TapperMike

Who's that Girl? Flock of Seagulls

I loved WKRP when it first aired. They tried to make a remake of the show with a few of the original cast but it didn't last long.

Here is an odd thing about acoustic guitars. The more you play them the better they sound. It sweetens and mellows with age. Another thing is that....Non cutaways always have a different (warmer) tone for me. I can pickup two identical acoustics with the exception of the cutaway and the non cutaway wins the tone battle. Granted I'm not an acoustic player anymore. It's winter. That means lots of hot dry air from your furnace. When you are not playing your acoustic. Put it back in the case and get one of those guitar humidifiers Here are some tips for shopping. 1. If you can show up on the half hour that is not busy. People out shopping do things on the hour. You'll get more guitar time in a store and more face time with a salesman if you show up when the crowds aren't there. Like a Monday or Tuesday during the day like 3:30. Be honest with your price range. Yeah it's fun to play the most expensive guitar you can in a store but if you aren't buying it you are wasting your time and the salesman's time. 2. Be honest with them in regards to how much you want to spend. This saves a lot of looking. If they start jacking you around on having to go up in price. Walk out of the store and don't look back. It's their loss not yours. If they don't respect you walk out of the door and don't look back. I've had that happen a few times when shopping for guitars. Some arsehat would honestly belive that by jacking me around he could intimidate me into a sale. Most stores you'll never encounter that. A store that treats you well wants to earn your business both short term and long term will treat you like a human being. 3. Find out what type of in store extra's might be available. Both New and Old guitars can suffer neck bow. Though generally it's the new ones that suffer more. While often doing a simple neck adjustment only takes a few minutes and it's not brain surgery. A store that does a free neck adjustment is one that wants your business and respects you as a costumer. Some stores offer extended warranties beyond the manufacturer. 4. Keep your paperwork even if you buy used. New guitars often come with a warranty that basically covers the neck for the first two years. If something happens to the neck that isn't your fault the warranty will cover neck and or guitar replacement. Buying Used. When you buy a new guitar. The resell price drops as soon as you walk out the door. If you take great care of it and barely play the thing there is a point where the resell value becomes fixed. This is unlike a car were the resell value constantly drops. Never sell a guitar to a guitar store. Craigslist, ebay, the local paper will all give you a greater return on the sale of the instrument then can be had by a reseller. Pawn shops are a dime on the dollar and sometimes lower. I've got three used guitars in my collection and two of them get more play time then the other nine I bought new. Buckle wash happens in guitar stores all the time with new instruments. Buckle wash is pretty much unavoidable unless you play the guitar in a bath robe. As buckle rash is on the back of the guitar most no one will ever know but you. With a used guitar you don't get a warranty. But also with a used guitar you've usually past the point where a flaw in the guitar would have shown itself. (the neck) Look down the neck from the body and size up the frets.If you see any unusual dips or bumps it means the frets aren't set right.. The strings are straight lines from the nut to the bridge .that's how you gauge how straight the neck is. Bow is when the neck bends like a bow to your body. Back Bow is when the neck bows away from your body. Luthiers and techs all agree that a little bow at the 12th fret is natural and it makes the guitar easier to play. emphasis on "A little" not a lot. look at how the neck bow's relative to the string..Because the string is straight. Flip the guitar over and check the bow from the other side. If the bow is not the same then you have neck warp. Bow and back bow can be fixed with a slight neck adjustment but not a warped neck. Warped necks happen on both new and used guitars. Sometimes it's not as noticeable by looking down the fretboard. This is an exaggeration of a warped neck Take out a credit card Use the short side of the card and set it parallel to the strings. Put it directly on the frets (you'll need to cover at least three frets) If the credit card rocks or if you see a gap in the middle frets where the fret doesn't touch the strings you have uneven frets. When you play the guitar. don't do it it impress yourself or the staff of a guitar store. You aren't buying it to impress them. Instead get a feel for the neck and play chromatically across the entire fretboard. Leave no note unplayed. and bend them. Sometimes frets pop out a little. If you are experiencing fret buzz and don't know what you are doing take it to a tech. If the fret is a little high a tech will usually take a wooden dowel rod and a rubber mallet then tap it into place. I've done this a few times with my and an other peoples guitars but remember I was trained at this stuff by tech guys at the top of their game. Look for fret nicks sometimes they are glaring sometimes they are small. Usually if you try bending a note over the fret and it gets hung up you have a fret nick. A good tech can fix this in half an hour and it shouldn't cost you a lot. It will cost an extra set of strings. Sometimes if you really love a guitar and it has a minor issue like a high fret or a nicked fret you can get them to fix it for free or little extra before you take it out of the store. Warped necks, uneven frets, even fret nicks and "demo" models can be considered "B Stock" It's cheaper to sell at a reduced price then to send it back to the factory. Guitar stores should check for this stuff before it goes out to be sold but sometimes (especially the bigger places) don't care.Or don't have time to. Old old guitars with a lot of play time on them will need fretwork eventually. Very few guitars are made with stainless steel frets. Pots and toggle switches. Toggle switches can feel stiff and have pops or crackles when you go to use them. This is oddly because of non use. Give your toggle switch a good workout and it will go away. The same holds true for pots usually just giving pots on any equipment a little workout will free it. If you want to go the extra mile use one of these http://www.parts-express.com/fast-blast-duster-can-of-air-removes-dust-and-debris-canned-air-10-oz--340-500?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pla And give your pots a good twist afterwards. Loose contacts. if the nut isn't secure things can start to wiggle (tuning pegs, jack contacts, pots, I used to have a bad jack contact because of the spin from the connector. A quick solder and a little crazy glue so the nut from the output jack wouldn't come loose did wonders. Higher end used vs moderately priced new. Very few guitars ever appreciate in value. It's not just a matter of age and condition. That being said better used guitars retain their resell value more then cheaper ones. Yes some will have mojo. Mojo means damage to the guitar that does not affect playability. To some it's like a badge of courage or battle scars. Fender and Ibanez to name a few make big bucks on "reliced" guitars. Guitars that they intentionally scar and apply an aging finish to make the guitar look older then what it is. I don't personally ascribe to the whole mythology bit about mojo guitars. But I do acknowledge that others that do seem to find great catalyst in it. The premise is this. When you buy a guitar with mojo it carries some inherent value of the player who had it before you carries. That belief can be powerful stuff A guitar with 'mojo" has unique identifiers that it is no longer just any guitar made it's someone special guitar it has "personality".

