Jazz Guitar Players With Your Favorite Tone - Top 3

**wintermoon** · 12-09-2014, 11:14 AM

Johnny Smith
60's Pat Martino
Jim Hall

**disco~juice** · 12-09-2014, 11:42 AM

Peter Bernstein
Jesse Van Ruller
Lage Lund

**jtizzle** · 12-09-2014, 01:25 PM

Jim Hall for me (not when he's using that damn chorus pedal).

As far as a player I like with tone I hate...I would say Adam Rogers on his records. I love his live tone, but his record tones are just too dead for me.

Player I don't like with great tone, Mike Moreno. Don't really like his playing, but his tone is just great.

I also have to add Ben Monder, who has an awesome all around tone, either clean or when he goes into shred mode.

**Groyniad** · 12-09-2014, 05:27 PM

wes - on his jazz records man (i have to say i'm amazed that so few people have said WES)
jim hall
peter bernstein

or all that's wrong and it has to be

django (with acoustic guitar)

how could joe pass have allowed his tone to be so bad so often?

the other two totally compelling voices for me are barney kessel and kenny burrell - i think they define 'mainstream' guitar tone (the down-home Oklahoma/Kansas bk - the urbane New York kb)

**vinnyv1k** · 12-09-2014, 05:45 PM

Grant Green (Blue Note days)
Herb Ellis
Tal Farlow

Wish the question was more than 3.

**57classic** · 12-09-2014, 05:47 PM

**AndyV** · 12-09-2014, 06:14 PM

Some additional thoughts:

Everything about music is subjective - especially tone. Our feeling for a particular sound can change with our mood.
Tone on records is a complex combination of the sound of the instrument, the pickup and other electronics, the player's technique, mic placement, engineering & recording techniques & gear, the room including studio tricks like plate reverb. Sometimes, recording engineers have unique tricks up their sleeves. One example from outside of the jazz world: a big part of Duane Eddy's huge, twangy sound came from sending the guitar's signal to a large water tank outside the studio, and then sending the reverb sound back to the board. Add in how that sound is reproduced, and whether it is delivered via an analog or digital source (and how compressed?) and the story of tone becomes quite a can of worms to sort out.

Wes was reportedly unhappy with his amplified tone and was constantly trying new amps.

Standel amps were a kind of secret weapon for players like Chet Atkins, Wes, and a number of west coast guitarists.

Tal Farlow consciously sought a warmer sound with a fast decay and actually shortened his guitar fretboard at one point.

Barney Kessel's use of the Gibson EH-150 pickup first develop for lap steel was a big part of his sound. The magnets on that pickup are huge. Jason Lollar makes a sonic repro these days and a company in England makes an exact repro, even duplicating the 1930s components.

Pass DID seem somewhat indifferent to his tone on records. I would guess he was just glad to be working.

Django had a very nationalistic view of his Macaferri's tone and professed to be unimpressed with the sound of American guitars. He may have just been griping because his fantasy that American guitar makers would be falling all over themselves to give him free gear during his American tour never materialized.

George Barnes unique vibrato seemed to transcend instruments when he moved from a Gibson to his self-designed Guild sans F-holes. His sound remained bubbly and bright.

In my experience, steel guitarists are among the most fanatical about tone in the guitar world arguing about the effect of pickups, picks, strings, tone bars, and even minute changes in Rickenbacker's 1930s formula for Bakelite guitar bodies.

**pubylakeg** · 12-09-2014, 06:20 PM

2 immediate faves,

Late Django, Selmer guitar with Stimer p/up and amplifier.

Rene Thomas, Gibson ES-150 with Gibson EH-150 amplifier.

**57classic** · 12-09-2014, 06:27 PM

AndyV - What a great post, thanks for that.

And George Barnes!! How could we have left him out of thread on superb tone?!
You put that straight.

**vinnyv1k** · 12-09-2014, 07:37 PM

AndyV you nailed it. My whole life I have been chasing a tone that I have inside my head going through countless amps, guitars, pickups, strings, etc...... once in a while I think I have found my perfect tone only not to be satisfied later on.

**cosmic gumbo** · 12-09-2014, 08:48 PM

Today maybe...Jonathan Kreisberg, Bill Frisell, Vic Juris

Yesterday, it was Doug Pettibone, John Abercrombie, David Gilmour...

The electric guitar seems to have an infinite variety of tonal awesomeness that makes it the most versatile instrument ever placed in human hands. I could never narrow my favorite tone to only 3 players. From dark and mysterious to bright and twangy, I love it all.

**eddy b.** · 12-09-2014, 09:24 PM

Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ed Bickert, TedGreene

**srlank** · 12-09-2014, 09:31 PM

Peter Bernstien for sure. I got to hear him live, and his tone was unbelievable. The very sound of the wood of his guitar was perfectly interwoven with his feel for the instrument/music. Also I would add in no particular order...Ted Greene, Lenny Breau and Jim Hall.

**disco~juice** · 12-10-2014, 05:03 AM

Originally Posted by srlank

Peter Bernstien for sure. I got to hear him live, and his tone was unbelievable. The very sound of the wood of his guitar was perfectly interwoven with his feel for the instrument/music. Also I would add in no particular order...Ted Greene, Lenny Breau and Jim Hall.

About Bernstein:
I was in a workshop 2 years ago. He picked his guitar and started with a strum (no amp), just the acoustic tone of this guitar is almost the same with the electric. It is just a well made instrument with a pickup that compliments this tone in the fingers of the best guitar tone maker.

**Gearhead** · 12-10-2014, 08:31 AM

Only three?

Pat Metheny

Eivind Aarset

Wayne Krantz

**Gearhead** · 12-10-2014, 08:34 AM

In the Rock world, I love Jeff Beck's and David Gilmour's, and Derek Trucks.

**acoustictones** · 12-10-2014, 09:58 AM

Right now I seem to really be digging acoustic tone... So Frank and Tony's Just Between Frets has been my biggest influence in tone.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Just-Between-F.../dp/B002VIQSU0

**Stuart Elliott** · 12-10-2014, 05:32 PM

Kenny Burrell (Midnight Blue) and Wes Montgomery (Incredible Jazz Guitar).

I remember being really impressed with Jerry Hahn's tone in some live gigs here in Wichita about 15 years ago. He had his signal split in stereo, one going to an amp with regular jazz settings and the other to an amp with reverb and chorus.

**b_goat** · 12-10-2014, 06:29 PM

Wes...especially on Four on Six
Frank Vignola when he plays his Benedetto FV
Scott Henderson for fusion/blues

b_goat

**danwaineo** · 12-10-2014, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by acoustictones

Right now I seem to really be digging acoustic tone... So Frank and Tony's Just Between Frets has been my biggest influence in tone.

Link: Amazon.com: Tommy Emmanuel, Frank Vignola: Just Between Frets : Groovemasters Vol. 11: Music

Shocker.

**Frank67** · 12-10-2014, 06:41 PM

Wes Montgomery (incredible jazz guitar and later)
George Benson (early recordings)
Robben Ford
Joscho Stephan
Kenny Burrell ... Ok, ouch, that was five ... Love 'em all

**gggomez** · 12-12-2014, 04:07 PM

An interesting thread, looks like Kenny Burrell would win a poll.

Seems to be very few on peoples lists born post 1970? I was hoping I would learn of a pile of new cats that I had not heard of that capture the sound and vibe of today's world. I see a few mentioned Lage, no mention of Hekselman, not a favourite tone for me but surprised no nomination for Rosenwinkle? Then there is Sarnecki and Micic and Jung and Herberman .... just a couple the new breed that have amazing tone.

What other new guys are people listening to that have great tone?

**losaltosjoe** · 12-12-2014, 04:28 PM

Here's the tone I've been and will be chasing all my life:

Wes Montgomery
Kenny Burrell
Billy Bean (The Trio)

**Philco** · 12-12-2014, 08:54 PM

Speaking of awesomeness of tone.
I mean it's easy to just crank the volume and get some grit…..but it's that plum sound underneath the attack of the note that's the holy grail for me anyway. …..and it's almost impossible to get it.