[Hot Vibrato]

I hope the title of this thread isn't too snarky, because it's not intended as such. It's just an observation about how my perception of acoustic guitars has changed over the years.

Years ago, my main experience with acoustic guitars was with flat tops. When I started working at a guitar repair shop in 1995, I had the opportunity to work on some archtops - some nice ones, and some that were not so nice. My general impression at the time was that archtops were thin sounding and and had weak bass response.

Around that time, friends were turning me on to some good jazz, so I got to hear how a good archtop sounds in the right hands, and my fascination with archtops began. I began to hear the beauty in their tone - the subtle responsiveness, the way they bark when you chomp out Freddie Green chords. No flat top can sound like that. I realized that archtops can sound heavenly if you play them just right. Since then I've acquired some good sounding vintage archtops, and sold off my flat top guitars.

At some point along the way, my ideal for what an acoustic guitar should sound like has changed to the point that now, most every flat top guitar I play sounds muddy, tubby, dark, unresponsive, mushy and ill-defined. Now I wonder what I ever saw in flat top guitars...

I still work on guitars for a living, and don't get me wrong - every now and then a flat top comes across my bench that just floors me. But the average flat top just sounds bad to me.

Any similar experiences?