How to Play Jazz Guitar : How to get the Jazz Tone From Your Amplifier

[TheShorty0ne]

so...if i want to play jazz...i just turn my knobs randomly till it sounds close to a jazz guitar? what a tutorial

[coolmega33]

its free.

[olfatoni]

good job.Thank you!!



[1982maiden]

Unexpert village

[MrBlueyGuitar]

What if my amp goes up to infinity?....

[TxJamesxT]

See, if they've seen his other videos this guy really knows what he's talking about. He's speaking for beginners, and from a beginner's perspective, this is all helpful stuff.

[superjokerrr]

not helpful really

[Grindpad666]

what a negative bullshit reactions from a lot of people. I think this guy plays very well, really knows what he is doing in terms of technique, scales, harmony's etc and he is just giving tips that you can either use or don't use. stop this negative whining. I'd rather learn from someone with the knowhow like this then all this morons who just burn somebody down and post crap.

Thanx for your uploads Dustin, I think they are very handy.

[rolijen]

I don't get these critical people on YouTube. I think your playing is top notch and the amp sounds great. Thanks for sharing.

[chrisalcant]

What do you mean? most amps has 0 to 10? do you know

any that doesn't? lol

[THEbrassMONKEEZ]

@chrisalcant yeah the hot rod deluxe goes 0 - 12

[lukas4]

wanna learn to play jazz?, first of all don't listen to this guy and you are good to go

[taberenrooo]

cheater

[mathieuaimelesvideos]

if someone is enough sensitive to his sound to play ''jazz''music, he will know how to roll his knobs to get a great tone. if someone look at this video and find something interesting, he should know how to tune his guitar first.

[TheSchoolsux345]

or you could not spend a thousand dollars on an amp and get a fender champ 600, because its warm and cheap and tube and if your watching expert village, ur probably a beginner anyway.

[tbonehertz]

let me save you the time - he basically says "fiddle with the knobs"

Seems to be a reccuring theme with expert village.

[MrIbanez111]

NOOBVILLAGE

[ImperialArmour]

Roland Jazz Chorus S.U.C.K.S. and this was really quite a waste of my time, you should've focused on getting jazz tones with common non-jazz types like solid body strats and les pauls or even a BC Rich with powered EMG pickups!

[fishqwer]

@ImperialArmour Why do you say the JC sucks. So many guitar players use/have used the JC. What's your beef?

[ImperialArmour]

@fishqwer for one thing it's thin and bright as hell, and sounds like shattered glass with anything more than a generic overdrive. try playing a funk groove on the higher strings with a pure single coil without a compressor and you'll know what I mean. Also, the volume has to be past the 10'o'clock for the full tone to come through. The jazz chorus is usually the kind of equipment you get in cheaper jamming studios.

[fishqwer]

@ImperialArmour I'm convinced you are using the amp for the wrong purposes based on your description. It has become an iconic amp, not for "funk grooves" or distortion, but by its warm cleans. For funk/blues it is commonly accepted that tube amps are a much better choice.  Where the JC excels is at traditional jazz cleans. If you want a good clean amp that you can throw some pedals in front of, grab a deluxe reverb, but don't complain that an amp is bad, just because you don't know its uses.

[Koelhovski]

lol... the title of the video is how to get a jazz tone from the amp and all he says is pretty much dont use distortion.. :P oh and then "play some jazzy lines and turn the buttons".

[xScreamToRisex]

expert village sucks.

[jhump2431]

Find your tone, this guy is a fucktard. No breakup in the tone. Mclaughlin ?

[blekdood]

lol.. look all the comments.. for whom that posted this.. u still alive man? lol ...

[Koreanflow]

And here is my "find a good jazz tone through your amp/guitar" in 3 short comments. I do believe I did a much better job than this atrocity of a video.

[Koreanflow]

Use a splash of reverb, maybe?

Hollow body guitars are the primary choice for many jazzers because the humbucker is probably best suited for jazz-hence the many jazz boxes with only a hb mounted on the neck.

I prefer a semi-hollow for the versatility, in case I play other genres.

Solid body guitars are also well suited for jazz (Seen many good Les Pauls dish out some warmth) but I find that strats are ill-suited for the job (Though they are my favorite guitars, my main being a strat).

[Koreanflow]

Hmm, lets see if I can give better advice than this video-yes, "nice and warm" is very much the desired tone-but this video did almost nothing to teach how to achieve such a tone.

Those are all very expensive amps-I find myself using a solid state cube 30 and getting some awesome jazz cleans.

ALWAYS USE YOUR NECK PICKUP AND ROLL OFF ON THE TONE ANYWHERE FROM 5-7

Single coils - heavy eq on the bass and mids and roll off on the treble

Humbuckers - roll off on bass/mids to avoid muddiness

[K00kamonga]

What all the haters and troll know to do:

criticise and write, write and criticise losing their time

What they can not do:

Make by themselves or Stop this kind of experience sharing videos

[HendrixcommaMartin]

So what this lesson told me was... adjust the amp until I find a jazz tone?

