Best archtops?

ronzo4600

Russell Letson wrote: »

Light-gauge strings--especially sets with a .010 or .011 high E--might be easier on the hands*, but they're not going to serve the sound of an archtop well. I've put lightish Monels or other pickup-friendly sets on my Eastman and gotten decent electric sound, but for the guitar to speak in its best voice acoustically, I use mediums--.056-.013. (Though I sometimes drop a gauge on the high E and B, because as a rhythm player I don't depend on those all that much.)

I think it depends on the instrument. My Dupont Lloyd responds nicely to the 11/52s, on the L5 I use 12/54 and it sounds great acoustically. I actually went to the Martin Monel so I could play acoustically and use a pickup if required, or a bigtone. They do the job for me...

chazz

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