-
500 kHz? That's in the AM radio wavelengths. I suspect a typo.
-
02-26-2022 07:35 PM
-
Fixed...
-
Don’t really use my Strat for jazz a lot, but I like a thick tone out of it. I put .011 flatwounds (Thomastik), a .1uF tonecap and 5 springs on the trem block with a piece of foam between the springs and the spring cover to keep them from reverberating.
Here I am playing a more jazzy Amy Winehouse song on it, for an impression of its sound:
-
The singer really took an effort to look like Amy!
Btw: sounds good.
-
Little Jay,
When was that video filmed?! I swear that's Winehouse herself.... is she some kind of tribute act I guess.
The strat is panned for jazz here:
And despite being in love with mine I have to agree.
Although u don't know what she did in terms of settings to try and make it sound better.
Pretty surprised at how good the les Paul sounds though, is food for thought.
What the world needs is a proper sounding jazz guitar with strat ergonomics, as I hate playing anything else due to the comparative discomfort with it digging in to me.
-
It was filmed last summer and the singer is Denise van Dorst. It is indeed a Winehouse tribute act called ‘Celebrating Amy’. Denise looks (and sounds) like Amy quite a bit without having to dress up ;-)
Originally Posted by KingKong
Now back to Strats
-
So what is the magic formula to make it sound jazz, can we sum it up? I've barely tried BTW so would it be something like this?
Heavy flatwound strings?
That bit of metal over the pickups for the small strings as mentioned earlier in the thread? Sounds interesting if it could take away the 'fizz' from the high strings that that austrian girl is on about in the video I posted above.
Eq pedal to boost the mid range frequencies?
Hamburger in neck pickup?
Any digital fx pedals out there that will effectively take over the sound and sort it out? Is that even possible?
I've not ever heard one sound like proper jazz, sorry Little Jay, with the Winehouse video its close but not the one. I dont mean to offend by saying that, hope u don't mind. A few YouTube videos are out there where people attempt to sort it out, but they still don't do it for me.
Also if you put the heavy strings on as seems to be required how r u gonna play ur bending hendrix and stevie Ray Vaughan licks when the mood takes you, you'll screw your fingers.... gonna need 2 strats, not up for that really.
-
So far no one has mentioned Lorne Lofsky who has played with an Ibanez Strat copy for years.
Also see this link:
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...a+stratocaster
-
Also Nir Felder from this interview Originally Posted by Peter C
What are you using to boost the amp?
Around 2006, I got a Keeley-modified Tube Screamer and haven’t shut it off since. I’ve been using the Klon KTR as my second boost. I have them both on at all times. I also can’t say enough great things about Jesse Davey’s KingTone stuff. I have the Duellist, the Blues Power, and the Octaland pedals. For the Netflix special, I used the Octaland and the Blues Power pedals.
Why two pedals?
Trial and error: One is not enough, three is too many. It’s all about the combination of pedals and their order in your single chain. It might only work for one person. You could put my exact pedalboard, amp, and guitar in someone else’s hands and it’s not going to work. It’s all about how they hit the instrument, with what strings and what pick.
Speaking of that, what pick do you use?
I like Jim Dunlop Jazz III picks. I haven’t been able to find anything better.
-
More from Nir's interview: Originally Posted by KingKong
Getting back to your Strat: Are those the original pickups?
Everything’s original. I think I’ve had one fret job and changed the tuners at some point, but that’s it.
Given your use of heavy strings and percussive style, it is interesting you’ve needed only one fret job.
I play percussively but lightly in terms of finger pressure and the pressure of the pick. If you play hard, there’s nowhere to go. I always want to have expressive things I can do. That might have helped preserve the frets.
To that end, do you set your amp on the louder side?
The amp is relatively loud, and there are pedals driving it, but the volume of the guitar is rolled down. I’m at the edge of breakup.
If I were to turn my volume up to 10, it would be way too loud and broken up. By keeping the volume between four and seven, I can play with the breakup and the volume. Right on the edge is the warm place I like.
You do get a very warm sound for a Strat neck pickup.
When they designed this Strat, they didn’t know which pickups they would put in future models, so instead of just carving out pickup cavities they carved what they call “the bathtub,” making it somewhat hollow. Also, I think some of the sharp edges of the tone wore off from playing that guitar for 20 years.
Do you use a standard set of .013s?
I use D’Addario NYXLs. The only thing I change is using an unwound .026 G string.
-------------------------------
Maybe you can see how far you get with everything else short of putting on fat strings.
- playing with a light attack
- turning down your guitar
- boosting with pedals (tubescreamer/klon copy/etc which would seem to emphasize mid range frequencies)
- turning your amplifier up
Sounds like a fun experiment
-
If you happen to be using a Fender amp: For a jazz tone I turn the treble and bass knobs to zero. This helps overcome the mid-scoop of these amps. Adjust to taste if this doesn't quite do it for you. Bear in mind your perfect practice tone may be a tad muddy in context with a group. Keep your options open. Originally Posted by Willy57
-
The other question of course is do the majority of people in an audience ( who are generally not musicians in the places I watch jazz) actually know enough about guitars, tone and history to even care or notice if a strat is not quite sounding like a traditional jazz 6 string?
-
Ahh, the "Toronto sound," otherwise known as the "it's too much of a PITA to bother with an archtop guitar, so I'll just roll some treble off my Tele/Strat/Roadstar plank guitar." Thanks, Ed. Originally Posted by Doug B
De gustibus non est disputandum, but, personally, I prefer my cream cheese on a real Montreal bagel (readily available in Toronto) with some proper cold-smoked salmon. No capers.
And, for guitars, a nice carved top with a decent pickup, preferably run through an old Ampeg tube amp.
-
There's no magic that can make a strat not sound like a strat, except maybe putting in radically different pickups (don't know what you mean by "hamburger"). You can make it reasonably fat sounding via settings on the guitar and amp. As a couple of us have said on this thread, boosting the mids and the volume on the amp and rolling back the tone on the guitar make the strat less scooped sounding and slightly attenuate the resonant "quack" that's always there to some degree. My experience is that mine can sound good for jazz -- not necessarily with all amps, and it can take more tweaking to dial in than my other guitars, but it's a usable sound. Mine is stock, and I play with roundwound 10s, no eq pedal. Just guitar and amp (plus ovedrive when called for). So no magic in the set-up or other gear. It's all in the settings and how one plays. No matter what, though, it sounds different from my semi hollow and archtop, but that's the point really. If it sounded the same as the others there'd be no point in having different kinds of guitars. Originally Posted by KingKong
IME non-musicians aren't aware of these nuances. I once had an audience member who has heard me play quite a bit ask me why I play different guitars because he found it puzzling. I explained that each sounds and feels a little different. He was almost surprised to hear this, since to him there wasn't an obvious difference between one and the other. IME, other instrumentalists take some notice, especially if you make a change or bring an instrument they haven't heard you play before, but they don't have set notions of what constitutes a "jazz" guitar, at least IME. That said, the strat usually gets some comments.
-
The amp and how you set tone controls on the amp probably also plays a big role….
Check this out, around 1:45 or so:
-
Maybe not, but I would be able to tell and it would affect my playing- a lot. And the audience would notice that. Originally Posted by KingKong
I am fortunate to have owned a great '63 strat for 40 years, in that entire time it never occurred to me to set it up for jazz, it is just working against the natural tendencies of the guitar- and it's a really fat sounding strat, fatter sounding than the new ones, so a good candidate. But after switching the strings (and the setup, nut etc) to heavier strings, trying to find a pedal to make it work, and losing all of the things that make a strat sound that is useful to me for so many other genres, I think I'll take a pass thanks.
A telecaster out of the box is a much better candidate IMHO, YMMV, etc. And a 335 or LP even better.
Or wait- how about an arch top?
-
I didn't know Nir Felder used a 26 gauge plain G, or that it was even possible to get a plain string in that gauge! We're all different - I found a .020 plain way too brash so have a .022 wound there at the moment (custom 12-52 set). Go figure.
-
If I were to consider a Strat, it would be a hardtail, with no trem at all. A humbucker in the neck would probably be preferable. It wouldn't sound much like a standard Strat, and to me that's a good thing. I'm perfectly happy to let others play the Strat-sounding stuff. Life is short.
-
a strat can do the "jazz job" nicely, I would look the amp and the amp's Eq carefully to match with what sounds good to my ears with my "strato jazzy play".
I think the jazz sound comes more from what you play than from the type of guitar you play but I can be wrong !
-
Hamburger, haha, didn't see that, my phone corrected the work 'humbucker'.
This archtop thing, I really prefer a solid body, I've an epiphone 335 esque thing, but it feels so flimsy and damagable. I bought my strat for that reason, to avoid taking the flimsy archtop out when I was playing blues-rock gigs a while back.
Having heard the les Paul on that Austrian's vid that I posted earlier, it sounds like the real deal don't you think? A reasonably cheap epiphone les Paul might be investigated to see how it plays and sounds, at what ever point in time I end up taking the jazz out to the poor unsuspecting public.
For now I'm practicing solely on the strat as tone aint an issue for me when practicing.
-
I'm a 175 player, but I brought my PRS CU24 to a jazz jam and got complements on my tone. Running through a DRRI with the T and V knobs at zero, with the reverb just shy of 3. Jazz is primarily note choice, for me. Good tone is just assumed, and achieved, through touch and taste. I aim for blend, and on solos I play a tad louder - pick dynamics. Originally Posted by John A.
-
I think that's a great solution to get that greasy sound. A McDonalds Hamburger will probeably be too sweet and sugary. If you want a really fat tone, I'd suggest the diner around the corner. Originally Posted by KingKong
-
Humbucker! Was my phone auto correcting. Leaving it in there cos its pretty funny. Originally Posted by docsteve
Reply With Quote
Raney and Abersold, great interview.
Yesterday, 11:21 PM in Improvisation