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So somehow I've ended up with THREE solid-body electrics. Three. It all started innocently enough, when I wanted a guitar the same as the first "nice" guitar I ever owned, a Hagstrom. Then this Telecaster showed up... and then a Jazzmaster followed me home... loving all three and having a ton of fun playing them.
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09-25-2020 10:34 AM
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Forgive me if I'm mistaken but it seems to me that there is a missing Stratocaster in the picture.
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The Hagstrom is kind of strat-like, though the pickups have a little feel towards a P90.
Originally Posted by Tal_175
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Yeah, I noticed that. I'm going to the guitar store tomorrow to get some thomastik flats, I hope this thread is not gonna lead me to walk out with a Telecaster tomorrow. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
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Life is strange that way. Originally Posted by Tal_175
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Which is exactly what happened to me 24 years ago: went to the local music store to stock up on strings for an upcoming album session and left with a MIJ 50s blackguard Telecaster. And put it to good use on the sessions. I still have and love it. Originally Posted by Tal_175
Lawson: absolutely nothing wrong with solid bodies. Teles are well loved among jazzers and Joe Pass recorded an excellent album with a Jazzmaster....
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Nice stuff. A great tele is absolutely a thing of beauty, and there's really no better solid body for sitting than a Jazzmaster. So comfortable.
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I'm not sure I would be capable of leaving a store empty-handed that had that Hagstrom for a good price.
I liked them back in the day.
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Love that JM. Do you have the original wang bar?
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What's really fun is that I am enjoying the solid bodies for solo guitar playing. I started in jazz infatuated with solo guitar chord-melody playing. It was all I cared about for 20 years. Then I got interested in bop style line playing and for the last 10 years or so my solo chord-melody has been back-burner. But first when i got the Telecaster I noticed I could produce a really sweet, clear tone that was wonderful for solo guitar--kind of the Lenny Breaux sort of sound (but nowhere close just sort of in that direction). It was a delightful change from the darker tone of the hum buckers on my archtops. The el-cheapo Squier Jazzmaster also produces a very nice solo-guitar tone that i am enjoying. Line playing sounds good on them too, but their utility for solo guitar was a bit of a surprise. Originally Posted by TOMMO
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That was my very first impression of the Jazzmaster. VERY comfortable for sitting, which was always my complaint about solid-bodies since I started out mainly on Dreadnought acoustics. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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It was my first nice electric. My dad one day heard me playing and was impressed, decided I needed a nice guitar. We went to a shop in Savannah, Ga. and I fell in love with that red Hagstrom. He bought it on the spot, but put it away for Christmas! He also found an amp that as I recall was essential either Sears or Western Auto's equivalent of a Deluxe Reverb. Tubes, single 12" speaker, my memory is that it had the silver face look. Reverb and Tremolo. I've never found a photo of that amp anywhere. I had no idea what a nice amp it was then, and I regret allowing it to slip away from me. Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
So yeah... I saw that Hagstrom for a reasonable price and jumped at it.
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Oh yes. It's new, a Squier "Vintage Vibe" (I think) model. Pretty cheap, but I really like it. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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The Vintage Vibe series are very fine guitars. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
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I hear you Lawson! This is the root of my recently found love of solid body electric guitars. Specifically Fender guitars... and so far, Fender amps. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
Counterpoint and voice leading are even more delightful and delicious when the non-moving voices sustain clearly, which is an attribute of these slab guitars.
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There is a video of Ted Greene playing a solo guitar wedding gig. His tone on the Tele sounds like a chorus of angels. Originally Posted by Michael Neverisky
I like solid and semihollow with a block because they sustain better in the upper register, in my experience. Playing sustained notes up there is part of the style I want to play.
I've heard some riveting gorgeous sounds from full size archtops including what I think of as the best tone ever -- Wes. But, you hear solid bodies played by Ted Greene and Lorne Lofsky -- and it's hard to choose.
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when jazzmasters first were released in late 50's they had 13 flats on them..now they come with round 10's...strings make big difference in tone and setup....experiment...
welcome to the delightful world of jazzmasters!!
cheers
ps- a strat should be next...the 3 pups and trem spring block system make it way different from that hagstrom...despite the body/headstock shape similarities..
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My only solid body is a Strat. I borrowed a Tele at one point but that was a long time ago. I really like the single notes, chord melodies and finger picked chords on a Strat. You get a sweet tone with sustain. What I have problem with in the jazz context is, chords strummed with a pick. They just tend to pop out too much. There is a very forward quality to them. I guess that's why funk players like Strats. It puts the funk rhythm in the forefront as opposed to getting lost in the background.
Do you guys have a similar experience with Tele or is the Tele neck pickup mellower? Maybe that forwardness of the attack is a more solidbody vs hollowbody thing.
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^ you have to drop the pups into the body a bit...strat pickups have magnet polepieces..sit close to strings...can be bright and bold...lowering pups helps..as does a pure nickel or even pure nickel flat string
a tele neck pup is designed/wired differently than a strat neck pup...besides cover...different sized wire and bobbin...
cheers
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It depends. Originally Posted by Tal_175
I think there may be too many variables for me to make a generalization about that. The pickups, the wiring, etc. I owned a half dozen varieties of Teles before finding the CS 51 reissue I now have. The guitar has the "old" wiring which I know takes the tone control out of the circuit for the neck pickup and may do something else to make the sound warmer when the switch is in the forward position.
Also, I don't use a pick. I play with my fingertips on half-round 12s tuned to Eb.
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Oh yes, I've listened to that video more than a few times! Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
I have to mention Tim Lerch at this point. He's quite versatile and his talents include solo, fingerstyle jazz which he plays most often on Tele.
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to get back to op...tough to beat jazzmaster neck pup...wide flat bobbin ala p-90, but with magnet polepieces...and the jazzmaster dual neck pup circuits...perfect 50's advanced engineering...jazzmaster was fenders top of the line
young zappa with jm
cheers
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It has happened to the best of us. Nice guitars!
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So this is what this thread made me do. I went and played some tele's, I loved the tele neck pickup. I didn't buy a Tele but instead I ordered the most jazzy tele neck pick up I could find (SD Alnico 2 model) and made this. A Strat with only a Tele neck pickup. I doubt anybody has done this before. It looks and sounds amazing
Last edited by Tal_175; 10-01-2020 at 08:31 PM.
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Man, that thing is jarring to look at. It looks like some oddball 60s Japanese/Italian/German guitar that somehow survived unscathed all these decades. How very awesome that you managed to come up with your own thing. I keep scrolling back up to it and contemplating the negative space. Very cool indeed.
And between my les Paul and the epi LP special I learned on all those years ago that I dragged out of storage, I've been planking away on my planks like a planker. Quite enjoyable. Missed it.
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