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Jonathan bought this beautiful guitar earlier this year in Bangkok, where he performed at the yearly Thailand International Jazz Conference. The guitar is made by a local luthier, named Oz, who is a professional jazz guitarist and who loves archtops. He started building guitars during the Covid period when there was not much work for performing artists. Since then he developed his skill to the current high level. After returning home, Jonathan was so thrilled by his new guitar, that he called Lionel Loueke, who immediately ordered one with 7-strings. That one is now in production and will be finished soon. As a frequent visitor to Thailand I already know Oz for years and own two of his previous hand-carved custom models. When I visited him two weeks ago, just to say hello, I was not planning to buy another guitar at all. But when I tried a few of his prototypes I was sold. What makes it so interesting is that, besides maple, spruce, mahogany, Oz makes use of local woods. Jonathan's guitar, for example, is made of rare local Thai fossil wood for back and sides, and toona wood (somewhat similar to Australian red cedar) for the top. Oz is an amazing guy. Besides archtops he brews his own beer (Jonathan loved it!), roasts his own coffee, and distills the best plum liquor I ever had. Lionel's guitar is nr 91. Mine will be 92. After seeing Jonathan's YouTube video I thought it would be a good idea to share this information with you. As Jonathan would say: check them out www.thearchguitar.com
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08-22-2024 06:08 AM
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Thanks for posting this - anything from this player is worth listening and watching, CLOSELY !!!!
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They look cool. Kind of a Victor Baker or Nishgaki vibe.
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Beautiful sound, the best headless guitar sound I've ever heard.
Good quality hardware is extremely important with a headless guitar, I wonder what bridge and the string clamp the builder using?
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The Arch Guitars – Archtop Guitars & Bass ,Bangkok,Thailand.
They have a model that also has a traditional Archtop wood bridge along with the headless attributes. Not quite sure how that works?
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I previously looked at the website, there is not much info about the bridge and string clamp being used.
Originally Posted by jads57
For hardware it only states the following:
'hardware brass'
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These are Hipshot systems, if I remember well.
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This one? I love it. Very clear and open sound. It is the one that I have ordered. Originally Posted by jads57
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This ZALETELJ also sounds really nice :
Zaletelj Guitars | Amelia
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Kind of bummer when asking price isn’t listed on the luthiers website. Zaletel J Guitars.
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Prices are shown here, very reasonable for luthier made guitars -- The Arch Guitars Originally Posted by jads57
What I don't get is why the "in stock" guitars say "2-3 months for building" (like the pre-order models) - are they or are they not in stock?
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No I was referring to to Zaletel J pictured above being played by Jotam Silverstein. The Arch guitars seem very reasonable in price.
Stevus, please elaborate on you ordered guitar. I don’t get the bridge along with the Hipshot bridge as well? Is the neck angle totally different and pitched back? Thanks!
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Very, very cool. All the best to them!
I’ve been eying that hollowbody Strandberg lately so I’m somewhat tempted by the Arch. Problem is, it might take up to a year for me to decide if a guitar suits me and if it’s going to be a keeper. If it’s not, then this might be really hard to sell. The guitar market is unforgiving. I visited a major retailer last week who has some amazing Patrick Eggle guitars in stock. I played them, they’re awesome. He can’t give them away. Folks make a beeline for the Gibson corner and that’s that.
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I see your point. As I mentioned, I was not looking for a new guitar at all and definitely not a headless one. But this guitar (and the others I tried too) sounded so good that I couldn't resist. Considering that these guitars are fully hand-carved with back and sides carved out of one piece of wood, and considering that it takes about 300 hours to produce one makes this exceptional good value. The fact that Jonathan Kreisberg and Lionel Loueke like them too, is an extra bonus, of course. Originally Posted by Oscar67
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I have no idea. Sorry! Originally Posted by jads57
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I would LOVE to get one!
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I’ve talked to them before, the Amelia (that guitar) is north of $6k
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I just saw a video I liked played on one of their guitars so I took a look at their site. The prices were not horrendous but they were still substantial.
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Of course, it still is serious money. But I don't think it is too much for a fully hand-carved guitar.
Screenshot_20240904-092932__02.jpg (374.0 KB)
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Perhaps but it is well beyond my budget. Originally Posted by stevus
Of course, it still is serious money. But I don't think it is too much for a fully hand-carved guitar.
Screenshot_20240904-092932__02.jpg (374.0 KB)
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Hi this thread is a bit old but bumping it up..
i am planning on doing some airplane travel later this year and being daring I contacted Oz and Arch Guitar.
i decided I would order and so far I am very pleased with the process. I have been playing a kiesel headless for about a year and I like headless guitars but I wanted something a little more jazzy. The Arch Guitar looked like the right choice. (At least until we stop in Japan and I buy an irrationally large jazz guitar). Anyway I made the plunge.
My order is a single pickup TA-HL-12. Dark Red, single pickup, European Spruce top, with the headless bridge and jumbo frets. Neck is 12” radius slightly flatter up the neck - Les Paul shape. Oz says you can also get 16” and 20”. All fret choices and neck choices are no extra charge Base model $3400 includes spruce as a choice.
At the time of the order he said approx 2 months to make guitar. Email conversations have been in english Oz seems to understand everything perfectly. I am posting so people can see the construction process.
My timeline has been 3.28.25 made deposit
And yesterday 4.8.25 I received these images.
I will keep updating as the build progresses.
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I had a look at the Patrick Eggle website. The Macon semi-hollow is 'from £5200'. Originally Posted by Oscar67
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Updating the progress on my headless archtop guitar build. Oz is very responsive and it is always a nice surprise to get update pictures.
It's really nice to know that this is not some CNC neck.
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I’ve looked at several headless guitars over the years. The thing that put me off the most has been the tuners. Even those on the expensive, high end models I’ve tried are crude and imprecise in action. They all feel flimsy, and precise tuning was difficult.
On every Strandberg I’ve played, loosening the tuner had no effect on the strings. I had to pull every string after backing off on the tuner to loosen and tune it. The new Ibanez headless 7 solid body is the same crappy hardware.
If Oz has found high quality hardware, he’s got my interest.
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I have a headless guitar made by Oz. I can't compare it to other brands but tuning works fine. Only problem is that the tuners are very close to each other. But I guess that will be the case with every headless guitar.
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I found this Ibanez rarity
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