nmiller
Member
I love everything about the hollow M-75s. I love the basic idea of a hollow guitar with no f-holes. I love the contours of the body, the elegant tailpiece, and the overall perfect proportions. I was fortunate enough to find a clean semi-hollow 1972 Bluesbird about a year ago, and of course those full-size HB-1s can't be beat (I think I'm in the minority, but I prefer them to the earlier mini-hums). However, I've been hooked on Franzes since I owned a '59 T-100D a few years back; they have a bite and raggedness that's missing from ordinary P-90s. I count myself very lucky, then, to have found an incredible deal on a 1960 Aristocrat:
Aside from the Gibson tailpiece, it appears to be all original (and I've located a suitable harp tailpiece thanks to Darryl Hattenhauer). It's not quite as clean as it appears in that photo - the lighting hides a few nicks and scratches - but it's in very good shape all over. Praise to Wolfe Guitars for both a great deal and an impeccable setup.
Having never actually played an Aristocrat before, I was still expecting a slightly different instrument from my Bluesbird for several reasons - the pickups, the location of the neck joint, the lack of a center block, the floating bridge, etc. Still, I'm surprised at just how different the two guitars sound and feel. The Franz pickups have the same hot bite that I recall from my T-100D, but the overall tone is much more mellow and lo-fi. It gets very grainy and compressed when overdriven, and there's less sustain. There's also a big volume drop in the middle pickup position, though the tone there has a nifty hollowness that almost recalls the "quack" of a Strat.
None of this is bad or good, just very different from the refined sizzle of the Bluesbird. In comparison, the two guitars seem more like products of their time - the Bluesbird is better at '70s overdriven rock and roll, and the Aristocrat excels at '50s Rockabilly and country/folk/Americana clean tones through a slap-back delay. Although it's close in size to a Les Paul, the Aristocrat sounds and plays like a big jazz box of the '50s - the hollow construction of the guitar is much more apparent than in my Bluesbird. I love the way that the Aristocrat's bridge pickup sounds like it's running through a cocked wah pedal when the tone is rolled back - the Bluesbird doesn't try for this tone.
Of course the Aristocrat, lacking a center block, is the lighter of the two guitars and louder acoustically. I feel more at home on its neck, partially due to the larger cross-section and partially due to the neck joint at the 16th fret; I'm used to playing traditional hollowbodies, and anything above about the 15th fret is terra incognita to my fingers. It's harder to bend strings than on the Bluesbird, though, which may be due to the bridge (and also to the tailpiece). I've noticed that the inlays are a bit cruder on the Aristocrat, but I can't say how much of that is due to shrinkage of the materials over time.
Overall, I'm very happy with the Aristocrat - though I think it will take me some time to discover how to get the best out of it. It reminds me of playing a '56 Gretsch Country Club I used to have, but without the inconvenience of a huge body and baseball-bat neck. I hope to do a video in the next week or so comparing the two M-75s - should be a blast.
Aside from the Gibson tailpiece, it appears to be all original (and I've located a suitable harp tailpiece thanks to Darryl Hattenhauer). It's not quite as clean as it appears in that photo - the lighting hides a few nicks and scratches - but it's in very good shape all over. Praise to Wolfe Guitars for both a great deal and an impeccable setup.
Having never actually played an Aristocrat before, I was still expecting a slightly different instrument from my Bluesbird for several reasons - the pickups, the location of the neck joint, the lack of a center block, the floating bridge, etc. Still, I'm surprised at just how different the two guitars sound and feel. The Franz pickups have the same hot bite that I recall from my T-100D, but the overall tone is much more mellow and lo-fi. It gets very grainy and compressed when overdriven, and there's less sustain. There's also a big volume drop in the middle pickup position, though the tone there has a nifty hollowness that almost recalls the "quack" of a Strat.
None of this is bad or good, just very different from the refined sizzle of the Bluesbird. In comparison, the two guitars seem more like products of their time - the Bluesbird is better at '70s overdriven rock and roll, and the Aristocrat excels at '50s Rockabilly and country/folk/Americana clean tones through a slap-back delay. Although it's close in size to a Les Paul, the Aristocrat sounds and plays like a big jazz box of the '50s - the hollow construction of the guitar is much more apparent than in my Bluesbird. I love the way that the Aristocrat's bridge pickup sounds like it's running through a cocked wah pedal when the tone is rolled back - the Bluesbird doesn't try for this tone.
Of course the Aristocrat, lacking a center block, is the lighter of the two guitars and louder acoustically. I feel more at home on its neck, partially due to the larger cross-section and partially due to the neck joint at the 16th fret; I'm used to playing traditional hollowbodies, and anything above about the 15th fret is terra incognita to my fingers. It's harder to bend strings than on the Bluesbird, though, which may be due to the bridge (and also to the tailpiece). I've noticed that the inlays are a bit cruder on the Aristocrat, but I can't say how much of that is due to shrinkage of the materials over time.
Overall, I'm very happy with the Aristocrat - though I think it will take me some time to discover how to get the best out of it. It reminds me of playing a '56 Gretsch Country Club I used to have, but without the inconvenience of a huge body and baseball-bat neck. I hope to do a video in the next week or so comparing the two M-75s - should be a blast.
