The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
Reply to Thread Bookmark Thread
Posts 1 to 11 of 11
  1. #1

    User Info Menu

    I'm really enjoying this guitar. It's definitely not for Tele traditionalists but the build quality is great and it's a really nice combination of modern and traditional elements.



  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

    User Info Menu

    Pretty sounds played on a funky-looking telecaster.
    Works for me.

  4. #3

    User Info Menu

    Beautiful Tone Jim reminds a bit of Lenny Breau's tone. What are the differences between this guitar and a trad Tele?

  5. #4

    User Info Menu

    "Tune up" in B...nice sound and great sustain.

  6. #5

    User Info Menu

    Sounds very nice, playing very nice and smooth (as always on Jims videos). I like the look of guitar too - even it's not a classic tele

    However have two observations for potential buyers:
    1. you are playing very "light" by fingers - this may be totally different while picking (hard to say). I like the sound, checked their webpage and other videos (mostly with overdrive )
    2. I wouldn't buy it myself because I don't like the sound enough. On all videos (and yours as well) we can hear clearly that it has a lot of bass and treble-mid (in this order imho). The highs are not too bright but the middle range is not as clear - bass freqs are over it too much. Probably could be reduced by eq but this guitars are made for hard players, not jazz ones so imho it's not ballanced well.

    Good player (like Jim) can mark those "issues" but if someone would like to buy it he may be disappointed a bit. Just my 2 cents.

    Overall this looks like very good axe! Congrats! (never heard about those guitars before)

  7. #6

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by jads57
    Beautiful Tone Jim reminds a bit of Lenny Breau's tone. What are the differences between this guitar and a trad Tele?
    Lots ...

    Start with the neck. It's really a great illustration of their philosophy.

    It's a 1-piece maple neck and fingerboard with a rear skunk stripe cover the channel where they installed the truss rod. So the construction is very vintage but they used a modern two way rod which is very modern. The profile is is quite vintage-like with that round full handful that everyone likes in a vintage Tele but the fingerboard has a much more modern 12" radius, 22 frets and something like 6150 medium jumbo frets. So again a really functional mix of vintage and modern concepts.

    The body is really nice light weight swamp ash (the guitar weighs 6.4 lbs). Swamp ash is a vintage wood for a Tele but it's getting harder to get and more expensive so Fender is now only offering it on custom shop models but the wood is the only vintage feature on the body. The top has a BC Rich Eagle-style cutaway (coincidentally also like most of the guitars we built). I've always considered this to be possibly the most functional cutaway shape. It gives excellent upper fret access but also does a better job of sitting securely on your leg when you play sitting down. There is also an extra contour at the back of the cutaway that improves upper fret access even more (not that I ever play that high but...) and the upper edge of the body has a beautifully executed contour that works perfectly for me. The top edge is nicely beveled all the way around so there are none sharp edges that I associate with playing a Tele. It's a VERY comfortable guitar to play.

    The hardware appears at first glance to be traditional but it's all high quality Gotoh parts with heavier milled steel construction. Very much the sort of detail that I would expect from a Japanese made guitar.

    The pickups are an in-house design. The neck pickup is a fairly traditional Tele pickup but voiced brighter and maybe a little fuller. The bridge pickup is entirely modern and unique. It's a humbucking double blade pickup and the blades are heavily radiused (heavier than the 12" radius of the fingerboard). The volume control is a push/pull pot and acts as a passive boost for the bridge pickup (which also boosts the middle position). Since there's no battery, I'm assuming that there's extra coil winds that have been tapped off and the switch engages those additional windings to raise the output.

    And finally there's the finish which is a very traditional translucent butterscotch. On the other hand, it's a modern poly finish so it's more rugged but the feel has none of the vintage charm.

    And finally, there's the price. US street is about $1250 new which I think is an incredible deal for a guitar of this quality. I bought mine used from a seller here in Canada who I know from the Canadian Guitar Forum so it was an even better deal and in like-new condition.

    BTW, if I have one regret about this guitar it's probably the true single coil pickup in the neck. Given that they've already lost most of the really traditional fanatics, I think they'd have been better off with a hum-cancelling pickup and at some point I may put in a Dimarzio Area-T.

    Here's what the guitar looks like from the back so you can see the contours.

    A squeaky clean video of the Vola Vasti-volavasticontours-jpg

  8. #7

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by kris
    "Tune up" in B...nice sound and great sustain.
    Hi Kris. I have a very odd relationship with Tune Up. I first learned it many years ago from the Realbook but I had never actually heard the song and it was before the internet so I couldn't just go listen to it. I was listening to Kind Of Blue a lot in those days so I associated Miles with that slow sort of dreamy feel so that's how I arranged. I had no idea that it was mostly played as a high speed bop burner.

  9. #8

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by asedas
    Sounds very nice, playing very nice and smooth (as always on Jims videos). I like the look of guitar too - even it's not a classic tele

    However have two observations for potential buyers:
    1. you are playing very "light" by fingers - this may be totally different while picking (hard to say). I like the sound, checked their webpage and other videos (mostly with overdrive )
    2. I wouldn't buy it myself because I don't like the sound enough. On all videos (and yours as well) we can hear clearly that it has a lot of bass and treble-mid (in this order imho). The highs are not too bright but the middle range is not as clear - bass freqs are over it too much. Probably could be reduced by eq but this guitars are made for hard players, not jazz ones so imho it's not ballanced well.

    Good player (like Jim) can mark those "issues" but if someone would like to buy it he may be disappointed a bit. Just my 2 cents.

    Overall this looks like very good axe! Congrats! (never heard about those guitars before)
    There's at least some truth to this. I play with an absurdly light touch, much further up the neck than most people and my guitars (including this one) are set up with almost no tension. A lot of people have bought a lot of gear over the years because they like the sound I get from it but as player I'm definitely something of an oddity so it's left a of of people a bit mystified why they don't get my sound with my gear.

  10. #9

    User Info Menu

    I actually like the sculpting they've done on the body shape as well as back heel access. I also like that it's a Bigger shape neck! Is the width a bit wider as well Jim?

  11. #10

    User Info Menu

    6.4 pounds - I do like that.

    I'm preparing some solidbody guitars for sale and realized I have a decent scale, so I weighed all of them. The difference between 6.4 pounds and 8.75 pounds (the range I got) is remarkably noticeable between the various plank guitars. Maybe I'll weigh some fat-ass jazz guitars next...

  12. #11

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Hammertone
    6.4 pounds - I do like that.

    I'm preparing some solidbody guitars for sale and realized I have a decent scale, so I weighed all of them. The difference between 6.4 pounds and 8.75 pounds (the range I got) is remarkably noticeable between the various plank guitars. Maybe I'll weigh some fat-ass jazz guitars next...
    Yes, 2.35 lbs is a very noticeable difference. I don't use a strap anymore and with the cushion support it's not as important but when I was using a strap I had a 7 lb limit and even that was tough for me. I tried using a strap a few months ago and even a 6.5 lb guitar caused me a lot of pain.