When I first saw this, I was drawn by the single-piece carved Sitka top. I then initiated a lot of correspondence with the seller, who is the luthier who designed and built it (John Grant) - I was satisfied with his responses, so I decided to go for it figuring the most I would lose is a lot of shipping $$$ as it came from Canada. But I lucked out - this is a keeper.
Both the design and materials are a combination of the traditional and non-traditional - and while it is very different-looking, the feel, sound and precision are excellent. I would go as far to say that it has the best acoustic sound of any of my archtops. The weighting is perfect and overall, the guitar is not as heavy as it looks - maybe even lighter than my X170.
[IMG:799:558]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/body.jpg[/img] [IMG:799:590]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/back.jpg[/img]
The top is a solid, thick one-piece carved Sitka braced with Sitka, and the back and sides are old growth water salvaged yellow birch that was sitting on the bottom of Lake Huron for at least 100 years. It has an Indian rosewood fret board and ebony pickguard and ebony tailpiece with graphite supports. It also has a 2-way double truss rod; the neck is 3-piece yellow birch. The Benedetto-influenced bridge is thin rosewood and bubinga. With a little bridge adjustment, I achieved perfect intonation. There are multiple body bindings, with the outer binding being maple. The F-holes and pickguard edge are bound as well.
[IMG:800:528]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/pup.jpg[/img] [IMG:800:600]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/headstock.jpg[/img]
The pictures above show the nice graining of the top, the multiple bindings, and the floating Attila Zoller pickup. The tone and volume wheels are mounted on the back edge of the pickguard and are just about visible in the photo. There are abalone inlays in several places - abovce you can see inlays on the pickguard, headstock and finger board; the free-shaped headstock is facecd with rosewood and it has Gotoh 510 tuners (these are as good as people say).
[IMG:799:492]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/arch_space.jpg[/img]
This photo shows something interesting about this guitar - the protruding top enables fretting higher on the neck than is usual for a non-cutaway joined at the 14th fret. This photo also shows the maple body binding nicely.
Both the design and materials are a combination of the traditional and non-traditional - and while it is very different-looking, the feel, sound and precision are excellent. I would go as far to say that it has the best acoustic sound of any of my archtops. The weighting is perfect and overall, the guitar is not as heavy as it looks - maybe even lighter than my X170.
[IMG:799:558]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/body.jpg[/img] [IMG:799:590]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/back.jpg[/img]
The top is a solid, thick one-piece carved Sitka braced with Sitka, and the back and sides are old growth water salvaged yellow birch that was sitting on the bottom of Lake Huron for at least 100 years. It has an Indian rosewood fret board and ebony pickguard and ebony tailpiece with graphite supports. It also has a 2-way double truss rod; the neck is 3-piece yellow birch. The Benedetto-influenced bridge is thin rosewood and bubinga. With a little bridge adjustment, I achieved perfect intonation. There are multiple body bindings, with the outer binding being maple. The F-holes and pickguard edge are bound as well.
[IMG:800:528]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/pup.jpg[/img] [IMG:800:600]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/headstock.jpg[/img]
The pictures above show the nice graining of the top, the multiple bindings, and the floating Attila Zoller pickup. The tone and volume wheels are mounted on the back edge of the pickguard and are just about visible in the photo. There are abalone inlays in several places - abovce you can see inlays on the pickguard, headstock and finger board; the free-shaped headstock is facecd with rosewood and it has Gotoh 510 tuners (these are as good as people say).
[IMG:799:492]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/squawkman/arch_space.jpg[/img]
This photo shows something interesting about this guitar - the protruding top enables fretting higher on the neck than is usual for a non-cutaway joined at the 14th fret. This photo also shows the maple body binding nicely.