A few years ago, a guitar player friend of mine brought this beautiful acoustic guitar by a well known maker by for a set up.
After the setup I played the guitar and was extremely impressed with the sound of this instrument, and when my friend came back to pick it up he invited me to come hear it live.
When I heard this beautiful sounding guitar on stage through a PA system with drums, electric guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals, it just didn’t sound that great any more.
Two things had happened. One, it was trying to feed back, so the frequencies that were trying to feed were pulled back in the board which wasn’t good for the guitar’s tone. Two, every time he strummed, his strumming hand was contacting the top or the bridge causing a thumping sound through the low end of the system.
Then, one day my friend Denny Breau and I were talking about an acoustic gig he had coming up and he made a comment that an electric guitar equipped with piezo pickups is great for the electric player who needs an acoustic sound. But, he said, you can’t play it like an acoustic because it has electric guitar strings and you can’t dig into them like you can acoustic guitar strings.
The Professional Acoustic II was designed for the acoustic guitarist who has to play live.
It has a master grade spruce top with mahogany back sides and neck, and I redesigned the interior carving of the top to allow it to vibrate more freely, producing a wonderful acoustic tone.
It is set up like an acoustic with acoustic guitar strings.
It has an LR Baggs pickup system and preamp.
It plays like an acoustic guitar.
When plugged in, it sounds like an acoustic guitar.
But it dosn’t feed back like an acoustic guitar.
And it dosn’t have that low end thump through the PA system like an acoustic guitar.
We recently shot a video of Denny playing this guitar, and the tone blew us away. I can’t wait to show you this video, which Rich will post just as soon as we get the audio files from the studio.
In the mean time, photos of the Professional Acoustic II #228 are in our Latest Batch page.
I hope you will be as excited about the guitar as I am to offer it!
Chuck
June 16th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I must say “amen” to what Chuck has written about WHY this new Pro II is better than an acoustic. I played this thing when I stopped by to pick up my Legend. Oh, baby, this is something new AND wonderful for the guitar world. I honestly could not get it off my mind. When I got home and folks were asking about my trip, Chuck’s new shop, my new Legend, etc….. it loomed in my thoughts and always somehow came up in each conversation. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I had to have one. So, 10 days after arriving home from my trip, I called Chuck and ordered one. I need to say here that I love Taylor acoustics and will always own one. I also own a Taylor T-5….. but it’s days are numbered. I knew when I played the Pro II it would blow my T-5 away and was a giant step up. I would make this move for the tone variety plusses of the Pro II over the T-5 alone; and the advantages of playing the Pro II amplified over playing my acoustic Taylor amplified are just more reasons to do this. I truly believe the Pro II is the dark horse in the CPT line. I suppose the Blues Queen is currently Chuck’s biggest seller overall, but a couple of years down the road the overall biggest seller by then could be the Pro II. Any pro player who demands the highest sonic quality for their concert and studio work is going to find this thing irresistable. The innovative Chuck Thornton has once again raised the bar for amplified acoustic guitar makers.
June 16th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Chuck is a thinking man’s thinker. Archtop neck through is simply genius! Here’s to hoping that the new Legacy, Pro II and all of Chuck’s line goes over big at the upcoming Montreal event. Thumbs up to the man who carves tone from wood.
June 19th, 2010 at 7:35 am
Chuck’s sexiest guitar, IMO. I can’t wait to hear & play it.
Well done & well thought out. A piece of art that we can gig with.
June 19th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
I gather once the T-shirts are on and with axe in hand… the Club needs to tour! Cuz, though I love seeing our guitars, I love playing them so much more.
June 22nd, 2010 at 5:20 pm
I’m purty sure most folks don’t want to suffer thru my crude playing style; however, it does seem that there really IS a Chuck Thornton Fan Club out there. And if that is true, it does seem that it would be awesome if there could be a gathering….. an assemblage…… a grassroots show of force, as it were…..
And (just thinking out loud here), there MUST be some place where such a gathering of zealots could gather….. AND it would only make sense for each to bring his or her favorite axe or two…… IF… yes, IF, a jam should erupt following an extended round of handshaking and axe-fondling….. well, who’d want to stop it? Tour? Hardly. Just spontaneous fun? Absolutely!
Awwwwww…… such a pipe dream. CpT Fan Clubbers have busy lives; obligations; other interests. And sure as hell if such a gathering were to occur….. well, Chuck himself would surely want to attend just to see what all the fuss was about. His appearance, alone, would certainly certainly change the dynamics & set off rounds of toasts, pint-hoistings, chants of “For he’s a jolly-good fellow”, and on, and on, until the hour got late, then more pint-hoistings, and soon even I would start believing my playing was much improved, …. and….. well, it just could become more fun than some of us old-timers could physically stand. The hour would grow late…… some would leave; some would stay over…. and the next thing you know, some diehard would start a movement to make it an annual event…. Oh, me……
Is it just my wild imagination, or is a gathering of CpT Fan Club zealots a risky thing?….. :>)