I am happily into a month with my Eastman archtop guitar, and I was wondering if any guitar players out there have tried using one for ITM? I’m kind of eclectic in my tastes, and will just as soon misuse an object as not if I think it will work.
For those who don’t know what an archtop guitar is, think of a very large fiddle with six strings. It’s guitar-shaped, but with two F-holes like a fiddle instead of a hole in the center. Different sound from a dreadnought, or other flat-top guitar, for that matter.
I have an old ‘Supertone’ (probably Montgomery Ward) archtop that I use for folk-blues and early jazz playing. It’s rather stiff sounding, and doesn’t resonate a lot, but has the real vintage sound of old 78 rpm records. It’s my favorite of many instruments in my collection.
I don’t play ITM on guitar, but those who I play with generally play in DADGAD, and do use the resonance that most guitars produce. I don’t think an archtop is ideally suited to this. That said, with creativity, lots of new paths can be cleared. I certainly wouldn’t rule it out!
Floating bridges and carved tops are common in the mandolin family*, so that’s a sound you can hear in ITM a fair bit. If what you’re doing would sound good played in the same context with a flat top guitar, you won’t offend with your archtop, IMO.
*including irish bouzoukis, octave mandolins/mandolas and citterns.