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Gibson Tal Farlow compared to a PRS Archtop 2 full depth


Chordguy

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Personally, I'd trade for sure. The Tal Farlow is a fantastic instrument, with a lovely woody sound. The body is figured laminated maple (not solid), but don't let that put you off. Gibson archtops in my experience are flawless in sound and beauty. It's quite large, so might take you some getting used to as it's 17" at the lower bout and has a full 25 1/2 scale length. It's body depth is slightly less than an L5 or ES5 however. They were very rare back in the 60's when only a couple of hundred were produced. In the mid 90's Gibson started making them again and they have been around ever since, though not made in large numbers and still quite rare to find in your average guitar store.

 

At present I own 3 Gibson archtops; an L5-CES Crimson Custom; an ES-5 Switchmaster (very similar in construction to the Tal btw); and an ES-175 re-issue. I love them all.

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With the greatest respect:

 

The PRS archtop isn't exactly an archtop like the Tal Farlow is, but if you are happy with it stay with it for goodness' sake, especially if you use pedals.

 

The Tal Farlow has a trapeze tailpiece and so the guitar will have a very different feel. Also may be a bit deeper than the PRS. Scale length a bit different.

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I have a 1996 Tal and I love its woody warm tone thus I am a bit biased.

Construction quality is great on mine, despite being a Custom Shop Instrument they can be had for very cheap on the used market right now.

To me it sounds closer to a 175 than an L5, but in a more assertive way; definitely more definition on the bass notes the 25.5 scale helping.

Like the guy who sold it to me from another forum said, its tone could be described as a 175 on steroids.

Since you own and play an L5 you would feel at home with the body and neck.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi, everyone,

 

I'm new here, and this topic immediately caught my interest. I ran out and got the PRS archtop II went it first came out, must of been around the same time as yours, and unfortunately I had a TERRIBLE experience with it. Man, it sure looked pretty, but I could not get a decent tone out of it to save my life - it just felt dead and unresponsive - my worst guitar experience ever - so I'm really happy that you've had much better luck than I did :)

 

I ended up picking up a 1997 Tal Farlow shortly after, and it has really, really grown on me since that time. I play a lot of 50's and early 60's jazz, and recently have been focusing almost entirely on rockabilly and Western Swing, so I decided to swap out the HBs and replaced them with Fralin P-92s (see pic). I was really surprised at what a HUGE difference it made - it's awesome, and somehow these feel like the pickups that this guitar was really meant to have - interestingly, I once had an old ES-350, which was Tal's original guitar, and it had P-90s, so what do you know ...

 

Anyway, you can see my bias, but I don't think you will EVER regret getting a Tal Farlow :)

 

- Chris

 

post-76562-041847000 1453760991_thumb.jpg

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