How to get the tone I'm looking for out of my gear?

[boatheelmusic]

turn the treble and bass on your amp all the way to 0 and have mids at 5. Instant jazz tone because Fender mid scoop is gone.

Trust me and others on this.

[Litterick]

turn the treble and bass on your amp all the way to 0 and have mids at 5. Instant jazz tone because Fender mid scoop is gone.

Trust me and others on this.

Yes. I tried Pyramid flatwounds (at great expense) and thick picks, but it was only by adjusting the dials that I found the sound I wanted. But I also found many more sounds that I did not know I wanted. There is a lot to be found inside a Fender valve amp, which is why Fender's adoption of modelling in the Mustang range is so disappointing.

[Doctor Jeff]

Lots of good advice here. You might want to work on your thumb callus.

(That's a joke...)

I have D'A Pure Nickels (rounds) on my Tele, which I think work well. I personally prefer rounds over flats on the Tele--my choice varies from guitar to guitar, some guitars seem to prefer rounds, some not.

Also picks can play a big role in tone which you don't realize until you change picks. Or try fingerpicking if you don't already.

Finally, some pickups make it easier to get a good jazz tone. My Tele is sort of a Frankentele with various cobbled-together parts. When I got it it had a Seymour Duncan Alnico 2 in the next position, which is a particularly mellow pickup.

[gitman]

It won't happen over night, sorry to say. It takes practice, dedication, observation and a few technical details to consider. I have found that the pick material can be just as crucial to the sound you get as the shape of the tip and the actual thickness of it. I prefer stiff, small and not too smooth picks and have used Dunlop JAZZ II and III picks for at least 25 years now- not exclusively but these are my standard picks. When the edges have been played off a bit they sound best to my ears. Over the years I have adopted a playing position in where the pick strikes the string at an angle so that the tip glides over the string in a smoother fashion.
There are countless variations to the term " Jazz Sound " and when you listen to the big players over the years their sound changes from record to record - sometimes it's subtle, other times the difference is huge.... more than anything it's the phrasing, the choice of notes and the feeling you put into the notes you play.

[JaxJaxon]

Alot of good answers. myself i have bought a 7 Band EQ to dial in the tone i like , mostly used passive, i start with with the amp settings usualy less base. them i set tone on the guitar. The strings you use has a tone quality to them Chromes are less high pitch. Flat wounds don't ring out as loud as round wounds. Picks can play a big part in tone the harder the pic(thickness) will sound Louder and sharper. Now its been years before I could finger pick well But at one time 1971 we used Felt picks for a soft sound, don't even know if any one makes them now. Its mostly all in the Picking hand

[Robertkoa]

Aim lower ..lol.

Listen to some of the very clean playing of Mike Stern on a few of his instruction demos

He has a full humbucker on his Tele
style Guitar but aim for this.

Use a Gator Grip pick 1.5 mm or 2.0 mm - they are warm when broken in or your fingers or thumb IF you already play that way , and use Elixir 11s OR a warm pure nickel string 11s are good for your scale length.

[fep]

One thing I'd like to add about the tone control on a tele... Try to find that spot where the tone starts to change more dramatically and adjust from there. If you imagine for a second that there are numbers on a tele tone knob, changing from 10 to 5 is not much change in tone, but changing from 5 to 3 starts to get dramatic. Don't be afraid to play with that entire range on the tone control.

This is true for my Classic Vibe 50s original electronics and true for the Fender Elite electronics that I later put on that tele.

As a side note, Metheny said he likes the amp set up bright and adjusts the guitar from there to get his tone.

[christianm77]

It’s probably your technique

[PB+J]

My experience, similar to what other have said

heavier strings, flatwounds

avoid fender blackface/silver face amps, because they scoop the midrange really heavily at 800 hz. and leave you with too much high end and too much low end. Fullness and clarity live in the midrange.

dont do the treble roll off, focus on midrange

play with a very light touch , for reasons described below

a lot of the traditional jazz guitar sound comes from hollow body arch tops. They have a very characteristic attack and decay pattern that solid bodies don’t have. An initial plunk and a short decay. I built a bunch of completely hollow body telecasters (love the telecaster) just to see if I could get some of that attack and decay. In a conventional solid body you can mimic some of the sound of an archtop by playing heavier strings with a light touch.

[christianm77]

This is how I sound on a Tele. If this type of sound appeals to you, I can tell you how I do it. Otherwise I won't add to the overall level of noise in this thread.

Strings are .11 round. Pretty standard.

[blackcat]

This is how I sound on a Tele. If this type of sound appeals to you, I can tell you how I do it. Otherwise I won't add to the overall level of noise in this thread.

Strings are .11 round. Pretty standard.

It does appeal Christian - very much. Would love to know your secret ( other than .11s ). THanks in advance.
David

[christianm77]

It does appeal Christian - very much. Would love to know your secret ( other than .11s ). THanks in advance.
David

OK, cool! I'd recommend these things with ANY guitar. But Tele can get a great jazz sound.

In general, my concept is if the basic sound is good out of the amp set flat, the EQ can be used to make it sound good in the room.

1st thing - pick above the neck pick up or close to it. You'll see all the old bebop players doing this - it's obvious really - the closer you go to the bridge the more treble you get, but easily overlooked, so if you want a warm sound, pick near the neck. You can obviously pick nearer the bridge when you want more of a trebly Frissell tone.

