Did any of the great old school players ever use bridge pickup on archtops?

[Clint 55]

Yes, and then I clarified by saying playing only pedal bass on ballads isn't rare. Meaning it isn't ubiquitous. Jimmy Smith frequently played that way on slow ballads. You can hear or see the pedal part, comp part, and melody part. What's inaccurate about that?

[wintermoon]

Not gonna get into a peeing match w you as I dig organ players and really paid close attention to the instrument and players techniques for over 30 yrs, so I'll try to leave it at that, but it's rarer for an organist to use bass pedals only on a ballad than a mix of hand and foot, unless they're playing by themselves or maybe w a drummer only.
Of course there are exceptions, but for the most part they use both.

[Clint 55]

I see. Pardon me for making generalizations based on how the most prominent organists play rather than the semi pro circuit.

[wintermoon]

No comment, best of luck w your strict bass pedals on ballads only. btw, I've been on the pro circuit since the 80s, not that that makes any diff.
You?

[Clint 55]

Why are you all mad because I know how my instrument is played? Lol. A bit presumptuous. I'm a hobbyist, but I decided to just focus on foot bass only and I can hold that down from slow ballad to upper med. Not gonna tackle fast tempos yet. I prefer it because you can do cool stuff like backgrounds or call and response with your left hand rather than wasting foot and left hand for bass. I studied players and noticed that they usually use left hand bass but decided not to play that way.

[wintermoon]

Why are you all mad because I know how my instrument is played? Lol. A bit presumptuous. I'm a hobbyist, but I decided to just focus on foot bass only and I can hold that down from slow ballad to upper med. Not gonna tackle fast tempos yet. I prefer it because you can do cool stuff like backgrounds or call and response with your left hand rather than wasting foot and left hand for bass. I studied players and noticed that they usually use left hand bass but decided not to play that way.

My man, I'm not the least bit mad. Like I said I dig organ players, but as a hobbyist you say you know how your instrument is played. If you're playing chords w your left hand and bass pedals along w right hand chords on anything but ballads you're crowding things in a band setting and not leaving any space for a guitar for example. So I'm guessing you don't play much in band settings, but that's ok, not everyone gigs, can, or even wants to. But least you acknowledged what I've been saying all along in your last line of this post. It took awhile, but.....

[Clint 55]

[wintermoon]

All I'm saying and have been since my 1st post is most organ players use pedals and left hand most of the time regardless of tempo, though many don't/can't even use pedals at all unfortunately.

[Clint 55]

Yep

[Clint 55]

I find that if I slam down a bunch of notes around middle C it sounds muddy even solo. So what I 'try' to do is either play guide tones or thin guide tone-ish chords in that area or play actual little counter melodies. Sounds cool, is thin, and isn't a waste. I've been in combos before but not right now.

That's cool that you're a pro who likes the organ combo format. Do you have any good recordings?

[6v6ster]

Hank Garland certainly
used the bridge pickup. But he was a jazz guy with the heart of a rock n roller.

[fasteddie]

I’m sure Ted Nugent did.

[Sacred_summit]

I play a gibson 335. I like Pat martinos tone.

Would I ever have the need to turn on my bridge pickup? Thus using both pickups.

Or for jazz and a pat like tone should I forget my bridge pickup even exists?

(Former pro saxophone player, can't play after a major surgery and I've started learning the electric guitar so I can continue playing jazz) it's quite the hefty transition.

Also, I'm swapping out my Ti 13g bebop strings for Ti 13g jazz swings.

I'm just perplexed about integrating my bridge pickup with the neck pickup, and if any jazz artists use both and if so why?

My ears still learning to pick up the sounds of jazz guitar.

Thanks guys

[rpjazzguitar]

I play two guitars regularly.

On one, at some point I discovered that the bridge pickup didn't work. I removed it and covered the hole with black tape.

On the other, there is a bridge pickup. On a different guitar I once screwed myself up by accidentally hitting the pickup selector switch and activating bridge-only. I didn't realize it.
All I knew was that my tone sucked. I then fiddled with every knob on my effects box, making things worse, before I figured it out.

So now my two pickup guitar always has the volume of the bridge pickup turned off. That way, if I accidentally move the switch, I'll figure it out faster.

[sgosnell]

I have one guitar with a bridge pickup, an Epi ES-175 Premium. I find that the bridge pickup turned all the way down acts as a kill switch just by flipping the selector switch to the center 'both' position. It's convenient to have that capability sometimes, such as for tuning silently without having to use the volume control. Other than that, the bridge pickup is just extra weight for me. But others may find it useful, and that's their business, not mine.

[L50EF15]

I think George Benson used the bridge pickup on some records. I’m thinking of “Somewhere In The East” on Beyond The Blue Horizon; and “Serbian Blue” from Bad Benson. On the latter, you can hear a definite change in tone before and after the piano solo:

[jumpnblues]

6v6ster, ya beat me to it. But, yes, Hank Garland would often use the bridge pickup. I also think Bill Jennings occasionally used the bridge pickup.

[Christian Miller]

Sometimes I use a bit of cheeky middle position.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk