Fender Stratocaster for Jazz?

**Silentwiz** · 01-28-2011, 06:23 PM

I'm all about the strat these days. I love the look of the tele, but the strat is a much more comfortable body style for me. The belly cut/arm cut, etc really make the instrument very comfortable to sit with for extended periods of time.

Everything else is pickup/strings/fingerboard and those bad boys are interchangeable!

**Jim Bastian** · 02-01-2011, 09:10 PM

I have had alot of strats where I put a humbucker in the neck position. makes a much better jazz guitar as opposed to the single coil...the single coil is really tough to get a fat clean tone out of. ANy of the seymour duncan paf types work great....the Fender Big Apple setup is ideal. I like having the strat around for outside gigs where I dont want to take a really expensive archtop.

**Jazzpunk** · 02-08-2011, 08:20 PM

Plenty of guys out their using strats for jazz including Wayne Krantz, Nir Felder and Chris Crocco.

**Retroman1969** · 02-09-2011, 07:51 PM

Those are some fantastic videos guys! Thanks for the links.
Here are a few I've accumulated...

I agree about art in music and form. Could just hang one on the wall as modern art sculpture.

**max chill** · 02-11-2011, 01:39 AM

Is there any guitar designed to be more comfortable than a strat? If you close your eyes and listen, it's a jazz box, if I want it to sound like one.

**Retroman1969** · 02-11-2011, 06:53 AM

You're right Max, and that has been my experience. I've played them (the nicer ones) A/B against many different archtops (in same price range) in music stores through the same amp and with the right settings and picking technique have have gotten as smooth and warm a tone as the archtops (actually better than the lower-medium priced archies). True, that the more expensive Strats are the same price as the Medium to Lower-Medium priced archtops, but that's also part of my point.

**gadabout55** · 02-13-2011, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by Retroman1969

...
Oh and of course there's the old footage of Quentin Warren for further evidence (and he's even using the bridge pup! "position 5")

I have a hard time believing that's the bridge pickup. I think it's more likely that he simply took the selector switch out and reinstalled it backwards, possibly because he might have kept knocking it out of position.

**Retroman1969** · 02-13-2011, 03:53 PM

I got to thinking about that later as well, because that can be an issue on Stratocasters, and I even thought about doing it myself for the same reason.
Of course he's probably playing flatwound .13s or .14s on that thing too. Not that uncommon back then, even on solid bodies.

**heavyblues** · 03-03-2011, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by gadabout55

I have a hard time believing that's the bridge pickup. I think it's more likely that he simply took the selector switch out and reinstalled it backwards, possibly because he might have kept knocking it out of position.

which reminds me...if there is one thing I dislike about strats, its the pickup selector switch. I mean, it makes sense that it rotates vs. being linear since there are 5 positions...but at the same time, for an instrument where you may want to use that crazy trem bar like Hendrix, you would think it makes more sense to have the selector switch more 'locked' down. Anyway...

90% of time i'm playing my strat-caster, which is funny because over these couple years I've removed all of the most 'stratty' things about it- I might as well have just started with a tele in the first place!!

my guitar has no tremolo bar, no single coils, no bridge pup, no middle pup, no selector switch, no second tone knob, no strat style-knobs, no bridge float, and no fender decals....at this point I might as well just call it a solid body accident turned favorite guitar haha (to each his own i guess??) :-)

let the tele-partscaster-space-invasion begin! just kidding ;-)

I like the strat body design in a way and Warmoth-strat headstock though, so that's a plus for some people that like those aspects.

To each his own. So many cool ideas and options here-gotta love the diversity!

**hans halmackenreuter** · 08-08-2011, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by kobrian

I'm using 9s now so I'll move up to 10s until I get used to them and then onto 11s. My trem currently has three springs so I'll add two more. Thanks for the advice. Also, I did finally find someone who actually used a Fender Jazzmaster for Jazz! Joe Pass recorded and album called Sounds of Synanon using a Jazzmaster. (Then again, he was in drug rehab and it was the only guitar they had in the place!). Still, I'm trying to track down the album--I'd love to hear what it sounds like.

in the beginning i used a 50's strat and from time to time i stil like to play on my strat. i have 13 flatwound on it + i blocked my trem to get more sustain. in order to do so try to get rid of the finish between your trem-block and your guitar body and than you have to insert a wood-block between your trem-block and your guitar body.

and by the way, i guess you can skip to an 11 gauge set of strings.

**Revelation** · 08-08-2011, 11:44 AM

Everyone has different taste and what works for one person will not work for another. I have a Fender Strat with 010's on it, and I personally do not like it for jazz. The G&L Legacy (Leo Fender's design) has pickups that have a Strat sound but the pickups sound fuller than the thin sound of the Fender pickup. If I was going to do jazz on a Strat type of guitar, I would go with a G&L Legacy with 011's or 012's on them. I would also only play without a pick to get a warmer tone. But like we know, put 5 guitar players on the same guitar and amp and they will all sound different.

**Kojo27** · 08-09-2011, 05:35 AM

Originally Posted by kobrian

I'm using 9s now so I'll move up to 10s until I get used to them and then onto 11s. My trem currently has three springs so I'll add two more. Thanks for the advice. Also, I did finally find someone who actually used a Fender Jazzmaster for Jazz! Joe Pass recorded and album called Sounds of Synanon using a Jazzmaster. (Then again, he was in drug rehab and it was the only guitar they had in the place!). Still, I'm trying to track down the album--I'd love to hear what it sounds like.

