One Pickup Jazz Boxes

Just wondering if anyone else agrees. I recently got an old Herb Ellis 165 and I just love the tone, even more than my 2 pickup L-5 and 175. Could it be that not having that extra bridge pickup cavity allows the guitar to resonate better?

That's quite possible but do you equate the guitar's great tone and its ability to resonate better with a single pickup? Do you mean acoustic tone by the way if you mention resonating qualities?

Coud it be that the tone you like is just a combination of the vintage craftsmanship, good wood that went into making of this guitar (even if it's only laminate for the body), good pickup (if you are fond of the amplified sound), etc.?

Do you have the same set of strings on all the guitars you mentioned?

Agree. Love my Ibanez, etc. jazz boxen, love my '58 ES-125 more.

ive come damn close on two separate occasions to buying a one pickup jazzbox but seeing that i don't play jazz or really anything that isn't through a dirtbox or cranked tube amp i never pulled the trigger. The only one that I GAS for anymore is the godin kingpin

I love my '54 ES-125. Great, classic tone, no hassle.

I have one of these in a Jazzbox. Sooooo sweet.

http://benedettopickups.com/images/s-6.jpg

I think Wes is on to something. I'll never forget how lively the one pup Epiphone Zephyr Regent (clone of the ES-165) sounded and felt compared to the 2 pup Epi ES-175.

It was lighter and I suspect the liveliness was indeed caused by the fact the soundboard was not weighed down by a second pup.

Hey Wes,

Nice thread you have started here.

I would have to agree with you.

I have a 51 L5-C, a 52 ES 350, a 53 ES 175, and a 56 ES 350T. Of these guitars the L5 is the best sounding guitar for Jazz from Swing to Bebop. The runner up is probably the single pickup ES 175. Partly because of its thin maple ply body. The 350 has a lot of potential with a custom Charlie Christian "Stack" in the neck and a P90 "Stack" in the bridge. However, this guitar has a heavy maple ply body and is much more an electric guitar. The 350T, with a nice spruce top, is a future project. The pickups and electronics need some work. But this a short scale guitar that does not lend itself to chord harmony so well.

Another guitar I have that my be of interest to you is a 92 Hummingbird that I modified with installation of a Duncan "Vintage Tele Neck Stack". This guitar works great for many applications including Jazz. I like to refer to it my "Hummingbird ES Model".

Now here is where your Jazz Guitar purest would agree with the notion, that the more a guitar retains an acoustic property, the better its application for Jazz. Said purest would say - "No holes in the body". They prefer the acoustic Archtop cutaway model guitar ("C" in Gibson speak) over the Gibson ES designs, i.e L5-CES.

Dave

Nice collection, Twinkie. I have a '49 L5-P (precursor to the C) that I had a floater put on, but I love its acoustic sound the best.

Nice collection, Twinkie. I have a '49 L5-P (precursor to the C) that I had a floater put on, but I love its acoustic sound the best.

Very nice!

We are only a few years apart. Did you play any Swing?

Very nice!

We are only a few years apart. Did you play any Swing?

It's more my chord-melody guitar. I don't push it to go "chunk-chunk".

Amazing collection. A single pup jazzbox is what I aspire to in the next couple of years. Just started looking and so far the only thing I've played is a Godin Kingpin. No offense intended - but .... meh. Not at all inspired.

Kingpin's a damn fine jazzbox. Don't get fooled by glossy finishes and neck binding on other budget boxes.

My main box (heritage 575) has two pups, but i can't help but think it'd be even better with just a neck humbucker. There's definitely something about a single pickup hollowbody...

I've been wondering about these ever since they came out:

http://www.rondomusic.com/product4696.html

Anyone have any experience with them?

I'm going to guess that with the typical tension of a Jazzbox and a bridge pickup's magnetic field having a lesser influence on string resonance than the neck pickup, most of it is just a matter of feel and stuff, though if I closed my eyes with my hands wrapped around a 175, I'd probably be too dense to know the difference. Still, if I had your L5 I'd likely feel little remorse selling off a good amount of my present stock!

But half of me agrees.

I have to admit that my Peerless Manhattan with single mini-hum, Thomastik-Infeld flatwound 13s, and good acoustic projection is set up so well that it's effortless and just begs to be grabbed when I need something to finger about with in the parlor, getting more love than my acoustics by far. I'm considering dropping in the floating Benedetto that Nick JD posting and adding a tone pot, but otherwise it's a charm to play.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/opensky/taurs/Manhattan.jpg

I love my Sunburst Emperor Regent with the Floating Mini Humbucker. (13's Flatwounds too.)
Through the Cube 60 it automatically sounds like Wes in Belgium circa 1965.

FWIW Dept: Wes was using his L-5 through a S/S Standel with a 15" in Belgium '65.

And...and...yeah dept. I think that quartet with Harold Mabern, Jimmy Lovelace, and Arthur Harper was The Quartet in Jazz of the last 50 years. :cool:
It is a damn shame it was so short lived.

I love my '54 ES-125. Great, classic tone, no hassle.

I think that great tone has less to do with having only one pickup than the fact that those 50's guitars were more lightly built than many of the newer, cheaper jazzboxes (Korean Epi's, Ibanez Artcores etc). I don't count Eastman among these, as those are lightly built, responsive instruments.

I have a 1959 Gibson ES-225TDC (two P-90's) and it has a lot more life to its sound than my Korean Epi (Emperor Regent) full jazzbox does, even though it's a thinline. Better woods and construction, and a louder acoustic tone.

My ES-225:

http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv233/steze13/1959%20es-225/IMG_1742.jpg

I think that great tone has less to do with having only one pickup than the fact that those 50's guitars were more lightly built than many of the newer, cheaper jazzboxes (Korean Epi's, Ibanez Artcores etc). I don't count Eastman among these, as those are lightly built, responsive instruments.

I have a 1959 Gibson ES-225TDC (two P-90's) and it has a lot more life to its sound than my Korean Epi (Emperor Regent) full jazzbox does, even though it's a thinline. Better woods and construction, and a louder acoustic tone.

My ES-225:

http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv233/steze13/1959%20es-225/IMG_1742.jpg

Woah!

:shock: