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Old 10-04-2018, 08:26 AM
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Default What other kind of music do you play on your "jazz box"?

Ok, pulled the trigger on an Eastman AR810ce this morning. I'm not really a jazz/chord melody guy but will have now have a great tool to learn on. I bought the guitar primarily to have another voicing for solo fingerstyle tunes I play now and those I'll learn later. Obviously I think it will be great for any kind of blues or ragtime arrangement but does anyone explore fingerpicking or flatpicking folk music or perhaps even a mellow "new agey" kind of arrangement?

More spice!
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Old 10-04-2018, 10:13 AM
FrankHudson FrankHudson is offline
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Although it requires a pickup, I often play a full-sized archtop when trying to cop the guitar sounds of the early Velvet Underground albums.
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Old 10-04-2018, 10:14 AM
mr. beaumont mr. beaumont is offline
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Man, I play EVERYTHING on my jazz box.

That 810 should have a pretty nice acoustic voice...I imagine you'll find yourself reaching for it often.

But c'mon, learn some jazz...join us on the dark side. We have tacos.
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Old 10-04-2018, 10:33 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont View Post
Man, I play EVERYTHING on my jazz box.

That 810 should have a pretty nice acoustic voice...I imagine you'll find yourself reaching for it often.

But c'mon, learn some jazz...join us on the dark side. We have tacos.
Well in my younger and dumber days, I always thought if I could just play like Pat Metheny, all the girls would just cry at my feet. Now I just hope for the best with our cats!
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Old 10-04-2018, 11:31 AM
WildcatGuitar WildcatGuitar is offline
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Anything I want to

To much categorizing limits instrument and player...jazz box smazz box, arch tops make good noise.

If the cats don’t run away I’m playin ok!

Last edited by WildcatGuitar; 10-04-2018 at 11:33 AM. Reason: Needed a cat reference
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Old 10-04-2018, 12:46 PM
mr. beaumont mr. beaumont is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SprintBob View Post
Well in my younger and dumber days, I always thought if I could just play like Pat Metheny, all the girls would just cry at my feet. Now I just hope for the best with our cats!
If I play enough jazz around the house, my wife cries
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Old 10-04-2018, 03:51 PM
coldshot coldshot is offline
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I play everything on my L5 from slide to blues. Recently bought an L48 & ES125 which I play mainly slide on.
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Old 10-05-2018, 10:03 AM
k_russell k_russell is offline
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I try just about everything that I play on any other guitar on my arch top. Folk, Bluegrass, jazz, blues even some classical pieces. Some pieces work better than others but you can say that about any other type of guitar.

My arch top has a shorter scale length, which proves helpful when I'm first learning a new piece that requires some long left hand stretches.
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Old 10-12-2018, 09:32 PM
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Rockabilly and country for me!
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Old 10-13-2018, 07:33 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Default What other kind of music do you play on your "jazz box"?

Blues, rockabilly, doo-wop, '60s R&B, American Songbook standards, CCM/P&W - my go-to Godin CW II handles all of them, and then some...
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Old 10-13-2018, 07:50 AM
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On my new to me Eastman 810ce, it sounds great playing some of the fingerstyle pieces I have learned in the past 18 months that include Fishin Blues, Twin Sisters (fiddle tune originally), Windy and Warm, Good Time Blues, and Red, White, and Blue Rag. It even sounded great playing a Masaaki Kishibe fingerstyle piece called Rainy Window which is kind of a mellow, new age vibe. For fingerstyle, it sounds awesome plugged straight into my Henrickson BUD. Not so much unplugged.

I bought one of Frank Vignola’s TrueFire jazz courses that I never started so the guitar is inspiring me to jump in.
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Old 10-13-2018, 08:35 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SprintBob View Post
On my new to me Eastman 810ce, it sounds great playing some of the fingerstyle pieces I have learned in the past 18 months... For fingerstyle, it sounds awesome plugged straight into my Henrickson BUD. Not so much unplugged...
Don't know who owned your Eastman before you or what your experience is with carved archtops, but IME they not only require a far longer break-in period than a comparable-quality flattop guitar but, much like hog-top guitars, you really need to hammer the snot out of them in order to open them up - it's just the nature of the beast. When I was taking lessons from jazz legend Jack Wilkins (then a teenage phenom) in the early-60's, he kept an incredible-sounding blonde non-cut L-5 at the studio - a script-logo, Big-Band veteran that showed the signs of hard but well-cared-for use (tarnished plating, hand wear on the back of the neck, but no dings or cracks) and played like butter - that he used to show me how to properly evaluate a "good" archtop; playing through a combination of single-string, comp chops, chord-melody, country-style strumming, and classical fingerstyle, he showed me that there's nothing an archtop guitar can't handle - if (and only if) broken in correctly, and over time...

My thoughts, Bob: ditch the fingerstyle for at least the next six months or so - you've got an impressive stash of instruments that'll more than tide you over in that department - and play it often, long, and hard in all positions; done right, you should see an improvement in both dynamic and frequency range (archtops as a whole tend to favor the mids) as well as responsiveness. Bear in mind also that, like their violin-family forebears, archtops are "lifetime" instruments, and it's not uncommon for them to take decades to reveal their full tonal potential - that rich, smooth, balanced "tone you could eat with a spoon" that represents the Holy Grail for aficionados of this oft-misunderstood branch of the guitar family...
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Old 10-13-2018, 11:54 AM
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It has always been interesting to me that although there is significant variation in "positive" tonal qualities for a flat top (woody, bluesy, harmonic, dry, etc.), when discussing an archtop, people tend to focus almost exclusively on a narrow range of tonal qualities, and specifically it's suitability for jazz music. I use mine for rockabilly and country, as well as other types of music, and I love the "chop" of an archtop. The percussive quality is really cool and lends itself to great rhythm work.
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Old 10-14-2018, 10:55 PM
rockabilly69 rockabilly69 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SprintBob View Post
Ok, pulled the trigger on an Eastman AR810ce this morning. I'm not really a jazz/chord melody guy but will have now have a great tool to learn on. I bought the guitar primarily to have another voicing for solo fingerstyle tunes I play now and those I'll learn later. Obviously I think it will be great for any kind of blues or ragtime arrangement but does anyone explore fingerpicking or flatpicking folk music or perhaps even a mellow "new agey" kind of arrangement?

More spice!
blues, singer songwriter, folk, whatever comes out of me at the moment.

Last edited by rockabilly69; 10-14-2018 at 11:01 PM.
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Old 10-17-2018, 03:00 PM
Frankieabbott Frankieabbott is offline
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Anything 50s/early 60s guitar rock and roll.

Eddie Cochran.
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates........to name just two.
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