Jamie Holroyd.

Jazz Guitar Sound:

Besides knowing how to play jazz guitar, getting a jazz guitar tone that
you are happy with is also important. Perhaps you’re new to playing
jazz and you haven’t played using a clean sound much in the past and
are wondering how to dial in some darker jazz sounds.

Every guitarist spends time working on their jazz tone no matter what
level they’re at. Finding a sound that works with your style is important.
Many of the jazz greats sound help define their style. For example some
of Jim Hall’s older recordings have a very dark and dry sound that
worked well with his playing style.

Of course there’s no substitute for time in the woodshed and hours of

practice which ultimately makes you a better jazz guitarist but every
once in a while every guitarist benefits from spending some time on
improving their tone.

Achieving a great jazz guitar sound doesn’t mean spending a lot of

money on expensive equipment; it can simply mean adjusting your
guitar settings or changing your pick.
I remember when I first began taking jazz guitar lessons when I was
about 17 years old. Every week I’d turn up with my trusty old Strat and
my guitar teacher played his big lawsuit era 175 guitar.

For months I thought I needed to spend a lot of cash on an archtop like

what the teacher had to sound great, but I couldn’t afford one at the
time, so this forced to really make the most of my gear. Fast forward a
couple of years and I am still using a solid body guitar as my main axe
having played and owned some fantastic archtops.

Don’t get me wrong I love playing archtops, but because I mainly use
Fender style solid body guitars at gigs I am often asked how I get a jazz
sound using a guitar which is typically known for treble and twang, so
I’ve decided to share some points I’ve discovered from experimenting
with different settings and talking to other professional jazz guitarists
over the years.

These tips wont be of much interest to the gypsy jazzers, but they
should help you if you use electrified guitars with pickups so archtops,
Tele’s, Strat’s, Les Pauls, 335’s etc.

With technology constantly changing, new jazz guitar tones are being
produced so ‘jazz guitar tone’ becomes a very subjective term. For the
purpose of this article I am going to be discussing getting a classic
straight head, clean, neck pick up jazz guitar sound.
Of course, even that is quite a broad term when you consider all the
different players right and techniques, but this article should help you
get a generally good jazz guitar sound on any electric guitar.

Using the Tone and Volume Controls:

Guitarists who are used to playing other styles will probably play with
their volume and tone on full, but adjusting them will give you much
more tonal variety, whether you’re looking to dial in Clapton’s ‘woman
tone’ or get a dark dry Jim Hall sound.

A lot of guitarists don’t like rolling the volume knob too far back
because the guitar tone gets lost, but rolling it back just a little between
7 and 9 takes off some of the top end of the guitar.

Having a little more volume available is also useful in practical settings

too because you can easily get some more volume without having to
mess around with your amp.

Lowering the tone control is also a must for cutting some highs, and
gaining a warmer sound.
Use your ears to decide how much tone you want to take off because
this will probably change with different guitars, amps and when you
play in different venues and settings. Generally if you’re looking for a
dark Jim Hall/Pat Martino sound, keep the tone well below 5 nd for a
more general jazz guitar sound I’d say somewhere between 4 and 7
usually hits the spot.

Every Amp’s Different:

After owning a number of amps over the years ranging from hand
wired heavy tube amps to small portable dedicated jazz guitar amps
I’ve noticed that each one works differently. There is no ‘perfect EQ’,
but one mistake a lot of beginner jazz guitarists make is cranking up the
bass and turning the treble down which results in a loss of clarity.

While this may work for some, to me, a good jazz guitar sound often
means more mid range than bass, so instead of increasing your bass try
boosting your mids first.

As with using the tone and volume control use your ears to decide on
how much mid you need.

Being quite a lazy guitar player, I dont like carrying gear and sometimes
use house multi channel modelling amps at gigs or in colleges which
have very sterile and digital sounding clean channels. One quick and
easy way to warm these amps up is by using an overdrive channel but
turn the gain way down.

Take Your Pick:

A thick heavy thick pick gives a fatter sound than a thin one. I’d
recommend using at least a 1mm pick, but the thicker the better; I
personally use a 2mm.

Of course, you could completely ditch the pick and try out other jazz
guitar right hand techniques such as using fingers or the thumb for the
ultimate jazz sound. Besides having the right pick, it’s also important to
consider where to pick, because this also changes your sound.

If you play with your right hand above the neck pickup a very mellow
sound is produced. Picking near the bridge produces a brighter more
woody sound that I associate with players like Mike Stern and John
Scofield.

Picking near the bridge cuts through a live mix great and works well
with effects, but you do loose some of the thickness that you get when
picking near the neck, so most guitarists adjust where they pick for
different sounds they want.

Touch and Dynamics:

 Spending time in the woodshed on touch and dynamics is also time
well spent because I feel that this by far the most important part of
getting a jazz sound. Before playing jazz I was mainly a blues guitarist
and used to play with quite a heavy attack which was good for that
style but didn’t work too well for jazz.

Jazz guitarists tend to let their amp do the work and play with a softer
touch than most other guitar players which results in a warmer sound.

To play with a softer touch, keep plucking a note and each time play it
softer until you get a sound that you like. You could also try playing
along with your favorite players but instead of jamming along to a
whole solo keep playing along to one phrase and each time try to really
dial in on their sounds.

Other Points:

I’ve tried to only write about easy fixes to get a sound so you don’t
have to spend a lot of money on new equipment, but there are a few
other factors not mentioned in this article that a lot of jazz guitarists
associate with good tone, one of those is sting gauge.

For quite a long time I used to believe that bigger strings equals bigger
tone, but when I found on that Ed Bickert uses roundwound 10 gauge
strings on his Telecaster my view changed.
I own two Telecaster’s; one strung with 11’s and the other is strung
with 10’s, and there really is no difference, strings are more about feel
than tone. Because of this I like to use heavier strings on my archtops
and acoustic guitars and light strings on my solid bodies.

Some guitarists also like to use flatwound strings instead of rounwound

which are not essential in getting the sound, but they’re worth trying at
least one. Using flats will get rid of any freboard squeeks.

Most jazz guitarists tend to play archtop guitars too which sound great
but are not quite as practical as solidbodies in most playing situations. I
enjoy playing archtops in small quiet combos but when cranked up I
feel they loose a lot of their tone and can sometimes even sound
muddy.

So with these points in case does that mean you shouldn’t ever spend
money on new gear? Not really, as far as the points will get you, certain
amps and guitars can only sound sound so good, but that’s not the
point of the article.

If you wanted to upgrade one piece of equipment, let it be your amp

because this is where most of your sound comes from.
So whatever axe you have, I hope this article brings some new ideas on
how to get closer to the sound that you’re looking for.

What do you do to dial in your favourite jazz tone? Share your thoughts
in the comment section below.