Grant Green's tone-how do I achieve it?

[JazzIsGood]

Some tone questions-

what is that amp in the YT video where Grant is playing with Barney Kessell and Kenny Burrell? Is that this mysterious Gibson LP12 people have talked about? Could it be the Gibson LP12 in the Funk In France video? What is this amp?

links for quick reference-

I am getting pretty close to the GG tone since I tried playing an L7 with a McCarty pickup. Wondering if I should try the 5e3 Fender tweed Deluxe. Is that thing even giggable? It's 12 watts and gets dirty fast from what I have heard.

[JazzPadd]

Thanks for reviving this thread, I hadn't seen it till now!

Grant Green is one of my favorite players, especially the Blue Note albums of the early 1960s. I had Green Street on rotation in the car for months, soaking up his sound. I never tried to consciously emulate it, but then stumbled onto something that sounded pretty close, more or less by accident, at least to my ears.

I was working my way through some guitars I had laying around but hadn't been playing much, the intention being to thin out and sell a few. One of them was a 1960s Harmony Rocket that I picked up at a GOOB sale at a local Mom and Pop music shop here in Japan. It was the model with 3 DeArmond gold foil pickups, 6 white knobs and a 4 position selector switch, with a thick neck, thin frets and low action. It still had these crummy old strings on it from when I bought it, so I cleaned it up and strung it up with with a set of TI BeBop round wound 11s, and started taking it to jam sessions.

The amps varied, since I was using the backlines at the 4 venues I play at. I don't recall all the settings, but I think it was all 3 pickups engaged, and the amps with the T and B down low (as others have noted), and a hint of reverb. I immediately recognized the tone. And, as I had been absorbing his playing for months, I think I gleaned some of his phrasing, too, about which the Mrs. once said (as a total non-musician), that it sounds like he is "talking" with his guitar.

The TI 11s, felt very low tension to me, more like other brands 10s or even 9s. I was using a light touch but with a pretty stiff pick, I think it was a Blue Chip small jazz 60 or maybe even 80, and started messing around with the staccato attack that others have mentioned.

The thing is, I wasn't hunting for that GG tone; it found me, through a combination of intense immersion and bum luck.

That was a couple of years ago. I decided to keep that old Rocket, but I've since moved on tone and touch wise, playing a nylon stringed electric for the past several months, abandoning picks altogether and relying on the thumb.

But this thread reminded me of those moments of pure GG bliss!

[olejason]

I am getting pretty close to the GG tone since I tried playing an L7 with a McCarty pickup. Wondering if I should try the 5e3 Fender tweed Deluxe. Is that thing even giggable? It's 12 watts and gets dirty fast from what I have heard.

I have a 5e3. It's a very loud 12 watts. It does break up "early" on the volume dial (around 2.5) but keep in mind that's also very loud, louder than most people would use for jazz gigs. The volume isn't linear on a 5e3, you're pretty much at max volume around 3 and it just gets dirtier from there. You can tame the gain a bit by engaging the volume control of the second channel though. When I play at home I use the low input on the microphone channel (bassier and less gain) and it sounds great for jazz.

[JazzIsGood]

Thanks Olejason. Another question, what about the lack of reverb? Does that bug you at all? Most amps have reverb post 1964, and it seems like the early recording sessions with non reverb amps were done by incorporating some space where the amp could naturally echo/reverb a bit.