Great workhorse 50’s archtop from New Jersey’s United Guitar Corporation. Turned into a versatile and effective player, full of vibe, with Lollar Firebird pickup in the neck and Lollar goldfoil in the bridge, it works well in the stage and studio. All new wiring, pots, electronics and new medium jumbo frets. New Frequensator tailpiece and custom ebony bridge. Gretsch "G-Arrow" chrome control knobs feel great. Classic feel on the full size neck, 24.75” scale, 1 5/8" at the nut. The neck is substantial, generously carved, and finished smoothly in all positions. Comfortable 17” body at the lower bout with a parallel braced, laminate maple top. Will ship guitar with truss rod cover on. Guitar has been refinished at some point and shows typically elegant checking throughout.
The body binding has all been replaced and is unoriginal except for one small strip by the neck heel in the cutaway. There is a small amount of binding separation visible on the front top bout by the bass strings (visible in photos). There are a couple hairline cracks in the back that are stable with no movement. No label inside, only "LJ 54" stamped on the back by each F-hole. These may be the F.O.N. but this cannot be verified. The truss rod functions well. The original Waverly tuners are excellent. A very small amount of separation is visible at the edge of the heel joint (shown in photos), likely due to old glue drying out, and is not impacting the neck stability or angle. The guitar is playable with low action and there is room for further adjustment on the bridge. This is a robustly built guitar with rock solid parallel bracing. As a result, iIt is nicely resistant to feedback for an instrument of this size and can be utilized in contexts where you might not have thought a full size archtop could fit.
A few additional notes: United built some bodies for John D’Angelico, and similarities are evident in this archtop. Although not as well known as Epiphone, Guild, or Gretsch, the workmanship on these higher end United instruments is in many ways, comparable to these other New York/ New Jersey firms. The guitar is now outfitted with two pick ups from Jason Lollar, offering an exceptional unique meeting of 1950s, 60s, and modern sounds. The Firebird pick up is extremely versatile, and while non-adjustable, has the natural kind of balance across registers that comes with the structurally similar Johnny Smith pickup from Gibson. The gold foil is direct sounding and takes exceptionally well to effects pedals and changes to dynamics and articulation. It is a height-adjustable surface mount pickup and responds to subtle changes in picking dynamic and articulation. Once dialed in, it makes for a very useful contrast to the neck pickup. Together, this pairing is unique and focused, making for a guitar that has the feel and construction of a vintage archtop but achieves sounds that extend beyond that world and encourage the player to find their own voice with it. Both full and focused humbucker sounds and throaty single coil sensivity rolled into one instrument.
Currently strung up with flatwound Thomastik-Infeld Swing Series .13's. Comes with unoriginal Epiphone hard shell case ( modern era ) in good condition. The top interior padded is starting to separate from the case. All latches function. I also have a very nice Crossrock molded fiberglass case which fits this guitar and is visible in the photos. It has the typical exterior scratches one would see on a case like this but is in otherwise excellent condition. I can ship the guitar in the Crossrock case for an additional $250.
I am happy to arrange an in-hand description or play through or to answer any other questions you may have about this unique instrument.
