New GSR T-500

Nice. Enjoy it. Thanks for the first impression pics.

Wow! I really like the flame on the back !Enjoy it and congrats again.

The 14th December completion date and lack of a GSR edition number (as opposed to serial number) is strange . I would be very interested in hearing what the guys at New Hartford have to say. Are you going to ask them about it ?

Very nice, but I agree that the label is odd. It looks just like my 2/25, but without an edition it makes mw wonder how many others may be out there. I would run it by the folks at New Hartford and see what they say.

Congrats on such a fine looking guitar, and don't wait too long to plug in!

Thanks! I have plugged it in briefly and the tone is really breathtaking. But I will need more time to get to know this guitar better before coming to a conclusion, so I'll get back to you in a few days. The label needs some clearing up, I agree. We'll see about that.

Congrats on the new guitar! I just installed a set of D'Addario Chromes Jazz Light 11 to 50 on my X170 and I got to tell you I dont think I will ever put a set of round wounds on it again.

Naturally they are a little stiff but still bendable for blues and the tone is incredible compared to the round wounds.

I used Chrome 11's on my former X-170 as well, and I have to agree with you...they made that guitar sing! I have not tried them on my GSR T-500, but the thought has crossed my mind.

I bet this guitar would sound fantastic with flatwounds, but has anybody ever tried flats with a bigsby?

I have. Did not notice a difference other than it being strung with flats. That was on the SFIII.

I misspoke. My former X-170 was actually an X-170T, and it also had a Bigsby. Sounded great to me!

Congrats on the T500! I put .011 roundwounds on mine (factory were .010's) - it sounds and feels better to me now. Actually, I probably didn't hear much difference but it's a tighter feel - it seemed a little floppy to me with the .010's.

Weird about the lack of series number (x/25) - wonder what that indicates?

I made my X170 an X170T and the flat wounds work perfect. I also installed lollar p90's and now this guitar is perfect in every way!

I put Thomastik - infeld Jazz Swing flat wounds on another archtop 12 to 50's and those strings are great as well, very bendable for a flatwound.

I think it works great with flats or rounds. My T500 is pretty bright sounding ( in a good way) so it doesn't get too dark with flats, but gets you into jazz box territory. With roundwounds it's got a real chime to it which is also nice. Obviously it depends what you want to play on it. It seems to be a pretty versatile guitar.

I really like the Seymour Duncan take on the Franz pickups. I'm really interested to compare them to the new Korean made version.....they must be good since they're using them on the American Patriarch models.

So, where to start? I have really fallen in love with this guitar over the last few days. So beautiful, such an incredibly rich tone. But let's start with the criticism.

Somehow I have difficulties to adjust to the golden Bigsby. I have a nickel B7 on a Heritage semi-holllow and it looks and feels a lot better, sturdier in a way and yet smoother operating. I can't escape the impression that this one was made somewhere in the Far East, not in Kalamazoo. But oh well, I will be able to live with that. The bridge also seemed a little cheap but I guess this ResoMax bridge is all but cheap so again it may be the golden color I am not used to. It can't be bad for the tone or the guitar wouldn't sound that good. However, one of the wheels for height adjustment only works if the string tension is nearly fully removed. If you only tune down a little, you can turn the wheel but it does make cracking sounds instead of moving in height, no matter if you turn up or down. Maybe a faulty thread? Well, as long as it stays in place once it has been adjusted, I don't really care.

The neck has a tiny "Gibson hump" where it joins the body. Not bad but noticable, the action cannot be lowered beneath a certain point or you get some string buzz. The lowest possible action without buzz is low enough for me but I've seen straighter necks with lower action without buzz. Anyway, this is no problem as long as it doesn't get any worse. I've just installed heavier strings, let's see what this does to the neck in the next 24 hours.

Now there is another problem I am not yet sure if it is the guitar or something else. It seems that the guitar isn't grounded properly. There is quite some buzzing coming from the amp, as it does with other guitars. But normally this stops when I touch the strings or the tailpiece. Not with the T-500. Strange enough, the buzzing stops as soon as I touch the screw of the pickup switch (or the plug of the cable or any other metal part in the signal path). I am not quite sure what to make of that but my first guess is that the tailpiece isn't grounded.

