Solid-Body Jazz Club

Yes, Paul, nice tone, tasty licks.

 

well, hecky naw, how did i miss this club!? i'm practically friggin' cy sperling!

i'm a definite tele jazzer...while i teach all styles, 99% of my gigging is jazz, and 99% of the time i'm taking a tele, specifically my "once an american standard" tele...i've posted about this guitar numerous times, so i won't bore you with the mods i've done...

there's a couple of keys to tele jazz tone, IMHO. a humbucker is not needed (heck, it's rumored "pure desmond" features ed on a pre modded tele...who's gonna knock that tone?)

the amp is crucial. some amps inherently have too much high end and/or bass, and not the midrange of a classic jazz tone. i used a roland cube 60 for quite a while, but once i found my polytone, i knew tone heaven, i keep the EQ dead flat o the amp and adjust the tone from the guitar.

the cat who suggested using the volume to adjust tone is DEAD ON. i never keep the volume at 100%. it allows to keep the tone knob a bit higher (i roll it about half off) so i get a softer sound and i don't lose definition.

what's a thread without pics, right? here i am rockin' the tele at a "hipper than i can really fit into" wine tasting a few months back...

 

Well, I guess this is why I came to the TDPRI in the first place ... jazz on a Tele.
Though my current 'jazz' tele has filtertron in the neck, you definitely don't need a humbucker there (I play a lot of jazz on Strats too with stock singles).

Big +1 to jazztele's tutorial on the volume and tone knob settings. That's one of the reasons I never use a 'bright cap' on my volume circuits - I like the way the mids sort of 'take over' when you roll it back.
Here's some pics ...

 

Thanks, that's what I ment! I guess the tone knob thing really depends on the place you're playing. For smaller venues or playing at home I really like having the tone on full and having the volume backed off very slightly. When I play bigger venues though I find there's extra brightness added to my sound so then I roll the tone half way off.

 

I'll play jazz on just about anything, including an esquire. Lately, of course, I've been heavily into Django so it's been acoustic and archtops galore.

For a regular, straight ahead jazz gig, I would probably grab either my 62RI Tele w/ Vintage Vibe and Barden pickups (see below), or my 72RI Thinline into a SFVR with Celestions

 

yes, it is, but no footrest for me...i'm able to keep my feet flat on the floor and keep my back straight without it (i'm 6'3", and a lot of it is in my legs)

for me it's not even about comfort---it's about technique! i literally have to play like this, there's just some chord stretches and such that are a 100 times harder playing out of this position!

the crossed leg ken's sporting in the second pic is another good way to get the neck up a bit--while it looks just like he's relaxin'!

 

that right there, is a slick lookin' tele. beauty!

 

Yeah, I am relaxing in that pic - just playing a Cm7 it looks like.
Reading gig though so there's always a 'bit' of anxiety.

Beautiful Tele w/the P-90!!!
(Is that the one you record those chord melodies with?)

 

i use my mahogany tele with alnico 2 single coils with the tone dimed for a nice jazz tone. i have a nice "jazzy" sounding amp and using a bit of compression helps

 

I play soft jazz,mainly to myself but sometimes a few friends .I use a Tele with a SD alnico II neck pup .Beeeyewtifful jazz tones but keeps a brightness and clarity .I also play an upgraded Epi Dot with Tonerider Rocksongs.These are again alnico II .again good jazz tones .Off course all my guitars will rawk as well ,especially with a pedal .I usually play through a champ 600 modded but the good tones will come through most amps using a Dan CTO-1.As I play soft finger style I do need some clarity as well as that soft jazzy ,tone knob turned down sort of sound.Alnico II's hit the spot .I may get a nylon string solid like an Epi SST classic .I have always liked jazz on a nylon but my Spanish is too high a setting and too wide fret board to play easily .

 

+1
When I grow up I want to play jazz.

 

I just picked up a 1995 vintage of the Peavey Envoy 110 TransTube amp, and while getting acquainted with it, I’ve been looking for good tones for jazz. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

As I mentioned earlier, for jazz I use my solid body Logan Tele with a mahogany body and a P-90 pup in the neck. I play in both the middle and neck positions. The volume on the guitar is dimed out, the tone rolled back to about 6 or 7.

On the Envoy, I play through the Clean channel of course. I set the Volume at about 3, and activate the 6 dB switch. I boost the mids to about 7, and then go to town. To my ear, it’s a nice clean, warm sound that works well for what I do.

As far as technique (or what passes for “technique” in my playing), I use a different pick attack/a lighter touch and a different pick. My normal pick is a Fender Medium, but for jazz I use a pick I got from Bob Logan. I don’t know its exact gauge, but it’s thinner than the Fender.

 

I try to play jazz, lately with a...Jazzmaster (maybe the only guy in history to use that guitar for its intended purpose ). It can get a trad jazz tone pretty easily, especially with the "rhythm circuit," but I like to screw around with nontraditional jazz tones, too. The crossover between country, rockabilly, jazz, and blues is too fruitful to restrict oneself to dark, warm tones, even when playing straight ahead. Granted, I only play for myself, so I don't have listeners' expectations to deal with.

 

Ceriatone OTS its a Dumble/fuchs/two rock clone

 

I vaguely recall (older guy here, so the memory is fuzzy) seeing Paul McCartney in an interview some years back commenting about this subject. If I recall correctly, Sir Paul was in his late 50s at the time of the interview. He commented that when he was in his early 20s, he thought it would be "unseemly" to still be "shaking about" on stage at the "great old age of 30." Considering all the years of concert tours, he obviously had a change of perspective. His counsel to others concerned about longevity: "Don't sweat it, luv."