Ronny North Test Drives the 34 1/2 Guitar

by Ronny North.

When I was doing a demo for my sponsor, AMT Pedals, at the Summer NAMM in Nashville this past June, I noticed these cool guitars at a booth a couple spaces down from where I was playing. I was rushing to get to the AMT booth on time to do my demo, so I told the guys at the guitar booth that I would like to come by and check out their guitars after my demo.

As always my demo ran long, so I only had a few minutes before my next demo on the far side of the convention center. I did manage to go to the booth with the guitars and got the low down on them.

The company is called The Alternative Guitar and Amplifier Company. The founder of the company, Mal Stich, and his son Lothar talked about their guitars while I tried one out acoustically, before plugging it in. Mal worked at BC Rich Guitars during their heyday in the '80s, so he knows a thing or two about guitars. After chatting for a few minutes I had to run to get to my AMT demo.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran into Mel and Lothar again at the California World Guitar Show in Pomona, California. This time I had a chance to sit down and play their guitars. The model that I really liked is called the 34 ½ Guitar. It has a single cutaway body with a flamed maple top on an Agathis body with 25 frets, Kahler trem with a locking nut behind the guitar’s standard nut, and two import EMG HZ passive humbuckers. The body is very comfortable. Even using a Fender amp with no gain, the guitar got great clean sounds and really played well.

Last week the guys from the company were kind enough to send me the 34 ½ guitar to review. After playing the guitar a bit I noticed how well it was built. The frets were great and the finish was well done. The guitar had cool light amber sunburst finish with a mild flame and felt more solid than a lot of budget priced instruments. It’s imported from Korea and setup here in America.

I played the guitar in my studio and ran it both clean and dirty through a tube amp. It really performed great in both situations. I’m really not a fan of EMG pickups, but the passive HZ models on the guitar did a good job and I was able to get very usable sounds. The guitar had great sustain and was relatively light weight. I’m told that the guitar retails for $699.00 which means that the street price will be in the $500.00 range.

My only complaints about the guitar were about the hardware, not the guitar overall. The imported Kahler bridge had a very noticeable rattling when you strummed chords. I do want to note that the guitar did stay in tune when I went nuts with the trem. You could hear the rattling acoustically, although it was barely noticeable through the amp. It was very distracting. My other issue was with the pickups. I felt that the front neck EMG HZ pickup sounded a little boxy when used with distortion. That being said, the pickup got great Strat-like tones when run through a clean amp.

A call to Mal Stitch ended up with him telling me that he'd look into both of my concerns with the guitar. He also told me that the company will be offering a stop tail piece option in the near future. The 34 1/2 was a lot of fun to play and would be great for everything from jazz to metal and everything in between. It also has a cool vintage type vibe. If you’re looking to get a cool great playing fun guitar to play that’s also affordable, you really should check these guitars out. I’m thinking about possibly getting one for myself.

Related Links
The Alternative Guitar and Amplifier Company
Ronny North's column, PSYKO Guitar

---