First thing I'd offer up is DEFINITELY lose the 9s.

I had a Mexican Strat for a while and tried to get a clean jazzy-fusiony sound out of it. I used 11-52 Earnie Ball Custom Set, with a 12 replacing the 11, if I recall. This recording (attached) is TERRIBLE quality, but it shows what a Strat can sound like with the tone rolled down, bass rolled down to 2, mid up to 8 or higher, treble at 4 or 5.

I have several examples of this setting, but this is the slowest tempo, so the tone is more apparent. Hope it helps a little anyway - sorry for the shitty quality. Use headphones.

**Hudsontoronto** · 08-27-2012, 08:01 AM

I had a fender stratocaster 3years ago , I traded it for a Gibson LP studio because of the sound, tone .. I never liked the to e of the fender for jazz, but now I miss it do much because it is a lot easyer to play on the strat than on the LP. And the strat is way lighter then the Gibson ...
So I m thinking of getting a strat again and try sone flat wound strings... Better amp...

**zigzag** · 08-27-2012, 09:16 AM

Check out Jimmy Herring's Lifeboat. Jimmy typically plays a Strat with two Lollar Imperial humbuckers.

Jazz article: “Jimmy Herring: Lifeboat” by Ian Patterson

**Hudsontoronto** · 08-27-2012, 06:22 PM

A strat feels like butter in your hands, small frets so easy to play...
A Gibson model takes more work to play , but the sound of a Gibson is better in my opinion.

**docbop** · 08-27-2012, 10:09 PM

You should probably qualify what you call Jazz. I have a strat again after many years without one and IMO stock they aren't for straight Jazz. They are fine for Fusion or other styles involving pedals or overdriven amps. The ones I've heard that sounded okay for straight Jazz all had humbuckers even then I think a tele does a better job.

**Patrick2** · 08-27-2012, 10:46 PM

I had my luthier build me a strat with a flatter radius finger board. It's an ebony board with white binding and abalone dot position marker inlays. Ronaldo had a piece of 25 year old alder he used for the body. It's got active EMGs in it. Got it strung with .011s. It's my jazz strat. I love it.

**MackBolan** · 08-28-2012, 02:43 AM

Never found a better jazz tone.

**kevro2000** · 08-29-2012, 06:59 PM

I think that's an awesome tone, too.

**fep** · 08-29-2012, 08:24 PM

I really like when a strat sounds like, well a strat. You know, when you hear it without seeing it you think, "that's a nice strat tone". I don't think of it as a jazz tone, but jazz chords sound all chimey and nice on one.

**JorgeFon** · 08-30-2012, 10:47 AM

Yep, Strat tone is very nice, indeed. Not really a jazz guitar but the the clarity of the pickups really does justice to extended chords.

**jazzman1021** · 12-13-2012, 12:08 AM

In my 55 years of playing, I have played all types, sizes and shapes of guitars. Due to a bad shoulder I was having trouble getting my right arm around a full size jazz box. My sons were kind enough to gift me a beautiful black Strat HSS. Oh no I thought. this is the end, I gave up rock and country 20 years ago. But with practice, doing a couple of simple mods and the right strings to the guitar, I now would never be without it. I can play for hours and once the amp is tuned in right, it's one of the sweetest sounding guitars I've played. Amazing what those 3 pickups can do with a little imagination and experimentation.

JM

**Soco** · 12-13-2012, 12:51 AM

Here is a clip from a gig where I used my custom shop deluxe strat on
"My shinning hour". It is strung with 11's. I was going through a roland jc120.
SoundClick artist: Jostein Gulbrandsen - page with MP3 music downloads
Here is the same guitar in a blues/fusion video:

**Silentwiz** · 12-13-2012, 02:11 AM

If you think a strat is "out there", my latest jazz axe is a 61 reissue sg. With thomastik gb 12 flats, it sings. Pickups were perfect out of the box and I adore the neck carve, weight and comfort. It doesn't get better for me.... Unless someone thinks I'm trying to be angus young

)

**6tringtheory** · 12-13-2012, 03:31 AM

Originally Posted by kevro2000

Michael Johnson asks, "Anyone try using the bridge position at all?"

I answer, "yes." In short bursts of time, but like you say, its for accenting and I tend to turn the last tone knob down between the 3 & 5 setting, or all the way up to the 10, which has an interesting sound to it, not "high and harsh" at all. Plus, with the s1 switch down, I really like the bridge tone.

Hello, I've been lurking for quite some time. This is my first comment, been playing since 1963, a late bloomer jazz fanatic since 2008. I'm a beginner all over again and loving it. Wanted to mention that if you probe the Ted Greene 1993 GIT Seminar on youtube (sorry don't recall which of the 6 or more parts), he switches to the bridge pickup during a Bach-like passage as he meandered from playing Autumn leaves. Of Course it's a Tele and not a Strat, but it is a twangy-esque single coil at the bridge. I think that Twin Reverb of his makes a big difference. The change of his tone was mearly a brightness in my estimation (a treble boost), but the tone was consistent. I'm guessing alot has to do with the hands and having your pickups adjusted properly so it's seamless. Sure is interesting stuff though.