I ran across this relatively new video on youtube and immediately thought it sounded like plectrum playing. Did Ossman do that? This is from his last sessions, 1915-1916.

"Good Scout" has echoes of "Tres Moutarde" in it (at least I hear them).

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Wow, this is a puzzle. The tremolo sounds like it being done with a plectrum. The rest of it sounds like fingertips.  Maybe it's finger tremolo (?  !! )

I don't hear any fingerstyle motifs at all. No triplets, no syncopated pinches. I think both tunes are full plectrum. No doubt Ossman was a great player but perhaps wanted to jump on the "modern" plectrum trend just coming along then.

Maybe driven by arthritus? He was getting along in years.

What I mean is that the sound of the strings sounds more to me like the sound a bare fingertip makes than like the sound a plectrum makes. Maybe it doesn't matter. Vess Ossman will sound like Vess Ossman no matter what.

Trapdoor2 said:

I don't hear any fingerstyle motifs at all. No triplets, no syncopated pinches. I think both tunes are full plectrum. No doubt Ossman was a great player but perhaps wanted to jump on the "modern" plectrum trend just coming along then.

Maybe driven by arthritus? He was getting along in years.
Yah, probably more just Ossman sounding like himself. Plectra back then were generally tiny and I suspect older players tended to try for a softer, more "fingertip" attack...what they were used to.

I was listening (again) for those tiny differences in attack between finger and thumb common to fingerstyle...and can't really hear any. The tremolo is criminally plectrum...in for a penny...?

Generally the difference in sound between thumb and finger has a parallel in the difference between the down and up stroke of a plectrum. The thumb makes a heavier sound. The downstroke of the plectrum is assisted by gravity and also by the weight of thumb.  I think Ossman is playing on strings that are not metal. That contributes to the softer sound.

Trapdoor2 said:

Yah, probably more just Ossman sounding like himself. Plectra back then were generally tiny and I suspect older players tended to try for a softer, more "fingertip" attack...what they were used to.

I was listening (again) for those tiny differences in attack between finger and thumb common to fingerstyle...and can't really hear any. The tremolo is criminally plectrum...in for a penny...?

Entirely influenced by reading early BMG magazines I have lately been trying plectrum on a couple of classic banjo tunes, the results have been a revelation to me although, they slow me down too much to use a plectrum on all tunes, the ones on which I can play with a plectrum are loud and clear and sound great at outdoor gigs, triplets sound clearer and I shall from now on use a plectrum for certain tunes.

Jody Stecher said:

Generally the difference in sound between thumb and finger has a parallel in the difference between the down and up stroke of a plectrum. The thumb makes a heavier sound. The downstroke of the plectrum is assisted by gravity and also by the weight of thumb.  I think Ossman is playing on strings that are not metal. That contributes to the softer sound.

Trapdoor2 said:

Yah, probably more just Ossman sounding like himself. Plectra back then were generally tiny and I suspect older players tended to try for a softer, more "fingertip" attack...what they were used to.

I was listening (again) for those tiny differences in attack between finger and thumb common to fingerstyle...and can't really hear any. The tremolo is criminally plectrum...in for a penny...?

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