Intonation (here we go again)

paulmcevoy75

I should say that I got to play Matt Munistieri's L5 for a couple of hours once and that was a beautiful sounding guitar. Personally though I still think archtop guitars are kind of a weird idea. As I said, my thoughts on the matter are probably stupid and incoherent.

I kind of like electrified archtops but I think the reason they work is that they sort of fail acoustically. No sustain so you get a more thumpy bubbly sound. Some of the ones that people seem to really like sound the worst acoustically.

Russell Letson

I started looking for recordings with Steve Jordan because one of my teachers, Steve Abshire, described Jordan's right-hand technique as part of his treatment of getting the swing in swing-rhythm playing. And if you want to hear a living player who does all the straight-ahead stuff with authority and musicality, check out Steve--

http://www.steveabshire.com/

And when I call him my teacher, it's not because I *studied* with him so much as that I attended his workshop classes at Augusta's Swing Week for several years. Just for fun, here are all three of the 2008 guitar teachers playing at one of the after-lunch sessions. I had the great good fortune to take classes from all of them at various times over the 20-plus years I attended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OYGzCrXh3k

frostymitten

that sharp B string is rough. just don't play those barred 3rds/double stops without 'sweetening' the problem with a little vibrato or another voice to balance out the intonation. That barred major inversion shape is the most out of tune chord on these guitars.

I'd prefer compensated bridges for intonation issues, but you don't really notice it once you're in the mix.