The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    This video shows Kenny Burrell with his luscious sound and a very nice string balance. Personally, the string slap is a little distracting but should disappear with a bridge raise.

    The guitar has beautiful wood, which you can't really see on this video.

    Here's why I am posting this. It looks like he took the low E pickup screw out, unless it is as far in as possible. So what's up with that? And why is there such a nice low E tone and volume?

    The pickup is a HRW.

    I'm eager to hear thoughts on this.



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  3. #2

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    Hmm. Here's an old video of Kenny playing a different instrument. The string slapping is still there. It must be him and how he likes his guitars set up.



  4. #3

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    you have to remember that in a humbucker pickup, the polepieces are just screws...the magnet is below the bobbin...the magnetic gauss is spread evenly across the top of pickup (and beyond) not just above the screw...if you had a strong enough magnet you could take out all the screws!! and still be loud

    so yes it does seem as if the low e screw is out...but he has the whole pickup rather high out of the body...so its kind of a weird setup...

    i also dont think that's one of kb's best tones...very midrangey..he needs to put back the screw, lower the pup and get some pure nickel strings

    haha..my 2¢


    cheers

  5. #4

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    Typical too thinly carved top that Heritage is famous for. The low E was most likely feeding back for Kenny. He is a old school tube amp guy. Thin tops and tube amps = feedback.

    He went back to playing his S400's. I saw him a couple years ago playing at Stanford University. He was playing his old S4 through a Fender GB. My take on this matter.

  6. #5

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    I think the low E sounds awful.

    The rest of the guitar, sounds great, and Kenny''s playing is always great.

  7. #6

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    Looking closer he has hairs on that guitar. No wonder the bad sound. Hey when you are 86 you will be lucky to be alive and still playing. Not too many cats use 14's when they are mid eighties. Go Kenny......

  8. #7

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    86? That’s Good. I have 32 years to catch up to him and it’s unlikely I ever will.
    Very cool. I didn’t find anything wrong with the sound at all.
    I always thought the Kenny Burrell had a bolted on bridge? I never realized they made the Super KB with a floating archtop bridge. You learn something new every day.

  9. #8

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    Is there any jazz guitarist more elegant than Kenny Burrell? He is always impeccable, not just musically but in terms of presence and mindset (as far as I can tell).

  10. #9

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    I think the screw is still in the low E, just screwed in as far as it will go, but I can't tell for sure. And that's not a floating pickup, it's set into the top. No need for a pickup ring on a floater.

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cunamara
    Is there any jazz guitarist more elegant than Kenny Burrell? He is always impeccable, not just musically but in terms of presence and mindset (as far as I can tell).
    He just exudes class. That's something the older generations of players did so well. Aside from playing beautifully, they looked the part too.

    Barney Kessel did wear some questionable suits though - and that toup... oh boy!

  12. #11

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    Kenny is a true class act. Last of "the great" jazz guitar generation.
    I always dug big box Florentine cutaways. They look so cool with that thick cutaway binding.
    That is certainly a nice looking Heritage !

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marty Grass
    Hmm. Here's an old video of Kenny playing a different instrument. The string slapping is still there. It must be him and how he likes his guitars set up.


    Great video. Grant Green is about as cool as you can get! Is that an Epiphone Emperor he's playing?

  14. #13

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    I'm not sure how enthusiastic Kenny was about his Heritage guitars. The Super 400 has a somewhat different feel due to the slightly larger body. Kenny also was obviously very comfortable with his collection of Super 400s prior to working with Heritage.

    On the other hand, he did play a couple of Heritages on his 2011 live album Tenderly, and Super KB and a Super KB Concertmaster.

    This particular SKB is an older one, #31. It was built specifically for Kenny. The woods are amazing and likely sourced by JP Moats.

    My sense from listening to an interview of Kenny and by talking to the Heritage owners a few years ago is that Kenny was fine with the Heritage version. Again, this is just my sense, but I don't think he cared a lot either way. Further, when I talked to two of Heritage owners about building me a SKB, their advice was to get a Super Eagle and save some money. They said that a Super Eagle is the same guitar with fancier binding. I could get one with a Florentine cutaway and still same a lot of cash.

