Steve, this is quite a trove of information and inspiration! The 15 videos really do cover the waterfront. What I take away from them is how precise an instrument a good archtop is. The players with the best sense of time will have that rewarded. The rest of us, and I include myself here, will have their limitations revealed pretty starkly, but at least that light will shine a way forward. Volpe, in particular, struck me as having terrific time sense. And the Marty Robbins videos were a minor revelation on how well a good archtop can sound in a non-jazz context. Speaking of other contexts, Homer Haynes (of Homer and Jethro) has a simply incredible right hand—effortless light touch, perfect timing. I’d paid essentially zero attention to folks like that until one day a light went on and I heard what he was doing. I read somewhere later that Chet Atkins called Homer the best rhythm guitarist he’d ever heard.
Last edited by Richard Mott; 12-31-2021 at 04:41 PM.
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