone in current models. Gretsch knobs just for fun. Use the money you save to buy some better pickups. I put some StewMac golden age HBs that made a HUGE difference in sound. Put  10151614809238361.jpg.3bccdb9d9f8a04737f27da39eca94e7f.jpg

There ya go.

Then if you hit the lottery and have some crazy spending cash kicking around, you can order a Benedetto and a Collings AT16 without a pick up, just for quieter times at you house when you don't really need and amp.

 

As a matter of fact, if I hit the lottery everyone left here is getting a new guitar.

 

For every dime I spend on guitar giveaways, I will donate 10 x that to charity.

Just make sure it's worth of a Calton Case.

 

Ooh La La

 

 

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, Emory said:

I'd suggest getting an older Ibanez AF-95 if want a beaut of a guitar (I think mine is early 2000's). The wonderful double MOP fret markers, pick guard in same wood as guitar, lovely tail piece. I believe all that is gone in current models. Gretsch knobs just for fun. Use the money you save to buy some better pickups. I put some StewMac golden age HBs that made a HUGE difference in sound. Put  10151614809238361.jpg.3bccdb9d9f8a04737f27da39eca94e7f.jpg

that is an ArtStar model, not an ArtCore...they really did some fabulous work on the early ArtStars. :thu:

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Ok, budget is 600-1000.... makes it easier then. 

Guild builds a KILLER  StarfireV. https://guildguitars.com/g/starfire-v/

An Ibanez Benson GB30 isn't out of reach. (Give me blond, or give me death!! 😀https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/detail/lgb30_5b_01.html

D'Angelico's are sweeter then honey! https://dangelicoguitars.com/

You want something special? Eastman. 'nuff said. Not cheap, but worth twice the price! https://www.eastmanguitars.com/

 

Best bet? Shop the USED market!

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One guitar to doo it all is the Michael Kelly Hybrid.

Semi-hollowbody, two humbuckers and a piezo pickup in the bridge. I owned one a while back and it was a great guitar. It has a blender knob that allows you to mix the piezo-acoustic pickup with the other pickups. Plays like a Les Paul.

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I was always curious about those Michael Kelly hybrids. Got to play one in Bangkok store (I live in Thailand).... intonation seemed off but could have been old strings. Didn't want to take the chance (good luck returning anything here...). Does it have stereo output?

I've got an Ovation VXT (Sd 59's and Fishman saddle pickups, stereo output). Semi hollow under that spruce top. Need some sort of acoustic processor as the Fishman is rather harsh... But ability to feed 2 amps different signals leads to all sorts of fun. Even with my little hump on back to beach rig, still tons of wow, isn't that interesting... P1010684.thumb.JPG.ea2dedcaf3f5cec821e3da5d23b65fd8.JPG

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