Archtop Guitars for Fingerstyle Players - A Conversation With Sean McGowan - Michael Watts
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- Опубліковано 26 лют 2020
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Throughout my life as a player the archtop guitar has held a brooding and slightly intimidating mystique. Now, as I'm learning how to appreciate the subtleties and nuances of these beautiful instruments - built with an intent and technique far removed from the flat top guitars I've played for decades - I'm also enjoying talking with players who specialise in making music with these rare beasts.
One such musician is Sean McGowan (Colorado USA) who plays fingerstyle jazz on a selection of exquisite guitars hand-built for that exact purpose. Having deftly tricked him into handing over his phone number I called him up to find out more about the archtop world from the point of view of the fingerstyle player.
All the best
Michael Watts
That was a great chat. Thank you for including us!
Brett Jones you’re very welcome Brett! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks so much for this, Michael. I could spend as long writing as the vid itself, it raised so much. Great to hear two experts in conversation, although I wold have also liked to hear from Rosie, who I respect so much. I played Jazz for about 6 years in the 90s on a Heritage (11/16). Older L5s usually have 11/16 nut so no different from Gibbo 175. I don't want to tell you your job, but a lot of these have the string spacing far too close for the nut size and can be tweaked with a refiled nut and saddle, especially with jazz gauge strings (so they don't fall off the edge). A fascinating conversation between two experts in their fields. I wouldn't get too hung on string spacing. I had the privilege of being taught by Adrian Ingram and he happily plugged in a tele and achieved a wonderful jazz tone through a fender twin and doled out super fingerstyle (and pick, of course). I'm now a flat-top player with 3 Martins (HD34, J40, ME68, a McQuarrie and a Yamaha LL16, all of which are 11/16 (ish) and I never had a problem with fingerstyle, mainly because the distance from the strings to the fretboard edge is modest (even the Yammie). Also, fab name check for the jazz guitar greats, but Pat Martino is missing (sacrilege, even though his fingerstyle output is modest, but so is Kenny Burrell's and Barney's). Incidentally, Pat is in trouble at the moment as he is unwell in the long term aftermath of his brain aneurysms, apparently, can't perform and his medical insurance has run out. I won' share his funding page as that would be unfair to you, but I would love it if you would check it out and share IF you felt appropriate. He has contributed so much to my understanding of guitar and the spirituality of music, I felt a should mention his difficulties. I am of modest means but contribute becausse of the impact I mentioned above. For the record, he played most of his iconic recordings on solid electics. Finally, will you do me a favour? Given that I'm just an ordinary bloke (i.e. not a millionaire or a supermusician who someone will sponsor), where do I go next given the guitars I have (above). Thanks for a superb conversation and apologies for the long post.
Robert Newell Hi Robert! Thanks for watching, I’m so glad you enjoyed our chat! My recent explorations of archtop timbres come from a place of enthusiastic ignorance which I why I spend as much time as I can learning from masters in the field. As I am transposing my own playing onto the instrument the main challenges have been ergonomic and I’ve found it fascinating to learn how others approach this. I am a big fan of Pat Martino and was aware of his health struggles, but thank you for spreading the word on his behalf. That’s very kind of you.
@@MichaelWatts Hi again, on the basis of what you said about Pat, I hope it is now OK for me to mention that he has a fundraiser page at: Gofundme.com called 'Pat Martino Fund, which maybe you feel you could pass to your subscribers. I know the fund has met its target, but US health care has a habit of escalating, so I'll be continuing to contribute. Thanks for taking the time to reply to me, Michael
Very engaging and enjoyable conversation, thanks for sharing. I've just looked at a Tim Lerch video, explaining his technique for getting a warm Jazz sound out of a Telecaster. I'm curious about what kind of strings Sean uses; I'm assuming they are flatwounds? Just yesterday, I put a set of flatwounds on my Tele Thinline ... and I love them.
Thank you for watching, I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Sean is an absolute master of fingerstyle jazz and Tim Lerch certainly does get an exquisite sound out of anything he touches! I am pretty sure the Tele-Jazz thing started with Ted Greene and that's an even more alien concept for me! Flatwounds, however, are glorious. I strung my White Falcon with a set last year and haven't looked back.
@@MichaelWatts Thanks for that, for me there are several advantages that flatwounds offer; you can glide up and down the fretboard effortlessly with no string scraping, the attack of the note when you hit the string with finger, thumb or pick is delicious and you don't have to keep changing your strings (unless they break)! Have you heard of Jakob Bro? He's a Danish Jazz guitarist who uses a customised Telecaster with a Gretsch pickup and flatwounds - very gentle, minimal & meditative stuff. I love his music. Here's an example: ua-cam.com/video/smVNYNX8tR4/v-deo.html
A slip of the finger and you could have got the lead singer of the Pogues ...
He would have been just as effusive!
@@MichaelWatts True. Not an acknowledged fingerstyle player, mind you!
*back in the 90s*
lmao
Finally! Someone mentioned it!
caught the nirvana too :) nice chat video! lookin into archtop guitars and found your video, enjoyed it