Martin,
Patrick O'Hearn does the kind of music you're asking about; Although his older work c.a. 5 years ago seemed freer, less arpegio / chord based than his more recent work. Go to
his website, click on *play* for the video displayed there (that first track on his website isn't his best work by far), and when it runs out (or you fast forward to near the end) a youtube menu will appear with many of his pieces. He bought a very nice and great sounding pre-war Rickenbacher B6 from me several years ago. I couldn't really understand his wanting it for it's tones (in the manners you described) rather than learning how to play steel; But he recorded with it on one of his CD albums, and along with other albums he recorded I understood and enjoyed it a lot when I was in moods for such music. He used the Ric B6 for chord arpegio rythms, subtle portamento (sliding) chord effects, to extract pure at-rest ringing strings tones from, and extract tones from using the B6 as a subtle percussion instrument, and most likely other effects I didn't identify.
You can hear the nice full audio spectrum and spacial envelope of his work if you listen with efficient headphones or good hi-fi.
I cannot remember the name of the album nor songs that he used the Rick B6 on, ...but you could email him from his website and ask.
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After thinking about it, I think the B6 was used on his 'Glaciation' album (and probably others). You can find cuts from 'Glaciation' by clicking
here, or searching in the 'Patrick O'Hearn' link at the beginning of this posting.
) and can speak to the effectiveness of the instrument in this regard and what techniques or tunings I might want to look into?
