OK, thanks Jeff and Cameleye.
Man, I wish there were some place around here I could just go and play a few so I could see what its like. Maybe I'll head off to GC and play one of their semi-hollow bodies or something. IIRC they had some Epiphones and Ibanez "archtops"
While I'm at it... do you know anyone who has gone to this?
Nazareth Archtop Guitar Building Class
It's $3500 but you come out with (in theory) a Benedetto -copy archtop. Not sure where I would find the week -- let alone the $3K -- but it sounds like something that would be really cool to do.
BTW, GC has a 1960 Kay archtop for sale. ($329.99) Is that what you played in thatr video? DId you put the DArmond floating pickup on yourself? I might be underestimating it, but that looks like a fairly simple install... no?