Fender Stratocaster for Jazz?

**voxsss** · 07-13-2020, 08:08 AM

**John A.** · 07-13-2020, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar

Another thing about the Strat is that it emphasizes higher frequencies than a typical humbucker guitar.

To my ear, for comping, that can blend really well with the sound of a band, even a big band. Maybe especially a big band.

There's more separation from the bass and it's thin enough to separate nicely from the keyboard, again, for comping.

I think the thinness doesn't readily work so well for soloing, but, clearly it can. Doesn't Lorne Lofsky play a Strat? He sounds incredible in a big band setting.

I heard Mike Stern play a Strat with Miles Davis. There's some strat-cred in that.

A stock Strat played clean has its own sound that you can emphasize or de-emphasize to a degree, but you can never really get it to the point where it's not recognizably a Strat (the way you can do with a Tele). You can get it pretty warm sounding. I don't have any good recordings of my Strat in a straightahead group context, but I think these hint at it. Other than that, take my word for it (or not), but I can play my Strat with a jazz group and have it sound nice and fat and sit well in the group sound either soloing or comping, but not to mimic my archtop or semi. I do have to admit, thought, that it took me a long time to figure that out, and it's more dependent on the right amp than the other guitars. My semi works with anything -- no matter what I plug into, I can get a decent jazz tone. But there are amps the Strat doesn't get along with.

. [silverface plug-in in Garageband)

(I actually forgot what amp I used here, but it's either my Fender Champion 20 on the Deluxe Reverb setting or my SF Princeton Reverb; I've used it with both of these in groups to good effect).

John

**Average Joe** · 07-15-2020, 06:36 AM

Strats may be the single most malleable type of electric guitar in terms of sounds. It's true that you have to work a bit to get a classic jazz sound from them, but Chris Crocco sure does:

Nir Felder's sound is also close to mainstream:

And if you don't mind it sounding more conventionally like a strat, then it'll certainly fit idiomatically into jazz

**DanielW** · 07-15-2020, 04:36 PM

Great thread, I stumbled on it, and the forum, researching exactly this topic: Getting jazz sounds out of your Strat.

I play an 80's ESP Strat with 0.10–0.46 strings and the original pickups. So, not ideal for that sound. But I plugged it into my EBS bass amp, gave it some spring reverb, and at least I'm having fun improvising over drum and piano tunes.

Thanks a lot for all the inspiration! Might look into changing pickups and strings later. Or get a Les Paul.

**citizenk74** · 07-15-2020, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by DanielW

Great thread, I stumbled on it, and the forum, researching exactly this topic: Getting jazz sounds out of your Strat.I play an 80's ESP Strat with 0.10–0.46 strings and the original pickups. So, not ideal for that sound. But I plugged it into my EBS bass amp, gave it some spring reverb, and at least I'm having fun improvising over drum and piano tunes.

Thanks a lot for all the inspiration! Might look into changing pickups and strings later. Or get a Les Paul.

Beefier, flatwound strings might yield a "jazzier" tone. Back in the day, Strats were shipped with flats. You might find the sound and feel compelling.

**waltf** · 07-16-2020, 10:40 AM

Got a surprising warm sound out of this, even without tone knob and 9's

. If it didn't have the floyd rose i would keep it. Great neck.

Fender Stratocaster for Jazz?-dsc05356-jpg

**Greentone** · 07-16-2020, 11:56 AM

FWIW, I love Stratocasters and Telecasters. I'll take one or the other to rehearsal today, in fact.

If I'm playing in a band, I will often use either one because they sit in the mix so well. By comparison, my archtops require a more spare setting. Trio/quartet--archtops work well; solo or duo, the archtop gets the nod.

Again, for solo jazz/for backing a singer/for playing in a trio, it's hard to beat a good archtop. Still, it's hard to resist just grabbing a Strat and running. I know that I can make it work.

Strat for jazz? Sure.

