Would you work a Jazz Gig with a Fender Telecaster or Stratocaster?

Archie · 03-07-2010, 03:38 PM

It appears he's not much interested in gear and effects. He called it a chorus.

**cosmic gumbo** · 03-07-2010, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by Ron Vermillion

How many of you folks would go work a jazz gig with a Tele or a Strat?

Did anyone say no yet? Maybe we'll get it figured out in a 100 more posts.

**zonedout245** · 03-20-2010, 12:29 PM

This

and

TommyD · 03-20-2010, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by zonedout245

This

and

That clip of Tim Lerch is played on a newly-designed single-coils pickup called the 'Charlie Christian pup", so the tele is not straight out of the box.
There's a video there explaining it.
Tommy/

**Dystonian_Mode** · 03-20-2010, 11:52 PM

Yup -- through a Peavy Bandit.

TommyD · 03-21-2010, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by Dystonian_Mode

Yup -- through a Peavy Bandit.

Is that you, Tim?

**Dystonian_Mode** · 03-22-2010, 02:26 AM

Originally Posted by TommyD

Is that you, Tim?

That one sailed over my head. What exactly do you mean?

TommyD · 03-22-2010, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by Dystonian_Mode

That one sailed over my head. What exactly do you mean?

Thought by the way you responded that you might be Tim Lerch, that's all.
T/

**MackBolan** · 04-01-2010, 05:49 AM

-Re:Mike Stern"s guitars
Mr.Stern has at least Germany"s jazz guitar player Volker Kriegels old Gibson ES 345 and Yamaha build him around 30 different versions of the Tele-kind,inas much he"s playing the first build mostly,his wife Leni has
some guitars also(an old Gibson arch-top that"s been played by Emily Remler on Swiss TV),so there"s more than 1 guitar around the house.

Ray C. · 04-01-2010, 06:55 AM

I wonder how much of this is guitar nerd chat vs a larger need in the market place. I wonder how often Fender has that about making a "jazz Tele."

The Lollar, Charlie Christian pickup sounds lovely. I know the big two makes have their custom shops, but it would be interesting if there was enough interest to market a jazz Tele-which is more than just the pups. You'd also want the nut and bridge right for heavy flatwounds, etc.

I think the ergonomics (and yeah, the economics

) of the Tele seem to hit a spot with a lot of players. The older I get (pushing 50) this becomes more and more an issue. As a sidebar, I was listening to an interview with Leo Kottke and he said that at gigs he now plays standing up most of the time, due to variety of chairs he's often using at gigs. He wants the guitar in the same position, all the time. As much for its tone, I like my G & L Tele for it's ergonomic balance. I guess for the 15-30 age group, it's not much of an issue. But I think it's an something that doesn't always get its due and is key to the popularity of the Tele. Leo got it right.

**oilywrag** · 04-03-2010, 11:01 AM

Just found this on youtube:- Sounds of Synanon featuring Joe Pass 1964

Cheers Tom

The reason there is no link is because I cant seem to get it to work

**HankL** · 04-03-2010, 01:46 PM

I heard a story (true or not I don't know) that when asked why he played a Tele, Ed Bickert answered, "It's the Indian, not the arrow."

**takefive** · 04-04-2010, 09:12 PM

I use my Strat for jazz gigs. It has a nice punchy sound. I'm thinking about putting a wider neck on it. It's a little narrow up at the nut.

**ChrisDowning** · 01-03-2014, 06:22 AM

I'm pretty sure that Mike Stern was winding up the audience when he said he had one guitar - especially as he seems to turn up at gigs playign the old Fender Tele ha had originally and then at other venues with the Yamaha signature - that won't be much like a production guitar (would you give Mike just any old one from the production line if you were Yamaha management?!)

