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Here's a clip of Ed Bickert playing a Telecaster with a single coil neck pickup. It looks like his right hand is pick and fingers. Pick held so not much is sticking out. Not sure, it's sort of hard to tell.
He's getting a great sound here. I've also listened on Youtube to him playing with a humbucker at the neck. I don't think the tone is any better than this. I've also been reading online to find out what kind of strings he uses. All I hear is 10 gauge or 11 gauge. One source said round wound with unwound G. But then again, they all claimed he always uses a humbucker.
I realize that much of his sound is because he has a great feel for the guitar. But I'd still love to know what his setup is here. Does anyone know more about how he gets this tone, aside from having a great touch?Last edited by Andrew B.; 12-13-2013 at 12:58 AM.
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12-13-2013 12:20 AM
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You nailed it, it's his light touch. The HB (probably a Gibson '57) came later and replaced the original single coil. At times Ed used a Roland Cube (the older Orange Cube).
He inspired be to buy a T-style guitar. (My avatar, a G&L ASAT Special.) I named it "Ed". I know guitars are supposed to be girls, but Teles are boys!
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He's working some kind of magic there. I've watched a number of jazz/Tele demos on YouTube, and the only way they get a mellow jazz sound is with extra-super-light touch. But when they pick up speed like Bickert does, their Telecasters start to twang a little, and the one and two strings get a thin tinkly sound.
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I've tried the orange Cube with a single-coil Tele and it sounded great - definitely a hint at least of Ed's sound. I haven't analysed this, but my hunch is that Ed's superlative choice of chord voicings lends strongly to his sonic quality, if that makes sense!
Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
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I think ED use volume control at Tele to creat his "jazz"sound .
I do not know the set up of tone and volume at his Tele.
I/ve just experimented with my Tele .
I think he do not like Fenders amps...why?
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I heard that he used 12's not 10's or 11's. Right hand looks nice and relaxed too. The sustain which you don't seem to get as much of in an archtop really suits his style.
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I bet he didn't like the scooped Black Face sound. The closest you can come to flat EQ is bass and treble at 0% and mids at 100%. What if you want more mids? Originally Posted by kris
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Traditionally a lot of jazz guys didn't care for Fender amps after the tweed era due to the scooped mids prevalent in blackface and silverface Fenders. Ed, Jim Hall and Johnny Smith all said this in interviews i have read. Although having said that, a lot of popular jazz amps were based on the Fender sound (e.g., the Roland JC and the Polytone Mini Brute series). Tal Farlow used a silver face Fender Twin much of the time and was the amp he had at home, based on the "Talmadge Farlow" movie.
I think part of this is that Fender amps are voiced for Fender single coil guitars, so the bass tends to be prominent and causes feedback problems with archtops; flatter voiced amps are less problematic with this. With my Pro Reverb, which has a fixed mid setting, I roll both the treble and the bass almost all the way off and bump up the volume a notch.
A lot of more modern jazz guys use Fender amps- Peter Bernstein, Ben Monder, etc.
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Joey Goldstein (a jazz guitarist from Toronto who also plays a Tele) has said that Ed used light strings with a plain G. Of course he could have used different gauge strings at different points in his career. Originally Posted by dmorash
Joey also reported that Ed said he switched to the humbucker to be able to get better string balance, not because of a deficiency in the single coil sound. In the various videos, it looks like Ed has the humbucker very low in the body, practically flush with the top.
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On the opening shot of the above vid, it looks pretty clear that his 3rd string is unwound. To me, that is.
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check this thread from tdpri:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaste...ar-set-up.html
a guy provides a reasonable hypothesis that Ed used different string gauges at various times in his career.
I always thought that he used .12's.
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This tone might be achieved by having a high valve capacitor in the guitar's wiring circuit that leaks the high treble frequency to ground.
Didn't the original Telecasters have a bass setting that used something similar to emulate a bass, this was before the Precision bass was invented.
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I've always heard that bassy setting described as unusable? Ed's Tele has a rosewood fretboard, so it can't be that ancient, and it doesn't sound like it lacks treble to me. Originally Posted by GuyBoden
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He's certainly using hybrid picking on his chords. Those single coil Tele pickups could be set to be surprisingly mellow. Another facet of his tone....look where he's picking way up almost on the neck. That's going to be way more mellow than back closer to the bridge.
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Originally Posted by GuyBoden
I did say "might be achieved", so I'm probably wrong, but it's always good to hear Ed Bickert's playing. Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
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Once again YouTube muddies the water.
There is a veritable "bucketload" of compression on that clip.
It's not coming from anything Ed is doing...it's what Youtube does when you upload a video.
Note that it's also having a great effect on the bass (listen when he solos)
Great sound and brilliant playing all round.
