The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    As I play traditional, old style jazz tunes I tend to go without pedals for rehearsals. For gigs, I bring utility pedals like a tuner and equalizer.
    Here is where a Roland cube / Fender Mustang amp comes handy, if the odd song in your gig requires a special sound or ambiance effect, you can rely on an amp with (good) built-in effects capabilities

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

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    i have tons of pedals, love 'em.

  4. #28

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    I used to use a compression pedal. I don't know why so I gave that to my son. A also used an equalizer pedal and that was very useful when I couldn't get a particular sound with the amp I was using. It didn't really change the sound itself that much but I used the amp controls as a coarse adjustment and the eq as the fine tuning to get rid of harshness, smooth the sound out, and clear up certain notes. With respect to clearing up the notes, what I mean is I was able to get the top 3 strings nice and clear while at the same time make the bottom 3 smoother like my electric bass was. Don't forget, I play solo and that filled out what I was doing.

  5. #29

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    Jim Hall played here a few weeks ago. He had a couple of pedals on a chair next to him and kept fiddling with them. He had a ring modulator, an octave double, and maybe a volume pedal.

    After the gig I was talking with the drummer. He said he tried to dissuade Jim from using pedals, but Jim felt he had to keep current! This from a grand master of jazz guitar who will be eighty years old this year and (with or without pedals) plays as progressive and contemporary as anyone around.

    Don't ask me the point of this story. It just seems kind of funny.

    Personally, I don't use pedals, but I realize that a volume pedal would probaby be helpful as opposed to fiddling with the knob on my guitar.

  6. #30

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    I use a tuner (i like playing in tune) a bad monkey OD(not as an overdrive but as a boost AND as an EQ pedal, it has high and low controls that are VERY responsive), and sometime when its called upon the good ole wah. Also like some verb from the amp

  7. #31

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    Bill Frisell obviously uses pedals.

    Scofield does, too.

    Sheryl Bailey uses a harmonizer pedal (I think) set to a really small value for a chorus-like effect without the warble.

    Do you like pedals? Play with some. Are you wondering if you'd like pedals? No way to tell without trying.

    I have a box full of pedals, and routinely pull them out for fun.

    Also, a looper is a must-have for students, IMO.

  8. #32

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    listening to george b the other day, noticed that a pedal was being used, not 100% sure so drama queens please excuse me if i happen to be wrong.

    being a hobbyist, sofa player, i'm leaning towards jazz guitar for the cleanliness. love listening to overdriven effects found in modern rock, alternative, but simply have no need for all that stuff, prefer to try and emulate that stuff via my acoustic flat top

  9. #33

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    The Effects world has changed rapidly in the last 5 years. The latest trend uses a computer plug-in adpator (iRig, Apogee JAM),a mechanical pedal to control the effects with your foot, and virtual pedals downloaded via software selections (e.g. AmpKit on Ipad). Digitech has just released an interesting iSTOMP pedal that "morphs" into one of a variety of traditional pedals using an Ipad interface.

    I play Big Band Jazz and have tinkered with most of the above with little success. They are biased to sell guitars to young players for heavy rock, blues, heavy metal guitar - that does not interest me.

    At present, I use an old Digitech RP80 Pedal with its cleanest programmed options (for me # 1, # 5, #15) and feed the stereo output into a pair of small easy-to-carry ZT amplifiers. It does the job for rhythm guitar and my rare solo - even in a large auditorium.

    Hope this helps...

    J2B

  10. #34

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    Always wanted a Yamaha UD Stomp to get that Alan Holdsworth, mid eighties chorused effect. The problem is, Yamaha discontinued the UD. You can find them on ebay, but the price is high ($500.00?). So, I picked up a used Yamaha Magic Stomp for $100.00 from GC. It has 3 very good UD presets on..the beauty of it is, you can dump presets 101+, hook the thing up to a computer, and download practically all of the UD presets. As everyone likes the "clean" sound these days, I really like the multiple delay chorused sound the Metheny and Holdsworth were using 20 years ago. Unfortunately, for a poor man like me, I cannot afford a Lexicon PCM series unit so the UD fits in very well with what I'm doing. Other key pedals I am using...a Hermida Zendrive ("Dumble in a box") ,and a BK Butler Tube driver. Just my two cents...

  11. #35

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    One of the pedals I recently bought that really allowed me to get my sound was a Monte Allums Boss GE-7 - it's an graphic eq and a clean boost. The graphic eq allows me to dial back boominess and / or ice pick and the clean boost allows me to run the amp louder at lower volumes which i seem to like more. I am also addicted to delay and reverb.

