The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    I find my Guild American Patriarch X-500 with TI Jazz Swings (12) through my Henriksen Jazz Amp 112 set flat gets pretty close. If I practice 8 hours/day every day for the next 30 years perhaps I will be able to play like Grant...or not.

    This guitar has Franz single coil pups, which look like P90's but aren't as hot. The guitar in my avatar is that guitar.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

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    Yes, and the Henriksen is an amp that you can actually set "flat" without any strange twisting of the eq knobs. It's right there--mid-detent on the eq knobs. GREAT amp, by the way.

  4. #28

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    It is my humble opinion gang that a lot of the great Grant Greens tone came from the very unappreciated ,unpopular but great original Gibson ES 330's with those dusty old P 90 pickups,,,,

    I played thru many and only regret I never bought one,,,,

    Why? Because the 330 was the guitar nerds "red Headed stepchild",,,,,,we let him hang around and we "tolerated" him and feed him,,,,but we all really wanted a bitchin dot neck sunburst ES 335 with a stud tallpiece,,,,,

    In other words,,,"A Freddy King Guitar",,,,no 330's for me thank you,,[what a dunce I was,,,]

    Go to a vintage place ,,plug in an old ES 330 hopefully set up with some flatwounds,hook up a tube Fender Deluxe or Twin,,choke up on a medium weight pick and hold it near the tip,,,put the toggle switch in the middle position,,both pickups ,,,roll back both pickups full treble and bass the close em about an 1/8 of a turn

    So what you get ,,,,that always got me close to GG's tone

    Hope that helps

    DD in Los Angeles

  5. #29

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    My fender amps have only bass and treble knobs. I generally start with both at 3 and then adjust to the room. They never get above 4 though. My understanding in a blackface circuit the middle is hard wired to what would be around 8 on a knob?
    Last edited by monkmiles; 10-31-2014 at 10:44 PM.

  6. #30

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    I have started my first jazz transcription, Grant's Greenery (I will try and post the head for beginners like me and for feedback this week as I have never notated a transcription).

    I may be wrong but to my ears he solos using the G to E strings more than many players and perhaps more than the choices of transcribers detail. I do not hear too much D or A string in there which may go against a lot of how we are taught, re economy of movement?

    Also, does anyone know if his G String is not wound? If it is then I think again more moving around the neck to get that brighter sound of the unwound strings.

    Cheers
    Mark

  7. #31

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    Wound G. Watch Green on the few YouTube for his technique.

  8. #32

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    See especially 0:38 to 1:45


    See from 0:38 to end

    The second video is trebly. Ordinarily, Green uses a flat setting, not emphasizing treble. It's a wound G, though, and he uses the first four strings like we all do.

  9. #33

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    Heavy strings and flatwound?

  10. #34

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    Man, I've studied a bit of GG because he's my favourite guitarist and what I've discovered is:
    -The settings that you have mentioned are pretty much what you need(I use Bass 3 Middle 10 Treble 4)
    -The most important piece of gear is a scratchy pick, a rough one. It will help a lot
    -Then obviously the playing is the most important thing. Light touch, vibrato and his peculiar phrases really make the difference.

    Here's my very humble try. It's poorly recorded but it's just to share I use an Ibanez Ag75 and a Yamaha Thr10
    Attached Files Attached Files

  11. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by Alessandro1
    Man, I've studied a bit of GG because he's my favourite guitarist and what I've discovered is:
    -The settings that you have mentioned are pretty much what you need(I use Bass 3 Middle 10 Treble 4)
    -The most important piece of gear is a scratchy pick, a rough one. It will help a lot
    -Then obviously the playing is the most important thing. Light touch, vibrato and his peculiar phrases really make the difference.

    Here's my very humble try. It's poorly recorded but it's just to share I use an Ibanez Ag75 and a Yamaha Thr10
    Sounds good. I’ve never really thought much about pick texture. Could that be the key to that sort of “fuzzy” sound surrounding each note? Btw, could you tell me what pick you are using? Just want to make sure that I’ve got the right idea of what you mean by “scratchy” lol.

