The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I own two really nice Strats, and am just wondering if there are any fellow Strat players here. My main Jazz guitars are a 335 and a Tele. That being said...Strats are also pretty sweet.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I have and it worked fine. I preferred a Lil 59 humbucker in the neck position.

    Eventually, I came to prefer a Comins GCS-1, partly for the sound but more because the neck felt comfortable. I still practice with a Yamaha Pacifica 012 Strat copy.

    I gigged a lot with the Yamaha but it went dead on a gig once. It was because tightening the output jack caused the wire to twist and eventually break at the pot. I fixed it easily enough, but I don't trust it any more. At the time, I didn't carry the tools I needed for a field repair, but now I do. Closed the barn door after the horse left.

  4. #3

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    I rarely play anything on my Strat.

  5. #4

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    I use mine occasionally for jazz, though my archtop and my semi-hollow get most of the jazz action.

  6. #5

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    06 wine red Les Paul classic w/ 57 PAFs

    18 2204 Hazy rose Ibenaz super strat SSH..Symore Duncan Hyperions

    Depending on who is defining "jazz"

    Have used both in mixed genre settings Miles..Kind of Blue and later work

    Classic Monk..Blue Monk..Straight No Chaser ..Round Midnight

    Herbie Maiden Voyage period

    And then some early Mahavishnu McLaughlin

    Not doing any old school Bop flavors these days

    with amp settings and guitar tone settings I can get the mellow feel but with a bit of a snap for the more laid back tunes..Blue in Green etc

    with effects..the fusion flavors are good pals with the strat clone

    Im in Miles' corner .."..I don't like the term jazz.."

  7. #6
    I've been playing mine...a Custom Shop Ancho Poblano with a clean boost, Tech21 QStrip para EQ and a Kingsley Page boost set pretty clean. I roll back the tone on the neck pickup, and can get some nice jazz tone. I should also add that I am running two amps in a stereo setup...a Reeves Custom 50(Hiwatt) and a Louis Electric Columbia Reverb. Huge sound.

  8. #7

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    Never. No amount of videos or examples can convince me strat is a good guitar for jazz. Of course, with the right amount of tweaking you can make any guitar sound like anything, but why bother? I can plug my tele direct without any pedals or amp and get an instant beautiful jazz tone, not even touching the tone knob. Of all the solid bodies guitars strat is the least suitable for jazz IMO. It doesn't have the vibe, nor the sound. It can shine in the fusion genre though, so there is that... It absolutely kills for any other styles too, blues, funk, metal, you name it. Just not classic jazz, sorry.

  9. #8

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    lol

    no one told Cecil


  10. #9

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    Check out Lorne Lofsky who regularly plays an Ibanez Roadstar stratalike (and a borrowed Fender Strat on an old instructional video). Recorded with Oscar Peterson and Ed Bickert, which amounts to pretty decent jazz credentials!

  11. #10

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    Does a Yamaha RGX A2 count? But it has only two pickups and no tone control. It is the lightest guitar I know.

  12. #11

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    Whenever this question comes up:



    Don't listen with your eyes... According to Dutchbopper, this is a dead stock 70s/CBS era Strat with old strings that he hadn't played in a few years (he has some extraordinary vintage Gibsons). No humbuckers or mods. Eyes closed, sounds just like a great jazz guitar to me.

    Nir Felder, Chris Crocco, there are others who sound great playing jazz on a Fender Strat. But perhaps some people can't be convinced- looks too space age or something.

    I have a Jerrycaster sort of guitar which is hardly representative of Strats- Warmoth Strat body, Strat neck pickup, PAFs in the middle and bridge positions and a wiring system I dreamed up myself, with a 3x3 headstock. So I don't know whether to say yes...
    Last edited by Cunamara; 10-10-2024 at 11:35 PM.

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cunamara
    Beautiful sound. I feel like once you told me it was a strat, I could hear a tiiiiiiiiny bit of that vibe in there, but I might peg it as a tele. Sounds quite a bit like Ed Bickert to me with that tone-rolled-way-off thing. Either way, I'd take that tone on a jazz gig any day of the week.

    Nir Felder, Chris Crocco, there are others who sound great playing jazz on a Fender Strat. But perhaps some people can't be convinced- looks too space age or something.
    I saw Nir Felder take 31 choruses on Au Privave at Bar Next Door one time. Sounded like jazz to me.

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cunamara
    Whenever this question comes up:



    Don't listen with your eyes... According to Dutchbopper, this is a dead stock 70s/CBS era Strat with old strings that he hadn't played in a few years (he has some extraordinary vintage Gibsons). No humbuckers or mods. Eyes closed, sounds just like a great jazz guitar to me.

