Anyone Playing Jazz on Their Balls?

[mb99zz]

Seems like most of the members on this thread play some type of rock (classic, hard, progressive, metal), blues, and country. I don't see too many comments about jazz.

I know there have to be a few of members playing jazz from time-to-time. If so, which EBMM have you found to have the best tones for jazz? Or...which Ball combo (e.g. something with MM90's, or HH, or single coils) do you think is best suited for jazz?

 

[robelinda2]

I like jazz guys who play teles, there's heaps of em, which goes to show you dont need a hollowbody archtop, guys like Scotty Anderson are insane at jazz with singlecoils, or P90's. There's a Canadian tele jazz guy, i forget his name just now, he's incredible, been around since the 70's....Ed Bickert, thats him.

So yeah you could use AL's, silo specials, ASS's with MM90's.

 

[mb99zz]

Rob, I totally agree. I used to (years ago) be in that "it's gotta be an archtop" camp. I've come to the conclusion you can get great jazz tones out of any style guitar. I've seen some great jazz players use tele's too.

I'm thinking an AL with MM90's may sound very sweet indeed. I also found a review of the Y2D on some website where the tester claimed to get great jazz tones out the neck PU.

 

[robelinda2]

Its really in the fingers after all, and a decent axe helps.

 

[JMB27]

Jazz?

personally I like using my Super Sport w/maple board, using the neck pickup.
I play thru Dr Z Z-28 and 210 cab. And, use these settings: vol @ 12:00, Bass @ 11:00 and Treb @ 11:00.
And, adjust vol and tone on guitar for flavor.

it may not be trad big-box archtop soundin' jazz .... but will get you an all 'round cool sound

jmho, .02, etc. etc. etc. etc. , eh

Joel

 

[Marcus2]

Here's my humble take on it:

My jazz teacher handed me a hollow bodied guitar to play. For me, it was very hard to get a comfortable feel on it, so my playing suffered. Bad notes and bad tone.

On the other hand, my Petrucci feels *great*, so I can do my best playing on it.

I then try to approximate a "jazz tone" using the neck pickup, playing with the tone control, and adjusting the amp's settings.

That's it!

Marc

 

[shogun]

jazz-blues-funk-fusion... my jp's and axis do great for them!

 

[Headstock]

JAZZ ? On any guitar? Dear Lord, I hope not!

 

[Volt]

I play jazz on both my Silo Special and my Luke. My Silo has a DiMarzio "Pro Track" tapped-coil humbucker in the neck position, and my Luke has an EMG SPC control that beefs up the single-coils when desired.
Both have push-pull volume controls to enable the special features I installed. Technology FTW.

 

[Butch Snyder]

I like jazz guys who play teles.

Hey, thanks Robelinda, I appreciate that...

 

[Colin]

As Homer once said "Jazz music, pffft! sounds like they're making it up as they go along". I do think I could pull a jazz sound off with my Morse and the tone knob rolled off though...

 

[TwAn]

MM90's baby... They can do it all!

I play plenty of Jazz-stuff on my Axis SS with MM90's... They're perfect for it!

 

[Octavarius]

I mostly play jazz, and I've found my 20th Anniversary Silhouette to be absolutely perfect for my needs in that genre. I generally like humbucker-equipped guitars for a nice round jazz-tone. I use it with my Boogie Mark IIC+, which has a fantastic clean channel. That, and the wood-combinations on the 20th make it sound huge! The PAFs (I generally use the neck pickup for jazz leads) are really punchy and round (with the tone turned down a bit), as well as very clear and still retaining a crisp definition to the notes. No mud. And the amp really lets your playing dynamics shine through. Love that combo!

 

[Oldtoe]

Another vote for 20th Anniversary Silhouette here.

I let a respected local veteran guitarist play the 20th Anniversary Silhouette last Saturday night. It was a wedding reception and the band is a standards/old rock 'n' roll outfit with some great players. It's amazing how versatile the 20th Ann. Silhouette can be with two humbuckers and only three switch settings. What a wonderful guitar! The jazz solos he was playing were buttery smooth, but with a presence that was remarkable. He's been playing for 54 years, and judged the 20th Silo "one heck of a guitar." That's very high praise from this low-key gentleman.

 

[meenahga]

I got some Jazz like tones from my Silo Special recorded directly into my PC:

SoundClick artist: blueberry road - page with MP3 music downloads

 

[mb99zz]

Very nice recording!

 

[DavidOfOz]

I've managed to get some passable jazz-like sounds out of my Luke BFR using the neck pickup and with some EQ tweaking on my effects board. Probably wouldn't fool a purist, but it's good enough for my humble needs!

(Confession: I also have a hollowbody guitar for when I do want to please the purists. Sounds great, looks good, but while it's not too bad to play, it's no EBMM.)

 

[Astrofreq]

I'm too dumb to play jazz. My brain barely generates enough power to move a pencil.

Why would I willingly choose to have no fans anyway?

 

[andynpeters]

It seems everyone agrees there's a definite "jazz" tone....and only one??

I'm by no means an expert, but when I saw John Schofield he used a huge variety of tones from clean to heavy overdrive. Anyone out there consider themselves a jazz player but doesn't use that traditional sound?

 

[Astrofreq]

I kind of think the opposite. To me, jazz has less to do with the guitar tone and more with the sound of the music. Scofield is clearly jazz no matter how he tries to crossover. Same with Allan Holdworth. People say it's fusion, but it's still jazz to the regular people.