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Last edited by jazzpazz; 10-22-2023 at 10:15 PM. Reason: delete
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09-23-2023 07:45 PM
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Pickups, always in budget guitars. If you only use the neck then only change that. I also like to tweak the pots and cap. I like unconventional values. Imo, there's not much you can do to the hardware for a guitar at that reasonable price point. It's best to keep everything seated well from the factory.
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Well, that is a fine guitar to begin with and I would leave it as is for a while, learning how to use the pickup and controls as well as your hands to achieve the tone you're looking for. It is an invaluable piece of learning for all guitarists. You may not need to upgrade anything.
There are IMHO four areas that you can upgrade that are likely to have a significant impact on tone: the first is technique, the second is strings, the third is which pick you're using, if any, and the fourth is pickups/electronics. I'm focusing just on the guitar and not on things like amps and cables, pedals, etc. The most portable upgrade to take to your next guitar, of course, is technique. Personally, I find using different picks has a greater impact on tone than different strings, and to some extent the same is true for pickups, potentiometers and capacitors. Twiddling the knobs tends to have more effect than replacing the hardware, unless the hardware itself is faulty.
I have heard people sound great on the Epiphone Joe Pass model, including Joe Pass himself, and I have heard people sound great playing jazz on a Stratocaster or a Telecaster. Most of the jazz greats just got an off-the-shelf guitar, plugged it in and played it.
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That model can sound awfully good as is. I wouldn’t spend the time, money or effort swapping the pickup especially in a temporary situation. You could try playing with the pickup height and polepiece height though. There’s nothing you can hurt doing that.
Definitely don’t worry about the tailpiece or tuners (as long as they work well). You could try bridge saddles of different materials, but that’s as far as I would recommend going.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Choose your "next guitar" wisely -- a $4K guitar should not need "upgrades," so don't worry about transferring parts from one to the next!
And have fun playing!
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I did a lot of modding of low and medium budget guitars. What I found was for a medium price point Epi, the hardware was pretty good just leaving it stock. The tuners work, not gonna affect sound anyway. The bridge is good. The nut is negotiable. Probably plastic which is a reasonable material. Possible to make gains if you replace it with a solid slab of good material like corian or graph tech (the 2 materials warmoth uses). But it's also good to just leave it seated well.
Originally Posted by jazzpazz
Pickups. I hate stock budget guitar pos pickups. Why do people always recommend toying with the height and changing your pick. Yeah that's gonna change the tone of a pos pickup. If you like pos pickups then ok, but I recommend swapping at least the neck pickup, it's not expensive. My favorite is a Duncan 59.
I like tweaking pots. Noone ever listens to my advice on pots. But, I like to use either a 200k or 100k linear volume pot for a warm tone. Then I use a 250k no load audio tone with a 22nf orange drop or pio cap.
No, they're separate! :P You can have a nice instrument that sounds good while you're improving. You don't have to falsely blame the tone of the guitar on the technique. That's silly.I know sound is all in the technique, but I promise you im working on that! This more gear orientated is more for fun and something I do additional to technique workingLast edited by Bobby Timmons; 09-23-2023 at 11:29 PM.
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In your guitar model, I wouldn't do anything. Originally Posted by jazzpazz
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+1 Originally Posted by kris
Give yourself lot of time to evolve the tecnique and the tone judgement skill. Find strings that match with the above, I play the same guitar and use flat Thomastik Swing 13, but i'm me, you are you...
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I haven't done much.
1. Good setup.
2. String gauges that feel right and sound full.
3. I have upgraded a neck pickup on two guitars out of many. Once to put a HB in the neck position of a Strat type. The other to put a 57 PAF (reissue) in the neck position of an L5S, which comes with a super HB.
4. I've had two guitars with replacement tuners.
And, that's about it other than replacing broken jacks and switches.
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Is this a new guitar? Some vendors still have those in stock. Then the PU's are Probuckers, which are considered ok. I wouldn't touch them. If you're going to trade up in a couple of years, an "almost new" JP in original condition is probably better value than a modded one.
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If we are talking about the so-called jazz sound, you also need to take the amplifier into account.
Both guitar modifications and finding the right amplifier are very individual matters.
Modifying a budget guitar can be risky.
For example: a great humbucker will sound better on a better guitar (I mean a guitar made of better wood, instrument construction and precision of the instrument).
Even if I checked all the guitars in the world, it would be difficult which one to choose.
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I talked to the luthier who made my guitars. Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
The most important things in a guitar according to him:
wood
pick ups,
tuning machines,
bridge,tailpiece
guitar construction and precision of guitar making.
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Coil tap
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Get a Floyd rose
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Seriously - is there anything wrong with the guitar? If it ain’t broke….
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The Epi "Joe Pass" is a good enough guitar for Jazz, not necessairily requiring mods... just a good set up, I wouldn't change a thing. I'm sure you can get a nice, warm sound and a comfortable action. I've seen excellent guitarists use that model professionally.
To have fun experimenting with mods I would use an entry level box, such as the Ibanez AF55. I've done just that and am happy with ther results. I use the upgraded AF55 in situations where I would want to keep my good guitars out of harm's way.
An all original Epi Joe Pass is a better deal/sale when you eventually decide to sell it, as someone here said.
