Also bear in mind that the playing style of old archtops was very different from what we are used to thinking of with "Jazz" today...
Those old guitars were usually strung with heavies and run with a fairly high action. They were played HARD to be heard unamplified in the mix against horns. They are LOUD played this way with a really good tone... String them with lights and try to play technical, modern stuff - and you will be completely unimpressed/disappointed.
Quality wise... Yep.. They had a HUGE range of offerings from cheap beaters to the most expensive on the market.. More expensive than Martin and Gibson offerings. Their good stuff was very very good.. Their cheap stuff was generally pretty uninteresting.
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