A long time buddy of mine and bandleader had this 70's strat that was nothing like mine. The neck was fatter and wider. He had smaller hands then mine but they were meaty. He had no problem getting around on his neck and I couldn't believe how much of a stretch it was for me. Sometimes I think a lot of it boils down to what we start off with when we are starting off. My 335 had a slim D 60's profile neck same with my LP Custom. Those were my go-to guitars before the stratocaster. Nonetheless my 80' strat's neck profile was nothing like Willie's 70 strat.

I remember watching this on TV to me it was better then Alice's restaurant

I had a few stories where the less expensive guitar won over the more expensive one but I'll save that for another day. Girls with Taylors and Gibsons.... One of the places that I worked but didn't live was rather affluent. As a result the workers in the retail shops and the like were "outsiders" and there was a wide division of class / wealth. An annual event was "Dancing in the Streets" Odd because they only had one motown type act performing. Anyway it was folk/bluegrass in the mid day, New younger acts in the afternoon and classic rock in the evening. All the shows were great. The teenagers came in sporting outrageously priced equipment. Top of the line american made PRS. Top of the line everything. Everything on that stage was high end. They put on a good show. I enjoyed it and......They were never seen from again. These kids all went back to school at top flight universities got degrees in Business, Finance and the like. They did not want a career in the music business it was just a very expensive passing fancy for them which their parents could afford. Having the most expensive guitar on the block does not ensure longevity in the music field. Having a guitar that inspires you can indirectly improve your playing. So it's okay to fall in love with one. I had a Yamaha Pacifica years back. It played well but I was uninspired by it. I'd keep it in my car trunk and pull it out when I had a free moment between shifts (working two jobs) It also became a "student" guitar. As sometimes absent minded students would come in for a lesson without a guitar and the boss frowned upon borrowing a guitar from the showroom for a lesson. Especially as we had rentals available.