    On the non-essential side I like RATs and Tube Screamers and I am thinking about getting a Micro Pog.

  12. #36

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    If the early Jazz Guitarist mimiced sax leads, why don't more people use a wah petal to mimic muted trumpet leads. I like the treble boost I get esp when I use the varitone on my Gibson 137 Custom.

  13. #37

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    I am not a big effects guy, but especially when you have a cheesy Fender Champ, you need something occasionally. For about 19 years I had a Korg A4, but it broke last year so I picked up a Korg Pandora. Fits in the palm of your hand and does 30 times as much stuff as the old A4 did!

  14. #38

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    i primarily get my reverb and tremolo from Fender blackface style amps.

    for modulation, i lean heavily on a Subdecay Quasar DLX or a Foxrox Paradox TZF. the Subdecay is a phase pedal with lots of different options. it can even do weird stuff like Zappa's "Ship Ahoy" random filter tone, or be a ring modulator. the TZF is basically the world's greatest flanger.

    delay is handled by either a Jacques Prisoner or a BOSS DD7. that said, i'd may ditch both of them in favor of a Way Huge Super Puss when that pedal hits the stores. the Prisoner does a fantastic short modulated delay. think EHX DMM, but without the giant size or noise issues. the DD7 has a great tap tempo and longer delay times, but that's about all it's got going for it. hopefully the Super Puss combines the best of both worlds.

    for jazz, i'd probably use my MI Audio Tube Zone. i could use a RAT clone i have, or a Way Huge Red Llama clone, but i think they're a bit too fuzzy/gainy for what i want.

  15. #39

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    Hey guys, I have a question of similar plateau - I have a Laney amp that I'm very happy with, but the problem is it's size sometimes causes me problems when bringing it to gigging venues. I'm just wondering - since the sound master guy wants me to plug into his speakers most of the time anyways, is there an alternative, like a pedal to just plug my guitar and let it play through the speakers?

    Obviously, the most important thing is quality of sound - do you guys know any pedals that have that nice warm jazz tone? If it would have some kind of an overdrive that would be great, but for me the important thing is the tone of the clean channel and also light reverb.

    Thanks a lot for your help

  16. #40

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    I think the lack of discussion of effects pedals, at least in a jazz context, is probably as they seem to be rarely used, and when they are used, very sparingly. I know Jim Hall occasionally uses pedals, but I'm struggling to think of other bop/classic jazz guys that use pedals.
    My personal thoughts on pedals are, 'If it fits the context of the band or song then great, if not, leave it out'. When I'm playing in a trio I think a touch, just a touch mind, of delay and reverb, especially on ballads can give a nice slightly fuller sound.
    Of course when we get into the realms of Scofield and Stern and some of the more rock, funk and fusion-y players, a couple of overdrives and chorus pedals seems more normal.

  17. #41

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    So all the new guys (mostly post 1990) who play clean with effects - Rosenwinkel, Lund, Hekselman, Kreisberg, Monder, Rogers - don't play jazz?

  18. #42

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gediminas
    Hey guys, I have a question of similar plateau - I have a Laney amp that I'm very happy with, but the problem is it's size sometimes causes me problems when bringing it to gigging venues. I'm just wondering - since the sound master guy wants me to plug into his speakers most of the time anyways, is there an alternative, like a pedal to just plug my guitar and let it play through the speakers?

    Obviously, the most important thing is quality of sound - do you guys know any pedals that have that nice warm jazz tone? If it would have some kind of an overdrive that would be great, but for me the important thing is the tone of the clean channel and also light reverb.

    Thanks a lot for your help
    Do you want something with reverb to attach to speakers? You have some jazz solid state heads that would do the job - Henriksen, Evans, Polytone, Acoustic Image, Mambo, etc... A preamp is not enough to load a speaker you need an actual amp (pre plus power) to do that.

  19. #43

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    I've got a feeling I could have had a better choice of words. I certainly did not mean to suggest that jazz has to be clean with no effects. They are all great players and have great sound and tone. It's just, you don't often hear loads of overdrive the same way you would hear overdrive in say, blues or rock, although many jazz players do use overdrive. It's just, I can't imagine seeing a band where the guitarist uses anything more than a touch of overdrive, for more grit during a solo, delay and maybe some chorus. The use of effects is entirely subjective and of course down to the individual.

