A Brief History of the Archtop Guitar
The Archtop guitar has been a near
constant in the history of Jazz Guitar.
But why? What makes this type of guitar so popular with jazz players? There is no single answer to these questions but perhaps a brief review of the Archtop's history will shed some light.
In the 1800's the Violin family of instruments were generally regarded as the only "respectable" stringed instruments. Anyone who has ever done battle with the Violin will attest to the difficulty of mastering the instrument. There are no frets to rely upon for intonation and handling a bow in such a way as to achieve a pleasant sound requires great skill.
Soon there was a challenger to the violin, the mandolin, which had its origins in the Mediterranean region. It had frets, didn't require a bow and the four courses of strings were tuned to the same pitches as the violin's strings. Best of all, it was respected as a serious musical instrument, so parents could be pleased to have their children play a mandolin in public. Having frets and using a plectrum made this instrument player-friendly, not requiring the tedium and sonic torture of learning how to bow properly. Mandolins originally had a flat top and a gourd shaped back which was assembled from many strips of wood fit together like the segments of an Orange.
The late 19th century the Mandolin was all the rage and a young instrument maker named Orville Gibson set about to make his mark. Mandolins with arched tops and backs were his innovation. These new instruments had a single oval sound hole in the top but otherwise the arched tops and backs resembled those from the Violin family. Mandolins, Mandolas, Mando-Cellos and Bass Mandolins were the plectrum equivalent of the Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. Mandolin bands were popular and the new Gibson Mandolin - Guitar Company became a force in this market and promoted the formation of ensembles comprised wholly of Gibson instruments. The F-5 Mandolin featuring intricate scrollwork and inlays was the most desirable Mandolin in the Gibson line.
Flattop guitars were popular at the time but in 1906 Gibson produced its style “O” guitar with an arched top and back but an oval sound hole. Two years later the style “O” was modified to include a cutaway on the treble side and an elaborate scroll on the bass side of the upper bout. Looking for all the world like a large mutant F-5 Mandolin, the new style “O” looked quite at home in a Mandolin orchestra. The archtop was thus born, perhaps with the idea of borrowing a little respectability from the now socially accepted Mandolin family.
A Gibson employee named Lloyd Loar developed the "F" shaped soundhole in the early '20s and applied it to the F-5 Mandolin. By then the style "O" guitar was old news. The need for an newer design became obvious and Lloyd Loar conceived the idea for the L-5, a 16" archtop with "F" holes. The '-5' designation was applied to the top of the line in all of the various sizes of mandolin so when applied to a the, new top of the line guitar a beautiful plush instrument was the result. This 16" archtop with all of the frills was in many ways a large mandolin. As time went on the L-5 was joined by a number of other archtop models eventually culminating in the 18" Super 400 a high decibel rhythm machine that could hold its own in the big bands, even without amplification. The L-5 itself was enlarged to a 17" lower bout and remains a viable product to this day.
Other makers such as Epiphone had done their best to outdo every new Gibson model that came out. Luthiers such as D' Angelico and Stromberg built custom guitars that were noted for their tone volume and visual appeal. Guitars with lower bout measurements up to 19" were available creating maximum punch for rhythm work. The unamplified sound of these magnificent instruments was prized to the extent that even well into the electric guitar era, guitarists would play their rhythm instruments for most of the song quickly switching to their electrics for their solos then switching back. Rhythm playing was a highly refined art in those days and the players demanded that their instruments were the very best available.
In 1939 Gibson made available cutaway versions of some existing archtop models and with this development the design of the archtop had reached maturity. Developments in pickups and subtle changes in internal bracing are the main features that distinguish the modern Archtop guitar from its 1939 counterpart. Guitarists in all sizes of ensemble love the sound of their archtops, a sound rooted in the Big Bands. Some electric archtops have magnetic pickups cut into the tops, many others have a pickup mounted to the end of the neck or suspended on the pickguard. The cut-in style pickup is said to have the advantage of reducing feedback, a perennial problem for archtop players. The latter arrangement is designed to prevent the pickup from interfering with the acoustic properties of the top. Many floating pickup instruments hold their own as rhythm guitars when played acoustically.
In the 1990s, Archtops came back into style. Many older models have been re-issued while new developments are continually entering the marketplace. Most of the old manufacturers are in the market while new builders are also in the game. A group of former Gibson employees build Heritage guitars in a former Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Mich. Their catalog has models that roughly parallel many Gibson model archtops incorporating several innovations and at a very friendly price. Individual luthiers, also, are building a wide variety of instruments for all tastes and needs. Older instruments are fetching record prices as the collector market expands, not to mention the many newer players who favor classic instruments.
While an archtop is not a prerequisite for playing jazz, it is still a strong tradition among the jazz guitar community, a tradition that has resurfaced over and over again, through many eras, in the ever-changing jazz scene.
