Among guitarists, there are pros and there are pros' pros. And then there's Bucky Pizzarelli.

He has lifted the big bands of Benny Goodman and "The Tonight Show" with his thumping acoustic rhythm guitar. He has made something musical out of whatever was thrown his way in thousands of studio sessions, from Doublemint Gum commercials to Ray Charles' "Georgia on My Mind." He has worked in small groups with saxophonist Zoot Sims, violinist Stephane Grappelli and pianist Gene Harris, and he has played solo, offering peerless jazz chord-melody work on the seven-string guitar.

It seems the 83-year-old Pizzarelli has done it all.

He's not finished yet. Still performing around the world, Pizzarelli -- the father of seven-string guitarist/singer John Pizzarelli -- will appear in Pittsburgh tomorrow night at an outdoor Duquesne University concert with fellow guitarists Jimmy Bruno and Joe Negri, among others. It's part of the music department's annual weeklong Summer Guitar and Bass Workshop.

Pizzarelli grew up in Paterson, N.J., where he learned from two uncles who were professional musicians how to propel a big band playing rhythm guitar. The unamplified, subtle but swinging, felt-more-than-heard style was exemplified by the Count Basie Band's Freddie Green.

"You would feel the pulse of it in a big ballroom," the quick-to-chuckle Pizzarelli says on the phone from his home in tony Saddle River, N.J., not far from Manhattan. "Look at Freddie Green -- he never used a microphone and never used an amplifier. He just played rhythm. And what do you think made the whole band? The rhythm guitar."

In Green's elite company, Bucky includes Allan Reuss, who played with Goodman, and McDonald, Pa.'s Barry Galbraith.

Reuss and Galbraith's names don't come up that much when great jazz guitarists are discussed -- perhaps because the acoustic arch-top rhythm guitar style has all but vanished.

"All the kids don't play it anymore, because No. 1, they don't have the right instrument. They all start on electric guitars. They never get the feel of that acoustic instrument in their arms, when you hit it and you strike the strings and it decays on its own. It really is a special art."

Pizzarelli toured with Vaughn Monroe and Goodman. By the early '50s, though, the big bands were on the endangered list, and the action for Pizzarelli, Galbraith and others shifted to recording studios and TV. Pizzarelli played for ABC and NBC orchestras, including "The Tonight Show Band" (where he once tuned Tiny Tim's ukulele) under Skitch Henderson and Doc Severinsen. Pizzarelli also got the first call for countless Manhattan recording dates.

"I did nothing but recordings for about 12 years. Ten to 1, 2 to 5, 7 to 10 -- those were the normal hours. Sometimes they'd have midnight dates, if they couldn't get the guy they wanted.

"I made a lot of rock 'n' roll records, I made some nice records with some good orchestras. Everything was a studio gig, and you never knew what you were going to play. Sometimes you were in a trio, and sometimes you get there, and all of a sudden there are 50 violin players."

Pizzarelli played on some great records, but they elicit less excitement from him than you might expect. Take his guitar work on the session for Charles' recording of Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia on my Mind" -- a No. 1 smash in 1960.

"I just played rhythm on it, that's all. When I got there, I didn't know who it was with. I just got there and played."

Did the recording strike him as an instant classic? "Well I liked what I did on the record, but I never realized it was going to be a big hit like that."

Then there's rock 'n' roll. Pizzarelli has never claimed to be a big fan of the genre, but he enjoyed playing with teen idols Frankie Avalon and Fabian, and especially with Dion and the Belmonts -- on hits including "A Teenager in Love," "The Wanderer" and "Ruby Baby."

Pizzarelli also did a lot of commercials, like the "Double your pleasure" Doublemint commercial with Galbraith on the other guitar, cigarette jingles and beer ads.

These days, Pizzarelli is probably best known as a master of the seven-string electric guitar. The guitar was invented by George Van Eps, who added a low A underneath the standard guitar's low E. The A allowed for deep, resonant bass lines that undergirded chord-melody solos to create an almost pianistic sound.

Pizzarelli bought his seven string in 1969, when Van Eps came to New York to demonstrate the model manufactured by Gretsch. He learned to play it on the job.

"I said to myself I'm gonna buy it and start using it right away on any gig that I did. I still played rhythm guitar. But if I had a gig on electric guitar, I brought the seven-string," he says. "Right or wrong."

Broadly stated, Pizzarelli hews to the style of the Swing Era -- a style largely supplanted by the bebop of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and other modern jazz musicians. In order to express their melodic, harmonic and rhythmic ideas, many modern jazz players feel compelled to eschew the Great American Songbook in favor of their own compositions.

"I appreciated [bebop], but I never went that route. When I play, I think you've got to play music that the people understand. You've got to play the good standards. I think that's very important. And if they hear the music the way I think it's supposed to be, they're gonna like it. I know my audiences. You can't say, 'Then I wrote this, and then I wrote that.' It's a mystery to the people. You've gotta play 'Stardust,' and 'Body and Soul.' I never throw anything that I wrote on the people."

Currently, Pizzarelli presides over something of a musical dynasty. His youngest son, Martin, plays bass with John. His two daughters play piano (one plays guitar as well), although not professionally. A few years back, the clan made room for one more -- John Pizzarelli's wife, Jessica Molaskey, a jazz and cabaret singer.

It's late in Bucky Pizzarelli's long life, and he's asked what he still hopes to accomplish.

"Well I just keep playing, that's all," he answers. "I play every day."