The interesting thing about this thread is the extent players will opt for what they see around - archtops and Tele's - and emulate what the stars play. If just one big player started to use an SG or Strat - a whole trache of new players would switch. Don't think so? Back in my early days I wanted a proper USA made guitar - what was 'acceptable' on the London scene in 1963 for Blues and Motown was, 335, SG, Casino, Tele (with ashtray), Gretsch, and my eventual choice - a 330 because we were doing a lot of warm up support work for a band we thought were pretty good caled The Who. You notice I hadn't thought of anything that would have been considered unusual - although my ultimate choice followed someone I highly respected locally.

Now if I had chosen a Strat I would have been the only player in hundreds of bands in London to be playing bluesand motown on a Strat. The only band we played with in 1963/4 with a Strat was Johnny Rivers and the Castaways - a Beachboys tribute band - and not our sort of material at all. You could have bought a pre CBS Strat for half the rpice of anything else - nobody wanted them in London - about £60 would have got you one instead of £150-160 for the others on my original buy list.

What changed all this was a guy called Jimi Hendrix came along - and against the grain, played a Strat. And just like Captain Sparrow behind bars in "Pirates of the Caribean", we looked, we listened, and said, "Well that's interesting, very interesting!" Instrument geography had changed.

The Strat was an upgrade to the Tele as designed by Leo Fender - there is absolutely no reason not to use it for jazz. A session musician would probably never leave home without one if they had to choose just one guitar that would do most jobs.

**LtKojak** · 01-03-2014, 09:48 AM

Holy necro-posting, Batman!

Having said that, Chris Standring has an outstanding tone playing "Smooth Jazz" with a stock Strat.

HTH,

**fritz jones** · 01-04-2014, 02:58 AM

I bought a cheap pine tele body recently, which makes for a really light guitar.
here's a clip of some practicing with it:

I think Ed Bickert started playing tele because of the big band and studio work he was doing.
there is a clip of him playing an ES 175 somewhere out there, in which he sounds a lot like Jimmy Raney.

**TLerch** · 01-04-2014, 02:33 PM

I'm happy to use a telecaster for just about any gig including Jazz. in fact i'm much more comfortable playing my approach to Jazz on a Tele than on a bigger archtop. but thats just me.
all the best
Tim

**ChrisDowning** · 01-04-2014, 02:54 PM

I agree with you Tim about the size. I know quite a few players who just don't want to deal with the issues of a big 17" body - both jazz players and acoustic players trying to avoid the big D28 size. But do you find you prefer using a Tele with a strap to get it up from sitting in your lap too much? That low down position seems to work OK for rock and blues stuff where your thumb needs to come over to bend strings. But the chord-work of jazz calls for a lot of barring which is easier with the higher positioned neck.

Any thoughts Tim?

**TLerch** · 01-04-2014, 07:01 PM

I set my strap so that the guitar is in the same position whether I'm sitting or standing. I've been playing a tele so long the size just feels right.
Tim

**woyvel** · 01-05-2014, 10:48 PM

Originally Posted by Archie

I attended a guitar workshop with Mike Stern on Friday evening. He was playing what I would call jazz on a Yamaha Tele-style guitar, with lots of chorus, reverb, and delay. Somebody asked him "how many guitars do you have?" and he replied "One." The questioner then asked, "how about at home?" and he replied again, with a big smile, "One."

Yeah, but how many does his wife Leni have? Or his brother-in-law Kevin Bacon?

**Pukka-J** · 01-06-2014, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by ChrisDowning

I'm pretty sure that Mike Stern was winding up the audience when he said he had one guitar - especially as he seems to turn up at gigs playign the old Fender Tele ha had originally and then at other venues with the Yamaha signature - that won't be much like a production guitar (would you give Mike just any old one from the production line if you were Yamaha management?!)

I've heard him say that as well, so there must be some truth in it. I don´t think he was just winding up the audience. Although he might have more guitars around the house his genuine message is that he´s all about music, not about gear.

As for his old tele, I've never seen him play that, always his Yamaha. As far as I know his old tele (which he bought from Danny Gatton) got stolen. Some guy then gave him another tele just like it. Then soon after Yamaha stepped in and he played his signature model from then on.
As far as I know it his model indeed differs a little from the current production model, the MS1511 (heavier woods or something). Or so he told us during a masterclass quite some years ago. The production MS1511 actually is a very nice guitar, although a little to hot for my liking.

