Archtop Gypsy guitar

[Victor Saumarez]

It was quite a time ago that I first visited Century Strings in
Covina, CA. They are a Chinese instrument maker, with a range of
products from cellos to basses. Their guitar was a kind of after-
thought I guess, and my first reaction to playing one was that it
needed attention. Freshly rolled off the 'productions line', there was
no evidence of any attempt at setup. Cardinal sin! The action was so
high making it impossible to get a feel for the guitar. Well, since
then, I have done the rounds looking for alternative, from Paul Gruen,
to D'Aquisto's, I even bought a Martin, but have come full circle back
to the Samois, one of two of the hybrid models produced by Century
Strings. However, this time I went to try out the guitar armed with
tools and strings, and then persuaded the shop to lend me the guitar
for a few days. To my joy and surprise, the Samois responded well to
both flat wound and Argentines, and after a little tweaking the action
it's almost as low as my Eastman oval hole. The scale length is short,
which I actually prefer, but access beyond fret 17 is a little
difficult due to a flat cutaway. Having an adjustable bridge on what
is essentially an acoustic, albeit archtop acoustic is a godsend. The
neck is fairly narrow compared to many Macaferi's I have tried, and
the body small. The frets are voluminous, which I originally thought
may hamper sliding runs up the neck, but the rational is that those
road bumps accentuate individual notes much more clearly. The
thickness of the wood used really does bring out the acoustic quality,
and she can shout (depending on strings) pretty loudly. The finish is
to a high standard, perhaps not what you might expect from a high end
archtop, but there's nothing that seems to interfere with playability.
A note of caution, although I am giving this guitar my endorsement,
and am now a happy owner of one, it may not be the right choice for
the gypsy jazz purist. But then, that is not it's intended market. It
is aimed more at players like me, who straddle the two camps between,
US mainstream/bebop and that evocative European campfire tradition.

www.centurystrings.com/