Tele For Jazz?

[Little Jay]

Absolutely, no question. The only thing that might send it over $1000 is if you wanted some really nice pickups. I've got an MIM Cabronita, and an MII Vintera. The Cabronita needed nothing (altho I tried a bunch of different pickups in it). The Vintera did need a couple of upgrades, namely the tuners because one was defective on mine.

I'm always a little amazed when I get a new guitar, and out of the box it feels kind of "cheap" or something, but then I set it up with my strings, my relief, my action, and it's like a different guitar.

A good set up makes or breaks a guitar!

[jim777]

I've actually found that all of my Tele's can make excellent Jazz guitars, and for different reasons. One of the surprising ones to me was a used Walla Walla that I picked up a few years ago. They are expensive new (though there are sometimes sales), but can be found cheaply USED. Made in USA, they are typically made with reclaimed wood that is laminated to a fully hollow / chambered body. You can get them with single coil pickups or humbuckers. They have a VERY woody tone, the neck is a compund radius (9.5 - 12), and 25.5" scale. Maverick Guitars – Walla Walla Guitar Company

Some of them can be a bit... wild. Here's mine (fairly sedate compared to some of them!):

Attachment 121261

I also have a CS Tele (loaded with Supertrons) that can get pretty Jazzy as well!

I am going to have to get one of those

[iim7V7IM7]

As long as we’re sharing…

Back in 2017, my friend and luthier Laurent Brondel built me a custom T-style guitar. I had him use a slightly wider 1-11/16” nut width and wider Marc Rutters 2-1/8” string spacing saddles, a 1950s U profile (0.90” @ 1st & 0.98” @ 12th fret), Jescar 47014 EVO fretwire for playing comfort, set up for 11-50s (non-wound G). The guitar is Swamp Ash and Birdseye Sugar Maple. It has Jason Lollar Charlie Christian neck and B.S. Tele bridge pickups. The sound is a bit warmer and fuller than a regular Tele, and the hum is quite modest and manageable.

[garybaldy]

What about a Squier Affinity Tele with a CC. I got an unbranded Tele for £50. Would that do it with the right pickup and wiring?

[Cunamara]

I had a first-year Squier Affinity Tele that I played for many years. I swapped the pickups and it was an excellent sounding guitar. I did not put a CC in it, but that would've worked fine too with some routing of the wood (I don't have a router and I like to do my work myself). I just donated that guitar this week to a music school. But it was a perfectly playable, good sounding instrument for more than 15 years.

[garybaldy]

I had a first-year Squier Affinity Tele that I played for many years. I swapped the pickups and it was an excellent sounding guitar. I did not put a CC in it, but that would've worked fine too with some routing of the wood (I don't have a router and I like to do my work myself). I just donated that guitar this week to a music school. But it was a perfectly playable, good sounding instrument for more than 15 years.

People talk of this Tele or that Tele for jazz and being the best solid body for jazz. If you have the right pickups (for jazz), surely any slab will do.

[Little Jay]

People talk of this Tele or that Tele for jazz and being the best solid body for jazz. If you have the right pickups (for jazz), surely any slab will do.

Yes, exaclty my point. Although I do believe that the tele-bridge design does something unique to the tone. Different from a Strat-vibrato tailpiece or a tunomatic with stop-tail for example. Also I have experienced that the same pickup can sound different in different guitars, because I swapped around an SD59 between different guitars, yielding different tonal results (didn’t sound good at all in my Epiphone Sheraton for example but seems at home in my Ibanez AF55).

[garybaldy]

Yes, exaclty my point. Although I do believe that the tele-bridge design does something unique to the tone. Different from a Strat-vibrato tailpiece or a tunomatic with stop-tail for example. Also I have experienced that the same pickup can sound different in different guitars, because I swapped around an SD59 between different guitars, yielding different tonal results (didn’t sound good at all in my Epiphone Sheraton for example but seems at home in my Ibanez AF55).

I've experienced the same with pickups. I have a hand built all mahogany double cut. It loved an SD JB in the bridge so I got an SD jazz to go with it but that was very boomy. I changed it for a DiM Humbucker from Hell. Now it's the perfect guitar. The Jazz is now in a Fenix LP copy. It work fine in that. ( It's paired with either an Irongear Hot Slag or a Tonerider Generator - can't remember!).