Grote Custom Super 400 L-5 Style Big Jazz Archtop 2000s - Sunburst

When I first saw this jaw-dropping Grote archtop six or seven years ago, I thought it was about halfway there and had the potential to become a real classic, so I customized it pretty much from the ground up. It came with three pots laid out diagonally in a row running down the side of the treble f-hole. I drilled a hole in the upper right bout and installed the three-way pickup switch like the classic Super 400 and L-5 CES. I drilled two holes for the bridge pickup volume and tone pots. And I had a great local Athens, Ohio (Guitar Central, home of Stewmac) luthier wire it for optimum big box archtop sound.

I also installed all the hardware, including the gold, raised diamond L-7 (and L-12P, ES-175, ES-5, ES-350, etc.) style trapeze tailpiece, gold Gotoh keystone tuning machines, gold humbucking pickups, gold knobs and pointers, gold Tune-o-Matic bridge with rosewood base, and black/white bell truss rod cover. I put the Gibby style crown "inlay" decal over a hole that used to have a pot and knob. Looks like a cool custom detail, no?

This guitar is big, closer to a Super 4 than an L5: a bit over a 17 1/2" lower bout, 12 5/8" upper bout, 3 1/2" to 3 5/8" body width (it widens by the neck like the old classics). The nut is a standard 1 11/16", and the neck is slim and straight with beautiful pearloid inlay and a rosewood fretboard. The body is nice thin laminated maple with stunning flame on back and sides and multiple cream binding on the body and headstock, single binding on f-holes and elsewhere, and a lustrous tobacco sunburst finish, as the photos show.

The instrument plays and sounds excellent, with a wide range of tonal color. Low, fast action, no buzzing. Loud acoustically with a pick if you want to tone it down while comping. Plugged in, you get that vintage Wes Montgomery sound. But this big boy's not just for jazz. Take it to your next rock, blues, country, cabaret, church gig and hear what the people say.

As you can see by the two final photos, I filled in holes where the ugly, long ago trashed pickguard was attached, and there's a little bubbling up where the neck attaches to the body at the lower bout. You can see it if you blow up image #9. My luthier says it's not an issue. By the way, Grote doesn't make this big boy anymore, with AI saying it cost too much for the company to continue producing. AI often hallucinates, but this seems likely to me.

Comes with a new padded Chromacast gig bag.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions you have.