Guitar choice and playing style

[matt.guitarteacher]

Definitely influenced by the instrument I'm playing. They all inspire something different. I played nylon string for a while, and learned to play more "in between" stuff, as there's less sustain. In the same way, I played almost exclusively fingerstyle the last few years and, taking up a pick again recently, I've found that the way I play with a pick is now different because of the fingerstyle playing.

[Cunamara]

What a great question! I would say that on the different guitars that I use for gigs (Tele, 17" carvetop, GB10 and Turner Renaissance RN-6) I play differently or at least feel different when I play. But when I listen back to recordings I don't sound much different o the different guitars in terms of what I play, with the exception of the RN-6 with nylon strings; I seem to play differently then.

[vernon]

Each new guitar and amp has challenged and inspired me to go further... to play more. The Fender Strat opened a whole new electrified world. First tube amp... WOW!!! Gibson 335 forced me to enter the jazz guitar universe, buy the Real Books and learn the exotic harmonic language of flat 5's and sharp 9's. Asher lap steel brought me into the steel guitar nation and made me realize I didn't hate country as much as I thought I did and introduced me again to David Lindley and for the first time to Greg Leisz. I put together a parts-o-caster vintage tele and discovered that you could order the parts and put together a 2k guitar for 1k!!! Then came the jump to a Heritage Custom Eagle... what an amazing sounding instrument! Then came the Quilter Aviator head and the Raezer's Edge cabs. To the op question - I think each instrument calls forth something unique from within. The feel the sound the touch all lead me in a certain direction to a certain place. The diversity makes me a better player because the more I play the more proficient I become - and the better I can play, the more fun I have making music. It's a win/win/win scenario in my book. The joy is in the journey.

[kenbennett]

At certain points along my guitar-playing time line, specific guitars have definitely opened my ears to what is possible. Guitars teach me things about sound.

This extends also to everything in the musical environment which includes all the equipment, playing techniques, setup, band mates, acoustical space, and audience, as well as other players that I listen to.

This is sort of complicated, but I have tried to simplify it. I don't own any guitars that I didn't build myself. And I learned a long time ago what I want a guitar to feel like. I'd like to think that in a blind playing test you would be able to play my solid body electric, my flattop acoustic, and my archtop and you would be able to feel something in common. I use the same nut width, neck shape, and fretboard radius on all three models. The strings would be a little different, but the necks feel a lot alike. Even so, they obviously behave very differently.

The reason I want three guitars (or maybe 4 or 5) is to have the necessary variety of tools to do a variety of different jobs. So, yes, I do play differently in very basic ways on different guitars. In other words, I don't want 2 of the same guitar type. One of each is enough.

Back to an example what specific guitars have taught me. In college I studied classical. I decided not to pursue it as a profession (it seemed like too much work just to focus on one style), but I learned a few things that I could use forever. I had a good nylon string guitar and some very good teachers. The discipline of classical fingerpicking techniques and the magnificent tone produced by the rest stroke influenced everything I do, even down to my choice of pick and how I use it on electric and steel string acoustics. One night a guy came up and starting talking to me about my tone. I was playing the flattop acoustic at a cover gig. He said I was getting tones that sounded almost exactly like a nylon string. It was no accident.

Guitars are versatile instruments, but you can only stretch them so far. Ultimately if you need something different, you have to at least change the strings and tweak the setup and the rig, or simply pick up an entirely different guitar! (Then you still have to tweak the rig.)

It's a very valid point, and it's partly because of our own habits... oh, and the expectations of the listener. That's another problem for me. I am NOT a purist in any sense of the word. I'll play anything ON anything if I can get away with it. Most people want to hear things a certain way. I have always tended to mash things up. Even when I don't get away with it, it usually turns out later that somebody else does the same thing, or the whole trend was going that way whether I knew it or not.

So, I never cared whether I was off in the weeds, or merely 10 years ahead of my time. I just do what I do, and it's the fucking guitar that makes me do it!

[fep]

For the most part the guitars don't affect my approach except:

My strat with .010 top strings and I'll do some bending

My nylon I almost always play with fingers only (though I'll also play with fingers on my other guitars, I'll also use a pick with my other guitars also)

[kenbennett]

I just realized what I said. I took the lessons that one kind of guitar taught me and applied them to another guitar type. In a way this overcomes the original poster's concept that the kind of guitar dictates the kind of playing. What I'm saying is that even though different guitars taught me different things, I figured out ways of transferring some of those things to different types of guitars.

