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Old 11-21-2017, 09:21 AM
gmr gmr is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2016
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I'm not a jazz guy at all, so my opinions are more "Mother Maybelle" in nature. I love the look of the Loar archtops, and I think they may come as close to sounding like a new Gibson L5 might have sounded in 1928 than just about anything else on the market.

As Mr. DeRosa mentioned, the Godin 5th Avenue acoustic archtop is really nice. To me, it seems to ring a bit more compared to the fast decay of the classic archtops. That might not be a bad thing for your purpose. The Godin is also very reasonably priced.

I'm guessing since you mentioned fingerstyle guitar playing in worship services, you might not be intent on playing the typical jazz comping, chunky rhythms that are normally associated with archtops. If you haven't had much experience with these guitars, you may initially find yourself a bit at odds with their nature.

One more thought. The Epiphone Masterbilt Century archtop line might be of interest to you. These are almost an archtop hybrid, from most folks' perspective. There is a certain coolness about them. They seem "not quite archtop, but not a flat top". But they are well built. I really like the big chunky neck profile, though would have preferred the 24.75 scale length. I had the little Olympic. I liked it but could not bring out the best in mine. However, with the right touch from a skilled player, it sounded great. I never liked their plugged in sound until the day I traded mine in...in the right hands it was very, very good.
I think, for finger style unplugged playing, the new Deluxe model might be a fine choice. Here's a finger style, mic'd up example. If you can find acoustic archtops to play, that would be a very good thing. My local GC now almost always has a couple of the epiphones in stock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6RhA9M0OmM
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