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Post new topic arch top?
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Author Topic:  arch top?
AJ Azure

 

From:
Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.
Post  Posted 22 Nov 2011 3:10 pm    
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Why yes or why no? I want to get an archtop and set it up lap style to get a Charlie Christian type tone. I want something different than I can get with a tricone, weissenborn, solid body or pedal steel. I have all these. Has anyone other than the Indian guys done this? Was there interim archtop lap steel before the tricone and prior to the solid body lap steel?

Last edited by AJ Azure on 23 Nov 2011 4:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Max Laine

 

From:
Pori, Finland
Post  Posted 22 Nov 2011 8:28 pm    
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Don Rooke!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3bgeOh5mV0
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Rainer Schmidt

 

From:
Eastwestfalia - Germany
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 3:58 am    
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Funny, I was thinking of this vintage footage from finland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM9nxrFnkto , then I noticed it was Max Laine responding. Max, can you identify the player? (might be hard from looks - he comes into view approx. 2 minutes into the clip - and what a nice solo!) this clip was discussed on euroguitars forum , but I can't find the thread right now.
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Rainer Schmidt

 

From:
Eastwestfalia - Germany
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 4:26 am    
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still can't locate it, but this is stunning:
http://www.euroguitars.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=302&p=3251&hilit=lap+style&sid=1dfbbe270e9781951631470d8decb728#p3251
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Max Laine

 

From:
Pori, Finland
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 5:11 am    
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Rainer, he is doing playback over the original recording where the steel was played by Onni Gideon - on a solid body "Kitarateos Onni Gideon Special". The player in the clip could be Ingmar Englund. I have not seen the complete movie from which this clip is taken from, but it's available on DVD...
By the way, thanks for reminding me about this clip, I had forgotten it exists!
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chris ivey


From:
california (deceased)
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 9:50 am    
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what is a 'christian type tone'?
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Michael Lee Allen

 

From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 10:42 am    
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Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 12:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Michael Lee Allen

 

From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 11:20 am    
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Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 12:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
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chris ivey


From:
california (deceased)
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 11:28 am    
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well for what it's worth, i didn't even know charlie was black.
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Michael Lee Allen

 

From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 12:08 pm    
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Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 12:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Michael Lee Allen

 

From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 12:16 pm    
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Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 12:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Mike Neer


From:
NJ
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 12:36 pm    
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You can get a similar tone with a regular acoustic guitar with a magnetic pickup in the soundhole and nickel strings. If you are loud you may have feedback issues. Archtops guitars, in many cases, have very tight string spacing with their skinny necks. The Gibsons (L-4, L-7, ES-150 etc.) are not that bad, though.

If I get a chance I'll make a little video and demonstrate Rose Room with this set up.
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AJ Azure

 

From:
Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 12:40 pm    
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Max Laine wrote:
Don Rooke!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3bgeOh5mV0


I knew about that vid actually. I am going for the electric-ish sound rather than the acoustic.

I like this tone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4bnwIkpDqk
Charlie Christian at :37

or this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLc1yhcFTv0
Jeff Healey at 2:15

So I am shooting for something in that range for steel. I keep emphasizing lows for tricone and heading toward an archtop tone already.

Reinar's clip is it!
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Jerome Hawkes


From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 1:10 pm    
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well michael, in chris' defense - although i deducted the words archtop+christian tone = charlie christian, someone could confuse "Christian tone" to mean some type of sacred steel - i am fairly well versed in various genres of musical history but made the mistake one time of "insulting" a guys band because i said they played Hymns (what i called that genre of christian music), he quickly snapped that they didnt play Hymns, they were a Praise and Worship band...as if i was some musical moron.

anyway - that Don Rooke stuff was NICE - great sound and i always love to see a great innovative trio.
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AJ Azure

 

From:
Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 4:51 pm    
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added Charlie to avoid confusion
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Richard Shatz


From:
St. Louis
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 5:09 pm    
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To just try to get back on the archtop/lapsteel topic, if I may, I had the pleasure of playing a prewar Gibson Super 400 that was setup for lap style playing. It had a postwar clip on pickup. I think it was a Dearmond. (I hope I spelled that correctly.)

The Super 400 had flatwound strings that weren't real fresh. I didn't plug it in. I thought it sounded great without amplification. A very fun experience.
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Michael Lee Allen

 

From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
Post  Posted 23 Nov 2011 6:43 pm    
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Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 2 Aug 2012 12:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Kelvin Monaghan

 

From:
Victoria, Australia
Post  Posted 24 Nov 2011 8:28 pm    
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My Archtop GIVSON made in india
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AJ Azure

 

From:
Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.
Post  Posted 26 Nov 2011 3:31 pm    
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Funny that organ trio was mentioned. Planning on something similar.
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AJ Azure

 

From:
Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.
Post  Posted 28 Nov 2011 1:11 pm    
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Hmmm imagine a an archtop making babies with a weissenborn. Sort of like the wood body hollow neck tricone.
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Don McGregor

 

From:
Memphis, Tennessee
Post  Posted 29 Nov 2011 3:17 pm    
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In the late Sixties and early Seventies, I was lucky enough to own a 1938 Gibson ES-150 that i played mostly through an Ampeg B12 tube amp. The guitar had the original single bar "Charlie Christian pickup in it, and, especially when played through that particular amp, had a tone that I have never been able to recapture since. I used heavy Gibson Sonomatic strings, which, though pretty tough on the fingers for standard guitar playing, allowed me to lay it down for some songs, and play it as a lap steel. I was playing in mostly country and country rock bands around Memphis back then, and guys would come up all the time and want to buy that guitar. Finally got bad broke in Denver one time, and had to sell it.
Anyway, that's a fine idea. I've wanted to try one of the reissue CC pickups, myself. Right now, however, I am very happy with Wallace True Tones for single coil and George L's for humbuckers.
Let us know if you come up with a CC pu on an arch top square neck. I'd like to hear it it.
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