I do know he played a strat when he played with Miles, so there you go, we're back on topic

**ChrisDowning** · 01-06-2014, 07:22 AM

I'm sure I've heard someone talk about him still playing the Tele, or its on a recent YouTube. If you are a signature player to a big manufacturer there are commitments you need to be making to make itwork for them - you don't get a guitar just out of charity. If you stay around for long enough you see guys changing from one company to another. Stuart Hamm turned up to a bass workshop I attended for a week and played his original signature Fender "Stu Hamm" model. He was saying it was the first signature bass Fender had ever done and that was seventeen years earlier - still in production all that time. Then he was dropped (or didn't re-sign the deal) and up he pops with his Washburn basses.

This signature deal really works - just look at how players follow the stars, even here in this forum - 'Tele is better than Strat for Jazz' - not how Leo Fender would have seen or designed it - 'ES175 the best for jazz' - but an SG is virtually the same guitar without the feedback problems. There's a huge marketing effect in signature guitars. And unless they are given one, all those high end guitars don't ever get bought by gigging professionals - doesn't make sense to be struggling to make the books balance and go buy an £8000 instrument. (And yes I know that orchestral musicians send £25,000, but that's a different marketplace and different income profile)

**Pukka-J** · 01-06-2014, 07:40 AM

Well...Leo might have thought the strat was better suited for jazz than the tele, but I beg to differ. And that has nothing to do with any specific player, as I didn't even know any famous tele slingers until recently

And what about that SG/ES-175 comparison. Basically the same guitar? You can't possibly mean that! I had both (still have the es-175) and they are completely different guitars in every thinkable aspect! You mean to say they both have two humbuckers (which of course wasn't true for the first SG's and ES-175's)?

I know how the signature deals work, but I don't think that the comparative popularity of the tele in jazz is due to any marketing (especially because Fender does not even have a specific jazz icon signature model). The tele is just a very popular guitar for just about any style (and, by the way, so is the ES-175).

**jorgemg1984** · 01-06-2014, 08:01 AM

Originally Posted by ChrisDowning

I'm sure I've heard someone talk about him still playing the Tele, or its on a recent YouTube. If you are a signature player to a big manufacturer there are commitments you need to be making to make itwork for them - you don't get a guitar just out of charity. If you stay around for long enough you see guys changing from one company to another. Stuart Hamm turned up to a bass workshop I attended for a week and played his original signature Fender "Stu Hamm" model. He was saying it was the first signature bass Fender had ever done and that was seventeen years earlier - still in production all that time. Then he was dropped (or didn't re-sign the deal) and up he pops with his Washburn basses.

This signature deal really works - just look at how players follow the stars, even here in this forum - 'Tele is better than Strat for Jazz' - not how Leo Fender would have seen or designed it - 'ES175 the best for jazz' - but an SG is virtually the same guitar without the feedback problems. There's a huge marketing effect in signature guitars. And unless they are given one, all those high end guitars don't ever get bought by gigging professionals - doesn't make sense to be struggling to make the books balance and go buy an £8000 instrument. (And yes I know that orchestral musicians send £25,000, but that's a different marketplace and different income profile)

Mike Stern plays a Yamaha since his Tele was stolen on an armed robbery. I have no idea of the details of the deal but he always plays with that guitar... Easy to check on google.

Just from top of my head: Peter Bernstein uses a Zeidler (and an L5 before); Anthony Wilson several Monteleone (and a vintage Birdland before); Lage Lund a Schotmuller (and before two Sadowskys and a Fender Daquisto); Kurt Rosenwinkel several Moffas, Schotmuller, vintage gibsons, etc...; Gilad Hekselman a Victor Baker (and before a vintage Gibson); Mike Moreno a Marchione; Jonathan Kreisberg a vintage 175 Even Scofiled has been using Teles and has a lot of guitars, although he gigs with the AS most of the time.

So gigging pros do buy good guitars.. No?