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Location: Derry, UK | Another one of those intelligent questions of mine :D :
If you were a lead guitarist playing jazzy tunes, what sound would you be looking for (mellow, silky, bright, etc) and what Ovation would you pick? (price between 500 and 1500$ new). |
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| A nylon string Country Artist.
Would you like to buy a custom ordered one, already duty/vat paid in the UK? |
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Location: NJ | adamas
but in your price range
an elite or maybe al demiola |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | The VXT if you have one. Next would be a T-Head with Be-Bop strings. Take out the treble, use the neck pickup, and use a tube amp with a clean setting. I would also add just a touch of reverb from a pedal. A mellow tone is what jazz is all about.
Last October, our band did a concert with nothing but jazz standards. I tried a number of different guitars and asked the band members to pick the one they thought provided the best classic jazz tone. They chose a big blonde Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor II model with the Be-Bops above a number of really nice hollow bodied jazz guitars. Today, they wouldn't have a choice. I would use the Hamer Improv which is made for jazz. I didn't have it back then.
Playing jazz takes some introspective concentration. If you're not feeling it inside your body and don't have an ability to ad lib and improvise within the chord structure, it could be struggle. I eventually figured out the only way for me to play jazz was to write down the chords in a single page bar-line format without any notes, hopefully memorizing them, then play the notes within the chords based on how I heard them. I refer to it as improvising the counter-melody line. Matt Smith validated this method at Amelia. |
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| Alternatively my little ulsterman I could sell you an Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor (as described by the prof) in absolutely immacculate condition. |
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Location: Bluffton, SC | (When did T28 move to England...?) |
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Location: NJ | . . it's a franchise. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | "Crazy Clive's! His prices are INSAAAAAAANE!" |
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Location: NJ | Probably "loses" something outside the NY/NJ area . . . |
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Location: Tennessee | We have our own versions of Crazy Eddie on the left coast. |
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Location: Chicago | The standard is the famous line of Gibson archtops . Check out "Sunny" by Pat Martino and John Scofield with similar axes (hollow-body and archtop). |
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Location: Chicago | Larry Coryell introduces melodic minor modes on his classic jazz axe.... |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | If Larry Coryell is in the major league of jazz, I'm sitting the bench in little league. I understand very little of what he says, but I can sure hear it. |
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| Not between $500 and $1500 new. Stop giving the poor guy bum information prof, you're confusing his wallet while I'm trying to have a conversation with it.
I think Pat Martino has the worst sound around - bet they don't sell many of his signature guitars. He's such a great player and a wonderful musician (way underrated) that I just wish he'd do something about that river of mud he calls his sound. Do you know his piece C-O-L-T-R-A-N-E? |
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| BTW prof in the last post referred to Dobro not brad. Just in case anyone was confused.
And Larry is not Major League, but he's very good and IMO way better on an acoustic than on electric. |
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Location: Chicago | You are all right. Back to the point: I imagine that the Viper, for example, can get pretty close to the Gibson tone.
BTW: Scofield has a nice sound out of HIS Gibson. I bet a hollow or archtop is "gettable" on the 'bay for a reasonable price.
Larry. I disagree: when he's ON he is ON and can be Major League. This particular lesson is an important one.... |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Check around for prices. The Joe Pass is at the bottom of your price range. The VXT is at the top, but just a few weeks ago, Al had some near new models for significantly less than your upper price limit. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | I'd play my 84 C-Series |
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Location: Isle of Man, UK | I had an interesting experience the other week... I'd done a rockabilly gig at my friends wedding, and then it turned into a free-for-all gig. Great night.
Anyway, my point was... one of the guys who had come from "the other Island" (what Schroeder would laughing refer to as 'the mainland') is a fairly well respected Jazz guitarist apparently.
One of my friends there knew him well, so when he got up for the jam, I happily said "here, use mine" - my Gretsch through my amp. Absolutely stunning - as someone said above, neck pickup back off of the master volume a little, sorted. I'd go with the Tornado/T-head option if you can get one - it's what that style of guitar started out as.
It was nice to head my stuff being played properly, as opposed to what I do to it.
In all honesty, though, he could have played a plank of wood with some string on and sounded good.
The only reason I don't gig my Tornado much now is that it seems a little fragile and old for all the jumping about I do. If it was a non-rockabilly gig, I'd use it like a shot.
JB |
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Lead jazz guitar
