Modern jazz guitar sound

**John A.** · 02-11-2016, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff

It's modern because it's not that old dark, tubey, treble rolled all the way down Wes and Kenny tone. It's usually more compressed with more dry reverb and sometimes chorus and delay.

Scofield is not THAT OLD--he's 64. Willie's American Guitars posted a pic on their Facebook page with John and his bassist, who visited the store yesterday.

I have become a big Monder fan. He has a lot of different sounds, some more Metheny-Scofield chorusy, some more Frippish excessively compressed and sustained. I'm not as interested in the sounds as in the thought behind the playing.

Re' JZ's videos--I just can't deal with the headless guitar. It's too much for me. Looks like it's missing something.

You're only as old as you feel, and I'm guessing Sco's still feeling pretty frisky ... Anyway it just sort of struck me that when I first started getting into trying to play jazz, Sco embodied a young/modern take on guitar-based jazz. Here we are 30+ years later, and he looks the part of an elder statesman, but still strikes me as pretty experimental, both in what he plays and with the sound itself. His live album with Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart has no chorus, but lots of other stuff.

John

**Hep To The Jive** · 02-11-2016, 05:32 PM

I agree. And IMO, he's one of those 'modern' cats who can really swing and has some guts in his sound. In other words, he represent modern jazz that is not cerebral at all. With most others, young and upcoming cats posted here, it feels like the cerebral approach wins. It has a lot of fans for sure, but I'm not exactly inspired.

**nick1994** · 02-11-2016, 05:51 PM

bruce arnold is another guy who has a nice sound, stratty but it works

**mr. beaumont** · 02-11-2016, 06:08 PM

The cleans on that first clip are ridiculously good. And now I want one of those guitars.

**gggomez** · 02-11-2016, 10:07 PM

I am sure Charlie Christian was bagged for his modern sound of the day by many. Just like those long haired Beatles.

**gggomez** · 02-11-2016, 10:11 PM

Listened to this young fella Dimitri Howald this morning, i think from Switzerland, beautiful:

**RonJ** · 02-11-2016, 10:45 PM

Matthew Stevens, similar to Mike Moreno

Btw I'm loving this thread

**Hep To The Jive** · 02-11-2016, 11:30 PM

I like this guy's sound, and the tune is pretty good too

**kris** · 02-12-2016, 03:17 AM

Originally Posted by nick1994;617920r

bruce arnold is another guy who has a nice sound, stratty but it works

This is a great example of singlecoile pick up jazz player.
All before use humbuckers sounds almost.
Thanks.

**kris** · 02-12-2016, 03:34 AM

**David B** · 02-12-2016, 03:37 AM

**Frank67** · 02-12-2016, 04:02 AM

Jorge, I loved both the Lage Lund and also the overdriven Rosenwinkel sounds you posted. Do you know what equipment they are using? I was particularly into the Rosenwinkel clip. I also thought that both played great.

**jorgemg1984** · 02-12-2016, 05:21 AM

Originally Posted by FrankLearns

Jorge, I loved both the Lage Lund and also the overdriven Rosenwinkel sounds you posted. Do you know what equipment they are using? I was particularly into the Rosenwinkel clip. I also thought that both played great.

Well these guys are always changing but... I was in NY short after the Lage clip and he was using the Schottmueller (with an SD APH-1 pickup), Fender XH picks and a Headstrong Lil King with a Weber speaker (a non-reverb 45w Princeton basically). For effects an El Capistan for delay and maybe reverb too? Strings I heard him quote 12 rounds with 014 and 018 for the first two.

As for Kurt it's basically a Rat trough an 80s 15 Polytone (plus delay and reverb). Guitar it's his 80s Japan D'Angelico Vestax and some rounds for sure.

They both play great, for sure!!

**nado64** · 02-12-2016, 06:14 AM

**jzucker** · 02-12-2016, 07:48 AM

Originally Posted by jorgemg1984

Well these guys are always changing but... I was in NY short after the Lage clip and he was using the Schottmueller (with an SD APH-1 pickup), Fender XH picks and a Headstrong Lil King with a Weber speaker (a non-reverb 45w Princeton basically). For effects an El Capistan for delay and maybe reverb too? Strings I heard him quote 12 rounds with 014 and 018 for the first two.

As for Kurt it's basically a Rat trough an 80s 15 Polytone (plus delay and reverb). Guitar it's his 80s Japan D'Angelico Vestax and some rounds for sure.

They both play great, for sure!!

kurt's using an axefx now right?

**jorgemg1984** · 02-12-2016, 08:00 AM

Until recently yes, kemper for amps and axe fx fior effects. In the most recent youtube clips he seems to be back to a
pair of rented Twins..

**kenbennett** · 02-12-2016, 09:48 AM

I like a hot tone. They all sound better through tube amps to me. I love all of the live stuff. The cleans in the beginning clips are rich and very well balanced, but just too pure for me--like a sax that never growls.

**jzucker** · 02-12-2016, 10:03 AM

Originally Posted by jorgemg1984

Until recently yes, kemper for amps and axe fx fior effects. In the most recent youtube clips he seems to be back to a
pair of rented Twins..

I thought he was using axefx through a pair of twins on road gigs?

**sunnysideup** · 02-12-2016, 10:03 AM

Its a great question Jack, and you're probably the best guy here to answer it what with all those sheestofsounds gear demos you've done!

But actually I'm having a bit of difficulty with figuring out how to think about the question - are we talking about the sound or the note choices - and are these 2 things separable or not - does a modern sound necessarily mean avant garde music (these questions are rhetorical).

Here's a guy that's been around a long time but might be new to some people here. He's been playing this way for a long time, and is well-respected, and he does it with the occasional woody tone! I give you Derek Bailey...

**Frank67** · 02-12-2016, 11:31 AM

Thank you for the tips Jorge!

I don't have a rat but I toyed around with my Kemper profile of a Polytone and put the Kemper Rat emulation before with a bit of delay and reverb and thought it sounded close enough together with a semihollow. A nice, sustaining, fat lead tone. I had to dial the distortion setting on the emulated rat way back though and turn the guitar volume down a touch too.

**jorgemg1984** · 02-12-2016, 11:34 AM

Great Frank, glad to know you found something close to that sound. Kurt also used a kemper, so it must be possible to get his sound with one

And he also has a Mambo, I believe.

**NSJ** · 02-12-2016, 12:55 PM

A lot of these Gen X era players (Cheek, Monder, Rosenwinkel) learned from people like Paul Motian and Joe Henderson. Someone like Paul Motian is a great player who came up in bebop and traditional jazz and remained thoroughly modern his entire life. What does it mean to be modern ?

Jonathan Kreisberg----"What we have now is the ability to assess all those periods (early jazz, swing, bebop, free jazz, fusion ). How do we embrace all that and make that a part of everything? You have guys basically growing up studying bebop, playing classical music, funk, rock and basically finding a way to put it all together-- without rejecting anything. In my band, it will get as loud as a fusion band and as quiet as chamber jazz. We are trying to embrace things we like about this music without saying no to any of it. And that really does define what is happening in jazz, and I think it's really exciting. For me, every moment is trying to assess all those things that I love about these musics and to bring them all together. If you do that, you are an evolution, you are creating something new."