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Hi all - 1st time post. I currently have a fender Strat and a fender acoustasonic 90.
I am loving learning jazz! I am basically an intermediate beginner. What is the best way to get a jazz sound using the equipment I have? For now I can't afford to buy anything else. Btw, I'm a singer and I plug a mic into the other side of the amp.
Thanks for your advice.
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I'd try neck + middle pickup and roll down the tone on the guitar.
Roll back the treble on the amp, too and add a touch of reverb.
That should make for a good starting point.
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Hi Gatagirl,
welcome aboard. You will learn a lot here. You will also notice immediately that people here are extremely generous with there knowledge, and there is plenty of know how on this forum.
The magical single coil neck pickup of a Strat makes a smooth jazzy sound that I personally love.
Get yourself a set a Tomastik Infield strings. The Jazz swing 12's work well on everything I play.
Take all effects off. Just a pinch of Reverb is all you want.
Those amps are voiced for mid to high's and will bottom out if you push too much volume and drive the bass strings, so find the right blend. I have a Marshall AS50r and I love the sound I get out of it.
A jazz sound is a matter of taste. You will find your own sound and people will be saying "wow, how can I sound like Gatagirl!"
Remember, most of your sound comes from your hands. Picking attack, and the smoothness of your transitions.
Keep playing.
We are here to listen, help and learn.
Joe D
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I used a Strat into an Acoustasonic many years ago. I'm not sure if the newer Acoustasonics are anything like the one I had. This was probably 15 years ago. Anyway, what I did was turn down the bass and treble completely and then add them back a little at time until it sounded ok. Those settings would stay quite low. So my final settings might end up like
treble 9:00
mids 1:00
bass 8-9:00
I read in some guitar magazine about someone using this method on Roland JC amps. Cutting bass and treble completely and leaving the mids at noon. So I tried it on the Acoustasonic and it worked pretty well. I tended to add back a little bass and treble but you might not need to at all.
Also, Strat on neck pickup. Tone knob rolled back to taste.
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Another Strat player here (at least when not playing acoustic) and have a +1 on position 4. Neck plus middle with the tone rolled back just a little, heavy-ish string gauge, a little reverb.
Leaving the tone at full bright gets you a sound reminiscent of the country swing music apparently the Strat was designed for.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Welcome to the forum.
I prefer to use only the neck pickup (rather than neck and mid combined as wyndham and Longways to Go mentioned) so there is more than one way to get your favourite jazz sound from a strat.
Another (perhaps obvious) trick is to turn up the volume of the amp and play softer with your right hand rather than vice versa.
I now have my strat strung with regular 10s strings and feel I get good enough jazz sound with them, but I prefer thicker strings for jazzier sound (and I use thicker strings in other guitars I while keeping my strat more versatile with 10s).
My point is that changing strings is not urgently necessary to get a decent jazz sound out of a strat, but rather something you will definitely want to try at somepoint if you stick with playing jazz on guitar.
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Welcome to the JGF, Gatagirl! 
I would add to the excellent advice above that picking closer to the neck will produce a thicker tone, as will using a thicker, blunter pick, or one of the corners of a standard pick. If you play with your fingers, try using the fleshy tips rather than nails. Hope this helps. 
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Welcome to the forum. I'm NOT a player anywhere near the caliber of the folks here, I write more in a soft jazz / rock style, but I am a seeker of tone.
I have an Acoustasonic PR370 so my comments may not apply totally to yours because I am not familiar with your model.
The Acoustasonic is very trebbly (is that a word?) so I have to "tone" it down, and the strat has what I call a bell like chime like quality that can be pretty useful, but lends itself more to high freqs than say a Gibson. :-)
Generally I get the best tone from my fat strat with the git switch set between the neck and middle pups, the tone pots rolled to 5 . Using either pup alone yields too many highs not rich enough in mids for my taste.
I don't care for the 370's reverb / DSP effects because they are very hissy when set full on, so that is set to a bare minimum between 2-3 and on what Fender calls the "plate" selection, treble totally off, mid to well... mid 5, bass on 10.
These settings sound particularly nice fingerpicking.
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A bit more radical. Pickup change? I got nice results with a set of Tex Specs set low. (Or lower your current pickups a smidge) Another suggestion would be an s-c sized humbucker like a Duncan L'il 59. (Also eliminates the 60-cycle hum). Or Lace sensors.
Last edited by Bach5G; 11-20-2016 at 02:05 PM.
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Thanks to all for sharing your advice and experience. I will definitely apply it.
Maybe a silly question but do thicker strings make it harder to play? I had been learning on acoustic and when I switched to electric I couldn't believe how much easier it was and my learning curve really improved. Thanks again.
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Yes to me heavier strings are harder to play but with a good setup and strength training they get easier to use.
I find a balance between light and heavy like 11's work well for me.
Last edited by GNAPPI; 11-20-2016 at 02:08 PM.
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Personally, I like 10 roundwounds on my strat.
I play fingerstyle with the meat of the finger. I also prefer a blocked tremolo.
Lots of ways to do it. I spend some time twiddling with the knobs, etc. before worrying about a string change.
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I posted this video a few years back to demonstrate "jazz tone" on my Strat. It's a hardtail (no trem), but it's strung with 11-49 round wounds and is patched into an acoustic amp (AI Clarus 2R). The tone knob is set around 7, so just a little bit of attenuation, but not strictly necessary. I'm playing with the neck pickup only.
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Wow! Thanks everybody. I really appreciate your help! Great suggestions. I will get to work.
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How about trade your Strat in for a Tele? ;-)
<ducks and runs>
Sorry, couldn't resist...
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Gatagirl,
I gig often with my Strat and play a jazz tone with it regularly. After trying all sorts of strings over the years, I settled in on TI Swing (flatwound) .11-.47 gauge strings. They are not particularly difficult to play on the Fender guitar. (I also use them on my Telecaster.)
On just about any amp I use I can get a jazzy sound by playing on the neck pickup with the volume knob on the amp about half way up, the volume on the guitar rolled back, the treble and bass on the amp dialed back somewhat, and the tone on the guitar rolled back to about 5 or 6.
Play up near the neck, rather than down by the bridge, when you pick.
The Stratocaster is an excellent guitar. Just listen to how good it sounds when Roger plays it (rpguitar).
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Ty for your advice. Makes sense. And RPguitar is incredible!
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+1 on the neck pickup, with the tone control turned down a bit, and mids boosted on the amp. I like amps with a slight edge of overdrive, and would probably not get along with an acoustisonic, fwiw. Also, if you have a whammy bar, it helps to keep your attack light in order to avoid unintended boinging.
This is a stock American Standard through a Roland MicroCube.
John
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