Favorite jazz guitar sound

**AlainJazz** · 03-31-2015, 02:50 AM

Originally Posted by LtKojak

Leonardo Amuedo must be the most underrated player alive today.

I agree. One of my favorites. Great tone, great chops. He can play anything really.

**Klatu** · 03-31-2015, 07:52 AM

Originally Posted by LtKojak

Leonardo Amuedo must be the most underrated player alive today.

I'd never even heard his name before reading this thread. Quite talented.

**monkmiles** · 03-31-2015, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by Klatu

A few years back, I realized that my favorite jazz guitar sounds came from Peter Bernstein's Zeidler guitar. I thought the magical combination was a carved top guitar with a floating pickup into a Fender style amp, but I've heard enough attempts at that sound using that equipment to come to the conclusion that it's not quite as simple as that. That said, I was recently turned on to a promising young guitarist named Graham Dechter that has a sound to rival Peter's IMO (BTW, thanks to whoever it was who first posted about Graham).

What would you consider to be your tonal reference?

Thanks for turning me onto Graham Dechter. I wasn't familiar with him and agree his tone and playing is wonderful.

I've slowly morphed over the years as to who/what my jazz guitar tone is... First it was specific recordings of Joe Pass. Then it morphed into specific recordings by Jim Hall. Then to tones by Grant Green. Then to tones by Bob DeVos. While all those are still tonal influences today, especially Grant Green and Bob DeVos, these days it's all about Peter Bernstein for me.

**jazzimprov** · 03-31-2015, 03:57 PM

Tony Purrone -- (a hidden great!)

**bluemusic4us** · 03-31-2015, 04:41 PM

Wes - always in a league of his own
Kenny Burrell - nice woody sound
George Benson - makes his guitar come alive
Joe Pass - on his 175

**StevieB** · 03-31-2015, 05:36 PM

I love Joe Diorio's tone on this wonderful homage to Jobim.

**Archie** · 03-31-2015, 08:20 PM

George benson 'Shadow of Your Smile' (Guild)

George Benson 'Billies Bounce' (dont know could be Guild or D'angelico?)

Howard Roberts 'Dirty old Bossa' (Gibson Es-175 modded?)

Kenny Wheeler (Nicolette) Like Jim said, the tone with the music. No one sounds like Bill and it suits Kenny's style so well.

**cosmic gumbo** · 04-01-2015, 01:00 AM

I like John Abercrombie's sound with Holland, Wheeler type projects.

**palindrome** · 04-01-2015, 01:31 AM

I understood the OP's question "What would you consider to be your tonal reference?" not so much as "What do you like best?" as "What is the yardstick sound for your ears to calibrate to?"

Which is a good question IMO.

That is to say, much as I like some of the sounds I get to hear from Abercrombie or Rosenwinkel, these directions are not what I would personally default to (say, after taking a hiatus from guitar, which does happen once in a while).

**Archie** · 04-01-2015, 06:20 AM

Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo

I like John Abercrombie's sound with Holland, Wheeler type projects.

He played an Ibanez Artist too just like this

Favorite jazz guitar sound-ibanez-ar-305-20-jpg

**iim7V7IM7** · 04-01-2015, 10:50 PM

I have a great deal of difficulty deconfounding "tone" from a great performance by a player. The former goes a very long way to overcome the other. There are many players whose tone I like very much. One of my favorite guitarists is Martin Taylor. I find his solo tone when playing with his Mike Vanden guitar with a dual magnetic/piezo system a distinct sound that incorporates some the acoustic presence that many of us experience as players with the audience.

**mr quick** · 04-02-2015, 06:08 AM

Jake Reichbart has a similar tone:

**stellarstar** · 04-02-2015, 08:40 PM

Fender Single Coil Guitars with the neck pickup thru Fender Twin Reverbs, Princetons Reverbs, DLX Reverbs, HRD's, etc. With the tone knob a bit rolled back depending on right hand technique, not to forget a little bit of spring reverb are my favorite guitar sounds. I like how articulate that set up sounds, when you a chord you can hear all of the separate voices so vividly and fluidly. It's not muddy or that dark , but not jangly or too bright at all. The perfect sound to me.

I really dig how Gibson ES's sound through Fender Amps, I really love the sounds of Reinier Baas and Martijn van Iterson. Most of the favorite guitar sounds come for semi-hollow and solid body guitars through Fender amps. Most of the time I hear big Hollow archtops, I don't hear the cutting clarity and I typically like, but really that's most likely the players and how they like their archtops to sound. I think Tal Farlow had the perfect archtop sound to my ears, it was relatively bright and cutting, but the attack and decay of his instrument not to forget his playing inflection is what makes it so good to hear for me.

**vinlander** · 04-03-2015, 08:44 AM

Jazz guitar tone can be very subjective, I like this way:

Might not be Tal's best but I dig the tone so much

**Giraku** · 04-03-2015, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7

I have a great deal of difficulty deconfounding "tone" from a great performance by a player. The former goes a very long way to overcome the other. There are many players whose tone I like very much. One of my favorite guitarists is Martin Taylor. I find his solo tone when playing with his Mike Vanden guitar with a dual magnetic/piezo system a distinct sound that incorporates some the acoustic presence that many of us experience as players with the audience.

I'm also a big fan of Martin Taylor. Actually, I ended up owning his Peerless signature model (Maestro). I really wanted to buy a Vanden, but clearly it was out of my reach. I also joined his Fingerstyle Academy and learned that he uses Elixir Nanoweb Electric Heavy Gauge on most of his guitars and T-Rex Room Mate Tube Reverb pedal before DI. Following this combination through my Henriksen JazzAmp 112ER, I get pretty close to his tone.

**threetwoone** · 04-12-2015, 06:11 PM

This is a sound that I love

**jbernstein91** · 04-12-2015, 08:43 PM

Among my favorite jazz guitar sounds:

**Klatu** · 02-13-2016, 03:24 PM

**Greentone** · 02-13-2016, 04:21 PM

Good call on Graham Dechter. Soulful playing and great tone. Heck, Jeff Hamilton and John Clayton are going to set anybody up to shine. Hamilton was Ray Brown's drummer. Clayton was Brown's student...he inherited that BIG tone and I think that's Ray's old Czech bass, if I am not mistaken. A Mel Bay Grade One student playing "Six Five Jive" will sound good with those guys, and Dechter is a real pro.

**helios** · 02-13-2016, 05:45 PM

Jim Hall with his HB1 fitted D'Aquisto is another favorite sound:

**Cunamara** · 02-13-2016, 07:19 PM

Thanks to everybody for sharing some of their favorite tones. The difference in taste that we have is really varied and shows the myth of the "jazz guitar tone" very clearly.

**IbanezAS100** · 02-14-2016, 05:38 AM

Originally Posted by Klatu

I really liked Ronnie Jordan's tone, and what a lovely instrument he's playing. Any idea who built it?

That's a Woody Phifer guitar. Jim posted about it some time ago:

Ronny jordan's Woody Phifer

**blackcat** · 02-14-2016, 08:44 AM

Love this guy's playing - seems he can play pretty well anything...................

Discovered him and several of his countrymen when researching my DV Little Jazz ( still v.happy with it ).

BTW, does anyone else think 'Ted Greene' towards the end of this track by Kurt Rosenwinkel - or is it just me?

So many superb sounding players and I tend to subscribe to Jim Soloway's view on this one.

**Tal_175** · 12-05-2019, 09:27 AM

I'm usually not a big fan of the electric sounds of boutique, acoustically lively archtops, but nevertheless I agree that Peter Bernstein gets some of the best tones I've heard from his Zeidler: