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I'm looking for some help finding the right jazz guitar for my hands. I don't know too much about jazz guitars, but I have learned my preferences when playing solid bodies:
- single pickup (neck)
- scale length 24.75"-25"
- 1.650"/42mm nut width
- neck on the slim side (my favorite neck profile is the PRS standard profile)
- prefer a flatter radius (at least 12")
Happy to hear if you can think of any that matches these specs or any advice. I haven't really worked out the budget, but I'm flexible if it's the right instrument.
Update: Got myself an Heritage H575 Custom.Last edited by tnipe; 09-08-2024 at 06:48 PM.
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12-04-2023 10:26 AM
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Why not just play a PRS? You can do jazz on any guitar.
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It doesn't sound all that great to be honest. But reading back what I just wrote the PRS hollowbody seems like an obvious choice.
Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
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Agree. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
As an aside, for some reason I'm fine with a 1.65' nut width on my tele, whereas I wouldn't go near an archtop with a neck that narrow.
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Interesting, why do you prefer larger nut width for archtops? Googling around I see that a larger nut width is more common. Originally Posted by FourOnSix
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A price range would be helpful as well. Otherwise, you may get recommendations all the way from $500 to $10,000 and beyond.
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Simple. On an archtop, my hand feels cramped on anything less than Gibson width. My preference is 1 3/4". Originally Posted by tnipe
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Thanks, maybe the limit is $5000. Preferably cheaper! Originally Posted by andrew
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You won't find many archtops with necks as narrow as 42mm, but ~43mm is common. Not that they don't exist, but they can be hard to find. The usual radius is 12". If you can handle an extra millimeter, almost any archtop should work for you. For me, the more important measurement is body depth. As I've aged, I've developed a strong preference for shallower bodies, and 2.5" or less is my preference, but I can deal with 2.75" if it's otherwise a great guitar. At 3", I'll pass on anything, I just don't want to deal with those any more. But that's a personal thing, and many people prefer full-depth bodies. It's something only you can decide. As for scale length, there are lots of very nice guitars out there with 25" scale length, and it's hard to tell that extra .25" over the two feet of string. I switch between nominal 24.75", 25", and 25.5" scale length guitars all the time, having some of each, and I can't even tell the difference. The space between frets is so close to the same, being within a millimeter or two, it all feels the same to me. YMMV, of course.
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Thanks for the advice! I've played 43mm necks my entire life up to a point when I got my PRS. Now I dislike it when the necks are wider. But reading the comments here I may have swallow that one. Originally Posted by sgosnell
25" scale is absolutely fine, but the Fender scale gets a bit much with larger stretches.
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For that budget you can get a custom guitar with all your specs from any number of fine luthiers! [unless you're wanting the guitar by tomorrow, of course ...] Originally Posted by tnipe
Happy hunting!
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Which PRS did not sound that good to you? They make a PRS SE Hollowbody standard with full mahogany body and completely hollow thinline (think 335)
Just a moment...
Or the same guitar in their Core line, but that costs 3x as much.
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Sounds like you are describing a Norlin-era ES-175.
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This was my Custom 24. Has a Fralin P90 in the neck currently. But that guitar needs some gain to sound right, it has a tendency to be a bit flat or lifeless when played with a cleaner amp (no matter what pickup it has). Originally Posted by Doug B
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If you like necks to be on the slim side, try Ibanez (yes, always try, hands on, before buying), the MIJ boxes are very good quality and the Ibanez website has detailed measurements of each model (neck width, thickness, radius etc.).
BTW, the only PRS hollow body I've ever tried had a really chunky/fat neck (for me, at least...).
Perhaps you might also like the Gibson ES 335 1961 reissue, "authentick 60's skinny neck" (5.100/5.500 Euros, new).
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Getting a new nut cut with a narrower string placement would be an easy (+ cheap and reversible) fix. Originally Posted by tnipe
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- Most mid-60s Gibsons have narrower nuts (typically 1-9/16", but I think some may be 1-10/16" ). Exactly which models have which nut width in which years is a little tricky to pin down, so you kind of have to go guitar by guitar. Most people are looking for the wider ones, so you might have a little more bargaining leverage. I think you can probably find a 1967-ish 175 for somewhere between $4k and $5k; ES-125's about half that, and ES 125TC's for $3k-ish
- Many Guilds from roughly the same span of time have 1-10/16" nuts and are cheaper than comparable Gibson models. But again there's model/year variation, so you have to sift through listing to find the dimensions you want. Some of the recent MIK guilds also have narrow nuts (an A-150 I tried did), but l think current production is all 1-11/16".
- I used to have a mid '90s Samick HF-650 (16" laminate hollowbody, very similar to an Epi Joe Pass), which had a 1-10/16" nut. These are generally in the $400 neighborhood. I don't know if any other Samicks have the narrower nut. These are your basic cheap Korean archtop, but are generally quite nice for the money.
All of the above should have 12" fingerboard radii (unless somebody sanded it to a different radius along the way).
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Mid sixties epiphones had narrow necks. My first archtop hollow body was a 1967or8 Epiphone Broadway.
I believe these can be found less costly then similar Gibsons and they are equal or better quality and made in Kalamazoo.
I think a single pickup, mid 60's, Epi Sorrento (like Gibson es125T) would fill the bill. I think there are new asian Epiphone reissues too, but I doubt the neck widths are so narrow??
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Sounds like the OP is looking for a Gibson ES-335 or something like that...
Or an Ibanez GB10 (MIJ version).
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I would not worry about the neck width and go for a pleasant woody tone. Used Eastman 610 or similar would be a high bang-for-the-buck entry point into the world of archtops so you can see how you like them.
Do you have any jazz players you like with tone you would like to get closer to?
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Ibanez necks are great and their hollow-body model range is exhaustive. Even under 1K models with Super 58 PUs sound great and are (mostly) flawless builds. But why not a used ES-175 or Benedetto Bravo Deluxe in the 3.5-4.5K bracket?
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A McCarthy 594 or a DGT might be good choices for a solidbody PRS to play jazz on. I use my DGT for everything and it just plain never disappoints. Then there are the hollowbodies ranging from the SE Hollowbody II via the core models to the private stock archtop. I’m a huge PRS fan but will be the first to admit that their hollowbodies don’t work for me. I regard my Eastman Romeo as a PRS Hollowbody killer, it’s no contest really. So the Romeo might be a good option to check. For a full-on jazz box, the already mentioned Ibanez GB10 is great.
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5 watt world says the 335 got the 1 9/16ths in 1968
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You can always cut the nut for a narrower string spacing. I bet you wouldn't notice 1-11/16" versus 1.650" if you did. Oops, I see that BDLH already mentioned this. Originally Posted by tnipe
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Personally, I would go with a version of a Reverend PA-1. 24.75" scale, 2.25" deep, 16" body. They have top drawer hardware and build quality and great response. Tonally very flexible due to the bass roll off knob that allows you to revoice the pickups. They use an "L brace" that goes beneath the bass side of the pickups and underneath a set-in bridge. This leaves the body almost fully hollow while reducing feedback tendencies. I can't say enough good about these guitars. I have played one for 9 years now and it remains my go-to ax.
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