  12. #36

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nick3497
    Sounds good. I’ve never really thought much about pick texture. Could that be the key to that sort of “fuzzy” sound surrounding each note? Btw, could you tell me what pick you are using? Just want to make sure that I’ve got the right idea of what you mean by “scratchy” lol.
    I'm using this pick
    Grant Green's tone-how do I achieve it?-img_20180829_135155-jpg
    In Italy you find them everywhere. They're close imitations of Dunlop picks. To give you an idea of what I mean by scratchy it feel like paper when you touch it, not like smooth plastic.Also, I picked parallell to the strings, that means no angle between the pick and the strings. You must also play very staccato to get close to Grant's sound. Usually guitarists try to play as legato as possible but he went the other way and it sounded great!

  13. #37

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    FWIF I've alway found the Dunlop Tortex picks to have a very scratchy tone, that's why I don't care for them but ymmv.

  14. #38

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    You have to plug your guitar into your amplifier listening to GG and try to emulate the sound.

  15. #39

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    Unless I missed it all the tips were for amps with 2 or 3 tone knobs?

    How about out for a tweed deluxe? Normal or bright channel? What about volume on each? And tone? Any tips?

  16. #40

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    Try normal channel, input 2, tone on 7

  17. #41

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    In the 10 years since this post, Jazzyteach has actually moved on to playing chromatic dulcimer which he amplifies with a magnetic pickup...the bright tone is pretty similar to...Grant Green!

    I wonder if he ever checks in around here?

  18. #42

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    Recently, I strolled into my local vintage guitar shop to try a guitar. The owner asked me how I wanted the amp set, and I replied nonchalantly: "Just Grant Green it" I thought everybody understood this meant all mid, no treble, no bass. But he had no idea what I was talking about, so my attempt at cool fell flat on the floor of the shop.

  19. #43

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    I know Benson was the one who said to zero the bass and treble but I've tried it on some vintage type amps and it always sound like crap and never sounds remotely like Grant Green. I am pretty skeptical about it at this point. Maybe Benson got his facts wrong or is trying to throw us off the scent??

    Has anyone gotten this to sound good?

  20. #44

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    P90 neck pickup.

  21. #45

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    Quote Originally Posted by JazzIsGood
    I know Benson was the one who said to zero the bass and treble but I've tried it on some vintage type amps and it always sound like crap and never sounds remotely like Grant Green. I am pretty skeptical about it at this point. Maybe Benson got his facts wrong or is trying to throw us off the scent??

    Has anyone gotten this to sound good?
    If it sounds like bs, and is in no way verifiable, it probably is bs. You need bass, middle, and treble to get GG's sound, like any other good jazz sound (except for Pat tone). If you think there's no bass or treble in GG's sound, you can't hear and don't understand the eq spectrum.

  22. #46

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    The gain is important also, it needs to be set quite higher than usual for jazz. You then pick softly.

  23. #47

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
    If it sounds like bs, and is in no way verifiable, it probably is bs. You need bass, middle, and treble to get GG's sound, like any other good jazz sound (except for Pat tone). If you think there's no bass or treble in GG's sound, you can't hear and don't understand the eq spectrum.
    Does anyone know what amp he used? Cranking the mids and nothing else on a Twin is a somewhat common practice. I crank the treble all the way on mine, vibrato channel, bright switch on, leaving everything the rest of the EQ at the minimum level possible. Once you get deep into the volume it actually works extremely well with a humbucker equipped guitar.

    One of my favorite Jazz guitarists. I wore out my burned copy of "The Latin Bit". Sweet record. That and Kenny Burrell Midnite Blue are probably my all time favorite jazz guitar records.

  24. #48

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    I actually crank the mids on my digital Hammond using my 31 band eq. I don't set the bass and treble to zero tho. To my ear, I don't think that's accurate that GG set his bass and treble to zero. It sounds pretty balanced with bass, a little mid crunch, and a little treble chirp. I don't know everything tho, who knows.

  25. #49

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    Quote Originally Posted by DawgBone
    Does anyone know what amp he used? Cranking the mids and nothing else on a Twin is a somewhat common practice. I crank the treble all the way on mine, vibrato channel, bright switch on, leaving everything the rest of the EQ at the minimum level possible. Once you get deep into the volume it actually works extremely well with a humbucker equipped guitar.

    One of my favorite Jazz guitarists. I wore out my burned copy of "The Latin Bit". Sweet record. That and Kenny Burrell Midnite Blue are probably my all time favorite jazz guitar records.
    I read that he used a solid state Gibson LP12.

  26. #50

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    Here's two efforts, both using a Boss Gt-1 direct to soundcard. A Fender model, a bit of gain and a bit of treble. Now, of the Boss Gt-1 can do it, anything can really..


    Pan to the left to hear my guitar sound only: