Its just me. I like archtops to sound jazzy or mellow, whatever. Ok, does'nt neccessarily mean you have to play jazz on it. I have a mate who bought a Gibson 175 archtop many years ago and all he's ever put on it were nine guage rock strings He already has rock guitars so I'd have thought he'd use the Gibson for the purpose it was meant for. It sounded crap with these strings on it. I had a loan of it for a while and I did some work on it for him in respect of tidying up the neck a bit and putting real strings on it. The difference was amazing. He was well chuffed with it when I gave him it back(the bugger refused to sell it to me ) It now resides in his attic gathering dust and no doubt warping in our damp winters
What a waste and what a plonker mate or no mate