So I eventually replaced my "SX Furrian" by Rondo with not one but two telecasters. One was a "B stock" from Music123 and the other was a used item from an individual. Sometimes "B stock" means crap and sometimes B stock means minor flaw. You have to know what you are looking at and looking for. The B stock Telecaster Blacktop Vintage modified cost me around 300 plus change. New it went between 500 and 600. Made in Mexico and aside from the blem (paint chip on the edge of the body) it was in perfect condition. No need to adjust the action or intonate or do a neck adjustment. The frets were dressed and polished. If it were a guitar that I was to play in public then I would have had no issues paying for a non blem version of the same guitar. The other was the Modern Player Plus which I've blogged about and mention quite often - http://forums.songstuff.com/blog/159/entry-1499-review-fender-modern-player-telecaster-plus/ Again a guitar that has a new street value in the 500~600 market that I aquired used for 300 plus shipping. The guy prolly played it for less then 10 hours and the only thing he did was put new strings on it. Mint condition. He needed the money and I wanted the guitar. We both won. It's not just about tone ...which is important. It's also about workmanship, quality hardware on a quality instrument built up to a standard more then down to a price point.

I'm right there with you Rob. Back before I could buy a guitar I borrowed other peoples to learn on. I knew a few guys who would buy a cheap guitar then buy another cheap guitar only to have two nearly unusable guitars. The action was through the roof on those beasts. Making them unbearable to play. The frets weren't properly dressed and they'd cut my fingers as I tried to slide up and down the neck and the intonation was miserable. Back then no one played strictly in private. We had these things called Parks. Just like the neighborhood parks of today. You'd go to a park and you'd find other guitarists showing off what they knew and learning from one another. The guys with the cheapest guitars made the least progress because they were always fighting with the issues associated with them. The guys with the moderately more expensive guitars and expensive guitars learned at a faster rate. The whole sharing guitars thing, trying other peoples guitars and trying out guitars in stores before I bought one taught me one thing. It's better to have a quality guitar that plays better and lasts longer then a bottom of the barrel guitar. I had a job where I could save up money and I saved for about three months before my first guitar purchase. (Because it was going to come out of my pocket, my dad wasn't going to buy one for me) And then I bought a Gibson 335. Even though it was used it was a damn fine guitar and worth the wait. As some of you may remember I bought a bottom of the barrel Telecaster copy awhile back. There's a thread on it somewhere here at songstuff. It was a $100 guitar new. Piece of crap. the trim along the neck started cracking within a week of ownership. The neck joint where the neck meets the body is cut wrong causing stability issues. I had a ground issue which required I disassemble the guitar and trace the wires to fix the ground. The bridge pickup has an internal wiring issue which causes it to drop out completely. The screws for the saddles are stripped so it's impossible to get it properly intonated. And... the neck is warped. That's not all that was wrong with it. The nut was set wrong and the frets were uneven. All it did was make me want a real telecaster more and question my original purchase decision. more....

