Henning Doderer acoustic archtop

[Frank67]

Love the guitar Frank...AND the yard...talk about a piece of heaven! Almost looks like the Pacific Northwest out there! Congrats!

... funny that you are picking up on that ... yes, really, I am one lucky man! We often sit in our house and marvel at how lucky we are to be here. We just moved in last september and have cherished every moment since. Having said that - I absolutely adore the US west coast all the way from southern California to Seattle and above. Been traveling there a bit - just a level of spectacular that hardly exists here.

[Frank67]

Frank,

That's a winner! I listened to the track. Right on! You can hear the Django lineage, for sure. One of the things your track does is demonstrate the bridge between Django and Les Paul. Django was Les' favorite guitarist and principal influence. The lines you play, which are very Django inspired, have a proto-Les presentation to them. You really connect the dots. AND, the tone of your instrument is just super.

Nice addition to your collection.

GT

Thank you Greenstone! You are being very generous given the multiple technical flaws that the recording has.

This music is one that I can easily relate to. To me it strikes the right balance between having energy and lyricism. It is also harmonically more straightforward than modern Jazz. Some jazz harmony feels like doing a math exercise and I have never really understood how to turn 28 different uses of the melodic minor scale into music :-) I admire people who can do this in real time while improvising. I just can't do it. Django mostly used very straightforward arpeggios and some chromaticism but combined them in such a creative and beautiful fashion into very expressive lines. I'm just having a much easier time getting my head around this. I also love the picking technique. It will take more years to become fluent and comfortable with it, but I am very motivated.

In the interest of full disclosure: I learned the arrangement during one of the workshops with Joscho Stephan that I attended. He transcribed it from somebody else's take on this Django piece, but I forgot which player it was. Just the middle part of the recording were my own licks. I tried to follow up with something that was matching the vibe of the first chorus. That took a while and I was also stealing from other Django solo's. But I hope (minus the technical issues) it kind of worked ... but plenty more to do :-)

[Frank67]

I love the tune and your playing, Frank.

Never stop.

Thank you Mark! This was a very generous comment. I hope to not ever stop, at least not anytime soon. It's just a few years since I have taken up guitar and joined the forum. There has been a bit of progress since then - and hopefully a lot more to come.

Happy new year!

[Frank67]

Very beautiful, I did not know bound f-holes were less preferable to plain ones. Enjoy it in good health !

I am not entirely sure how much it really does but the archtop aficionados that I consulted before the project agreed that it has a somewhat dampening effect on the top and hence if one wants to maximize acoustic volume leaving the f-holes unbound is advisable. I must confess that I also like the look of the guitar with the unbound f-holes.

[Frank67]

I'm curious to how you adjust the action if the top changes due to weather (Winter and Summer)? I believe Ken Parkers archtops have an adjustable neck.

I am not sure about this - Jabberwocky also had the same concern. According to the luthier it should be ok and I am also not planning on subjecting the guitar to huge climate changes. If I would decide, however, to switch to 0.008 strings or 0.014 strings that would be a different story. But likely even then a truss road adjustment would be enough. So far I am really impressed by the massive improvement in the tone I got from this bridge. If it becomes problematic at some point - well, I guess a non-pinned bridge is easy enough to replace.

[Frank67]

The lack of cutaway is cutting it pretty close on a piece like this I imagine.... I seem to remember some non-negligible activity down in the 13th-15th fret on this tune. :smile:

that's right - it goes up to the 15th fret on the high E and B ... I can actually reach up to the 15th fret pretty well, the 17th get's pretty hard though. I guess for most jazz tunes that is just fine ... but I wouldn't try my Gary Moore impression on a guitar like that

[Jabberwocky]

I really like the big full bottom and the ample top of your archtop, Frank. Looks Teutonic. I don't know but I keep thinking about the barmaids of Oktoberfest...

[Frank67]

hi hi, that is a funny vision - the barmaids at octoberfest ... well, I guess that's how we germans are

It's funny, I am not sure how Henning Dodderer accomplished that - it's a big guitar, yet is not the least bit uncomfortable to hold or play.

[feet]

i love some of the random details on the guitar. the teeny tiny truss rod cover, headstock stripe and shape, but some especially the bridge and the pickguard- very bauhaus, i want to say. the guitar feels clean and austere yet modern at the same time. very... germanic?

your thoughts on the tail piece? though my eye wants to see something more in tune with the pickguard/bridge choice, thats interesting choice. don't see many fingers these days.

neat clip, too. did you record the rhythm track with the guitar also?

[Frank67]

Hi feet,

thank you for the nice comments! I agree on the retro meets modern impression. I didn't know that it would come out this way in the beginning. I think here the aesthetic sense of the luthier played a big role and I am really happy with his take on things.

the tailpiece was not so much a 'concious' decision. I had a quality finger tailpiece sitting around and using it helped to keep the cost down a bit. These fingers are very functional and I happen to also like the aesthetics of them. Not sure what I would have opted for since tailpieces are not that abundant on the market. Maybe an ebony one?

The backing track is a realstyle from Band in a Box 2015 - I guess gypsy ballad or so. I was planning to also record the rhythm track but then got so annoyed by my computer problems that at the end I did not exchange the rhythm guitar.

cheers,
Frank