    Nir Felder, Chris Crocco, there are others who sound great playing jazz on a Fender Strat. But perhaps some people can't be convinced- looks too space age or something.
    So hard to tell what that rig really sounds like. By that I mean I bet it doesn't sound like that in a room w just the player and an amp. Like the videos Joe D posted, every guitar sounds big and fat. Of course they're both good players but something in the recording process fattens up the sound quite a bit.
    That said, I'm sure you can get a great jazz sound from a Strat.

  15. #14

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    Here's the deets:

    Jazz ballad on my Strat

  16. #15

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    Dudes used to be playing jazz on banjos way back when so the "strat won't do jazz" is kinda funny when considered in that light.

  17. #16

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    I have three Strats and use them on jazz gigs (solo and with a band) quite often.

    How many of you play Jazz on a Strat?-448031212_983548953770529_577528812598287890_n-jpg

  18. #17

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    Jazz exclusively on a Strat for the last three decades.

    What I've learned; it's not going to sound like Jazz right off the bat; you have to try to make it sound more like an arch top with experimentation - pick & picking, guitar and amp controls, set up adjustments, and lots of listening.

    - first thing is pick and picking. If you use a multi-millimeter thick pick, don't do that on the Strat, 1mm is plenty. The arch top sound in part comes from the bigger tighter strings "winning" over the pick, which is used firmly to drive the strings. On the Strat, a super thick pick is going to "win" over the strings and result in anomalies of tone. Use a thinner pick held loosely and let the string "win" over the pick by playing lightly to simulate the same dynamics of using a thicker pick on an arch top. The strings "winning" over the pick is the Jazzy arch top sound, free of anomalies, pure and clean.

    - start with the Strat's volume and tones full up and set the amp tones treble minimum, bass minimum, and middle full up (that is the usual tone stack circuit's flat frequency response). First control to adjust is the Strat's volume - progressively turn down from full up until the sound artifacts of pick clicking, finger squeaking, and other high frequency noises fade away (and turn up the amp volume to compensate). Strat volume on "7" is typical of where you may expect to land.

    - more clarity of tone comes from a moderate action (3mm at the 24th fret, typical). Lower the pickups as low as possible and then slowly raise them. When you lower them, press one finger against the side of the pickup so if you run the screw free of the hole, the pickup won't drop into the cavity. Just regain the screw's purchase and make a note of how low it happened. Lower pickups view the string through a wider "aperture" meaning they sense more string length, which lends a more complex tone (like the random internal distances inside a hollow body does acoustically). Adjust the amp volume to compensate and raise the pickups slowly listening for the best blend of two sounds - a "woody" tone, and an attack that is less "plink" more "thump".

    - all the above only enables the possibility, until it becomes natural you need to deliberately try to sound more like an arch top. This means attending to the tone, your fingers, the pick, and picking. Knowing what you want it to sound like is half the thing, then letting your own technique and mechanics figure it out... the pick and picking is almost all of the rest of it.

    * extra credit
    If you are trying to do this, the fastest way to detect and identify the things that work in the right direction is to use the bridge pickup when practicing. It is an exaggerated sound of what you do not want to hear for Jazz, and will therefore inform you immediately every time you discover another thing in your playing technique mechanics that moves closer to Jazz tone. The things your fretting and picking learn of trying to tame the bridge pickup to sound more like Jazz tone are exactly what you want for the neck pickup which might take longer to notice and examine.

  19. #18

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    Larry Coryell: "my very favorite instrument which my wife gave me for my birthday. The Fender is very soulful. I've spilled beer on it, thrown it hundreds of feet in the air. I've smashed it against amplifiers, it's fallen out of cars; it's virtually indestructible."

    Jazz Guitarists
    Collected Interviews from Guitar Player Magazine
    1975, p31.

  20. #19

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    On a semi regular basis. alternating between that and a semi. A set of 11s (TI rounds) and a bit of careful EQing on the amp, and it works perfectly nicely

    I've never understood the aversion to strats in a jazz context. Teles are considered OK, single coil semis and archtops like ES-300s are ok, but a strat is somehow impossible?

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cunamara
    Whenever this question comes up:



    Don't listen with your eyes... According to Dutchbopper, this is a dead stock 70s/CBS era Strat with old strings that he hadn't played in a few years (he has some extraordinary vintage Gibsons). No humbuckers or mods. Eyes closed, sounds just like a great jazz guitar to me.

    Nir Felder, Chris Crocco, there are others who sound great playing jazz on a Fender Strat. But perhaps some people can't be convinced- looks too space age or something.

