La Pompe Played On Crossover Guitar

happyjazzer · October 17

Anybody play La Pompe rhythm style on a short scale (640mm?) crossover (nylon stings) guitar? Your experience? guitar make / model?

paulmcevoy75 · October 17

Sebastien Giniaux seems to mostly (mostly sometimes) play a nylon string.

I never understand what it's doing for him but he's one of the best of the best.

Russell Letson · October 18

Rhythm playing is a *sound*, and I suspect that getting it is less about the guitar than the right-hand technique required to produce the characteristic chunk.** And the attack/decay envelope of nylon strings is going to be quite different steel and require its own right-hand technique. That said, I'd expect that a flamenco model might be easier to get the chunk and bite of GJ than, say, a concert-grade classical. (I have one of each, and there's a distinct difference.)

Before I got an archtop and had to finally wrangle the flatpick, I was exclusively a fingerpicker and played swing rhythm on my flat-tops with the backs of my nails of my index and middle and ring fingers--a bit rasgueado-like. Combined with left-hand damping, it produced a decent swing-rhythm chop. If I were on my flamenco guitar and didn't want to use a pick, I'd revert to that approach. (In my heart I'm still a fingerpicker.)

** This video addresses right-hand technique for nylon strings. The nylon sound isn't quite the same as, say, a Dunn, but I think the technical approach is what's needed to approximate a traditional GJ sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05LoVsW70jY

littlemark · October 18

This guy needs to slow down.

L50EF15 · December 18

Just to chime in, I do this on all my nylon string guitars. But it works especially well on my Martin 000C12-16E. It’s very much got “the sound” when playing those m6, m9, and m7 chords. Especially with the Martin Magnifico Premium Hard Tension strings (fitted stock, though hard to find on retail shelves), it’s also got huge volume and projection.

I should add that I have recently experimented with putting ball end nylon strings on a couple of my old Harmony guitars, an H165 and an H1141. Being ladder braced, they have some similarities with the SelMac tonality to begin with. And that remains the case with nylon strings on them.

Buco · December 20

I just recently borrowed a classical guitar from a friend to work on some classical stuff and I just recorded some lapompe rhythm on it. I think it sounds fine

https://youtu.be/mL-fitS4sfk?