  20. #44

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    The Zoom G3 is a great unit to check out for those interested in pedals and/or digital modeling. The version 2.0 firmware just released makes it even better

  21. #45

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    earthquaker devices tone job (eq) Products > Boost & EQ > Tone Job

    digitech polara (reverb) Polara | DigiTech Guitar Effects

    buy them and stop sounding dumb. you owe it to yourself and your country.

    in all seriousness, they are fantastic, and perhaps even "jazz" appropriate. i was a little leery of the polara, given the aesthetics and features, but as a solid, meat and potatoes reverb, i'm finding it to be just great. small size, enough parameters and the algorithms are based on lexicon ones (also found in the discontinued hardwire rv-7, if you want to save a few bucks), which are some of the better spring and plate sounds i've come across, especially at the price point. it does a lot of the whiz/bang stuff if you are into that, but it does the basics well enough you won't need them. one downside is that due to the aesthetic, its sort of hard to read, but that isn't a big deal once you learn the pedal, or if you're a set and forget guy.

    as for the tone job, its a magic box. that's it, really. just magic in a box. you want to thicken your single coils? sure. thin out your humbuckers? fine. fill out your tiny cab? easy. have an instant "jazz" sound with the highs and mids rolled back a touch? no problem. need a tone stack for an overly simple amp? its right there. alternate sound/channel without messing with your base sound or having to fiddle with the amp? yup. reign in a problematic guitar, or simulate a pickup swap? that, too, and so on and so on. its just so many things, done simply and done very, very well. i'm still finding uses for it. already own two and am contemplating another.

    its great for the slightly skittish who don't want to pay a lot, don't want to mess with a bunch of sliders and knobs, and don't understand much about shelves and q and frequency bands and so on. its sort of hard to explain until its right in front of you and it all makes sense. i knew i wanted an eq but now i understand why. its somehow not the same as fiddling with your amp. its like you're shaping your guitar's sound, not your amp's, so you still get "your" tone. just different.

    these two pedals, plus a tuner would be enough for me as a grab and go for the clean, solo stuff. went a little nutty with the black friday/holiday sales, and i have a few winners to show for it. thought i'd share.

    Pedals for the Jazz Guitarist?-digitech-polara-jpg
    Attached Images Attached Images Pedals for the Jazz Guitarist?-88009ae4757ff80589d4f5cdd4d75c36-jpg 

  22. #46

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    Thanks for the reviews!

    My Richter tube amp doesn't have reverb, and I like a little 'verb for certain things, so I recently grabbed a used "Topanga" spring reverb pedal by Catalinbread. Topanga - Catalinbread It's my second pedal from them, and I like their stuff.

  23. #47

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    wow, the topanga is awesome. its supposed to the tbe best as far as spring in a pedal goes. its a little much for me, but i did think about it. i really like their talisman, as i tend to be more of a plate guy, but i wanted something more... lunch pail, i guess. i didn't want to spend a lot and just wanted a solid, ham and egger type pedal, and the polara turned out to be more than that.

    what's your other catalinbread? i have a belle epoch which i just love, with one massive caveat, which i think most of their pedals suffer from- the preamp that you can't exactly turn off. is that a problem with the topanga? i also had a naga viper that was surprisingly useful in a jazz context, but pretty neat otherwise. wish i still had it so i could give it a better shot.

    i'm also excited about the new turbo tuner: Strobe Tuners by Sonic Research - Turbo Tuner Home Page i have two of the old larger ones, and i'd like to replace my tc electronics polytune mini, because that kind of sucks. expensive for a tuner, but you see where the money goes right away.

  24. #48

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    I have the Belle Epoch, too.
    There are some internal controls on the Belle -- have you played with those?

  25. #49

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    great pedal, right? yeah, i have mine set to unity. i used to run in in trails mode but the preamp was adding a little grit to my sound because its in front of a 15 watt amp. its a great sounding preamp, i just wish i had the ability to control it and turn it on/off as needed. if it was on a separate footswitch, it would be the best. alas, that's just how they make things- to replicate the experience of the older stuff. a little too accurately for my tastes, though.

    i haven't tried the super secret easter egg as that sound doesn't really appeal to me.

    its worth noting that i was having issues with the belle cutting in and out and taking my signal with it. i shot them an email, they had me send it in, and the replaced the switch and sent it back, free of charge. great service, great folks.

  26. #50

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    My fav. pedals these days: Tech 21 Paradriver DI, EarthQuaker Dispatch Master Reverb. With those 2 I can plug in in anything and find a sound I'm looking for!