New member from Calgary, AB Canada

[Eddie Lang]

Hello,

I am a new member here and this is the first topic I start.

I have loved jazz all my life but I only started playing jazz about five years ago although I have played guitar for 30 years.

The type of jazz I play is inspired by the jazz from the 1920-30’s. It is acoustic based, pretty rootsy, and in addition to the 6-string guitar, includes instruments we don’t encounter every day in jazz such as the mandolin and the tenor guitar. Most tunes I play are swing. I play fingerstyle with a lot of Freddie Green type of chords. I love being in the rhythm chair and I do some chord melody as well. When I play single line, I mostly use my thumb (right hand). My main axe in the last few years has been a 1933 Gibson L-4 round hole archtop.

I am very much influenced by Eddie Lang (you didn’t see that one coming, didn’t you? ), Freddie Green and current players like Marty Grosz, Tony Marcus and Jordan Officer. Also by vocalists like the Gene Austin, Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards, early Bing Crosby, the Mills Brothers, Blossom Dearie, R&B singer-saxist Louis Jordan, bluesman Screaming Jay Hawkins and others.

I listen to a lot of early jazz (pre-Christian), but that started to change in the last year. After many years, I started listening again to more and more “recent” jazz, stuff from the 40’s and on, bebop, hard-bop, soul-funk and straight-ahead. That, and watching Emily Remler and Joe Pass DVDs, triggered a brand new chapter in my guitar playing: Playing the electric guitar. A month ago, I acquired a 1958 Gibson ES-225T, single cut-away, thin body, single P-90 pickup in the middle position. I love the tone that comes from it. Since then, I practice more my scales than my arpeggios as I work more on single line stuff now than I used to. I am still exploring the electric thing and I really enjoy it.

In addition to playing guitar, I am a guitar geek, especially when it comes to vintage guitars.

I have been subscribing to the Jazz Guitar Gazette for maybe a couple years or more and I have been lurking this forum on and off for a while, but I just became a member here a few days ago. This seems to be a very enjoyable, sharing and informative place. I am looking forward to read more and start contributing in my own way.

Here are the two that get played the most these days. 1933 L-4 and 1958 ES-225T

[derek]

Good to have you Eddy. Lots of Canucks around here, so you should feel right at home. Nice Gibby btw.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I see you didn't bite on that 8" Polytone @ $499 on Ebay -- looks like there's a small market correction taking place.

There's a MB in your picture -- I thought you were in the market because you didn't have one?

[Eddie Lang]

Thanks guys!

BDLH, I went and purchased a Henriksen JazzAmp yesterday. The Baby Brute in the pic belongs to a friend of mine. He lent it to me before Christmas and said I could play it as long as I want (well, maybe not that long!) but he wouldn't sell it to me, said he wanted to keep it, so I've been looking for a more permanent solution, a jazz amplifier that would really be mine. I looked for a Polytone and found a lead here in town for a used one but the guy has been out of town quite a bit and we had not been able to meet for a couple weeks. While searching for a Polytone, I became aware the the JazzAmp and heard a lot of good things about it, its sound, but also its reliability and the quality of their customer service. So I played one yesterday, liked it, bought it.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Congrats! I think you're going to like the Henriksen!