Honestly Moe,,,it's more about what YOU want then what everyone else thinks. You have to go out and play these guitars for yourself. If you don't have the tech savvy then bring someone along who does. Necks have wide variance in overall shape. You may like the sound and the look but if the neck isn't something that you feel comfortable playing walk away. I've had a few "Great Guitars" with fine quality necks but I never adapted to them. Eventually they found owners who were a better fit for the guitar. A word about retailers both in real life and on the web. There are good ones and not so good ones. Musicians Friend and Guitar Center I place in the not so good category. SWeetwater I put in the pretty good category. Here is a dirty trick that Guitar Center does. After you agree to buy an instrument the sales man will walk it back to find the case. Then they'll swap out a different guitar (same model, color etc) for the one you had in your hand. The one they swap out may be a "B Stock" or a refurbish or a used they are selling as new. I've seen it time and time again you play a perfectly fine guitar in store and then when you get home something is way different like a warped neck or a dead pickup. You go back and they are all friendly but pull some excuse out of their hat like "no returns on closeout sales" You are stuck with a guitar that wasn't the one you thought you were getting. B-stock and returned items. If you are aware what you are getting sometimes it's still worthwhile to buy in order to save yourself some change. Guitars are mass produced. Because they have to make guitars really really fast when one with a small or big defect will get shipped to the middle man and then to the guitar store. There are retailers that specialize in B-stock... Namely GC, MF, Music123 and a few others. With someone like...Sweetwater they are very upfront about it being B stock and what the exact issue or issues are with the gear be it a guitar or something else. Case in point... About 12 years back I bought a Raven West Custom 450. It had an entirely different finish, different hardware (gold) and different pickups then the current 450's offered by RWG. You'll need to scroll the page a bit to find the 450's http://www.ravenwestguitar.com/elguit.html Anyway my guitar had a small cosmetic flaw in the logo. Because of this defect I was able to buy the guitar for half off. It was a brand new guitar direct from the manufacturer. I could not detect the blem with my own eyes. I had to go back to the picture look at it again to see the fault. It really didn't matter to me. The guitar was near perfect out of the box. The only thing it needed was for the frets to be worked in. Within a week my playing did that. I played that guitar on a few gigs after purchasing and it's still in my stable today. I think it sounds and plays better then the PRS SE Semi hollow bodies. But my other point is this... I've been playing guitar since the 70's I've worked in guitar stores. I'd play all sorts of guitars and I've read specs on those same guitars. I can translate what neck specs will feel like for me without having to pick up the guitar. I don't have your hands. What feels right for me might not feel right for you. Sure we can all adapt a little in regards to neck qualities but there is a crossing point and it's a fuzzy one where the line is drawn. that's why you have to go out and play a guitar before you buy it. So you can get a feel for it. Because ultimately none of us will be playing the guitar you get. Only you.

Well if it was a bass you could tune it D-E-A-D

Quite often keeping the tone up with the volume rolled off is a matter of how the volume pot is set up.

head games - Foreigner

Could have sworn I just posted here. Hey Rob you might be best suited to help out in this thread. http://forums.songstuff.com/topic/39830-electric-guitar-recommendations/#entry256087

