How would you describe this guitar tone?

[johaneugen]

Hello, im curious what you guys think about this guys guitar tone. Is it "fat" sounding? To me it sounds very woody and acoustic, not very "electric guitar" And maybe abit on the bright side.
I guess having the floating pickup makes it sound more acoustic than electric,
I like his guitar sound alot. but the older guys i like, Wes, pat martino, benson, burrell have a more electric guitar sound if that makes sense...How would you describe it?

[Stringswinger]

His tone is what I expect from a carved archtop with a floater. Adding his technique, which with his liberal use of vibrato has a Django influenced sound, the result is a more acoustic sound than the classic jazz guitar tone of Wes, Pat, George and Kenny.

[mr. beaumont]

Very interesting to me as totally different through my phone versus my car speakers (listening here waiting for my son to get out of soccer practice)

First video: Through the phone, bright, glassy, articulate. Through the car speakers, I get the full bloom of the bass. Its a great sound...but very electric to my ears.

The live cut-- where he's probably playing louder-- is more acoustic sounding to me. There's a "snap" to some of the harder struck notes, reminds me of Julian Lage's tone when he was playing with Gary Burton. It's "stringy," but in a good way.

Great sounds all around, imho.

[Sigmund451]

Hugo plays a ton in Paris. If I make it up there this fall I want to go listen.

He plays one of Franz Elferink's Tone Master with a Armstrong 12 pole pickup.

He would probabably sound good on anything!

[GuyBoden]

"on the bright side."

But, there's nothing wrong with that.

I find George Benson bright too.

[AllanAllen]

The first one is bright but not shrill, over-driven but not distorted. He's toeing a lot of lines and sounds great doing it.

[Christian Miller]

Gorgeous sound and playing. Articulate, somewhat 'hi-fi' top end in the sound, and a spot of reverb.

[Gitterbug]

Thanks for the post! Hugo Lippi is a new and very interesting acquaintance. Through my less than hi-fi laptop, the sound is pretty consistent, allowing for recording differences. Exactly the type of tone I had in mind when suggesting a 17" archtop to the recent poster who had developed an aversion to electric guitar tone in jazz.

[rpjazzguitar]

Hello, im curious what you guys think about this guys guitar tone. Is it "fat" sounding? To me it sounds very woody and acoustic, not very "electric guitar" And maybe abit on the bright side.
I guess having the floating pickup makes it sound more acoustic than electric,
I like his guitar sound alot. but the older guys i like, Wes, pat martino, benson, burrell have a more electric guitar sound if that makes sense...How would you describe it?

Opening notes of the first one sound largely acoustic. Ringing out really well. Later, the guitar sounds more electric. It's what he's playing at the moment and probably in the picking attack. I wondered if he was mic'ed in such a way that we were hearing some acoustic guitar, but it varied.

I certainly wouldn't call it dark, but it wasn't at all shrill. Maybe on the bright side of neutral, for my ears.

Sounded great and he's a fine player.

[frabarmus]

To my ears it sounds very much like a (electric) jazz archtop, only more "punchy" and certainly less dark/muddy, if that makes sense, than a "classic" jazz-tone. I like it! From your description of Lippi's tone I was expecting more something like Martin Taylor's tone...

(writing this while listening to the first video)

[joe2758]

Listening on a crappy laptop.
1. The prominence of acoustic tone was nice, but the tone effects on the amp ruined it for me (I like very plain and dry)
2. Couldn't really make a judgement on this one
3. This is what I would call a really exceptionally pleasing tone

[frabarmus]

P.S. his "acoustic edge" leans more towards a nylon string sound rather than a steel string acoustic.

[John A.]

His tone is what I expect from a carved archtop with a floater. Adding his technique, which with his liberal use of vibrato has a Django influenced sound, the result is a more acoustic sound than the classic jazz guitar tone of Wes, Pat, George and Kenny.

I definitely agree that there is a "floater" sound and a "set-in" pick-up sound, and that this exemplifies the difference. I don't think the floater sound is actually particularly acoustic sounding, though, in the sense that it doesn't sound like a mic'ed acoustic guitar or a piezo transducer. Also, some of my favorite sounds of Martino ('70s Koontz, e.g., on Exit), Benson (various), and Burrell (mid 60s, D'Angelico) are with floaters.

[Spook410]

Listening on studio monitors and just commenting on the first video.

I like it. I would like it more with a top end roll off. Everything above 4khz from an electric guitar pickup sounds brittle to me. At least that's what I've found with my carved archtops with Armstrong 12 pole floaters running into full response speakers. Seems that's what my ears are picking up on here. If there were a mic involved it would be different.