Les Paul Custom and Tele for jazz???

**GuitaRoland** · 02-25-2011, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by burchyk

Check out Ulf Wakenius, he plays some kind of LP knock off.

If I remember it right Ulf plays an old Aria Pro II Les Paul Model - to me it sounds jazzy! The amp I think is a Lab Series L5?

/R

**smdantas** · 02-27-2011, 10:41 PM

Les Pauls are some pretty versatile guitars if you know how to use them.

I don't mean to flame, but this "sit down friendly" talk makes no sense to me, it depends only on how you handle them.

LPs have glued necks, which is good for a smooth, full-bodied and sustained sound, and that makes them quite jazzy in the right hands...

Listen to Paul Personne's solo in "visions". although it's blues, it might give a good idea of how powerful and yet sophisticated a LP can be.

Teles might be frequently regarded as all-rounders, but that's exactly where they don't particularly match my personal taste: they don't have enough personality to match the needs of punch-based guitarists (of course, i'm talking about clean electric sound, which is the base of everything, of course. Gear is another thing...

Let's not forget that Les Paul himself was a jazz guitarist, folks. If Slash, Peter Frampton and Jimmy Page picked up LPs and distorted them pretty good, it doesn't necessarily mean that those guitars can't sound groovy and jazzy

**NSJ** · 02-27-2011, 11:51 PM

and then there is this question --

What exactly is the difference in make, sound and construction between the cheapo Gibson LPs (studio, junior) and the expensive LPs (reissues, standard, deluxe)??? (exclude Epis)

I mean really --is a $800 LP studio going to give me the same thing (clean jazz world) that a $5000 57/59 reissue? Just wondering.

**harrymason** · 10-11-2018, 05:45 AM

He's using and old MIJ Aria Pro he bought in the 70's. Amp: solid state Lab Series. One of the producers said his tone was the best, while Pat Metheny had a truckload full of gear with him

**Cunamara** · 10-12-2018, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by Peter C

Les Paul, for whom I have a logical respect as an innovator, is often cited in these "LP for Jazz?" discussions, but I never heard him using what would be widely considered a traditional Jazz guitar tone. Any recordings I may be missing?

Pretty traditional for the time. The dark jazz guitar sound is a cool jazz/small combo/late 50s and onward kind thing. Listen to Django, Charlie Christian, other early jazz guitarists. Bright trumpety kind of sounds rather than smoky sax-y sounds. Compare Jim Hall's tone on his first album as a leader ("Jazz Guitar") with his later records- he sounds more like Tal Farlow or Jimmy Rainey than what one usually thinks of as Jim Hall.

Oh, yeah, Jim Hall! He played a Les Paul in his early days with Chico Hamilton, later traded it to Howard Roberts for the iconic '54 ES-175. Jim didn't like not being able to feel the guitar vibrate.

The Scandinavian guy, drawing a blank on his name right now even though I can picture him, played an inexpensive Aria Les Paul copy for years and sounded great. I think he plays a Benedetto now.

**medblues** · 10-12-2018, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by Cunamara

Pretty traditional for the time. The dark jazz guitar sound is a cool jazz/small combo/late 50s and onward kind thing. Listen to Django, Charlie Christian, other early jazz guitarists. Bright trumpety kind of sounds rather than smoky sax-y sounds. Compare Jim Hall's tone on his first album as a leader ("Jazz Guitar") with his later records- he sounds more like Tal Farlow or Jimmy Rainey than what one usually thinks of as Jim Hall.

Oh, yeah, Jim Hall! He played a Les Paul in his early days with Chico Hamilton, later traded it to Howard Roberts for the iconic '54 ES-175. Jim didn't like not being able to feel the guitar vibrate.

The Scandinavian guy, drawing a blank on his name right now even though I can picture him, played an inexpensive Aria Les Paul copy for years and sounded great. I think he plays a Benedetto now.

Ulf Wakenius

with Pat Metheny:

**Dennis D** · 10-12-2018, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by customxke

Mary Ford's husband, I can't remember his name, played some pretty good jazz on a Les Paul.

....and for that matter so did Mary Ford !!

**Stringswinger** · 10-12-2018, 10:26 PM

I have played jazz on a Les Paul for many years. Last year I sold my last heavy Les Paul (10 pounds was too much for my 60 year old shoulders) and I bought a 2017 Les Paul Studio (7 pounds 14 ounces). With flatwound strings through my AER Compact 60, I get a great jazz tone, as warm and fat as can be.

**whiskey02** · 10-12-2018, 10:32 PM

Oh, yeah, Jim Hall! He played a Les Paul in his early days with Chico Hamilton, later traded it to Howard Roberts for the iconic '54 ES-175. Jim didn't like not being able to feel the guitar vibrate.

If you get a really good one, you can absolutely feel it vibrate, across your belly, chest, and all along the neck. I can feel my LP just as much as my archtop.

**John A.** · 10-13-2018, 12:05 AM

Benson and Pat Martino both played them early on. Several people I know in real life use them jazz, and they sound great. There's really not a lot of difference in sound between a LP and a semi-hollow.

John

**rpjazzguitar** · 10-13-2018, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by John A.

Benson and Pat Martino both played them early on. Several people I know in real life use them jazz, and they sound great. There's really not a lot of difference in sound between a LP and a semi-hollow.

John

I think that's right. LP's can get a great jazz tone. There may be some woodiness to the sound of an archtop that the LP can't duplicate, but, by the time your sound, with a little reverb, gets to the audience in a noisy club, it may not be all that dramatic a difference.

**starjasmine** · 10-13-2018, 04:04 PM

My first "good" guitar was an LP custom but IMO the ebony fingerboard sounded a bit thin or cold for jazz AND that thing just weighed a ton. My left shoulder was always sore at the end of a gig.

After a few years, I traded it for an early 70s LP deluxe that had a rosewood fingerboard and one of the friendliest necks I've ever played. The rosewood fingerboard warmed up the tone quite a bit; IDK whether the body wood contributes to that. It is likely that both of my Pauls had the same mahogany-back-with-maple-top body. All I know is that the Deluxe has a warmer tone than any Custom I've played.

The original PUPs on that deluxe had already been swapped out for full-size humbuckers when I bought it, and later on I replaced the neck pickup with one of the PUPs from my LP custom. The original PUPS on a Deluxe are "mini-humbuckers" which (I believe) are tonally about the same as the stock humbuckers on a LP Standard or Custom, with less output because they are physically smaller with smaller coils and magnets.

I don't find LPs unfriendly to sitting, although I understand that point. When I play the LP sitting down I don't have any problems with the angle of the neck whether or not I use a strap, and I don't feel undue weight on my leg. The deluxe is (subjectively) much lighter than the custom, and I don't find the weight of the deluxe to be uncomfortable. Of course, it feels like a bag of rocks compared to an archtop and it does weigh more than just about any of my other guitars :-) But I still love my LP Deluxe!

An archtop and the LP are quite different animals and I string my Byrdland with 14 - 67 flats. I use the Paul for every kinda music, including that kind that bends strings, so I still use 009s on the LP, which requires being a bit more careful about fretting to preserve good intonation, but it gets a great jazz tone when played with care into the right gear.

SJ

**Dr_turkey** · 10-15-2018, 05:08 PM

The man that guitar was named for was a jazz player himself. One of my favorite electric jazz tones I've had was from a Les Paul with a p90 in the neck.

A Les Paul with a benedetto b6 or a6 pickup would fool most people with their eyes closed I bet