Strat for Jazz

[slopeshoulder]

I love Wes. I'm listening to an album of ballads by Wes Montgomery and imagining the same notes played on a strat using the neck pickup, or the neck and middle. I think I'd like that more. It'd have sweeter bell tones, less mud, more tone on the low notes. Maybe a tele neck pickup too. NOT with the highs off trying to emulate the Gibson L-5 tone, but rather getting the open and dimensional strat/tele tone. Those archtops sure are jazzy-elegant, but I'd rather hear a warm strat. I wish someone would make a straight ahead jazz album, using a strat.

That is all.


Edit: on a side note, how could anyone listen to this creative, disciplined, gifted, sensitive, fiery, genius artist and ever possibly in any universe be a racist? Laying this down in the 60's must have helped the cause, along with so many others.

 

[Lewguitar]

Eric Johnson plays a lot of music with Wes's touch...and he does it on a Strat. Sounds great to me. Doesn't sound like an Gibson L5 of course. Sounds like a Strat.

 

[William Braddell]

I've got an 87 MIJ Strat which I ended up putting the stock pickups back in. Combing these with a tropical fish capacitor gives it a more jazzy sound than any other Strat I've played.

 

[cosmic_ape]

Buy a semi hollow Strat!

 

[peskypesky]

 

[cratz2]

Sure... I started playing jazz on a 70s 175 and have played jazz on a strat with flats and Duncan Antiquities non-stop for the past several years.

Dedicated jazz and surf guitar which is my #1. I use a Wampler Ecstasy with the gain set very low for those dry cleans with plenty of treble. No need for an L5.

 

[59Bassman]

Nice setup. I love the tone SRV got with a neck pickup from a Strat. I think I've got a better Tele jazz neck tone than a Strat at present, but I think you can certainly do it with a Strat.

 

[slopeshoulder]

I'm not looking for jazz tone on strat, but rather strat tone on jazz. Like if Wayne Krantz played Wes.
I'll check out the videos though!

 

[slopeshoulder]

This!

 

[Jason S]

It will sound great. But, it's more about the phrasing. Than the tone.

 

[guitararmy]

I have a parts-o-caster with active Bartolini single coils in the neck and middle spots. Very jazzy but still strat-like...

 

[AaeCee]

I used to take lessons from a great local player named Carl Filipiak whose recordings are nearly exclusively jazz, most played on a Strat. He has a fairly extensive discography out there, and his recordings and samples are easy to find.

One of my favorite comments from him came when I asked him how a recent session went that he recorded with a really nice hollowbody of some sort that he borrowed, and his reply was something like "Yeah, it was a great guitar, but all I could think about was how much I wished I was playing my Strat".

 

[Pantalooj]

I wish someone would make a straight ahead jazz album, using a strat.

I'd buy it!

Neck Strat tone is my all time favourite guitar tone. Lately, probably as a result of listening to lots of Matt Schofield and Eric Gales, I'm especially liking mine flavoured with lots of mids and a bit less treble. I think that'd definitely work in a jazz context.

 

[jb4674]

I love Wes. I'm listening to an album of ballads by Wes Montgomery and imagining the same notes played on a strat using the neck pickup, or the neck and middle. I think I'd like that more. It'd have sweeter bell tones, less mud, more tone on the low notes. Maybe a tele neck pickup too. NOT with the highs off trying to emulate the Gibson L-5 tone, but rather getting the open and dimensional strat/tele tone. Those archtops sure are jazzy-elegant, but I'd rather hear a warm strat. I wish someone would make a straight ahead jazz album, using a strat. That is all. Edit: on a side note, how could anyone listen to this creative, disciplined, gifted, sensitive, fiery, genius artist and ever possibly in any universe be a racist? Laying this down in the 60's must have helped the cause, along with so many others.

What album is that? I'd love to listen to it.

 

[slopeshoulder]

What album is that? I'd love to listen to it.

Wes Montgomery Plays for Lovers, a compilation album on Spotify.

 

[Average Joe]

Check out Nir Felder for great strat tones playing jazz

 

[Hatim]

What you see though is a strat with a jazzy tone is most likely to have a rosewood neck. That really helps to give the tone that little 'plock' when it's picked. A jazzy tone on a strat with a maple neck is much harder to achieve I find.
Too bad, because I have this cs RI '56 strat which I absolutely love, but I can't really use it for my jazzgigs.

HAns

 

[Lucidology]

Simply Love the sound of a Strat playing jazz …
Wish more jazzers would use it …
Maple fretboard and/or Ebony provide a more immediate attack …
Also love that sound no matter what guitar is used …

(In fact, my FG1 semi-hollow has a Maple board. My Gibson PM and GB10 have Ebony boards…
All have an entirely different feel then rosewood boards … livelier is one way to put it)

 

[Dave Wakely]

 

[p.j.]

Both Leni and Wayne Krantz favor maple necks. I think anything goes as far instruments go. I remember seeing a guy play a 7 string Ibanez shred guitar once in Cape Cod. He was playing awesome solo chord melody stuff. Never once did a divebomb, though.

=-) PJ