cockroach wrote:Whilst it is quite likely that Hank used his Gretsch for the Dream tracks, there is plenty of recorded evidence that you can get a full jazz tone from a solid guitar with single coils. There are many clips on YouTube, including Joe Pass using a Jaguar, Canadian jazz player Ed Bickert with a Telecaster etc
Even I've played jazz with a Squier Strat with heavy strings a few years ago- and it was FIESTA RED too! It was all I had when I sat in and played with some local veteran jazz players, and they never told me to bugger off because I wasn't playing a jazz type Gibson archtop! I was just pleased that I could keep up, take solos and comp to their standards (and I was sweating a lot!), regardless of the cheap 'inappropriate' instrument I was using...
Tell me about it - I've been trying that trick for 40+ years, John.
Certainly, players like Ed Bickert and (of course) Les Paul have long played solid guitars for jazz. But Les's tone - unique as it was -
never sounded like the archetypal electric guitar jazz tone and Ed's Telecaster has long been fitted with a Gibson humbucking pickup in the neck position (he never uses the bridge pickup).
I am well aware that Joe Pass used a Fender Jaguar when he was at Synanon (it was what was available to him, and not a choice he made) but isn't it significant that he hasn't used one since? He will forever be associated with the ES175.
Talking of that Gibson archtop electric, all I can say is that it gives instant bebop jazz sound without any need for tricks like rolling off the guitar's tone control. Simply removing the high end is not the sum total of the jazz guitar sound of a Charlie Christian, Barney Kessel or Louis Stewart. It comes from the guitar and you cannot inject what is not there to start with. Simply plug the 175 into an appropriate amp (eg, a Deluxe Reverb with the bass and treble controls set at zero) and you have the jazz sound immediately. It's like plugging a Telecaster into a Twin and getting the James Burton sound without effort. Or like plugging a Strat into an echo machine and an AC30 and sounding like someone else. Or even like plugging a Les Paul (neck-pickup selected) into a Marshall for a blues sound.
Yes, a versatile electric like a Stratocaster, a Les Paul or a 335 can get a lot of different sounds and be a jack of all trades. But you still don't see many jazz players using Fenders or many country players using an L5.
JN
of course, now I get it...an upright bass is a double bass. And I looked up a photo of the Gretch Country Gentleman guitar. That's what I was imagining, I just couldn't remember if it was called a 5122 or a 6122, but I see it's a G6122.
