start sounding like jazz guitar

Strats are good all around guitars, with a lot of tones available. When you say 'that jazz sound' it covers a lot of ground, from dixieland to hard bop. If you're shooting for Joe Pass tone, that's going to be mighty hard to come by; if you have Jeff Beck in mind - well, he plays a strat, so if somebody tells you it won't give you a jazz sound, just put on Goodbye Porkpie Hat.

I've used a Strat on jazz dates. In a large ensemble, I actually prefer it - for one thing, it's crowded on the bandstand, and if disaster strikes I can replace a strat for a lot less money. You're also rarely 'front and center' like you would be in a trio setting, and the strat is plenty flexible to fit in with the 'modern' rhythm section with electric keyboards and bass... I'd go hollowbody or mic an acoustic if I'm in a grand piano/upright bass setting.

I use bridge or bridge/middle, because you want that rounder sound. I've usually got the tone controls around 7-9 and 8-10; you don't want to roll off very much. Run the amp clean, kill the effects (although I'll sometimes add just a touch of reverb) and don't even think about saturating tubes.

Use your ears, and set the amp behind you - brass isn't miced, except in very large venues, so you don't have monitors to rely on. The hall will have a lot of impact on where your tone settings end up, but I don't remember any solid-body jazz date where I had them lower than 6. If you have a vocalist, don't worry about balance with the PA - somebody else (singer, bandleader, soundman) will worry about tweaking that to fit the mix - you just want to blend with the rest of the rhythm section.

I use bridge or bridge/middle, because you want that rounder sound. I've usually got the tone controls around 7-9 and 8-10; you don't want to roll off very much. Run the amp clean, kill the effects (although I'll sometimes add just a touch of reverb) and don't even think about saturating tubes.

Totally surprised by this answer Noteboat. For trad jazz tones, I use the neck pup on my G&L S-500 (basically Leo's later take on the Strat). I find that gets a much fuller, rounder jazzier tone. The bridge is just too harsh, as it lacks strong pickup of the the fundamental, so the harmonics seem emphasized. It's also fairly "common wisdom" among trad jazzers that the neck pup is the important one. OTOH, for fusion or avant garde, anything goes.

Gotta love Beck's version of Porkpie Hat -- one of my faves.

-Greg

Arrggghh... stupid me, posting first thing in the morning after a short night!

Of course you're right, Greg - I meant to type neck or neck/middle, and somehow my mind didn't engage my fingers! :oops:

Yeah... If you see some jazz boxes, they actually have a neck pickup on the fretboard. http://www.music123.com/Aria-FA71-i63476.music

Yeah. On the Strat, and Les Pauls for that matter, the neck pickup works best for jazz. Roll the tone down a little bit, and you should have it.

Yeah, when I use my strat for jazz, I usully use exclusively the neck pup, with the tone on 6-7 and the volume all the way up for melody and single-note sections, and tthe tone on 8-9 and the volume on 6-7 for rhythm sections. It's suprising how well the strat works in a jazz setting, although I still perfer a semi-hollowbody...

Thank goodness Noteboat posted a correction. I was just reading this thread wondering how I would change the tone control on my strat's bridge pickup! :wink:

Check out "The Rocker's Guide to Playing Jazz" article in the current Guitar One mag... March 2005 anyway.

Strats are good all around guitars, with a lot of tones available. When you say 'that jazz sound' it covers a lot of ground, from dixieland to hard bop. If you're shooting for Joe Pass tone, that's going to be mighty hard to come by; if you have Jeff Beck in mind - well, he plays a strat, so if somebody tells you it won't give you a jazz sound, just put on Goodbye Porkpie Hat.

I've used a Strat on jazz dates. In a large ensemble, I actually prefer it - for one thing, it's crowded on the bandstand, and if disaster strikes I can replace a strat for a lot less money. You're also rarely 'front and center' like you would be in a trio setting, and the strat is plenty flexible to fit in with the 'modern' rhythm section with electric keyboards and bass... I'd go hollowbody or mic an acoustic if I'm in a grand piano/upright bass setting.

I use bridge or bridge/middle, because you want that rounder sound. I've usually got the tone controls around 7-9 and 8-10; you don't want to roll off very much. Run the amp clean, kill the effects (although I'll sometimes add just a touch of reverb) and don't even think about saturating tubes.

Use your ears, and set the amp behind you - brass isn't miced, except in very large venues, so you don't have monitors to rely on. The hall will have a lot of impact on where your tone settings end up, but I don't remember any solid-body jazz date where I had them lower than 6. If you have a vocalist, don't worry about balance with the PA - somebody else (singer, bandleader, soundman) will worry about tweaking that to fit the mix - you just want to blend with the rest of the rhythm section.

Hi. uhhhh what about Spyro Gyra? The guitarist used all kinds of effects
and Taj Majal? Well they're really a blues band though I guess.

And as far as WHAT guitar... I heard some really good playing with a
BC Rich Warlock... That's not a typical jazz box.
And as far as Strats go... C'mon those axes are so versatile they
ought to make attachments for it to use as a lawn tool, a dish washer
and a cable ready TV remote. I think you can use a strat for just about
anything - ANYTHING.

Me personally when I get in the mood for improvisation, I
use a little distortion, sometimes reverb and a chorus from time to time.
The only guitar I play ATM is a semi hollow... I prefer the
bridge pick up over the neck one. to me the front pup is too...
too thick(?). I guess chaulk that up to the metal years for that.

Uh I like the middle settings too with the volume on the back pup at
about 75% the tone High 75% ± and the front at 50%and the tone
all the way up.. when i play a more "traditional" jazz style.

You know, my axe is stereoyped as a bles guitar, jazz box. and
it does have that sound, but it really does the best playing
alternative like STP and of course Rockabilly.

I don't really think there is a specific guitar for any particular type of
music. And the more I think about it all those string types for
the most part are primarily for the benefit of the player and not the
untrained ears of the audience. So if you go from round wound to
flat, don't be too surprised if no one notices

There's an awful lot of definitions of jazz... to my mind, Zappa is one of the great jazz guitariats, but most don't see him that way.

Guys like Julio Fernandez of Spyro Gyra (who plays a Strat and a Tele in concert) aren't the folks that jump to mind when I think about jazz guitarists. I think Metheny, Scofield, DiMeola, Martino, Carlton, Christian, Breau, McLaughlin, Montgomery, Pass, Django, Pizzarelli... it's a mixed bag, but it sure tends towards the rounder smoother sound. If I had to pick the 'classic' jazz guitar for that, it'd probably be an ES series.

The jazz acts I play with go from small ensemble (me, bass, drums) to semi-big band. In the small settings, I can't get away with a 'cutting' sound, because there's nothing to back it up - it'll end up just sounding thin. If I'm working with saxes, horns, maybe a vibe player, there's a lot happening, so the bridge pickup sound may work when it's my turn to step out... but in that setting, I'm part of the rhythm section, and I have to fit.

A lot of it has to do with the music you're playing, too... if the book is heavy on Sinatra, Dorsey, Satch - people are not used to hearing the 'electric guitar sound' in those tunes, and I want to sound as much like an arch top acoustic as I can to give folks what they expect. Even the guitar oriented tunes are usually along the lines of 'Spanish Eyes', ya know? (And I don't think I've ever been asked to cover a Spyro Gyra number, not once!)

I've done a date every once in a while where a screaming guitar would not be out of place in jazz, but that's pretty rare.

I'm doing a jazz date tomorrow, and the drummer told me we'll work from the Real Book. That's got stuff from Parker or Davis bop tunes to standards like "All of Me" or "My Funny Valentine". So I'm bringing my Strat - it is pretty darn versatile (but I disagree that you can play anything on it - I can't get a decent bluegrass sound!)... but next week with the big band it'll be a hollow body.

Just got back from playing jazz on my Strat. I was one of three rhythm section members (with a bassist and drummer) for a public jam while others came in to solo - and we each took a few too.

Two other guitarists came - one had a typical jazz box, an ES-175. The other had a Strat. I played with neck/middle, tone controls on 7 and 8. The other Strat player used neck only, but he had a 'hotter' sound than I did - since he was on the other side of the stage, I never got to see where he set his tone controls, but I know he was doing lower numbers than I was... and part of his sound was a grounding issue; when I took a break, I offered him my amp, and had a lot of hum. He suggested I had a bad cord when I mentioned it... but I'd just played through that cord and amp (and did again a few minutes later) with no hum at all.

Funny, the tunes we did were mostly ones where I could have gotten away with bridge or bridge/middle, at least on solos (a lot of bop stuff - Coletrane, Parker, Davis), but I stuck pretty closely to my background role.