Official Luthiers Forum!

There is a lot of guitar-porn on this sight with flattops. Fair enough...there is more flattops being made than archtops.

Can we see some of your archtops please?

Thanks
Joe

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Joe

I would love to get more orders for archtops. I am very happy with my 16" oval hole design. This is the guitar I play myself, when I play

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Howard There is somthing very Frank Loyd Wright-ish in the desin of that tail piece. I love it

Howard, I love that adjustable bridge. I can't remember where I have seen it before, but it is easily my favorite design for archtops.

OK, shame on me, I didn't make it, but I do play it. 1960 - a very good year... I have the original bridge, and all of the other original bits, but this bridge is on the guitar for playing.

Love it Howard! Do you have any sense of the effect of a bone saddle vs. more traditional upper bridge?? (I was afraid it might add unwanted "brightness")

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Dave
Milton, ON

Georgious Howard! I love the woods/finish and inlays!

Steve, Perfectly fine to represent the big guys. In fact, that is about close to my dream electric archtop. If we get together this summer....I want to play that guitar! Original PAF's, I hope?

Thanks to everyone so far! I really love the craftsmanship that goes into these things. I have always loved the Violin due to the carved top....but can't play one. So the archtop guitar is quite the solution for a guitar player.

JD

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Joe

I always enjoy it when you post pictures, Howard. I can just imagine the sound. Very lovely guitar.

I hope Anthony posts some of his.

Nice one Howard!

Here is one. I made the laminated plates for this guitar of Gary Zimnicki.

Great thinline, punchy sound.

I would like to put a bug in someone's ear about making a batch of thinline archtop guitars. I am looking for a partner to trade with. First through mutual design we will come up with the shape and style. I will make the bodies and supply necks, the partner would bind, fret, do electronics and finish and set them up. Must be semi-pro level though. Starting winter in 2009. Contact via email. USA only please.

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Ken

I like thin, fully carved guitars, too. This is the thin body mate to the previous guitar. It's also the one with the internal full width side liners shown on the double sides thread. It has a pretty radically short scale: 22-1/4". I wanted it to be easy to make chords down in the first couple of positions. I was inspired to make this one when the great Hank Garland died a few years ago. He was a co-designer of the Gibson Byrdland, which iirc has about a 22-3/4" scale and is a thin body, with a carved spruce top and carved maple back in its deluxe version. The oval soundhole was bit of homage to another late great who helped design one for Gibson, Howard Roberts. I combined the names and call this one the "Howland."

The saddles on these, BTW, are elephant ivory, not bone. I think they add brightness compared to a wood saddle, but not so much as bone.

Jimmy D'Aquisto is supposed to have invented this type of all wood adjustable bridge. I never saw one of his, but heard that he used a wedge and took it from there.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I got to strum Howard's very cool guitar last summer at the HGF! And Howard told me then that it was his go-to- guitar when he plays. This is a VERY cool guitar!

'Xcuse me, I should have said 23-1/4". The Byrdland is 23-1/2".

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Nice thread!
I am going to have to build an archtop one of these days...

Here's an archtop electric thing I built last year.

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

WoW!

Thanks everyone for posting pictures. I love how many of you have mixed tradition with modern shapes etc. F-holes that are no longer "F"s, Tailpiece that look more like architecture.....I love this stuff.

Thanks!

Joe

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Joe