    I have a Jerrycaster sort of guitar which is hardly representative of Strats- Warmoth Strat body, Strat neck pickup, PAFs in the middle and bridge positions and a wiring system I dreamed up myself, with a 3x3 headstock. So I don't know whether to say yes...
    Look, in the beginning, he keeps adjusting that tone knob, turn it down... a little more... maybe just a lil bit more... until it sounds like completely all the way down lol. Ok if you do that you get this fake impersonation of an archtop, cool. Again my question, why bother, when you can plug in a tele, or a semi, or hollowbody and get the tone right away, no tweaking?

    Beautiful playing nonetheless though, no arguing about that.

  22. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by pauln
    Jazz exclusively on a Strat for the last three decades.

    What I've learned; it's not going to sound like Jazz right off the bat; you have to try to make it sound more like an arch top with experimentation - pick & picking, guitar and amp controls, set up adjustments, and lots of listening.

    - first thing is pick and picking. If you use a multi-millimeter thick pick, don't do that on the Strat, 1mm is plenty. The arch top sound in part comes from the bigger tighter strings "winning" over the pick, which is used firmly to drive the strings. On the Strat, a super thick pick is going to "win" over the strings and result in anomalies of tone. Use a thinner pick held loosely and let the string "win" over the pick by playing lightly to simulate the same dynamics of using a thicker pick on an arch top. The strings "winning" over the pick is the Jazzy arch top sound, free of anomalies, pure and clean.

    - start with the Strat's volume and tones full up and set the amp tones treble minimum, bass minimum, and middle full up (that is the usual tone stack circuit's flat frequency response). First control to adjust is the Strat's volume - progressively turn down from full up until the sound artifacts of pick clicking, finger squeaking, and other high frequency noises fade away (and turn up the amp volume to compensate). Strat volume on "7" is typical of where you may expect to land.

    - more clarity of tone comes from a moderate action (3mm at the 24th fret, typical). Lower the pickups as low as possible and then slowly raise them. When you lower them, press one finger against the side of the pickup so if you run the screw free of the hole, the pickup won't drop into the cavity. Just regain the screw's purchase and make a note of how low it happened. Lower pickups view the string through a wider "aperture" meaning they sense more string length, which lends a more complex tone (like the random internal distances inside a hollow body does acoustically). Adjust the amp volume to compensate and raise the pickups slowly listening for the best blend of two sounds - a "woody" tone, and an attack that is less "plink" more "thump".

    - all the above only enables the possibility, until it becomes natural you need to deliberately try to sound more like an arch top. This means attending to the tone, your fingers, the pick, and picking. Knowing what you want it to sound like is half the thing, then letting your own technique and mechanics figure it out... the pick and picking is almost all of the rest of it.

    * extra credit
    If you are trying to do this, the fastest way to detect and identify the things that work in the right direction is to use the bridge pickup when practicing. It is an exaggerated sound of what you do not want to hear for Jazz, and will therefore inform you immediately every time you discover another thing in your playing technique mechanics that moves closer to Jazz tone. The things your fretting and picking learn of trying to tame the bridge pickup to sound more like Jazz tone are exactly what you want for the neck pickup which might take longer to notice and examine.
    All this work, sounds like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I pass.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by pauln
    Jazz exclusively on a Strat for the last three decades.

    What I've learned; it's not going to sound like Jazz right off the bat; you have to try to make it sound more like an arch top with experimentation - pick & picking, guitar and amp controls, set up adjustments, and lots of listening.

    - first thing is pick and picking. If you use a multi-millimeter thick pick, don't do that on the Strat, 1mm is plenty. The arch top sound in part comes from the bigger tighter strings "winning" over the pick, which is used firmly to drive the strings. On the Strat, a super thick pick is going to "win" over the strings and result in anomalies of tone. Use a thinner pick held loosely and let the string "win" over the pick by playing lightly to simulate the same dynamics of using a thicker pick on an arch top. The strings "winning" over the pick is the Jazzy arch top sound, free of anomalies, pure and clean.

    - start with the Strat's volume and tones full up and set the amp tones treble minimum, bass minimum, and middle full up (that is the usual tone stack circuit's flat frequency response). First control to adjust is the Strat's volume - progressively turn down from full up until the sound artifacts of pick clicking, finger squeaking, and other high frequency noises fade away (and turn up the amp volume to compensate). Strat volume on "7" is typical of where you may expect to land.

    - more clarity of tone comes from a moderate action (3mm at the 24th fret, typical). Lower the pickups as low as possible and then slowly raise them. When you lower them, press one finger against the side of the pickup so if you run the screw free of the hole, the pickup won't drop into the cavity. Just regain the screw's purchase and make a note of how low it happened. Lower pickups view the string through a wider "aperture" meaning they sense more string length, which lends a more complex tone (like the random internal distances inside a hollow body does acoustically). Adjust the amp volume to compensate and raise the pickups slowly listening for the best blend of two sounds - a "woody" tone, and an attack that is less "plink" more "thump".