Dutchbopper · 11-23-2021, 03:11 PM

Dutch guitarist Tiago Lageiro boppin' out with Joey Francesco on his Haar Stratocaster. Erik van de Haar is a Dutch luthier building high end, custom made Strats and Teles.

Nice dry poppin' tone on this one.

DB

**kris** · 11-23-2021, 03:47 PM

Great stuff!
Thanks DB for the video link.
Best
Kris
ps.
What gauge of strings use Tiago with Strat?

**Rob MacKillop** · 11-23-2021, 04:35 PM

Sounds good to me.

Dutchbopper · 11-23-2021, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by kris

Great stuff!
Thanks DB for the video link.
Best
Kris
ps.
What gauge of strings use Tiago with Strat?

No idea, sorry Kris.

DB

**AlsoRan** · 11-23-2021, 07:37 PM

Originally Posted by Dutchbopper

Dutch guitarist Tiago Lageiro boppin' out with Joey Francesco on his Haar Stratocaster. Erik van de Haar is a Dutch luthier building high end, custom made Strats and Teles.

Nice dry poppin' tone on this one.

DB

You weren't lying about the tone being "dry." Reminded me of the tone I heard on a song from Tal Farlow. Great description and nice playing by that fellow.

**gitman** · 11-23-2021, 07:43 PM

Sounds fine to me - I think I hear some slight limiting, heavy strings+pick, and hum before the gate cuts it out. He would sound REALLY great on an archtop though !

**Stringswinger** · 11-23-2021, 08:12 PM

Sounds great. I have always felt that a Strat with a rosewood board makes for a fine jazz guitar and I have played many jazz gigs on a Strat myself.

**jim777** · 11-24-2021, 01:51 AM

That was great

thanks for that, it was fun to listen to!

**kris** · 11-24-2021, 03:07 AM

Originally Posted by Dutchbopper

No idea, sorry Kris.

DB

Diago is as we can hear very talented.Heard some of his Trio recordings.
Great virtual Duo with legendary organist.
Best
kris

**TedBPhx** · 11-24-2021, 12:55 PM

The new live action Cowboy Bebop on Netflix emphasizes the jazz music I did not remember from the anime.

**Peter C** · 10-15-2022, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by John A.

help selecting a jazz oriented stratocaster?

Check out this thread. FWIW, I've kept my American Std stock. This is what it sounds like, through a MicroCube and a cellphone (it's better through a better signal chain)
Summertime in Ft. Tryon Park:

John

Doing some research on the subject and came across this thread.

This is an old post, but I think this is a very usable jazz tone which would cut through nicely in an ensemble situation. Proves that you don't need much (portable amp and a phone) in order to make a valuable, "eloquent" contribution to a thread, though I don't think John got any replies - until now!

People prefer blah-blah to actual sounds?

**johny_gtr** · 07-23-2023, 03:11 PM

After the course I've finally found this forum.

I have both tele ('52 AVRI) and strat ('62 CS) guitar. Both are good for playing jazz but I didn't try to recreate 'classic' jazz guitar sounds 1-1.

Strat pickups could be with piercing highs but it's quite easy to achieve a dark sound for a neck pickup or neck-middle position:
1) turn off a volume a bit and a tone for a half
2) change pickups - my strat equipped with nacho-poblano pickups which are quite hot and neck is not screaming at all
3) at home, when I use Fender Princeton Reverb I put Chase Tone Secret Preamp (EP-3 delay preamp circuit) in middle or dark mode. During the night solo jams I use Tonex with tweed amp models (for heavy mids + light fuzzy sound) + Hitsville chamber reverb (which is tend to recreate motown studio reverb).
These 3 points create a very pleasant feel of sound appropriate to jazz guitar music for my taste.
I also swapped to flatwounds as an experiment with mixed feeling of it

There is a distinctive difference between 52' tele neck pickup and 62'strat poblano neck pickup, but with amps/tone models and room/artificial reverb there is a lot more difference in tone than the difference between pickups.