So prom nite is coming up and you want to swap dates? Before you buy anything you should understand your motives. Many of us buy new things not because we need them but as a means to help us feel happy. If your happy with yourself and your world then you will be less inclined to purchase something that you think fills a void in your life. That's one of the tricks advertisers use to get us to buy things. I'm not saying you suffer from any of this and I'm not saying I'm beyond it as my recent jazz box demonstrates. I'm just saying be aware of your motivations. You are a young guy living in an area and supporting a musical direction where image is everything as is keeping up with the jones's. If you haven't yet. Try going up a few gauges in strings and detuning your guitar. If you are used to standard tuning with 10's or 09's Go up to 12's and detune down to D or even C. You'll need the extra thickness to maintain tension. I'ts a small investment in time / energy and is what a lot of the heavy metal crowd is leaning to these days. Take it from a guy who has had and has now...possibly too many guitars for his own good. Buying another guitar for the sake of buying another guitar isn't the solution to anything. It's not that I don't love my guitars I do. All I ask is that you consider all the reasons you want to buy another guitar before you do. If your guitar requires service because of a whole host of issues like.. bad pickups (the go) or action that is something which can be addressed for a lot less then buying a new guitar. But maybe you need something else to take your career to the next level and you just don't see it....Like an amp. If you are used to playing garages and your bedroom moving into the next level of playing with a band to a crowd may require a bigger amp. I won't get into that whole litany here. Just consider your needs before your wants. Most people have a rough go adapting to a new guitar. It's more about the neck then anything. This is why (even though I do buy my guitars online) I can't stress enough the value of going to a guitar store and playing guitars before you buy. You are prolly very comfortable with the neck you have on your current guitar. Some guitars will only require minor adaptation to get used to. Others you might not adapt to at all. Think twice if you love the sound but can't make that leap in adapting to a different style neck. Sometimes even one does have that magical neck / tone it isn't enough to survive a long term relationship. I've got a Parker P44 which is all that. The neck is amazing, the tones are stunning and... it's collecting dust. I was so enchanted with the guitar at the time and I was dabbling with smooth jazz / melodic metal at the time. I've moved back to trad chord melody (fingerstyle) jazz since then and while the parker still sounds great I'm not able to coax my traditional jazz tones out of it. The guitar is one of those "someday I'll play it again but not today" things. You most likely have a better grasp on the instrument best suited for you then anyone here. Don't be afraid to trust yourself in your instincts. It's never been a better time to be a musician in regards to instrument quality, variety, and price. Fortunate for you You live in an area densely populated by musicians in your particular musical genre. Lots of store and lots local craigslistings. Top end guitars that are well maintained retain higher resell value and some can even increase over time. The Strat I bought new in 86 for 800 is now selling at 1500 but mine wouldn't fetch as much. No matter how well I treated it the guitar would always need to be played in some pretty rough houses. Sometimes an idiot would bum rush the stage or something else would happen to put a nick in it. Short story is my strat has a lot of "mojo". If you buy a high end guitar...Your genuine concern for it's value may prevent you from using it. Back when I was just finding my way in the trad jazz scene I'd regularly bring my strat out ot jazz jams. It didn't matter how well I played the perception of "not really being a jazz player" or not really interested in playing "real" jazz was linked to the instrument I chose to bring to the gig. I could play just as well on my strat as other guitars but I could see that If I wanted to make a name for myself I'd have to get a "serious box" So I picked up a Samick jazz box and only those who knew a thing or two about jazz guitars made a fuss. It looked the part enough. You will experience this for yourself the longer you stay in HM. Swapping pups can have a huge impact on how your current guitar sounds. Many of the new pickups designed for high output can cost almost as much as a guitar. Before considering replacing your current guitar consider swapping pickups first. Watch a lot of youtube videos with guitars that match your own and different pickups in it. Then try to recreate the tone yourself sometimes you might reach a close to match without swapping the pickups and sometimes you might find that those pickups you see others bragging about don't have the right tone for ..YOU. RobAsh is a fellow metal guitarist here. He might be better equipped to help you wade through your options

Sometimes I think if I were nearing that age I'd take em to a salvation army and give em away. E's got plenty of guitars and a good life, Having mine won't make that life more complete. None of my family members are musicians and they'd prolly box it away or sell it off. If I donated it to a Salvation army or similar organization. 1. The proceeds of the sale would go directly to 2. Someone would be freaked out happy at the awesome find they couldn't have afforded elsewise. Think about it for a minute. My 1986 Stratocaster Plus is worth roughly 1500USD (more then I paid for it) It has a unique collectors value as it was one of the first to ship "Made In America" again after fender packed up and moved production to japan. Before I got it I had a '57 Les Paul Deluxe that was highly playable and somewhat road worn. I had no idea who might have owned it previously. I could only imagine. I drew a lot of inspiration from the LP more so then the strat even though the strat was infinitely more playable. Maybe the strat would be an inspiration to it's next user. I'm only remembering this now... My recent jazz box was part of an estate sale. I've been loving the heck out of it.

Heck, someday's it's tough to play when I'm alive (j/k) Come to think of it. Being buried alive with a guitar is not a good thing it would be impossible to do those Pete Townsend "Windmill" strums There's only one person I know irl who could appreciate my collection. We haven't jammed or done anything together in 10 years. Last time I looked he had 35 guitars. It was a weeding process to bring the count that far and some tears were shed. I've known his girlfriend longer. Met her when I was 13 I can already see the expression on her face when he tries to explain someone (even me) bequeathed them. I don't know if you've ever seem the movie "Candy Mountain" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Mountain It starts off a little rough but part of the plot involves this 'master luthier" and people who want his private stock collection of handmade guitars. It's got all the trappings of a quirky Canadian indie film That's what spawned me to start a thread on the subject.

Tom's prolly digging a little fall-out shelter/time capsule in the backyard covering it up with a nice gazebo or deck, No one will know what happened to the mystery drum kit, not even the wife.