2nd thing - I don't pick flat across the strings, I incline the pick into the string. This produces a fatter, warmer tone. You can see me use two separate styles of grip in the video - an underhand thumb in one, not unlike Benson and Adam Rogers and an overhand thumb out, traditional style. The first style gives quite an extreme pick angle and rolls off a lot of the treble naturally.

3rd thing - firm, but warm pick attack. I use rest stroke picking, whereby I finish my downstroke with the pick buried into the next string. When amplified, aim for not too loud of an attack - but not too gentle either. Practice amplified to find the happy medium. The heavier your strings the firmer you can be, but with a Tele I have actually come to prefer roundwound .11s - you might want to at least try flatwounds though.

4th thing - thick picks 1.5mm+

5th thing - I prefer to EQ from the amp. Normally I find myself boosting the mids when playing with a band, but at home, EQ is normally flat. But if you need to roll off a little, you can. My tone pot is usually between 8 and 10.

6th thing - Listen to Ed Bickert.

And that's about it.... Ultimately I don't hear a Tele neck position pick up as naturally more trebly than a neck position pickup on a 175 - there's a different quality. My 175 has a snappiness to it, the Tele more legato, especially for chords. Humbuckers obviously give a mid boost, that I think I am starting to move away from that - finding it a bit muddy. A lot of my favourite jazzers used single coils, like Charlie Christian p'ups or P90s!

But the first 3 points should get you closer to a good jazz tone on any guitar.

[joe2758]

Christian: fantastic playing, tone, and trio.

[blackcat]

OK, cool! I'd recommend these things with ANY guitar. But Tele can get a great jazz sound.

In general, my concept is if the basic sound is good out of the amp set flat, the EQ can be used to make it sound good in the room.

1st thing - pick above the neck pick up or close to it. You'll see all the old bebop players doing this - it's obvious really - the closer you go to the bridge the more treble you get, but easily overlooked, so if you want a warm sound, pick near the neck. You can obviously pick nearer the bridge when you want more of a trebly Frissell tone.

2nd thing - I don't pick flat across the strings, I incline the pick into the string. This produces a fatter, warmer tone. You can see me use two separate styles of grip in the video - an underhand thumb in one, not unlike Benson and Adam Rogers and an overhand thumb out, traditional style. The first style gives quite an extreme pick angle and rolls off a lot of the treble naturally.

3rd thing - firm, but warm pick attack. I use rest stroke picking, whereby I finish my downstroke with the pick buried into the next string. When amplified, aim for not too loud of an attack - but not too gentle either. Practice amplified to find the happy medium. The heavier your strings the firmer you can be, but with a Tele I have actually come to prefer roundwound .11s - you might want to at least try flatwounds though.

4th thing - thick picks 1.5mm+

5th thing - I prefer to EQ from the amp. Normally I find myself boosting the mids when playing with a band, but at home, EQ is normally flat. But if you need to roll off a little, you can. My tone pot is usually between 8 and 10.

6th thing - Listen to Ed Bickert.

And that's about it.... Ultimately I don't hear a Tele neck position pick up as naturally more trebly than a neck position pickup on a 175 - there's a different quality. My 175 has a snappiness to it, the Tele more legato, especially for chords. Humbuckers obviously give a mid boost, that I think I am starting to move away from that - finding it a bit muddy. A lot of my favourite jazzers used single coils, like Charlie Christian p'ups or P90s!

But the first 3 points should get you closer to a good jazz tone on any guitar.

Thanks for that Christian. Doing the pick thing already and tried .11s ( having watched Tim Lerch on this subject ) but worried about the tension on the skinny neck on the Classic Vibe. Will try your other tips. Thanks for that.
David

[alfsboy]

I am tempted to say buy a DV Mark Little Jazz and everthing you plug in will sound jazzy .That and roll the tone off .

[christianm77]

Thanks for that Christian. Doing the pick thing already and tried .11s ( having watched Tim Lerch on this subject ) but worried about the tension on the skinny neck on the Classic Vibe. Will try your other tips. Thanks for that.
David

No problem.

I reckon the neck will be fine. You may want to tighten your truss rod a little. Just a quarter turn or so.

[ozzeng]

Thanks for that Christian. Doing the pick thing already and tried .11s ( having watched Tim Lerch on this subject ) but worried about the tension on the skinny neck on the Classic Vibe. Will try your other tips. Thanks for that.
David

I have been using Dunlop nickel wound .11-.50 gauge strings for about 8 months on my Squier Classic Vibe 50s with no ill effects to the skinny neck. I tightened the truss rod slightly after changing from Gibson Bright Wirez .010-.46 gauge strings.

[rpjazzguitar]

Last night, I played my regular weekly octet session.

My regular rig in that room, Comins GCS-1, Boss ME80 (adding a little reverb, not much else most of the time) and a Cube 40x that comes with the room. All my usual settings.

As it turns out, the first tune of the night starts with 4 bars of guitar playing alone. It's a fingerpicked part that's a little tricky to play.

The guitar sounds simply awful. The humbucker sounded so muddy I couldn't stand it, to the point where I played the part using the coil split option on the Comins, and even that didn't sound good.

Maybe 90 minutes later, I had returned to the HB (not coil split) and I had another solo part. This time, I thought the guitar sounded great. Other than a small rotation of the tone knob, and maybe the room getting warmer, nothing changed other than my perception. How to get a great sound? Wait an hour and a half?

[christianm77]

Yeah I agree re perception.

Weird as it sounds I am just getting used to the Fender clean sound. Esp without reverb.

Just not what I am used to hearing esp without reverb. But the no reverb thing is something I keen to educate myself to. It’s starting to work!