Steve DeRosa |
04-29-2018 09:58 PM |
That is one heluva "first" guitar by any standard...
If you want to master the basics I'd start with the old Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method - even if you already read music it'll help you get the fundamentals of right-hand picking technique under your belt. During the heyday of the modern (post L-5) acoustic archtop guitar (roughly 1925-1955, when Epiphone closed their New York operation and rock-&-roll brought the electric guitar to preeminence) they were considered virtuoso instruments, descended as much from the violinmaker's craft as from early steel-string flattops, and speaking from 55+ years of experience they require a far-more-refined technique to bring out their best; simply put, don't expect to just sit down and whack away as you would on a dread, and get the same level of instant gratification - if you believe instruments possess a soul, they're going to express their resentment in most-uncertain (and strident) terms. Approach them, however, with an orchestral string-player's technique in both right and left hand - subtlety of touch on the fingerboard ("feel" the note rather than "squeeze") and bow-derived picking ("glide" and "stroke" rather than "pick" and "strum") and you'll be rewarded with a smooth, rich, surprisingly well-balanced and even tone with more carrying power than is obvious to the player; IME archtops, due to their "piston" rather than torsional mode of vibration, tend to develop their sound well in front of the soundboard rather than within the body - those 17" and 18" Big Band-era comp boxes had no problem being heard over a 20-piece full-boogie horn section back in the day (the Mel Bay Rhythm Guitar Chord System - the "compers' Bible" since 1947 - can help you get a handle on this essential element of the archtop vocabulary) - so if yours is properly set up and played with the right technique, chances are you'll need less effort than with a typical flattop. FYI the old '30s/40s guys referred to this as "coaxing the velvet out" - and if you ever have the good fortune to be in the same room with an accomplished player working out on a vintage Epiphone Emperor/Gibson Super 400/D'Angelico New Yorker I can hardly think of a more apt description...
Second, most contemporary players are unaware that there was an entire school of "classical archtop" guitar that flourished from about 1925-1940, and upon which Mel Bay based his aforementioned method; when I was learning in the early-60's the method books bore a statement that they were in fact designed and intended to place the plectrum-style guitar "in the same class as the violin, piano, and other 'legitimate' instruments" (and if you've never hung around in certain so-called "serious" music circles it's difficult to imagine the pejorative attitude directed toward the guitar, even in its "classical" incarnation). FYI, in its original form the classical archtop movement drew from the earlier American school of classical guitar exemplified by the likes of William Foden, Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, et al. (rather than that of Segovia and his Spanish contemporaries, which would become the accepted concert style and instrument), as well as the parlor, "light classical," and vaudeville music of late-19th/early-20th-century America. In addition to transcriptions of well-known classical repertoire, a number of guitarists of the day produced original compositions in a late-Romantic style - music which, while largely out of fashion today, still retains its technical and artistic merit eighty or more years later. Bear in mind that the original Lloyd Loar-designed L-5 archtop guitar was in fact envisioned as a "classical" instrument both tonally and visually, intended as a part of the mandolin orchestras of the late vaudeville era and designed for hall-filling acoustic projection in the days before electronic amplification (note the name on the peghead of your own guitar); were it not for Segovia's sensational American debut in 1928, the plectrum-style archtop guitar - with its violin-family looks and construction - may well have become the accepted "classical" guitar...
BTW, if you're interested there are a number of recordings of these period pieces on YouTube, either in the original (by the likes of Harry Volpe, Al Hendrickson, et al.) or re-recorded by contemporary revivalists; you might also want to check out some of the work of Eddie Lang (both solo and with Joe Venuti on violin), Carl Kress and Dick McDonough, Tony Mottola, and George Van Eps. Finally, once you get some technical proficiency there's an excellent collection published by Mel Bay entitled Masters of the Plectrum Guitar which, if you're brave enough to attempt it, should keep you busy for a while, give you a taste of not only what was but what might have been - and forever change your preconceptions of what an archtop guitar can/cannot do...
Use it well and often... :guitar:
|