Search the Community

I don’t know if anybody here follows “The Jazz Guitar Channel” on YouTube, but “Gear Talk” in general usually sparks a comment or two. Richie provides tips on getting a great jazz tone out of your guitar and recommends jazz amps. Of course, there are other options and factors to consider, as well as personal preferences, but these tips are good guidelines. So let’s start with the video on getting a great jazz tone out of a solid body guitar. I got my Carvin Strat-like solid body with the intention of using it for jazz, so I do have a humbucker in the neck position, but nothing really special and I use D’Addario nickel wound, regular light gauge 10-46 strings. Believe it or not, but I can get a warmer and darker tone out of my solid body than I get from my Ibanez AKJ95 hollow body that has the Super 58 Humbucker in the neck position and D’Addario chromes, flat wound jazz light gauge 11-50 strings. As a matter of fact, I find the flat wounds kind of dull sounding and lacking sustain. Go figure! For picks I use Jim Dunlop: Jazz III, Ultex Jazz III and Big Stubby. Both my semi-hollows have great humbuckers with light gauge strings and coupled with my amps produce great jazz tone. I don’t find the need to go higher in string gauge. I get the tone I want so I’m not gonna fight heavier string gauges. Easy playability and access to higher register with cutaways are more important to me. Ok, let’s see the second video on jazz amps. For jazz I use two amps: Roland BluesCube Artist and/or Yamaha THR10C. Both work great with my selection of solid, semi, and hollow body guitars.