    I should add that there can be significant differences among Super 400s and among Heritages of the same model. The wood quality and construction integrity is variable. Each guitar is unique.

  15. #14

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    I don't think he used the Heritage much, he went back to Supers
    I saw him @ the Blue Note in NY, he walked past me, really tall dude w/big hands.
    have no idea how he navigates that narrow neck on those late 60s Supers.

  16. #15

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    I went to see Kenny Burrell at Yoshi's in Oakland about 5 years ago. As I was walking to the club, there was Kenny carrying two guitars walking ahead of me. He would take about 10 steps, put the guitars down and rest for a minute then pick up the two guitars and do another 10 steps (Keep in mind this is an 80 year old guy carrying two guitars to a gig!). When I caught up to him, I introduced myself and offered to help carry a guitar. He smiled, thanked me and told me that when the day comes that he can't carry his own guitars to the gig, it will be time to retire. He played great that night. KB doesn't play a lot of notes, but he plays the right ones.

    The older I get, the more I like Kenny Burrell's Jazz guitar playing. I liked his muscular phrasing the first time I heard him, but as a young man, his economy of notes failed to impress me as much as a few other players. It took me years to become mature enough to understand that the cats who dazzle with lots of notes do so because what KB does is beyond their skill set.

    KB's tone with his D'Angelico New Yorker (listen to the album he did with John Coltrane) is as good as it gets. His tone with his Super 400's is pretty damn good as well. The Heritage KB model is a good guitar, but it is not as good as the Super 400 IMO.

    May we all still be here and playing our guitars at 86 years of age. Go KB! You are an inspiration to us all.

  17. #16

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    "but as a young man, his economy of notes failed to impress me as much as a few other players. It took me years to become mature enough to understand that the cats who dazzle with lots of notes do so because what KB does is beyond their skill set"


    this, though can't say KB is beyond the skill set of others, he's just different, like Jim Hall etc..
    when I was a young buck studying, my teacher asked me who my favorites were.
    I said Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, Barney Kessel, etc.
    he asked what I thought of KB and I told him he didn't do much for me. he was surprised and said KB was a favorite of his.
    like SS it took me awhile to appreciate KB, but once I did I felt he was one of the masters.
    silly young buck....

  18. #17

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    If I may, I'd like to agree with both SS and Wintermoon. You really need to get older to appreciate the subtle, magical things that guys like Kenny does when he puts his lines together.

    We've been blessed to have these guys in our lives.

    I look around now at the music industry (all facets) and what does the young generation have now? Pasquale Grasso. But the kids have no idea who he is..

    Joe D

  19. #18

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    Sadly the USA has become completely musically ignorant to a genre we invented. I was at a stop light the other day watching these people bounce around in there car to blaring hostile lyric rap. All I could do is shake my head.
    Musical abilities is no longer a factor for making music that sells here.

    I think IQ and jazz music go hand in hand. I never met a complete moron that listened to jazz.
    I really hate to judge but jazz is intelligent music.

  20. #19

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    I heard a talk from Johnny A that's relevant. He doesn't like shredding although he appreciates the technique. He believed that playing fast is about the quickest way you can lose the audience. They are wowed for a minute then bored.

    I agree. Shredding for shredding's sake gets old quickly.

    I never thought Kenny Burrell played to slowly. He seemed to speed up enough to say what needed to be said. Upon reflection, I don't recall John Coltrane playing "fast". He was quick but never rushed. The same seems true for Wes.

    David Gilmour is yet another example.

    But with every rule there is an exception. Jennifer Batten.



  21. #20

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    Joe ,
    I agree with your and Vinny's sentiments, and SS's view, that appreciating
    players like KB takes time in similar fashion to getting a "nose" for wine.
    To be fair, enthusiasm for jazz has been regarded for many years as of
    interest to oddballs ( like us) similar to classical music lovers.
    As a young lad my parents regarded me as off my trolley for liking Stan
    Kenton's band and early Jazz players. The music of the day was and still
    is trite, and instantly forgettable. Then, in the 60's the Beatles happened,
    not good for jazz players and enthusiasts, but a distinct improvement on
    pop music that preceded them. It encouraged many to get into music who
    might otherwise have felt unable to do so. There are numerous players on
    this Forum whose eventual foray into Jazz began with their beginnings in
    that era. Jazz is like a fine wine it has to be savoured over a period of
    time to appreciate the intricacies ,and genius of it,

  22. #21

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    Age and music go hand in hand I think. How good for us aging folk.

