Pick attack and pickup/guitar relation

[supersoul]

Thank you, it is actually the other way around. I hear the 2nd guitar as snappier/harsher and it is the strat, but ... your opinion actually helps me, as I may not keep one of the guitars, that's why I asked. If they sound similar enough, I won't.

lol, shows how good my ears are!
But I'm glad I was helpful!

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

I actually prefer rock blues feel to my jazz playing. More attack, staccato, all mixed in. I like guitarists who have more percussive approach. It seems in the 1930-50's that was the thing. Listening to jazz records with guitarists playing solos from that period there is not a big stretch to what Chuck Berry came up with later. I love it!

Not to be controversial, but in my view starting with Kurt Rosenwinkle (who's absolute great) is when jazz guitar took a turn to very mellow, almost classical legato approach, everything super smooth, very soft picking with a dreamy, ambient sound. I might be wrong, but that's when blues influences were gone. Of course, that's the sound of jazz guitar today, but I'm not a follower.

It should not be forgotten that the man considered to be the father of modern electric jazz guitar playing, Charlie Christian, and the man considered to be the forefather of rock guitar, T-Bone Walker, played together for a while and had the same teacher.

[benhatchins]

Picking hard and staccato but singing nonetheless

That’s great! I really enjoyed watching how you play—it was so entertaining and impressive. I’m actually feeling pretty happy myself these days because, for once, I have plenty of free time to just relax and have fun. It’s such a refreshing change of pace! I owe a big thanks to academized.com/college-paper-writing-service for making this possible. They agreed to handle some of my papers for me, which has taken a lot off my plate. Now I can truly unwind and enjoy my downtime without worrying about deadlines

[starjasmine]

I listened only to the first few seconds of both clips, and both sound to me like you are using all downstrokes. Do you alternate pick? If not, I'd investigate that. I hear a lot of struggle to get the notes out, even at moderate tempos.

To hear an example of alternate picking in which almost every note is picked but the line sounds very smooth and connected nonetheless, listen to anything Pat Martino plays.

Bruce Forman and Jackie King are also great examples of players who alternate pick most of the time but are very fluid nonetheless.

Jackie playing There Will Never Be Another You live with Willie Nelson (Jackie toured with Willie for over 20 years. I *think* Don Haas is playing piano in this clip.)

This is Moon River from Jackie's Moon Magic album. This appears to be a fan video; most of the pictures have nothing to do with Jackie, but it is one of the only Moon Magic cuts on Youtube. Moon Magic is an excellent example of Jackie's smooth tone, inventive ideas, and formidable chops. I can't recommend this disc enough.

Here's Bruce playing solo live many years ago; super smooth and fluid, yet alt picking 90 percent of the time. During covid lockdown, Bruce did a ton of solo videos playing Barney Kessel's guitar; check out his channel on youtube, as well as the lessons he did for My Masterclass.

I'd recommend listening to a LOT of these players to help you conceptualize the idea of a smooth flowing line. Maybe a concept in which each note has more or less equal weight would smooth out your picking.

Notice too that all of them use dynamics: playing quietly can take some of the bite out of your picking attack. That is, learn to control your pick attack so that it is not always striking strings hard vs soft, but a continuum from pp to ff that you can choose from in order to sound the note in a way that you want.

I would also recommend checking out the Cracking the Code website by Troy Grady. It's very rock-oriented, but he deep dives on all sorts of picking techniques, including slo-mo videos of master players' picking hands up close. Troy has a TON of free stuff on YouTube that you can check out without subscribing to his site. I got enough out of that to make me want to subscribe in order to get into his whole picking mechanics series over the course of a few months. It was very helpful - even though I had been playing for decades, I struggled with executing or articulating certain things. The picking mechanics series exposes a wide variety of approaches to picking, with examples from pro players and targeted execises to help you find and develop the techniques that work for you.

[Cunamara]

Another tool is to turn up the amp and use touch to keep the volume the same, which naturally requires picking softer. This is the Jim Hall approach.

[BreckerFan]

I think Julian Lage said the jazz guitar sound is the sound of a string that is not being played at full velocity. I think about that a lot.

That doesn't necessarily mean you need to pick softer; you need to find a balance between your pick attack and string gauge. Soft picking can also result in an inconsistent sound, and you have to play with a certain level of authority to achieve eveness. But you can also fight against the twang by using heavier strings. I use 13s, and whenever I play lighter strings I do pick softer, but doing so kind of messes up my time feel. You just have to find the right combination for you.