Sunburst Mahogany Archtop
From Timothy Bram Guitars:
"This 2.5 inch deep hand carved archtop features an Alaskan sitka spruce top, one piece mahogany back, mahogany sides and neck and a Macassar ebony fretboard, Rosewood tailpiece and Ironwood bridge. This guitar features a 25" scale. The smaller, lower bout offers excellent comfort and playability while the shallower depth still delivers a full, rich sound."
Tim Bram is a revered archtop guitar builder/ Luthier, based in Maryland. Every Tim Bram guitar is completely hand-built by Tim in his workshop. Every instrument is a custom work of art, with its own unique tonal qualities and handmade appointments.
Tim has developed an Archtop design that blends the best qualities of both a traditional fully hollow, carved-top Archtop and a smaller bodied thinline "ES style" guitar. The lower bout of this model is only 14 1/2" but it sounds huge both unplugged or amplified with its single floating hand-wound Kent Armstrong Mini-Humbucker Pickup. The body somewhat resembles a Tele as does the six in a row tuner head stock, hence the name "Tribute Archtop" as a tribute to the Tele. The scale length is 25" for a slightly slinkier feel than the more commonly used 25 1/2" scale length. This scale allows the player to use heavier string gauges without the tension feeling to stiff.
The guitar is X-Braced with Sitka spruce braces. The top is hand-carved Sitka Spruce and the back is 1-piece Mahogany. Acoustically this Tribute Archtop model is open and rich sounding with complex highs, beautifully balanced mids and a nice punchy low-end. It's perfect for both flat-picking and finger-picking, the latter which is super comfortable with its 1 11/16" nut width and beautifully rolled fret ends. The tangs of the frets aren't visible from the sides with the board being bound with Ebony, for an incredibly clean feel and look.
Both acoustically or plugged in this guitar can cover so much ground with just it's single neck pickup, Volume and Tone controls which reside in the treble sides "Cat-Eye" sound-hole. This particular instrument can cover all sorts of musical ground, from Jazz to Country and everything in-between. All in all this is a heirloom quality master Luthier built Archtop Guitar at its finest; with unique design implementation, and a perfect setup. The guitar has been set-up by Tim Bram with 12-54 gauge strings with a wound G and a nice low action of 3 1/2 & 4 64th's of an inch E to E at the 12th Fret.
This particular instrument was a guitar that Tim would keep in his workshop to show as an example of his work to customers. It has also been featured at a couple guitar shows, with it's beautiful high-end custom appointments. While it was never before owned by anyone but the builder, it shows some light signs of light use like minor scratches, none of which are easy to see or photograph. A completely new build with the same specs would cost several thousand dollars more. Grab this beauty at a very fair price.
Tribute Archtop Model #9 Specs:
Old Growth Sitka Spruce Top (Hand Carved
One-Piece Mahogany Back (Hand Carved
Mahogany Sides & Neck (Hand Carved)
Macassar Ebony Fretboard
Rosewood Tailpiece and Headstock
Ironwood Bridge
Kent Armstrong Floating Mini Humbucker (Hand Wound)
1 11/16" Tusq Nut
25" Scale Length
Nitro Lacquer Cherry Sunburst Finish/ Natural Back & Sides
Ameritage HSC
2 1/2" Deep Body
Sitka Spruce Braces
Large C Neck Profile .875"- 1.00"