But enough nitpicking. This guitar is just awesome, the maple flame on the back is so incredibly 3D like I have never seen before. You really have to touch it to understand that the surface is straight not crinkled. I have often read in guitar reviews that you can get lost in the flame, now I know what it means. But after all the staring, it is the tone that really excites me. This guitar sounds rough and strong and twangy yet warm and full and woody at the same time. Lots of overtones, lots of depth. For an electric guitar it sounds big and loud even acoustically but it really puts a smile on my face when I plug it in. It's very versatile and can be used for many genres from Jazz to Country (I wish I could play all that), all with the stock roundwounds. I thought maybe a reason for its great acoustic sound is, apart from quality tone woods used, that the body has been built years ago, then stored in good environmental conditions to let it mature well and that it has been lacquered only recently. Just a thought, not really important.

Thank you all for your comments regarding strings. I totally agree with Jeff that it feels kind of floppy with .010s and I agree with Rudehog, I also like Thomastik Jazz Swings .012s which I use on my X-170, a match made in heaven in my opinion. Very bendable indeed for flatwounds. So since all of you seem to agree that flats and Bigsbys go well together, I have installed Thomastik Jazz Swings .012s. Admittedly I am not satisfied with the results. No problems with the Bigsby but somehow the guitar looses its magic. With flats it sounds just like any other Jazz archtop. Slapback, I fully agree with your statement. Gone are the overtones and the crispness, gone is that heavenly vintage Jazz tone being replaced by just an everyday modern Jazz tone. And gone is the versatility, too. Flats get you in the usual Jazz box territory but then there is no way to go from there. I have never experienced that on an archtop before, usually I like my archtops with flats, even if it gets more bluesy. But those Franz pickups seem to deliver much better with roundwounds. So on goes the search for the perfect matching strings. .011 roundwounds will be the next I try, not sure yet what brand. Maybe Gibson Vintage reissues because I have a set laying around, wanted to try them on a Les Paul but why not try the T-500 first. But I'll play those flats for a few days first, let's see if they start growing on me and of course I am curious how the neck reacts. I haven't touched the truss rod yet and if not necessary, I am glad if I don't have to.

Nice review! Regarding the suspected grounding issue, others have reported it as well, so there must be something to it. To the strings, mine has rounds and is likely to remain that way forever! i have an X-500 and a CE-100 (for now) that have flats and give me all the jasss I will ever need. I also have another guitar coming at some point this year, and that will almost certainly get flats, so rounds are here to stay on my T-500. As for the "Gibson" hump you refer to, perhaps that is just a little relief built into the neck. My T-500 and X-500 have it, as do several other guitars I have owned over the years. Someone will certainly correct me if I am wrong, but if that is what it is it should gradually diminish over time as the neck adjusts to the constant tension of the strings. Also, mine isn't so much that it negatively affects my playing anywhere on the neck (my lack of talent does that!). Overall, it sounds like you have a winner and will enjoy your T-500.

Hi Markus, willkommen bei LTG! Great guitar! Regarding the grounding issue as well as the serial number I would propose you send an e-mail to Kim Keller in New Hartford. I will send you a PM with the e-mail address. I am sure that Kim will answer, he is also a member here but does not post very often and I am not sure how often he reads.
Ralf

Great review Markus. Let us know how the grounding issue works out.

I didn't realise that this was a known issue with these guitars. How many people have the same problem? Is it a lack of tailpiece grounding as Markus suspects?

I have heard it from Markus and one other, but mine seems fine.

As for contacting Kim Keller I did, and his reply is that only 25 were made. The label is the last thing to go on before final inspection, and the person doing that may have forgotten what number they were on, and never got back to it after the inspection. That means this is one-of-a-kind, and is therefore more valuable.

Thanks for the info.... good news for Markus! Did he say anything about the late completion date?

BTW Markus the Bigsby is definitely a Kalamazoo model. I can see the marks from the sand-casting mold on the inside of mine.The Asian versions are all die-cast.

guildman63 said:

As for the "Gibson" hump you refer to, perhaps that is just a little relief built into the neck. My T-500 and X-500 have it, as do several other guitars I have owned over the years. Someone will certainly correct me if I am wrong, but if that is what it is it should gradually diminish over time as the neck adjusts to the constant tension of the strings. Also, mine isn't so much that it negatively affects my playing anywhere on the neck (my lack of talent does that!).

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That's a little overly optimistic. A little hump where the neck meets the body is something very common, and definitely not something builders put in on purpose.

Walter Broes said:

That's a little overly optimistic. A little hump where the neck meets the body is something very common, and definitely not something builders put in on purpose.

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I'll take your word for it Walter as you know much more about guitars than I do. I was assuming "hump" meant that the fretboard begins to slightly angle away from the strings, but perhaps that was a bad assumption?

As for the late completion date, I did not mention that in my question, so no, there was no mention of it in Kim's reply.