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I'm puzzled as to why, on a jazz guitar forum , so many, post renditions on acoustic guitars..It's non sequitur! The nicest jazz guitar tones on this Forum have been achieved on standard style jazz guitars .i.e Electric guitars , Charlie Christian, the father of jazz guitar played on an Electric!
End of rant!
S
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01-20-2025 11:18 PM
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Because acoustic guitars sound great.
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Probably because they happen to have an acoustic guitar.
Because they’re recording late at night and the amp would be too loud.
Because they live in an apartment and the amp would be too loud.
Because acoustic guitars sound great.
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John McLaughlin
It is solo "acoustic jazz" if a label is necessary
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Many of the jazz guitar greats started out playing acoustic guitars and/or played them for many years, in fact they didn't have a choice because electric guitars did not exist yet.
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I much prefer playing an acoustic to an electric. Don't mind if it's a flat top, a gypsy jazzer, an archtop...to me they sound great.
Yes, I love Charlie Christian, too, and there are some wonderful electric jazz tones throughout history.
It would be sad to think there wasn't room for all these tones in this style of music, or that any individual would purposely restrict their listening because of it.
Derek
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I’m happy people are posting clips at all.
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So maybe the question isn’t “Why is all the music being recorded on acoustic guitars” … but rather … “why aren’t all those beautiful archtops on the gear threads recording more music?”
Originally Posted by AllanAllen
oops
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If there’s one thing jazz needs it’s more silly standards and more gatekeepers to enforce them Originally Posted by digger
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Django Reinhardt? Eddie Lang? I fail to see how someone would not appreciate jazz played on an acoustic guitar. Electric guitars are my preference, but I like both electrics and acoustic guitars. As did my friend Larry Coryell (RIP). As does Bireli Lagrene. People should play the guitars that inspire them.
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This is called "Jazz Guitar Forum"... not "Jazz Archtop Forum"...
Jazz is the genre, guitar is the instrument...
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The core essence of an archtop guitar, the epitome of a jazz guitar instrument, is a combination of an acoustic and electric. Even the ideal volume of jazz guitar combines acoustic and electric sound.
Jazz guitar has always been partly acoustic. And of course for many players completely acoustic as well. Even classical!
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It's hard to say whether acoustic guitars with pickups are still really acoustic.
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Why not? Originally Posted by SOLR
And who defines what is “standard?”
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Charlie Christian on acoustic, just to annoy the OP
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In italian an archtops is refered to as "chitarra semiacustica" (or simply "semiacustica"). In other words: "hollow electric" ...or half acoustic-half electric. Originally Posted by kris
It's hard to say whether acoustic guitars with pickups are still really acoustic.
Personally, I consider it electric (and that's why I like it)... but I think semi-acoustic/electric-hollow are appropriate definitions. Then ther's also "semi-hollow", for 335 style guitars, I guess...
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Jazz is an artform of musical improvisation. It's a MUSIC that can be played in many ways, on many different instruments of which guitar is just one. This is a forum for jazz music played with a guitar.
You take a subset of jazz guitarists whom you like and you decide that constitutes the definition of what the entirety of jazz guitar.
It's not the instrument that determines the music, it's the player that makes the music. What they choose as their voice is what makes it a living thing. It's not a closed club for people who collect the kinds of instruments you happen to be enamoured of.
There aren't a lot of 7 string guitar players in your club. So do you have an issue accepting a 7 string player's performance if it's plugged in?
How about Bern Nix? He played Ornette's music on a "jazz guitar", a 175. Is it the style or the instrument that's important... or the attitude of the player?
Charlie Christian, the father of jazz guitar, played electric because he wanted to be able to play guitar like Lester Young. It could be argued that electric jazz guitar is what was necessary so the guitar could play the MUSIC of the sax. Oscar Alemán played incredible jazz guitar that rivaled Django, and his solution was to play a resonator to give him the volume acoustically. It's the guitar that is the voice of the jazz player, not the "jazz guitar" collector with the L-5C that makes jazz guitar a living thing.
But it's jazz guitar... there's room for everybody's attitudes, as long as you put your music where your words are.
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Didn't Orville Gibson designed the first Archtop guitar in the 1890's, based on the arched bodied Violin family of instruments?
They were acoustic instruments.
Orville Gibson Guitar and Mandolin
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Originally Posted by frabarmus
It's just another expression that struggles to makes sense, oh well, but isn't the end of the world. Remember the George Carlin bit - ( ? )
' Semi-boneless ' , ' jumbo shrimp '........
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Should be Guitar Jazz Forum. Originally Posted by frabarmus
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I guess I should have been a little clearer and more specific : on this forum there's a lack of archtop playing posts.
S
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Originally Posted by Christian Miller
Wow, there's 3 more sides of this group!!
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Get your camera out and make a video then. Originally Posted by SOLR
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I should have written Flat top instead of acoustic. I'm a great fan of Gabor Szabo and he was not using an archtop. But, on this forum, many posts are on flat tops ?? Originally Posted by kris
It's hard to say whether acoustic guitars with pickups are still really acoustic.
S
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nah, that was pretty clear. Originally Posted by SOLR
I just don't think anyone particularly cares.
And again ... assuming this is even true, it seems like a complaint best directed at the silent archtoppers rather than the flattoppers posting recording their playing for other folks to listen to.
For my part, I haven't owned anything resembling a proper jazz guitar in about a decade, but you can hear my blasphemy all over this godforsaken forum.
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