en:vok:archtop

LEXIS


archtop
arched top
jazz ukulele

Orville Gibson (1856–1918) is considered the inventor of guitars and mandolins with arched tops. For violins, these have been around for much longer, but are rarely found on ukuleles. From the 1930s to the 1950s archtop guitars were often used in Jazz and therefore also referred to as jazz guitars.

Because the wood can easily break in this design, it is mostly used in plywood. Often, instead of the usual, centered sound hole, there are two F-shaped sound holes at the edges of the top, as in the case of violins.

Example

Kala KA-JTE/2TSG

farm2.staticflickr.com_1719_26077103762_b1fc228bc2_c.jpg An example of an archtop ukulele is the Kala KA-JTE/2TSG.