Would you be buried with your guitar? Would you do that? I've taken some measurements. If It's a standard casket funeral I'll only be able to fit one. Would you do that? After a guitar has given you so many years of pleasure? Would you bury that guitar with you so that no one else can enjoy the music that can come from it? Are you the jealous type? If knowing that your time is coming soon would you start a big bonfire and throw all your musical equipment in? Will you bequeath it to a special someone so that they will be the caretakers of your gear. Will they feel burdened by it if they don't feel right about playing your stuff after you've gone? Is it going to be sold of in lot with all your other stuff. Wind it's way to a pawn shop or ebay? Do you fear that when your family members arrive to pick through your belongings that the guitar is going to wind up in the hands of the cousin you've always hated?

A buddy of mine who has been a gigging jazz guitarist since the 60's uses 09's on his box. I would cringe but because of an issue with his thumb he has to brace the guitar against his body and use that along with the simple force of his fingers to connect down on the notes. Personally I would suggest you invest in a capo. Jazz guitarists run away from open notes A capo will offer lower action which makes thicker strings easier to play and increased tuning stability much like a locking nut. Hagstroms and Hofners make it to your shores. I see them maybe once in a decade around these parts. I tried a hofner and do not recall liking it. That was after a long series of disappointments with Washburns so my memory may be clouded.

A few added notes. Dropping the tuning either by a half step or whole will make playing on these higher action guitars much easier but also may cause them to be ....well floppier. I'm quite comfortable with lowering the tuning on my jazz box but you might not be. Another simple solution is to use a capo on the 1st fret. Jazz guitarists rarely reach for open strings.