    - all the above only enables the possibility, until it becomes natural you need to deliberately try to sound more like an arch top. This means attending to the tone, your fingers, the pick, and picking. Knowing what you want it to sound like is half the thing, then letting your own technique and mechanics figure it out... the pick and picking is almost all of the rest of it.

    * extra credit
    If you are trying to do this, the fastest way to detect and identify the things that work in the right direction is to use the bridge pickup when practicing. It is an exaggerated sound of what you do not want to hear for Jazz, and will therefore inform you immediately every time you discover another thing in your playing technique mechanics that moves closer to Jazz tone. The things your fretting and picking learn of trying to tame the bridge pickup to sound more like Jazz tone are exactly what you want for the neck pickup which might take longer to notice and examine.
    Now that's what I call a detailed and understandable guide. I feel like getting my Thorndal Strat which is based on a 50s Strat and has a pleasantly light body made of Corina wood out of the case again after a long time (I used to be an endorser decades ago and was listed on the website right behind Richie Blackmore LOL) to see if the pickups not only sound great in rock, funk, blues and reggae (Gregor once told me he never got such good pickups again), but also in jazz, which I've never really managed to do before.

  24. #23

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    I'm a big fan of jazz played on nice carved archtop guitars, but, hey, this one has an f-hole!
    Attached Images Attached Images How many of you play Jazz on a Strat?-sbc-strat-mjt-purplecaster_9290-jpg 

  25. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by pauln
    Jazz exclusively on a Strat for the last three decades.

    What I've learned; it's not going to sound like Jazz right off the bat; you have to try to make it sound more like an arch top with experimentation - pick & picking, guitar and amp controls, set up adjustments, and lots of listening.

    - first thing is pick and picking. If you use a multi-millimeter thick pick, don't do that on the Strat, 1mm is plenty. The arch top sound in part comes from the bigger tighter strings "winning" over the pick, which is used firmly to drive the strings. On the Strat, a super thick pick is going to "win" over the strings and result in anomalies of tone. Use a thinner pick held loosely and let the string "win" over the pick by playing lightly to simulate the same dynamics of using a thicker pick on an arch top. The strings "winning" over the pick is the Jazzy arch top sound, free of anomalies, pure and clean.

    - start with the Strat's volume and tones full up and set the amp tones treble minimum, bass minimum, and middle full up (that is the usual tone stack circuit's flat frequency response). First control to adjust is the Strat's volume - progressively turn down from full up until the sound artifacts of pick clicking, finger squeaking, and other high frequency noises fade away (and turn up the amp volume to compensate). Strat volume on "7" is typical of where you may expect to land.

    - more clarity of tone comes from a moderate action (3mm at the 24th fret, typical). Lower the pickups as low as possible and then slowly raise them. When you lower them, press one finger against the side of the pickup so if you run the screw free of the hole, the pickup won't drop into the cavity. Just regain the screw's purchase and make a note of how low it happened. Lower pickups view the string through a wider "aperture" meaning they sense more string length, which lends a more complex tone (like the random internal distances inside a hollow body does acoustically). Adjust the amp volume to compensate and raise the pickups slowly listening for the best blend of two sounds - a "woody" tone, and an attack that is less "plink" more "thump".

    - all the above only enables the possibility, until it becomes natural you need to deliberately try to sound more like an arch top. This means attending to the tone, your fingers, the pick, and picking. Knowing what you want it to sound like is half the thing, then letting your own technique and mechanics figure it out... the pick and picking is almost all of the rest of it.

    * extra credit
    If you are trying to do this, the fastest way to detect and identify the things that work in the right direction is to use the bridge pickup when practicing. It is an exaggerated sound of what you do not want to hear for Jazz, and will therefore inform you immediately every time you discover another thing in your playing technique mechanics that moves closer to Jazz tone. The things your fretting and picking learn of trying to tame the bridge pickup to sound more like Jazz tone are exactly what you want for the neck pickup which might take longer to notice and examine.
    Yeah, that works. So does just playing your guitar and not getting too obsessive about the whole thing.
    Last edited by John A.; 10-11-2024 at 02:08 PM.

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by John A.
    Yeah, that works. So does just playing your guitar and not getting to obsessive about the whole thing.
    obsessive /?b-s?s??v, ?b-/
    adjective
    1. Persistent preoccupation with an idea or desire
    "The path to Jazz tone with a Strat is obsessive"
    2. Excessive in degree or nature; compelling motivation
    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition