Getting the Jazz sound from your amp, the easy way.

[Litterick]

You are probably right and I am probably odd. I have a guitar with a six-position selector and an amp with master volume and controls for mid, bright, boost, gain and presence. I change settings often. Others probably find one sound and stick with it.

[citizenk74]

You are probably right and I am probably odd. I have a guitar with a six-position selector and an amp with master volume and controls for mid, bright, boost, gain and presence. I change settings often. Others probably find one sound and stick with it.

Variety is the spice of life! When gigging, I found the six-position VariTone on my ES-345 and the five pickup plus sweet-switch on/off combinations (10 in all) on my PRS Custom 24s in concert with reverb/tremolo settings provided a broad palette of tonal options for an equally wide selection of songs/genres. Wouldn't have it any other way.

[Litterick]

My combo is an L6-S with a Princeton Reverb II. I have never had to buy a pedal.

[citizenk74]

My combo is an L6-S with a Princeton Reverb II. I have never had to buy a pedal.

Slightly ot - When the L6S ads first hit the pages of Guitar Player back in the day, Mrs. k was of the opinion I should have one. I, chivalrous lad that I am, concurred. Unfortunately, I only ever encountered two of them in the wild. The first one was painted in a very off-putting shade of brown; and the second was being purchased by a co-worker (I set it up for him). I think the L6-S is a great design!

[rpjazzguitar]

I found that I could get confused by the electronics.

For example, at one point, I used a Boogie Mark III through a Yamaha FX box with an L5S and a volume pedal. The L5S was rewired -- Master volume, master tone and individual volumes.

Let's count up the volume controls. Three on the guitar, the volume pedal, the output level of the Yamaha (and I won't count volume settings within the patches) and three volume controls on the Boogie. That's eight. And, the Boogie's volume was also sensitive to EQ settings.

I could forget how things were set, or move a control by accident, and then then twirl everything to try to get back to the beginning.

So, eventually, I settled on my current rig. Guitar volumes are always full up. Neck pickup only. I do use the tone knob. I always have my foot on the ME80 pedalboard volume and I set the amp at the beginning of the gig for the loudest I'll need and rarely touch it. The pedal board has 4 preset sounds and I mostly use two, clean and lead.

[Greentone]

Roger is on the money, here. Set the amp volume at the level corresponding to the loudest sound you will need at the gig. Adjust your guitar volume/volume pedal back accordingly and work from there.

In an earlier post, Roger mentioned paying careful attention to your pick and pick angle. Amen. If you want a clinic on this, watch/listen to virtually any of Roger's (rpguitar) YouTube videos. He gets fantastic tones from his archtops--particularly the fully acoustic ones--by use of his deliberate pick technique.

He should give picking lessons!