Meatloaf - Paradise by the Dashboard Light

Yikes, Sorry to read of your disappointment. There is much discussion about how bad recent epiphone guitars have gotten since moving to china for production. Orange is not a good amp for jazz. Roland Cubes (the new ones with amp sims) on the cheap side. Or fender bassman/ fender deluxe. Or even acoustic guitar amps are better suited. Roll off the tone on the amp Treble = 0 Mid 4 Bass 4 guitar tone 5 You are experiencing what I did years back. I'd go out with a brand in mind and then been thoroughly disappointed with the actual instrument. This was after I'd read all the reviews and watched all the video's. I don't know what's available over there. Try out some Peerless or made by peerless guitars Most notably from peerless Peerless Jazz City . Peerless Monarch Peerless Gigmasters are a little brittle for my ears.Manhattans are ...well they resemble more of an acoustic guitar in tone then the D'angelico NY which they are meant to emulate. Oddly I'm not that big a fan of Cremona either. D'angelico EXL-1 Is a very very close approximation of a gibson L5 and a D'angelico NY Here's an interesting update to finding out more about my Guitar Research Eddie Durham. It is the same guitar as a Carlo Robelli Manhattan.Sam Ash owns both brands and had them both manufactured at Peerless. The only discernable differences aside from brand names are...the tailpiece construction. They are also carbon copies of the Peerless Monarch (which was developed later) though I can't verify the necks on the sam ash versions being the same thickness as the peerless. The tone difference is indiscernible to my ears. About floating bridges. When you have a floating bridge force must be exerted from the string downward to keep it in place. This means the overall string tension can be higher and the action must be higher (to a degree) in order to support the bridge. Early Les Pauls had a similar setup but Gibson changed the setup and went for a fixed bridge / stop tailpiece for this exact reason. The action on the earlier model LP's was both "floppier and higher" then those that came later with the fixed tailpiece design. The obvious solution is to make the frets higher...(my one quibble with my recent acquisition) You don't need to push the string all the way down to the fretboard to obtain a clear tone. Simply snuggle up to the fret. One can't have a fixed tailpiece on a full bodied jazz box because of the force it exerts on the arched top. I've had a few flat top acoustics that due to poor reinforcement that caused the top to buckle and the bridge/saddle to force forward even though the neck showed no bow. Which moves us onto.. Semi hollow bodies. Semi hollow bodies with stop tailpieces allow us many conveniences that solid bodies offer. Lower action, Thinner necks, Better tuning stability. Easier bending and less "floppiness" especially when playing with thinner strings. Typically Semi-hollow body construction relies basically on Les Pauls "log" guitar. A center block is mounted to the neck and body of the guitar that "chambers" the instrument. It reinforces the neck which reduces stress on the neck itself as well as the outer body. It reduces feedback while increasing sustain. Any acoustic properties are thrown out the window. It's a "tighter sound" that is more inline with the tone of a solid body then one of a full hollow body. I happen to own two semi hollow bodies. A Raven West 450 (prs semi hollow body copy) and Michael Kelly Phoenix Vibe. (Howard Roberts III copy) The floating bridge on the MK is about as useful in tone replication as Man Boobs. The scale length (26'?) makes fretting easier but it comes at a cost that makes many of those "jazzy stretchy' Chords and octaves challenging if not impossible for someone with my hand/finger size. Still it's good for a lot of fusion smooth jazz and LP type tones. I rarely play it as I live for playing big jazz chords.. The RWG450 is a totally different kettle of fish. Super slim D profile neck, super low action on a 24 fret fretboard. It's extremely tight and odd to play at the same time. Sure I can play all my happy chords and octave licks no problem. What I don't get is that elusive "classic jazz tone" and I've tried everything. Pretty it up all you want and what you get is a slightly thinner Les Paul tone. A few guitar manufacturers have tried to update the classic hollow body tone on semi hollow bodies and failed miserably. Most notably the samick Royale. They took a solid piece of wood and carved out the middle then "wrapped" wood around it. Punchy vibrant but lacking any "jazz" credibility to my ears. I tried every RL model ever produced and still wasn't hearing the love. The winner in the "semi-hollow body that sounds most like a full hollow body category is the D'angelico EX-SS The bridge is fixed even though he's got a traditional tailpiece. They are available with traditional Les Paul type "stop tailpiece" configurations. What makes this unique is that the center block does not go through the length of the guitar. Instead it's a "T" shaped block that stops behind the pickups allowing air to flow freely in the body between the pickups. This "t style block" offers all the pluses we know and love about standard solid bodies such as tuning stability, lower action and comfortable neck. Not to mention a body style that those of us who come from the world of solid body guitars can comfortably play. In short the D'angelico EX-SS is the closet you'll get to a es-175 sound in a semi-hollow body and far more comfortable to play then any 175 clone or for that matter a Gibson ES-175. It's a decision that only you can make for yourself.

Turn to Stone - ELO

Read all about it http://forums.songstuff.com/blog/159/entry-1509-review-guitar-research-eddie-durham-jx17/ Yes it is rather lengthy but it also gives some insight to jazz guitars in general which some readers may appreciate.

It's a rarity to find I think it would be near impossible to do so in the UK. Sam Ash is an american direct (mail order and web) retailer. It's very very large like musicians friend. Sam Ash has a house brand of guitars named... Guitar Research. Sam Ash/GR only released Eddie Durham models in 2006 There are two models which are quite different and yet each one is rather well made and affordable. The JX17 which more closely resembles The D'Angelico EXL and the JX16 which resembles a gibson es175. Your millage may vary but I fould the JX16 more pleasing then any other gibson es-175 copy on the market. Give a listen... If you want to go in price up but not to a Gibson es-175 The new D'angelico guitars are quite amazing The EXL-1, EX-175 and lastly the EX-SS The EXL(excel) is the big box (17 inch) jazz guitar akin to Wes Mongomery's L5 The EX175 Is a very new entry to the D'angico line up It is very decidedly closer to a gibson 175 then all competitors combined. With the exception that it has a bigsby tremelo And finally The ex-ss The ex-ss is a semi hollow body (center block) I already have two semi-hollow bodies personally and while they can be "warmed up a bit" by using flatwounds they miss that certain deep warm and creamy high that can only be attained by a full hollow body. If you can happen on a Carlo Robelli Manhattan it;s a rare inexpensive yet high quality gem of a guitar similar to the D'angelico EXL and my ED guitar.