Personally, I find archtops to be the most beautiful guitars, period.
I think "fingerpicking" might be a bit broad as you can fingerpick any type of guitar. Most jazz chord melodies were certainly meant to be played on an archtop. My personal favourites are Joe Pass and Tuck Andress -- but there are many other fine players in this genre. Lots of folks use archtops for blues as well.
I do think archtops have a repertoire of their own and I would not play the same pieces that I play on my flat-tops. I've seen my share of Youtube videos where people were strumming away and playing power chords on their archtops. While people are certainly free to do whatever they want on their guitars, I think it's a waste.
So if the question is whether you can "fingerpick" an archtop, absolutely.
If the question is whether it's cool to play Tommy Emmanuel's latest ballad on an archtop, I'd say no.
The difference in tone is debatable -- but it's rather the difference in decay that makes archtops less suitable for music traditionally associated with flat-tops.
Joe
|