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The Strat worked out great for Eldon Shamblin.
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05-31-2017 01:07 PM
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I saw Mike Stern play a Strat with Miles. He was adding some grit and, of course, sounded great.
Originally Posted by mrcee
Toninho Horta plays a Strat type, but it's not a Fender. I've seen him up close live and he was straight into the amp.
I just saw a video of Birelli playing a Yamaha Pacifica Strat style in a fusion context. The Pacifica, btw, has two knobs -- master tone and master volume. I have a Pacifica and a Fender and I agree that the Fender's system is more complicated than it is worth for a player who doesn't use the bridge pickup. I put a humbucker in the neck position of my Pacifica and I removed the bridge pickup entirely. Mostly I use the neck pickup, but I can get a decent single coil sound from the middle pickup, which is original single coil.
There's a video of Ted Green playing a solo guitar gig (a wedding, I think) using his Tele, that is quite astonishing.
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Christian,
They are not yet available in the UK at least, I enquired at the local
shop. guesstimates are November for arrival. You can search
Google for UK ads suggesting preordering.
( Fender FSR Exotic American Professional Pine Telecaster) a limited
Run, with a Lollar CC in the neck position. looks interesting
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Found it! It's dead shexy. Originally Posted by silverfoxx
Fender 2017 Limited Edition American Pro Pine Telecaster MN | Dawsons Music
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This was the guitar Birelli was playing at Ronnies when I saw him (playing gypsy jazz and a bit of fusion or whatever you call music with acoustic rhythm guitar, double bass and entirely unnecessary amounts of sweep picking): Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
Yamaha Pacifica 611 VFM Electric Guitar in Root Beer
Bargain, I reckon. P90 in the neck?
BTW I love the Tele bridge position for clear chords with fingerpicking. And don't forget the tone control....
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I've successfully used a Telecaster clone (Ron Kirn Barnbuster, stock) and an older ES-330 in big band recently. No feedback issues. My little old Roland Cube 30 on the 'Brit combo' setting does fine with the guitar volume usually no more than half up. Tone rolled all the way off. Neck pup only unless the chart calls for a harder sound, then I go to the middle setting. Yeah the band is loud to the point that it's hard to tune with the clip on tuner while everyone is warming up.
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I used a strat for years for big band, but when I got a tele I think the hardtail bridge made it a better sounding rhythm guitar than a strat. Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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My bb is pretty loud. It is a more modern jazz bb, not a dance band. Even my Sadowsky hollow was feeding back at times, so I recently switched to my semi. Not the same sound, but I'm reasonably satisfied with my tone so far. Last summer we had to do a gig with a fill-in drummer. After a couple of tunes he leaned over to me and said,"JEEZ this band is LOUD." And that was an outdoor gig.
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HI
i just started playing with a big band and use my 90s L4 with flatwounds. Tone turned all the way up. What strings do you guys use, i dont think flats are the right string, too muddy, dead for this big band stuff. thanks
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Round wounds on a Strat copy with a Lil 59 humbucker.
To me, the tone issue is to stay out of everybody's way. So, very little bass and kind of a sharp sound, if that makes any sense. That's the way Freddie Green sounds to me. If he was a drum, he'd be a snare.
Anyway, the tone sounds fine if I know where the hell we are in the tune!
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I have a big band gig tomorrow night. Usually we play swing era material so I stick a mic infront of my guitar and dial in the CC pickup for any electric lead parts if I get to solo. It's a Beatles themed gig this time, so I'm planning on using my Telecaster or my Les Paul Recording instead. Probably leaning more towards the Telecaster in this instance.
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Amp placement to my left takes care of almost all feedback issues for me.
As for avoiding muddiness, roundwounds and not-too-dark amp help. Recently picked up a used RE NY8 and I really like it for big band.
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Big band feedback issues depend on the type of amp you are using. How close you are to it also matters. How much clean headroom your amp has at high volume levels plays an important part too. When it comes to guitars, I typically opt for semi-hollow or hollow type as they resolve the feedback issues much quicker than the others.
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I just use my ES-333 in the big band I play in. Looks good, sounds good and does not feedback at all.
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Get a synthaxe.
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I think the location of the amp has a lot to do with it. I haven't noticed much difference between amps, but I haven't really looked into that issue very much. Originally Posted by Emminent
The point I would make about amp location is that, in the sorts of low rent gigs I usually play, I don't have a lot of choice about amp location.
I know that some players make the hollowbody work and don't have a problem with feedback. I heard both Wes and Jim Hall live, and neither one had the problem.
I was never able to adequately address the feedback issue. And, even when the guitar isn't howling, there can be some unpleasant reinforcement of lower frequencies. I often hear that problem when I hear local guys with archtops.
My solution is to play a solid body or semi-hollow with a block under the bridge.
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Last time I did a mainstream big band gig I played a Tele. You wouldn't believe the amount of raised eyebrows and bullshit. And then they heard me play and were like 'wow you can get a really good jazz tone out of that' - and of course it came in handy for the inevitable Maynard Ferguson charts. And I did get the call again, so it wasn't a total mistake haha.
But this was a reaction - I had taken a flatwound loaded electric archtop and found it not to be versatile enough. Even if a band plays a load of '50s Basie charts, if you get a solo it's most likely to be on one of the rocky numbers. Or in fact, Rocky.
On this gig I had to play solos on a roasting 280+ Cherokee and MacArthur Park (which has a big feature rock guitar solo.)
Also - electric bass. Modern drums.
And of course, Freddie Green did not play a flatwound loaded electric archtop, so that's not even the right sound for that music. Not that modern Big Bands play at the dynamic level of the Basie band.
Truth is the most sensible choice for a modern Big Band is a 335 or some other semi-acoustic, because it is basically the most versatile guitar you can get that still looks like a 'jazz guitar.' And that of course is why cats play them. (I don't have one.)
OTOH with a period big band, you probably won't be soloing. Acoustic archtop is fine with a boom mic, lavelier or whatever. You might need to bring a banjo too.
BUT - for period big band/dance band music finding a drummer who doesn't mindlessly bash away on a big ole ride cymbal is quite hard. It's the main thing most bands get wrong unless they are lucky to have a period specialist... Such as the fella in Jonathan's bands. Acoustically that washes everything out and doesn't compliment vintage approaches to bass and guitar playing. I actually find classically trained theatre drummers can be better for this than jazz drummers because they view the set more instrumentally (like a percussion station) - but you need to find one that swings of course.
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I have been using my Yamaha cheapie Strat copy in three horn bands, including 2 full big bands, for a couple of years. And, it's pretty ratty looking.
But, the only sass I've ever heard about it was from gear-heads.
We did a gig at music store which had a concert series and I heard later that the salesmen were making fun of it.
I've had two engineers on different recordings sessions complain about it. In the first case I was happy with the sound (and so was the band leader) so I ignored it. In the second case, we compared it to my Fender -- and the Fender sounded better. That was for a pop sounding strummed part -- and it may be that the single coil in the Fender sounded better than the HB in the copy. We used the Fender.
The musicians in the horn bands, many of whom are old enough to remember the Big Bang, never batted an eye.
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I used my Les Paul Recording for my last big band gig - "Beatles" night - lots of more modern arrangments where the sound of my archtop was not really ideal. Was really good - but for the couple of Basie charts, I didn't like the four to the bar sound nearly as much as my mic'd archtop. I asked a couple of the horn players what they thought, they thought it was fine.
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