It seems that I've learned to push some guitars into areas where they don't naturally belong. So, in a way I'm overcoming, to a certain extent, the natural differences in guitars.

However, that does not change the fact that when you pick up a certain kind of guitar, you naturally tend to play a certain way. That's the point, right? It seems true enough.

[Jonah]

There were quite practical reasons why they played Gibsons those days... it was the best thing around - and it was really around, quite affordable...
and the market was different... the big guitar brands were more competitive and creative... they were really brands not just lables.
Those days players did not have 5-6 guitars for that and for that .. because there was not 'that or that' .. they did one style usually... and they often played the same guitar for many years...
It's after 60s when fusion came it all fused... I think that the main idea became that it should be mixed, florid.. and often it did not matter that much what the components of this mixture are...
And last point - jazz came far out of America to the regions where these guitars are just not available so eality...

If we take top players today they either go to non-traditional type of guitar for jazz (rock-guitar, classical or whatever) or more or less typical archtop but expensive and produced by luthier (or small producer) or customized guitars of other brands.... it is more to the day actually...

Gibson at least with archtops actully put itslef at the museum - and maybe conciously - because it is a new possibility to keep the sales... they sold it to meet expections of practicing professional musicians before, now to they sell it to meet requirements of rich amateurs...

To avoid misunderstanding.. I don't mean anything wrong against Gibson in general.. today it is still the simplest way probably to a pro (especially in USA) to get a decent Gibson and play it until he finds something personal.. But I don;t think they buy new guitars

[Max405]

Fascinating, and thanks for measuring the scale length. The Gibson site lists it as 24 3/4", but I had seen mention somewhere of a 25 1/2" scale and wondered what was up with that. Maybe that's the one you have - maybe it was a custom order. My Bozeman L-7C is from very early 2004, and has a 24 3/4" scale. Joe Vinikow listed a 2003 (signed by Ren) with a 24 3/4" scale. All the later ones I've played or seen listed were described as having a 24 3/4" scale. Bozeman made very few of these between 2003 and now. I wonder how many they made, and how many have the long scale?

Hammertone,
I have to apologize. I am an idiot. You were absolutely correct. The Scale Length on my L7c is 24-3/4. I honestly don't know how I came up with the measurement I made. This morning I played my 165 and then my L7c and notice the overwhelming similarity in the fingering on the stretch stuff. I put a ruler on it (nut to 12 fret) and low an behold, it was 12-3/8" Double that, 24-3/4. Exactly the same as my 165. I really believed I was right and I wasn't. What a dope I am.
I'm sorry HT. The "master" needs to learn how to read a ruler..
Joe D.

[Hammertone]

No problem….you're from Jersey….fuggedaboudit.

[Doctor Jeff]

I own 20 guitars, 4 solidbodies, 4 flattops and 12 archtops. When I play any of them, I sound like me. If I ever play a guitar that doesn't sound like me, I am going to buy it!

Sounds like you have a guitar problem:

"No, Doc, I can quit anytime I want to..."

;-)

[Doctor Jeff]

I have 9 guitars, some vintage ones just for room decoration really - neck issues, not easy to play - but each of my players I got to fill a niche. Nylon string, thinline, acoustic Archie, Tele - have every kind of pickup except a P90.

I try to play them all periodically just for variety's sake. But I honestly don't think I play standard jazz much differently on any of them.

Interestingly, a friend asked me to play some solo stuff at a dinner party he was having - I had just learned Blackbird by the Beatles and played it into Yesterday (as on the Love album). I started playing on the nylon string, tried it on the Godin 5th Ave. with a floater, but ended up playing it on the Peerless Sunset - sounded cool with some reverb and a touch of chorus.

I just find the Peerless so comfortable and easy to play, and I can get the sounds I like so easily, that it's become my go-to guitar for most occasions.

I think that having a guitar that's comfortable and you don't have to fight with makes you want to play more and allows you to explore and improve all aspects of your playing.

[kris]

Sounds like you have a guitar problem:

"No, Doc, I can quit anytime I want to..."

;-)

I think every guitar player has a "guitar problem"...:-)

[barrymclark]

Inspired somewhat by Richard Ralston, my playing has taken a bit of a bluesier lean in the jazz realm.

That being said, I have a few archtops and a homemade tele. I have found that I don't change what I play because of the guitar I am playing. Instead, my tonal tastes change from time to time.

