RichardC Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 It appears to me archtop guitars are overall decreasing in popularity. As the original owner of a 1965 ES175D, 1999 Gibson Legrand and early 60's Kay archtop, I was wondering if forum members agree with my assumption. I work part time at a local Guitar Center and do not see many customers interested in a quality archtop. Mostly Fender Strats and Tele's and Gibson or Epiphone Les Pauls. All good guitars, but not that quality premium archtop I've liked for so many years. Your thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. Pepper Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 (edited) I love a 175 and 335. But don't play electrics anymore. And even if I did there to expensive. I had a BB King and at 2500 when I got it used I thought I should have had my head examined. They reissued them last year for 5k. ES-335 Studio's are now 2k and the nicer ones are 3k. Your out of your mind Gibson. Edited February 10, 2020 by Sgt. Pepper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 16 hours ago, RichardC said: It appears to me archtop guitars are overall decreasing in popularity. As the original owner of a 1965 ES175D, 1999 Gibson Legrand and early 60's Kay archtop, I was wondering if forum members agree with my assumption. I work part time at a local Guitar Center and do not see many customers interested in a quality archtop. Mostly Fender Strats and Tele's and Gibson or Epiphone Les Pauls. All good guitars, but not that quality premium archtop I've liked for so many years. Your thoughts? I agree with what you have written here. You might like to read the 2nd post (by me) in this linked thread - There is not one single production archtop in the current Gibson line. Given the illustrious history and players of Gibson archtops from Eddie Lang onwards, it is a great shame. I think it is down to 'market forces' and the fact that they are expensive, take longer and are much harder to manufacture than solid-bodies. A bit like acoustic vs electric basses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twang Gang Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 I would tend to agree with you - you don't see that many people playing them anymore, and I would imagine sales are down quite a bit. I have an L-5 and a CS-356 and love them both, but about the only archtops I see being played are 335s which seem to remain pretty popular with older musicians. And those are semi-hollow with a center block so moving away from the true archtop design. As to an acoustic archtop, I haven't seen anyone play one of those for a really long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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