A jazzy sound on a non-jazz guitar

Matt_McG

I don't think you necessarily need flat-wounds. Personally I hate the feel of them, and it would be a major obstacle to progress if I felt I had to use them.

You can go a long way with the neck pickup and the right amp sound on a telecaster or other solid body. Also, solid bodies tend to sustain in a different way to old school archtops, but you can emulate that with playing style and technique.

John McLaughlin played jazz on a Mustang, for that matter. Although that was on 60s Miles Davis records that are maybe less conventional in sound.

Roland

ICBM said:

Neck pickup, tone control down a bit, play further away from the bridge, use a thick pick.

Flatwounds might go further, may be worth a try.

Neck pickup and tone down are what I do. If you want to go further on a Telecaster then use a 4-way switch to get both pickups in series, a combination which will give an even warmer sound. When I started playing jazz I experimented with flat-wounds, but there were times when I wanted to bend a string, or do a bit of bright strumming. Remember Nile Rodgers started as a jazz player, and uses a lot “jazz” chords in his arrangements. So I decided to stick with normal strings

Fiddlesticks_

MartinBush said:

I wish I'd done more learning when I was young rather than making as much noise as possible... I'd have hated anything jazz-related then though.

A feeling I’m experiencing myself at the moment too so you’re not alone!

When I left school I did a BTEC in music which was largely taught by a jazz guitarist who was without doubt the best player I’ve met. There’s so much I could have learned from him that I would have found interesting now, but 17 year old me was more interested in playing Oasis songs 

joeW

Tele, neck pickup and play nearer the neck than bridge. This will emphasise the main note and reduce harmonics to get a richer / darker tone. 

Teles are great for jazz and personally i have flats on some archtops but never my tele - just felt all wrong and honestly isn’t necessary.  Play around with your amp tone settings and follow your ears - you really don’t need to change your gear.  

Funkfingers

Matt_McG said:

John McLaughlin played jazz on a Mustang

Not by choice! 

McLaughlin's story is that, whilst returning from a grocery store, he looked in on the recording sessions for the album, A Tribute To Jack Johnson. Miles invited JM to sit it. The only immediately available electric guitar was a Fender Mustang. 

That album consists of several distinct musical sections, spliced together after the fact. Thus, McLaughlin appears on some - but not all - of each side of the finished album.

OilCityPickups

As has been said ... an alnico 3 tele neck pickup with a hair rolled off the tone - you may not even need the tone if you use flats and play near the neck pickup.  

MartinBush

Cheers chaps - this is all helpful. I would like a tele when I can afford it, but I also need to learn a bit more jazz stuff to add to the jazzy sounding chords I am coming up with on my own  

I'm currently playing on my acoustic as it seems easier to play accurately for some reason. I'm going to have to move to electric at some point and improve my right hand technique as I tend to be a bit percussive on the acoustic (which sounds ok on that instrument).  

thecolourbox

Funkfingers said:

Matt_McG said:

John McLaughlin played jazz on a Mustang

Not by choice! 

I play jazz all the time on my Funkfingers Deluxe Mustang. I just don't play it that well, so it sounds like other styles instead

ALR

I’ve got a P90 Les Paul deluxe and have played jazz on it. Flatwounds, tone rolled off (not completely) Deluxe Reverb 68 amp. Grant Green is my favourite jazzer, felt like I’d approximated the tone at least.

Funkfingers

thecolourbox said:

Funkfingers said:

Matt_McG said:

John McLaughlin played jazz on a Mustang

Not by choice! 

I play jazz all the time on my Funkfingers Deluxe Mustang.

Did I ever mail you a pair of nylon washers to insert into the Squier Mustang bridge "thimbles"?

If not, the envelope could also include my spare, non-remastered CD of A Tribute To Jack Johnson. You could strum-along-a-John-McLaughlin.

normula1

There's a guy who busks in Sheffield with a sax player and he uses an Ibanez RG of some kind and it sounds perfectly fine. 

BobHillman

Does it really matter what guitar you play jazz (or any other type of music) on, as long as you are happy with the sound?

thecolourbox

Funkfingers said:

thecolourbox said:

Funkfingers said:

Matt_McG said:

John McLaughlin played jazz on a Mustang

Not by choice! 

I play jazz all the time on my Funkfingers Deluxe Mustang.

Did I ever mail you a pair of nylon washers to insert into the Squier Mustang bridge "thimbles"?

If not, the envelope could also include my spare, non-remastered CD of A Tribute To Jack Johnson. You could strum-along-a-John-McLaughlin.

I believe my thimbles remain un-inserted with nylon, but I've just looked at the bridge and I'm not actually sure what you mean. What do these nylon washers change?

My initial reaction to A Tribute To Jack Johnson was to wonder why McLaughlin would have done a tribute to the guy who sang Inside Out and Better Together

guyinlyon

Google "Ed Bickert"

strtdv

Neck pickup on a Tele will work perfectly well

Kurtis

Let's face it, all that matters is it looks the part 

beed84

I'm currently practising jazz stuff on an SG if that helps. Sadly not like this, though:

MartinBush

Kurtis said:

Let's face it, all that matters is it looks the part 

I have to say that this has factored into my thinking

susbemol

The idea of a "jazz sound" is probably different for each person. There is no right or wrong answer, really.

Personally, I think it is much more to what and how you play than any choice of gear or "sound". In other words, it's about touch, phrasing, harmonic content, etc.

For example, here is Cecil Alexander sounding like a proper jazz badass on a Jackson Soloist:

Kurtis

Is a tele really that versatile or is it that it can work looks wise with most styles?
Surely a jem or something is more versatile.