But it sounds like a Tele to me. This sound should be easily achievable.
If you want that EXACT sound then add some compression. That's the solid attack and "even" volume (reduced dynamics...the difference between loud and soft) you're hearing at the start and tail of the notes.
Honestly, YouTube will mess with your ears.
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So much for my sleuthing. <sigh> Originally Posted by Philco
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I think everybody tends to over think this stuff. Change the amp, and the tone changes. Change the settings on the amp and the tone changes. Change the speaker in the amp, and the tone changes. Change to a different material or thickness of pick, and the tone changes. Change the EQ on the recording desk, and the tone changes. Go from a set of 9's to a set of 12's, and the tone changes. Pluck the string with fingernails with different profiles, and the tones changes. About all anyone needs to take out of these videos is that a Tele with a single coil or HB is capable of producing a pretty nice clean mellow jazz tone.
Ed used a SS Standel amp at times, a Roland Orange Cube (as has been mentioned), and an Evans amp during the mid to late 90's that was loaned to him. The Roland Orange Cube was chosen mainly because it was light and easy to carry from his car; it also happened to produce an acceptable tone. He switched to a humbucker because he thought his tone on the top 2 strings sounded a little thin with the stock Tele single coil. This was all from a conversation I had with him about 4 years ago.
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It is not so easy to get Ed Bickert sound on Tele...:-)
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This is the same impression I'm getting from listening Tele demos on YouTube. The one and two strings sounding very thin and tinkly. But I was not hearing this in Bickart's clip. So I guess it just wasn't showing because of the recording. Originally Posted by va3ux
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So the answer is use a compression pedal? It's not just for chickun pickun?
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Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
Proceed with caution!
The compression that we usually hear on recordings.....the type applied by engineers......is almost always designed to be "transparent" to a degree. It performs a job of limiting the dynamic range. It can either expand (bring up low levels) or limit (tame high levels) or both.
Of course engineers discovered that they could get some pleasing sounds by pushing things a little harder than what the compressors were designed for.........as with most other pieces of gear in the studio.
However, those compressors are a different beast than the humble guitar stomp box type compressor.
If you want the chicken pickun sound then it's quite achievable by buying any one of the available plethora of aforementioned boxes.
But that's a very different sound than what you would get from the type of comps you would find in a well equipped studio.
Those comps would set you back between $4500 to $6500 and then some.
In any case, even if you had one it wouldn't do anything magical to your raw guitar sound.
It's a device meant to used in a recording chain along with the microphone, the preamp of the desk and a number of other things.
It's just part of the puzzle so to speak.
So.......would using a comp stomp pedal do much for a live jazz guitar sound? That is...guitar into amp.
I have experimented with this and think......yes.
But it must be the right pedal.
I have had many over the years from Boss to TC to Walrus Audio etc.
I had pretty much given up on trying to emulate that "opto compressor" sound with a pedal until I tried the "Comp 66"
Walrus Audio Deep Six I mentioned is meant to be a copy of a well known old compressor (an 1176 I think) and to my ears.....well it just doesn't sound like one to me. And it certainly didn't do anything to my guitar sound that I liked.
Here it is.
However the Comp 66 (below) is a relatively cheap....and nasty looking pedal......that I have fallen in love with.
It turns out to be a favourite of the Tele playing Nashville studio country pickers but not only for its comp sound (it will really squash if you want it to) but more for the supplied tone control. This is a magical little tone control and the main reason why I love this pedal.
The tone control even when used sparingly does this neat trick of subtracting the nasty mid range spike in the Fender tone circuit (you would think country players would love that spike .....right?).
It just takes that spike away. I no longer have to eq that sound out any more.
Then if you keep the pedal's comp control on minimum you will get just a "touch" of compression as well. It may be too much comp for some people....it's almost too much for me.....but then I hear clips like the Ed Bicket one and think.....maybe not.
Anyway that's been my experience so far. I really like this pedal. It's not for the purists but for those wanting a little useable spice. Your results will also vary depending on you're pup type. The more output from the pup, the more comp from the pedal.
Here is the ugly duckling.
Definitely try before you buy.
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Interesting, thanks.
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Haven't heard a great deal of Ed Bickert but there's definitely compression on his tone (and the whole mix) on the "Pure Desmond" album
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A lot of the compression you hear on jazz guitar recordings is definitely put on by the engineer - most of the old school guys like Ed did not use little red or blue pedals.
That being said, most recordings of all styles of music have some sort of compression and limiting applied to control dynamic range - so you may need to use a compressor to get particular tone on a recording even if the guitar player plugged straight into the amp.
Pure Desmond is a big favorite of mine (as is Ed) - the guitar definitely sounds very compressed on that record but you can't blame that on Ed.
Max
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