    Am off to see/listen to Paul McCartney in two weeks. Going back through the catalogue, wow there is so much to that music that you don't hear as a young fella. What sounded like a simple kids songs is music genious.

    Listening to the Dean Martin song from Rio Bravo "My rifle, my pony and I", simple yeah. Listening to it with mature ears, the arrangement, the subtle shifts and the way the song builds, again genious at work with two chords.

    We have much to learn from Malcolm Young. I think us jazz dudes (especially guitarists) get caught up in too much stuff, like a modern era spoilt kid.

    I have been playing with Jordan's triad ideas, man it is so great. So much wonderful music can be made with such few notes. We know enough to make beautiful/ugly/angry/sad/middle of the road music, listen to Hey Jude, two chords from memory. Chitlins Can Carne, not much to that one but man how groovy, can make a jazz smile and how could a non jazz not like it, loved it in the early 80's when I was a thrasher, love it more now.

    Let's do it!

  23. #22

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    Having owned both a Super 400 and a Super Kenny Burrell I've never understood comparisons. They're different guitars.

    Miles too played all the right notes. I've never related to busy players.

  24. #23

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    Hi MG,
    I think the pickup is not a HRW, as an HRW pickup ring has two adjustment screws on the upper (low "E" end) of the pickup ring and this pickup has one. At any rate, it sounds great! It appears there may be a low "E" pickup pole/screw in place, but it is screwed way in (See Min: 3:13-3:14) but my eyes could be playing tricks on me.

  25. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by helios
    It appears there may be a low "E" pickup pole/screw in place, but it is screwed way in (See Min: 3:13-3:14) but my eyes could be playing tricks on me.
    In some frames of the video it really looks like a screw sitting way in:

    Kenny Burrell's Guitars-wtf-jpg

    Seems to give the first string a very nice sound!

    What I stumbled over in this video is the massive anchoring of his right hand, didn't notice that ever before. It seems like he has always done it this way. Looks like he is anchoring with two, often three fingers. And not with the finger tips, but with the intermediate phalanges (had to look that term up). Obviously KB has rather large hands to gap the way to the sixth string.

    I have worked more than a year to get rid of anchoring. No anchoring gives me some advantages, but there is always the problem of being insecure what the height distance from plectrum tip to strings is. Tried it the way it looks in the KB video, and now I am stunned--immediately I have a much better feeling about my distance towards the strings. That gives me attack and articulation with much more precision and less random errors. Another great observation in trying to anchor this way: my right hand is now perfectly positioned for damping unwanted string vibrations, which is a tough problem for me without anchoring.

    Also the KB anchoring gives my pick a totally different angle towards the string plane. That seems to bring a very nice tone, different than before. It looks like I have found a large new domain to explore...

    With all the threads in this forum about anchoring (or not), Benson picking and Troy Grady researches I don't remember that I ever noticed a greater discussion about KB picking/anchoring. For me, it's worth to examine it in-depth. I wonder why I gave up anchoring my right hand in the first place...

    Robert

  26. #25

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    I noticed his terrible technique and was hoping someone would provide a little mentoring to him. He's seemed to have plateaued the last 60 years.




    He's actually not playing a Heritage Super Kenny Burrell in that video. That guitar is his Super Kenny Burrell Concertmaster. It has a Baggs saddle pickup in it, which was not used in this video. You can spot the bridge shape if you look carefully. Also, it has two jacks on the rim.

    Kenny asked Heritage to build such a guitar. It has been Kenny's goal to capture a good blend of the acoustic and electric properties of a big archtop. Unfortunately, very few Concertmasters were made due to poor sales. They were quite expensive.