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  #31  
Old 03-20-2021, 09:32 AM
FrankHudson FrankHudson is offline
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A range of valid opinions have already been offered in this thread. Of course you can play jazz on anything (rubber bands? Hey, I like to fake upright bass sometimes on a U-bass, that oughta count somehow). Of course, ofttimes lessons and certainly listening and just plain woodsheding are needed.

But.

There is an element of costuming, of actor's business, that is sometimes involved in playing a certain type of guitar. Playing jazz in the tradition that was largely originated on archtop hollow-body guitars doesn't require one exactly, but that connection is a bit more than "lucky socks" superstition. It's implied in the original post that they feel an archtop may inspire them to explore that direction. They could be right or wrong, but they also likely know themselves at least as well as we do.

So I'd say to the OP: "go for it" as long as the cost is affordable. If you're wrong, if you find out it isn't for you -- perhaps a big archtop strung up with flatwound strings won't feel and respond to your playing the way you expected. In that case, if you don't want to persevere and see what happens, sell it and move on -- but you'll have had that experience.
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  #32  
Old 03-20-2021, 09:45 AM
RoyBoy RoyBoy is offline
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After playing flattop for 50+ years, I finally have a nice L5 style (17") archtop guitar. I find it very comfortable to play in my lap. I can tell you that the guitar responds very differently than a flattop. The tonality of the guitar just cries out for jazz chords and I find myself instinctively going to places on the fretboard. It's good incentive to learn the structure of new chords and scales. Having a trapeze tailpiece, even with medium gauge strings it is a breeze to play. It just takes less effort to play. I definitely recommend getting an archtop. There is a good forum for jazz guitar with lots of support and some free lessons to get you started.
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  #33  
Old 03-20-2021, 09:49 AM
dougdnh dougdnh is offline
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It is cool to have an archtop in your collection if you really want to get into jazz - on the other hand you can do just fine on a flatop, especially if it's a smaller body cutaway. Kenny Burrell has been known to play a flat top. However if you want that fat, velvety Wes Montgomery sound, there's nothing like an archtop. I have an es-175 and an old Harmony archtop in my collection, but I rarely play them when noodling around, even though I'm learning more and more jazz.
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  #34  
Old 03-20-2021, 05:31 PM
g-dude g-dude is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by s2y View Post
I would have thought the sound hole would be the least visually offensive problem compared to 7 strings and fanned frets.

I like 'em strange sometimes. Might get a traditional hollow body with PAFs at some point and that one will look more conventional.
To be honest, I didn’t even see any of that.

All I saw was the sound hole in the wrong place and that pretty much was the only thing I could focus on.
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  #35  
Old 03-20-2021, 11:54 PM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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I hope I'm not going to be writing any kind of heresy here, because I certainly don't want to offend or even irritate anyone here. However, if a person is a singer, he/she can learn to play jazz-oriented songs, let's say from the "American Songbook," and not have to dive into a massive amount of study about jazz playing. And an archtop guitar can be very accommodating for this kind of music.

I have been enjoying my Eastman archtop AR910CE and have offered a couple of jazz oriented songs recently, one for "Georgia on my Mind," and one for "The Christmas Song."

A jazz guitar is not absolutely required. I did "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on my acoustic Olson guitar. But for myself, I really like a song like this on a lightly amplified archtop.

I would agree that what I am doing is not strictly jazz, there is no improvisation, but it's rewarding and to most people it sounds like jazz. And it has the advantage of not requiring a great deal of study to figure out how to play it and make satisfying music. And finally, it sounds good on an archtop, at least to me.

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  #36  
Old 03-22-2021, 10:07 AM
JGinNJ JGinNJ is offline
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If you want the traditional sound like Wes Montgomery or Joe Pass, then yeah, you need an archtop with a clean amp. Starting out, though, you don't need to spend thousands. Really, you just need an instrument that won't make you work too hard, so I wouldn't recommend a flattop.

There's the saying, tone is in the fingers, and it's true for jazz, too. Part of it is getting the touch for it, and having a hollow or semi-hollow body helps. A "folk" guitar has sustain, jangly trebles and scooped mids- it's just the opposite with an archtop jazz tone, and part is the rhythmic "chunk". You can get that sound with a solid-body, too, if it doesn't have "hot" or crunchy pickups- but it's harder if you haven't learned it with your fingers, too.

I played a Joe Pass Emperor for a long time, it's small like a ES-175, and they're cheap at 4-500 used. Epiphone also makes a 175 copy.
Big archtops are great for sound, but like dreadnaughts, people get tired of the size.
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  #37  
Old 03-22-2021, 10:27 AM
mr. beaumont mr. beaumont is offline
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Late to the party, but being one of our resident "pretty much only plays jazz" guys I might as well chime in.

You can definitely play jazz on anything, but it IS a good idea to have a devoted "jazz guitar." There's a sound in those archtops with f-holes, and it should be noted that one of THE quintessential jazz guitars, the Gibson ES-175-- is an all laminate construction. You can find similar tones in lots of Epiphone and Ibanez guitars for only a few hundred dollars. It's also important to mention, that while they are very nice guitars-- the Eastman aesthetic is basically from the Benedetto book. So if you want the sound of say, Joe Pass on "Joy Spring," or Kenny Burrell's early stuff, the Eastman is not going to do that sound as well as the much cheaper Ibanez or Epiphone.

But more important than the guitar itself even, is the setup. If you do really like that 50's classic jazz tone, flatwounds are fantastic. I keep flats on my Heritage 575, because that's the specific sound I'm after.

Heavier strings can be a great idea too...now, you're probably saying, but won't that make the guitar harder to play? Honestly, not necessarily. A 24.75" scale archtop (like the 175) strung with .012's and low action (not too low, but you can go pretty low with heavy strings) is actually not that hard to play, and the biggest benefit comes when playing more complex chords your hands haven't done before...heavy strings stay put, whereas lighter strings might be bent and pushed out of tune. A wound G string, for sure, gives better intonation benefits as well.

Lastly, when it comes to the actual playing of the music, remember jazz is not theory and scales. It's songs. You have to learn songs. And train your ear. If you learned 10 melodies by ear and copped licks from 5 of your favorite players while learning the chords to those 10 tunes as well, I bet you'd have a better foundation in playing than 90% of the folks who try to "start playing jazz" by getting a book and doing exercises.

Always remember it's music, and you'll be good to go.
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