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I've never changed anything on a guitar for the sake of changing it to something that is hypothetically better (or more expensive, anyway). I've only ever changed parts because they were broken or there was something specific about them that I didn't like. Off the top of my head after 9 guitars and around 45 years of playing electric guitars, I've changed tuners on two guitars (not broken, but the replacements worked more smoothly), one nut (slots were worn down on the original), and replaced one pickup (broken). Never had a tailpiece break. Never changed any other hardware. Electronics = pickup + pots (i.e., volume and tone controls) + switches + tone capacitors + wiring. I've never changed any of that stuff except the one broken pickup. Originally Posted by jazzpazz
Updgrade? No. Fix broken stuff? Yes.[/QUOTE] Originally Posted by jazzpazz
It's strikes me as a little nuts to think about upgrading parts on a hypothetical expensive future guitar. Time, money, and obsession are better spent on learning to play. Originally Posted by jazzpazz
If you're into gear, you're into gear. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that. But it doesn't make sense to make changes to an instrument until you're more developed musically and have a more concrete sense of what those changes will accomplish. Originally Posted by jazzpazz
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Well, your pot recommendations are non-traditional and we all know guitarists are conservative and traditional when it comes to equipment, for the most part. But the Seymour Duncan 59 is an excellent pickup. Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
As for pick ups, as well as pots, one person's POS is another's "that sounds really good." We all have to go with what sounds good to our ears.
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Congratulations on the new guitar jazzpazz. It's nice to see a new guy asking for advice on buying and then see it happen! You made a great choice and I believe the JP will serve you well, and quite possibly for longer than you're thinking.
I'm firmly in the camp of let it be. If I remember right, you're new to jazz guitar. Don't do anything now. Let yourself develop a bit. What you might do now you might want to undo later.
I changed a pickup on an Eastman after having it for a while. At that point I knew what I wanted. It's not like there's one perfect pickup that's better than the rest. There's several excellent pickups that are slightly different from each other. You need to get to know this guitar better.
I also think the amp and how you EQ it has a bigger influence on tone than most pickup swaps. And tone and volume settings on the guitar while you're at it. You'll learn a lot just by working with what you have. And by hanging out here and asking questions.
The search engine here can be a bit... flaky sometimes.
Try this https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/sear...archid=2616736
And in particular: Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor II Upgrades
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The single biggest difference is probably going from single coil to HB, or the opposite.
That assumes good setup.
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There are three things you can do to upgrade your guitar :
1 Have a good set-up
2 Maintain a good set-up
3 Go back to the good set-up if needed
4 (Bonus) Learn when and why and what to change in your set-up to fulfill 1
That means have the nut cut with good height (usually too high from the factory) and according to the strings you use
Neck relief adjusted to your way of playing (back to technique mentioned by a lot of people at purpose)
Intonation adjusted
Action adjusted to your playing
Pick-up height
Pick-up pole pieces height
That's not rocket science and you'll be able to do it yourself. Maybe have a luthier show and explain you how to do it the first time(s)
Your guitar is a good guitar in the beginning, no need to spend time and money to try to improve it before you let it express its full potential
But it's your guitar, your money and your time, spend it as you like
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Spend some time figuring out what strings youll play on it then spend the money take it to a GOOD tech and get a proper setup making sure fret level polish and crown are done carefully, you get the action right where you want it. That guitar should play really well, let a tech dial it in for you and it should serve you well till your playing tells you its time for a new axe. Setting up a guitar for maximum playability and sound is a skill that requires lots of practice and patience and often the guitar gets blamed for its less then stellar performance because of this oversight.
my $.02
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A lot of useful and valuable info in there :
Epiphone Emperor Regent - Setup and Tweaks
Thanks to jazzbow
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I am a tinkerer and most of my guitars end up with mods and changes…..
But before I do anything I do a setup first. Most all of the low budget guitars that I had in hands benefitted tremendously from simple things: cutting the top nut slots a little deeper, a fret level, fret end dress and a set up for the 0.012 flatwounds I use. The setup usually involves straightening the neck (tightening the trussrod) and lowering bridge height. Don’t forget adjusting pickup height! That can make or brake a guitar!
Then I look at the electronics. Most all of the low budget guitars will lose treble if you turn the volume down. Some like that, but over the years I learned that with cheap Asian pots for me the “modern wiring” circuit with all log pots and treble bleeds on the volume pots works fine without needing to upgrade the electronics.
Only after that I start changing out parts. Some things I learned over the years:
- I like bone nuts. But I prefer a well cut plastic nut over a badly cut bone nut all day;
- rosewood bridges are my sound. For ES-type guitars that have a tunomatic directly i to the top (ES-335, 330 etc.) I like nylon sadlles;
- modern pots are different from vintage pots. The 50ies wiring that reacts great in my 1950 ES-125 did not work out in any of my other guitars;
- cap magic is a myth, the $.10 ceramic caps are fine;
- pickups costing more than $100 are just commercial gimmicks and won’t make you sound better.
Now cosmetic changes are a whole different story, don’t gt me started there!
Some guitars I built, modded or upgraded:
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I would never start making changes to a guitar I hadn't even played. I change some things sometimes, but only after playing the guitar for some time while tweaking the setup and pickup/polepiece height. Contrary to the opinion of at least one here, that does make a significant difference with any pickup. I change picks. I have a lot, of different thickness and materials, and they make a dramatic difference in sound to me. I change amp settings, which makes more difference than most hardware changes, and sometimes a guitar just needs a different amp. The first thing I generally change, if I do start tinkering, is the strings. Some guitars sound better with flatwounds, some with roundwounds, and some with different alloy compositions. I only start changing hardware and electronics if I just don't like the sound after a few months of tweaking what's already in place. Most of the changes I've ever made on guitars were for the worse, in terms of sound, but sometimes playability is more important to me than minor changes in sound.
If you start changing out bits and pieces before you know what you like and don't like, you're just throwing your money away. It's your money, and you're free to throw as much of it away as you like, but I prefer to keep my money for more important and useful things.
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