Perfect Jazz Guitar?

[garybaldy]

i wonder what gauge those flats are, they look like ropes. 13g TI's ? The sound is immaculate, and soo diff than me ES-150. Im in lust

To which post are you referring?
BTW TI 13 sets have lighter gauge strings than most.

[SOLR]

To which post are you referring?
BTW TI 13 sets have lighter gauge strings than most.

I assume this is the post referred to :

S

[jaymen]

If there was a perfect, or "best" jazz guitar, it has surely eluded me!
Of course the one you want is always unavailable for multiple reasons, mainly price, no longer in production, or in a museum, or the owner refuses to part with it!

It seems to be a moving target, depending or your current set list and latest techniques you are into. It changes as we grow musically.

So you have to have one of each in your quiver, right?

[Dean_G]

gravyTrain View Post
Ovation guitars, with the rounded plastic back sound great.

Never in my ~55 year of playing guitar did I ever hear -- or even expect to hear -- that particular sentence!!!!

Here's an image from an interview with Dennis Budimir that offers a different perspective on ovation. Also I've always dug the sound McLaughlin got on his duos from My Goals Beyond. Beautiful sound and playing on that.

[RJVB]

Never in my ~55 year of playing guitar did I ever hear -- or even expect to hear -- that particular sentence!!!!

Well ... at least 1 person must have thought that Chet's quacky piezo-nylon sound sounded great ...

[Django Johnson]

Do you have any clips of you playing jazz on it? It's so hard to find people who use these for that purpose, and my gut tells me they'd be fantastic.

Gypsy/Manouche jazz guitarist Oscar Aleman was known to use one in the the 1930's. This fellow demonstrates it in this video.

Here's a 1930's recording of Aleman using one.

[Dean_G]

Great to hear that Aleman clip. I read somewhere that during WW2 the Nazi s confiscated his National and it was eventually melted down with other metal stuff for bullets etc. Just another reason not to play a metallic resonator guitar these days. I keep mine hidden.

[Sleeko]

Go Larry, sounding fine on his Cort archtop!

[jaymen]

Update:
A few months ago I scored a 2003 Gibson ES-165 Herb Ellis.
It has quickly become a favorite, especially after I added an under the pickguard tone control pot to it. ( WD500K A and .015 cap)
It had .010" Slinkys on it but I put on .011" JS111 TIs on it to warm up the tone.

[Bazlen]

Telecaster. Hands down. Sounds good with flatwounds. Gibson are great but less convenient.

[Little Jay]

I am starting to use my (DIY) ES-330 more and more for jazz and it’s really good at it!

[snoskier63]

Any of these would fit the bill.

These first two are Guild and Ren Ferguson’s efforts to replicate Guild’s late 50’s Johnny Smith Award and X-500 models.


These two are recent acquisitions, and are both amazing guitars! The first is an Eastman Romeo, which is Eastman and Otto D’Ambrosio’s archtop take on the telecaster, but mostly hollow, and with a solid carved spruce top and a pair of custom wound Lollar Imperial pickups. The second is an Eastman T49D/TV, which is Eastman’s take on the 1957 ES-175, with a pair of Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups for vintage tone.

[BeboppeurUSA]

Hello all,

I'm coming to this thread very late but the topic never really grows old. I haven't read every post so it's possible/probable someone else has covered this issue: but I'm nearing 70 and I have small hands with early arthritis. So my point is this: you need to have a guitar that is ergonomically suited to your physique.

I like guitars with a scale length of 25 inches or less, simply because I can't stretch that far. Also, thinner body guitars can be more comfortable if you are playing in the standing position a lot.

Finally, I'm quite deaf now so guitars that project some volume acoustically (before plugging in) are more enticing and you are more likely to play them frequently. In my experience that's true anyway.

For jazz, classic designs like the ES-175 are great and have stood the test of time. I used the word "design" because there are many brands available that copy this basic format, not just Gibson. While vintage American guitars are wonderful, really excellent guitars have been coming out of Asia for decades. You just need to go to a store and try them out.

Finally, I was initially a bit snobbish towards Eastman guitars but, now that I have played a number of them, I am totally impressed by their instruments.

And, finally finally, among the slightly more affordable US guitar makers, you need to check out Heritage guitars, and the Hamer Newport variants.

[markb]

Everyone knows this is quite subjective. Nothing new. Tele's can sound fantastic in a Jazz setting. Even my 1980 Tokai LS120 (LP) works but my personal favorite is the Benedetto Bambino Elite that I'm very lucky to own.

[jaymen]

Nice Guilds and Eastmans, but they all, IMO, have clumsy looking head stock outlines; just a little too much over the top, where simple would be more elegant.

[Eck]

I am starting to use my (DIY) ES-330 more and more for jazz and it’s really good at it!

Didn’t you have a 25.5 neck on it?


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[ROCK1]

I've been playing over 60 years and have had them all, L5,L4,175,Collings,Stromberg,Trenier and probably my last is my all-time favorite. 2000 Heritage Golden Eagle. I don't play much in public anymore, so I enjoy playing unplugged a great deal. Sounds great acoustically. Great neck so that I barely have to use any pressure on the strings. Nice to look at too.

[Little Jay]

Didn’t you have a 25.5 neck on it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nope, standard 24.75”

[ROCK1]

Recently watched a YouTube with Rich Severson where he rated the top 5 guitars he owns (and it's a lot), and #1 was a Heritage Golden Eagle (late 1990's). I own a 2000 and it's the best guitar I've ever played. 17" may not be foe everybody, but the sound, even unplugged, neck and the way it looks have me hooked.

[Cunamara]

In your opinion, what would you describe as the best all-round jazz guitar, either currently produced or out-of-production, and what makes it so amazing?

just for fun

I can't recall if I've posted to this thread before, but...

IMHO the best jazz guitar ever made was Johnny Smith's 1955 D'Angelico. Of course I say that without ever playing it or hearing it in person! But it reset the standard of top-end archtop guitars: 17" x 3", 25" scale, floating pickup, etc. As Bob Benedetto noted, "we're living in Johnny Smith's world."

For mortals, the ES-175 is the standard of jazz guitars; the L5CES also, but generally reserved for the better-heeled among us.