Acoustic Guitar Magazine | 8 years ago
There was a time, prior to the advent of amplification, that the acoustic archtop guitar reigned supreme in American popular music. Guitarists in large ensembles relied on these robust instruments for their cutting, projective sound, which stacked up nicely against walls of horn and percussion. In the 1930s, Epiphone—then known as the Epiphone Banjo Co.—offered a full range of archtop models from spartan to luxurious, but phased them out decades ago as they lost favor with guitarists. The company is revisiting its roots with a new line of Masterbilt archtops, from the diminutive Century Olympic to the big-bodied Century De Luxe. I put the latter model to its paces and was duly impressed by its performance and value.
From the April 2017 issue of Acoustic Guitar
