Framus AZ 10

My AZ 10 was made in 2009 in Germany. It is a traditional archtop Jazz guitar with a solid carved Spruce top and back and sides of solid AAAA Flamed Maple. 21 frets on the maple neck with tiger striped ebony fingerboard. Celluloid binding and a high polish finish. The single pick up is an MEC Jazz humbucker which is mounted on the ebony pickguard. There are no holes cut in the top.Chrome hardware, locking tuners etc. etc. All high quality stuff.Came with a Rock Case made to fit this guitar. It came set up with GHS flatwounds .013 - .054. They also give you a strap with snap on locking nuts and a truss rod tool.

I bought this guitar for Jazz and that's exactly what it,s made for. I used it on a gig the first day I got it. I was a bit worried about feedback since I have heard some horror stories about carved archtops but had no problems. I got a great sound right out of the gate. I have been playing a 1955 ES 175 for the past 30 years for my jazz gigs and this box blew it away. I go through a Fender Deluxe reissue with no effects. The tone was full and round and bright all at the same time. The guitar came setup perfectly for this style. Intonation was spot on and the tonal response even all over the neck.I am used to playing heavier strings so that was not a problem. Framus uses PLEK technology to set up the guitar so it should be perfect. A pleasure to play.

As I said before the set up was great for Jazz. The pick up has a typical jazz sound with not much variety but that's not what I'm looking for with a guitar like this. It sounds and looks like it supposed to. The finish and bookmatching are perfect. I've gone over this instrument looking for flaws and can't find any! I have one other Framus and it was the same story. These guys know quality control.

I've only had it a couple of weeks and have played 5 gigs so far. So far so good. I dread the day I get that first scratch. I know it's going to happen sooner or later. Not much that can go wrong with this type of guitar. It is after all basically an acoustic so there are no crazy electrontics to go haywire. As far as I can tell it's a player. Iwouldn't bother with a back-up for this type of gig.

The customer support is great. They answer e-mails or the phone immediately. My other Framus was a custom job so I was in more contact and everything went smoothly. The warranty is for two years and excludes any mis-use or damage.

I've been playing professionally for 35 years. I play all styles but Jazz has always been my love. I have many guitars including a 55 ES 175, a 68 Les Paul, 63 Les Paul special, 67 Strat, 65 Martin D-35, 67 Fender Deluxe Reverb, Mesa Mark II c+ and a bunch of other guitars,basses and amps and effects. Most of the classics I bought when I was young so they were still cheap {the 55 ES 175 was $100}.
This is the first true solid wood Archtop I've owned. I live in Bangkok now and found out about Framus through another player here. I've tried many archtops over the years and they were either too exspensive or played like crap if they were not. I took a chance on the AZ 10 since I was familiar with their quality and I knew Atilla Zoller years ago. I figured a player of his caliber would endorse a good instrument. That's what the AZ stands for. So to sum up, Great guitar at a great price!