If I want that wonderful old school acoustic sound, the old Gretsch New Yorker it is. If I want a brighter of dark electric sound, the old Gretsch 6120 it is. If I want a flat top sound, my old Gibson J55 it is. If I want a rounder acoustic sounding electric, then my Heritage Eagle is the way to go. If I want that laminate jazzier tone, Epi E'Reg it is. If I want that dark and syrupy thick electric tone, I go with my Heritage H575 on the neck pickup. If I am in my office and just want to mess around for a minute, that is where my tele comes into play.

[kris]

so who has most orginal sound on arch-top jazz box? is it possible to say who?

[barrymclark]

so who has most orginal sound on arch-top jazz box? is it possible to say who?

I guess I am less interested in whether the sound of their arch top is more original than I am interested in what they do with that sound.

[kris]

I guess I am less interested in whether the sound of their arch top is more original than I am interested in what they do with that sound.

so all play the same jazz box sound...:-)

[oldane]

I tend to strive for three types of sound: One for amplified, one for acoustic single string/chord melody and one for acoustic 4-to-the-bar strumming. Generally I use differetn gutars for the two different types of acoustic playing (due to difference in setup). On my amplified guitars, I strive for the same sound on them all, except I turn the bass down and when doing 4-to-the-bar comping a la Freddie Green on an electric (I use to brush the strings with my thumb in a Wes like manner in that situation).

[Flyin' Brian]

I have a Heritage Prospect, a Sweet 16, a Strat and a Jazzmaster.

Other then using the Sweet 16 for a couple of big band gigs, I play the Prospect for everything. Since I refit it with Fralin P-92 pickups, it covers any style that I might decide to play, from alt rock where it's used with effects for texture, to blues, county and jazz where it's used in the traditional way for each of those genres. With a little tone control tweaking on the guitar and the amp it covers them all. I use Mangan pure nickel 11-48 which I find gives me the right middle ground for all of it. I might like the strings to be a bit lighter for some music or a bit heavier for others, but the difference isn't worth the trouble of restringing re-intonating etc.

So I guess that's a long winded answer for "the guitar I'm choosing is good for all the styles I play".

[barrymclark]

so all play the same jazz box sound...:-)

Not necessarily. Just not that interested in whether or not it is the same jazz box sound.

[redwater]

Nice thread!

I play Jazzguitar for almost 19 years now. I had many guitars and played many guitars from my students.
Gibsons, Yamaha AES, Heritage Eagle, 535, 575, Ibanez GBs, Telecasters, L5, and a bad 175...

I almost felt that every single Guitar of these had its own way of dictating me how and what to play.
I never felt free. Until I stumbled over the ES165 wich behaves a lot more neutral then any other guitar i had played before. It does what I want it to do and it does not have the tendency to be obstructive.

Thats how I want a guitar to be. And maybe any ES175 would do the Job for me but the one I had was horrible.

With Amps its nearly the same story: Now I play thru an acoustic amplifier that does what i want it to do, compared to the other amps I played (Tube and Transistor).

[Cunamara]

so who has most orginal sound on arch-top jazz box? is it possible to say who?

Well, I suppose that would be the first electric archtop players- Charlie Christian, George Barnes and Floyd... Floyd... somebody help me out with Floyd's last name. He was one of the very first to record with an electric guitar. By definition they originated the sound of electric jazz guitar. The rest of us are all derivative.

[Hammertone]

Well, I suppose that would be the first electric archtop players- Charlie Christian, George Barnes and Floyd... Floyd... somebody help me out with Floyd's last name. He was one of the very first to record with an electric guitar. By definition they originated the sound of electric jazz guitar. The rest of us are all derivative.

Floyd Smith played with the Andy Kirk band and they had a big hit with Floyd's Guitar Blues in '39.

[reventlov]

I've had a Gibson, a Gretsch, a Telecaster, a Washburn, a Tokai and several others; every time I turn up at a gig with a new guitar, my long-term bass player tells me 'it sounds just the same as your last one'.

[kris]

I've had a Gibson, a Gretsch, a Telecaster, a Washburn, a Tokai and several others; every time I turn up at a gig with a new guitar, my long-term bass player tells me 'it sounds just the same as your last one'.

change the amp every gig...just my 2 cents..:-)

[kris]

Not necessarily. Just not that interested in whether or not it is the same jazz box sound.

hollow body guitar sound/neck pick up position/- is it jazz guitar sound?