Sunday, 18 December 2022

The Guitar Diaries Part 16: Epiphone Masterbilt Century Deluxe Archtop acoustic (May 2019 - present)

 I've not had the best experience with acoustic guitars, but in 2019 I felt like it was time to try again. I'm struggling to remember exactly why I wanted to get one, and I wanted to get something a bit offbeat so I went for this.

I have to say that it's a lovely, well built instrument that I spent a lot of time playing during the year I bought it. After a long break I was able to get back into songwriting and this was the instrument that enabled it - during 2019 I wrote 14 songs (admittedly of varying quality) on this instrument, four of them being on the EP I recorded on lockdown.



This is a niche instrument and somewhat different to a regular flat top acoustic. The sound is much more in the midrange and has less sustain although it does project its sound quite well. It has electric facilities although I've never used them. I've made a few recordings with this and the Ibanez flat top I will discuss later and it complements very well - being prominent where the flat top is scooped. I've also played a bit of jazz on it at times and it's good for that too.

It's not an easy guitar to play. The neck is the thickest of any guitar I've played, and it could perhaps benefit from a professional set up to see if the action can be lowered a little. At the time of writing it's not been played for quite a while as the Ibanez flat top has had the most use. I've considered moving it on as it has some value which could be better spent elsewhere. But I do also really like it and might have a use for it in the future.

No comments:

Post a Comment