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The Strat seems to have less mids in it than say a Tele. Almost like the eq of a good flat top guitar. I always gravitated to a Tele especially with a humbucker or mini HB for a good Jazz type of tone.
Perhaps a Strat with that same pickup? But I gave up on Strats 20 years ago and haven’t looked back!
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10-11-2024 02:15 PM
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Where I end up is thinking about the definition of "jazz tone".
If you want to sound like Wes, that's one thing. I've never heard his tone out of anything but an L5, played his way.
Some of the other classic players are, arguably, a little easier to approximate and have a lot in common, tone-wise.
But, does "jazz tone" end there? What about Metheny's processed sound on Bright Size Life. Not jazz?
Or Scofield? Or the overdriven tone I heard Mike Stern use when touring with Miles Davis?
Or, what would be so terrible about playing jazz standards with Mark Knopfler's tone?
I understand that an L5 won't sound like a Strat, or the reverse, but which tone to use depends on how you want to sound.
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I guess now it's time to start another thread: what folks think of jazz on a... jazzmaster.
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I play jazz FUSION on my strat. I can’t play bop on it unless I overdrive it, which is fun. I played a nice gig last night and had some stray screaming opportunities.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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Most metal guitarists play pointy guitars, but Jim Root of Slipknot plays a Telecaster. He is no less of a metal guitarist for it. I suspect many guitarists choose their instruments to observe convention, rather than to achieve a particular sound.
Similar rules apply to dress.
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I love a strat for jazz. You have to know how to play it right and set your amp right for it, but it's just a killer guitar.
For jazz i think they sound best with 12s.
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What has not been mentioned yet at all is that a real Strat has a tremolo which affects the tone -- even if the metal block is fixated there are still the springs in the body that might resonate a tiny bit on their own.
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Originally Posted by Bop Head
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Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
10/14/24 update: Editing this after some consideration, I do have to say that the guitar that took the least tweaking of all of mine to get a jazz sound I really liked was my ES-175. I guess that's no surprise to most of us. That one was pretty much "plugged it in, twiddled the knobs for 10 seconds and there it was." My GB10 took a fair amount of study of how to use the volume and tone control to best advantage to get a good sound, but I've had that guitar nearly 40 years and found that sound along time ago. My carved archtop with floating pickup, on the other hand, was the most difficult guitar to get a sound I really liked of any I've ever had; I went through I think five or maybe seven pickups over 16 years before nailing it. Getting a good sound with my Telecaster or my Stratocaster was far simpler.Last edited by Cunamara; 10-14-2024 at 09:35 PM.
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I loved my strats. I think it's a great jazz sound. Some guys make em sound great stock but me I liked to mod em. I played hard tail swimming pool warmoths with 12s. Then I'd make my own pickguards with 2 neck pickups right next to each other. Wired with a switch to select either pickup and a knob to roll the other one in in series. Nice and fat.
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Originally Posted by Bop Head
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I've played jazz on a Mustang (which I prefer because of the shorter scale length) and on a Yamaha SF 400 (solid body with humbuckers). On the Mustang I've tried to get the most "Fendery tone" I could... "shiny and sparkling" (what was the point, otherwise!?). Though, at the end of the day, I still prefer an archtop tone and feel, so I've sold my solid bodies... but I regret having sold my Mustang.
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Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
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Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
Me, just the opposite. I have plenty of "jazz" guitars. Bought a cheap strat to fool around with for fun. Turns out it sounds fine for "jazz."
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Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
I don’t try to make any of my guitars sound like the others. That defeats the purpose of having different guitars. I play my strat because I like it. It’s great ergonomically, it sounds and plays great, I like the whammy, and when I do play jazz with it in public I get a chuckle out of people’s reaction. But the relatively scooped sound doesn’t always fit, single coil buzz can be a problem, and not every amp works well with it, so I use it selectively.
Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
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Originally Posted by kris
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Just because you can play jazz on a strat, doesn't mean that you should!
I have owned a '63 strat since the late '70's, about as fat and great sounding strat as there is, and sure, I suppose that I could use it for jazz- put heavy strings on it and set it up that way, but then it wouldn't be that great for all of the things that strats are fantastic for. (I hope I don't need to put up a list of all the great strat players, we all know them.)
When I pick up a strat, it's to play it like a strat, in one of the genres that strats are great at, of which there are many.
When I want to play jazz, an arch top, a Les Paul, a telecaster are all superior. IMHO, YMMV etc.
Pics or it didn't happen!
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DB was playing with .009 or .010 strings on the clip I posted. Fat strings are not necessary for a good jazz tone, as has been proven many times (Ed Bickert and Jim Hall, for example, both used .010 string sets).
Although I do find some of my guitars seem to respond better to heavier strings than lighter strings, such as my 17" carved archtop. I just put .012s on it and I'm really digging how it sounds with those compared to the .011s I've been using for years. I think the issue there is the response of the individual guitar and not string thickness versus genre of music. Rock and blues do not equal light gauge strings and jazz does not equal heavy gauge strings.
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Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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Originally Posted by Cunamara
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Originally Posted by bluejaybill
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Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
It is not about tools or money. Jazz is music, not work. What harm would it do to play jazz on a guitar that is not associated with jazz? What's wrong with having imagination, and a sense of adventure?
Last edited by Litterick; 10-13-2024 at 02:26 AM.
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Originally Posted by DawgBone
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Built for jazz…
Telecaster sound above the 12th fret on the neck
Today, 06:28 AM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos