Jazz Guitar Players With Your Favorite Tone - Top 3

[rookeyhook]

Ed Bickert
Jim Hall
Kurt Rossenwinkel

[57classic]

Cunemara: Yes, that is true also, but it still gave me great info!

[russolonoise]

-Jim Hall (electric)
-Any Django sound! (electric and acoustic)
-Fapy Lafertin (acoustic)

alternate 3 is...
-Frisell
-Matelot Ferre
-60s Pat Martino with Trudy Pitts

[russolonoise]

50s Antoine Di Mauro and lafertin hands!

[pushkar000]

Lage Lund
Kurt
Mike Stern

Hon'ble mentions : Jimmy Raney, Pat Martino, Peter Bernstein

I think we are in the Golden Age of Tone.

[sjl]

Martijn Van Iterson
Kenny Burrell

[denk8]

Wes,Kenny and....
Rocky Gresset

[stellarstar]

Reinier Baas

Tal Farlow

Archy Marshall

[Eric Rowland]

Allan Holdsworth, early Pat Metheny, Ed Bickert, John Abercrombie.

[tdearn]

I'm going to go with three different tones that I love.

Wes Montgomery.

Herb Ellis.

George Benson.

[mike335]

Wes
Rosenwinkel
Bernstein

[PMB]

I'm surprised so far how very few mentioned John Scofield's as their fav. tone, and yet Peter Bernstein is almost every other post. Telling upfront, I'm not having a dig at P. Bernstein, he's no doubt very accomplished guitarist with a fantastic style and tone. It's just to me his tone is almost too beautiful, too clean, too polite even, and combine with his phrasing I almost can't detect any blues or rock influences. Not that it's a necessarily bad thing I guess... but I kinda expect that from a guitarist of his generation... On the other hand, Scofield's tone is unmistakeably influenced by blues/ rock, which I wholeheartedly enjoy.

Now, does it mean that based on this thread so far, the tendencies in contemporary jazz guitar is to be more like a clean tone+adventurous harmonic content, and blues/rock influenced jazz guitar style has become a passe? I'm curious to hear the opinions, and don't kill me if I offended someone!

Oh, and no one yet mentioned Marc Ribot here either? Ok, I could be the first, love his tone!

Peter Bernstein has more blues in his playing than just about any other jazz guitarist out there! He just avoids the kind of cliches that so many guys gravitate towards when they're on auto-pilot. Give him some more time, Hep - there's more going on there than meets the ear!

I also dig Scofield, especially during his "Time on My Hands" period. I'm not a huge fan of his distorted tones but that's more to do with his particular setup and technique than any luddite tendencies on my part. I don't hear too many jazz guitarists with the command of processed sounds that someone like Jeff Beck possesses. So while Oz Noy, Chris Crocco, Nir Felder and many other recent players with more modded tones sound just fine, I'm generally more attracted to what they play rather than their tone. Nothing wrong with their sounds at all but for me they are all less individually defined than say, Peter Bernstein on his Zeidler or Jesse van Ruller on his Levin.

Ironically, processed sounds such as chorus and distortion can be so wedded to changes in technology that they are prone to date more quickly than clean tones. Maybe that partially explains why Scofield himself, Frisell, Abercrombie and many of their generation have moved increasingly back to basics over the years.

[Dave70]

Current faves:

Ted Greene

Andres Segovia

Frank Zappa

OP didn't specify only jazz guitarists.

[ADKJazz]

Mike Moreno

Martin Taylor (tone on Double Standard)

Bill Frissell

Kurt (esp. Star of Jupiter)

[MackBolan]

- Doug Raney
- Bireli Lagrene when playing an archtop
- John Scofield with a Tele and slightly distorted

[ronjazz]

Well, that looks awesome. Lubambo has been at the top of the Latin jazz heap for decades, with good reason, and even in the free intro vids I learned quite a lot, and I've been playing bossa and samba for over 40 years. I will be a subscriber and will recommend the site to any and all looking for lessons from the world's best.

[boatheelmusic]

Bobby Broom
Jesse Van Ruller
Russell Malone

[boatheelmusic]

Bickert, Stern, Greene, Frisell
all mentioned.

Argues for a Telecaster in your arsenal.

For me, an ES175 and a tele get it all done.

[bluemusic4us]

Joe Pass - his classic 175 sound
Kenny Burrell - great woody tone
George Benson - his combination of tone and playing style makes his guitar come alive like no other

[Tom_MG]

Just to reinforce my point here - Romero's tone here is really sweet and also completely natural.

He actually gives personal lessons on MusicGurus too - pretty awesome that you can get affordable feedback from the great man himself! - Romero Lubambo ? The Lubambo Method | MusicGurus

[57classic]

Well, as I started this thread, I should finish it also. So I might as well share some things I picked up from this thread:

Tone is very typical to the player - it sounds very uneasy if someone imites another’s tone.
A listener’s taste is personal too, but also has to be developped - in a restaurant a grownup doesn’t order a plate of candy!
Sound does something to the body - a tone projected at your head in the resonant tone of your eyes makes your vision blurry.
And most of all, music acts on the soul - that’s why Pat Martino speaks of the healing properties of music.

As for the votes. If this thread were a poll, following the rules -only 3 jazzguitarists- this would be the outcome of this thread:

1 — Kenny Burrell (16 votes)
2 — Wes (15 votes)
3 — Peter Bernstein (11 votes)
4 — Jim Hall (10 votes)
5 — Ed Bickert, George Benson (8 votes)
6 — Scofield, Django (6 votes)
7 — Grant Green (5 votes)
8 — Barney Kessel, Lage Lund, Jesse van Ruller, Jimmy Raney, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Johnny Smith, Ted Greene, Oscar Moore (4 votes)
9 — Pat Martino, Charlie Christian, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Lenny Breau, Kurt Rosenwinkel (3 votes)
10 — Robben Ford, René Thomas, Billy Bean, Wayne Krantz, Joe Pass, Mike Stern, Martijn van Iterson (2 votes)

Players with ourfavorite tone that were mentioned one time: Matthew Stevens, Bruce Forman, Tiny Grimes, Rotem Sivan, Luis Salinas, Eric Gale, Chuck Wayne, Howard Roberts, Larry Carlton, Laurindo Almeida, Jonathan Kreisberg, Vic Juris, Eivind Aarset, Frank Vignola, Scott Henderson, Oz Noy, Dave Barbour, Jimmy Bruno, John Abercrombie, Grant Geismann, Al DiMeola, Fapy Lapertin, Rocky Gresset, Reinier Baas, Archy Marshall, Holdsworth, Mike Moreno, Martin Taylor, Romero Lubambo, Doug Raney, Bireli Lagrene, Bobby Broom, Russell Malone.

First or sixth on the list, it doesn’t say anything, and that's why I conclude with a great sounding Guild, of a player that should be known more, accompanied by the most tasteless jazzguitar pic ever:

[MarkRhodes]

Well, as I started this thread, I should finish it also. So I might as well share some things I picked up from this thread:

Thanks for starting the thread and tabulating the results. I would not have though KB (whom I love) would receive so many votes, or that Joe Pass would receive so few. As Joni said, "life is for learning."

[Bigmagic]

I like Joe Pass's tone on his later stuff when Gibson made a guitar for him. That tone he had with Rot Clark was killer!

[MarkRhodes]

I like Joe Pass's tone on his later stuff when Gibson made a guitar for him. That tone he had with Rot Clark was killer!

That's Roy Clark, right?

[gtrplrfla]

Sorry, fellow posters, I forgot to add the video !