Huh. Never thought of that.

[Ozymandius666]

@DamnationDude12 A better question is "How do you get any good tone out of a Line 6 Spider III"

Sadly, you can't.

[Rg1527]

@Ozymandius666 I disagree, i nailed joe satrianis tone from "love thing" in my college audition with a spider III and a Ts9

[fishqwer]

I find it really hard to get a good jazz sound out of a spyder. Try for lots of mids and small amounts of treble and bass. The mids fatten up the sound and smooth things out.

[democratusnostradams]

lol you took that well,

i guess people have to have a sense of humor for expert village videos

[democratusnostradams]

@DamnationDude12

well to be honest, you dont

[TheJPfanboy]

yea

[Y105066]

You are right that a jazz guitar tone is best achieved with the tone controls set to give a 'flat' response, but Fender amp tone control settings at 5 do not achieve this. Duncan amps website has a tone control modeller which you can use to see what settings give a flat response - bass between about 1 and 2 and treble around 3, but small changes here make a big difference to the response, so you need to use your ears. The Henriksen Jazzamp has a better tone control system for jazz.

[flacepunk]

can anybody tell me how i get this joe strummer guitar sound ?!?!?

[eggymoo]

There are so many variables - guitar type, pickups, string type and guage, thickness of pick, guitar vol/tone settings - that's even before you start on the amp settings! As a general rule, a thicker pick will give a thicker tone (I use 3mm picks for jazz), and you should increase the mids on the amp and reduce the treble and bass.Or leave the amp tones centred and just roll off the guitar's tone control! Well that's what works for me anyway. Aside from that - tone is in the fingers!

[kotekotekitty]

IMO a p90 pickup will get a nice warm jazz sound on most amps/settings imo

[mozzy2410]

Was it just me, or was this video an entire waste of time?! He told us NOTHING we could use here - Luckily, I know how to tweak an amp, or Id be fucked using his advice! Hahaha...

[gg401]

So what were your settings for presence, treb, mid, bass, and reverb?

[Draeku]

...but i like the crunch

[callasexperience]

work on your phrasing, your up and down stroke is so un balanced forget he amp sound

[callasexperience]

hollow bodies? talk to me,do u know what is a 1940 ES 250N? Then we can talk about what is subjective

[droid740]

Yeah man, you gotta admit, something like a clean channel peavey amp is best for jazzy stuff.

[callasexperience]

best jazz guitar sound is a telecaster with flat wound strings not hollow bodies, I should know as I had a1940 Blond gibson ES250 and an old tele...

[Gmarkey1104]

That's obviously an opinion though which is subjective...I prefer a hollowbody

[callasexperience]

what is the point of that?

[lukaszswietek]

cool amp

[oLsoNaGe]

this is boring

[PandabeerMEISTER]

I loved the second sound more

[sat8vai14]

expert village my ass

[baustin]

so pretty much this video just tells you to mess around and find a setting on your amp. haha thankS!

[meghan3192]

just buy a simple little tube amp 1 knob no messing around

[paparazzi3p]

Not for jazz. Those amps are meant to break up.

[rillloudmother]

over generalization!! tube amps can be great for jazz, especially if you want a vintage tone.

[paparazzi3p]

I was responding to the person saying a "simple little tube amp with 1 knob." Those *are* meant to break up easily, which is NOT vintage jazz. I didn't say anything about tube amps in general.

[rillloudmother]

w/e you say! ;)

[samster177]

But solid state will have loads of more headroom, a staple of jazz tone usually.

[wernsels]

what is headroom?

[Gmarkey1104]

Headroom is how much the amp can be pushed without breaking up and becoming dirty or distorted

[MarcelMaier]

Actually he missed to mention to good ol' Polytone Minibrute which was the favorite amp of Joe Pass :)

As for the EQ of the amp you'll have to experiment a bit, there is no exact rule that you can apply to every amp and guitar.

Listen to cd's of your favorite jazz players and try to get a close sound to them, that's more of a help.

[MarcelMaier]

A good pick for Jazz sound is the "Dunlop Jazz III"

but lets face the truth, our hero Wes Montgomery didn't even need any pick, he's used his thumb and fingers, which if you also test it, will influence your tone really really a lot!

[jasonwilcox]

OK so, everyone has an opinion... mine is, hes right in saying good tone starts with the guitar. jazz sounds best on front pickup, humbucker, with flatwound strings, then you can let the amp have higher tone control settings. If you have to turn down the tone knobs a lot, youre reducing the overall waveforms youre putting out, hence smaller sound, less harmonics. And use a pick which matches the strings eg heavy strings need heavy picks. You know your guitar sounds nice, when it sounds nice!

[globalpiracy]

I usually roll off my guitar tone as well, and use a humbucker neck pickup. Of course, I only play jazz guitar ironically because I don't really like it....lol

[willwelsh816]

no, not lol

[mooghammondb3]

Set 'yer EQ's fairly flat, kids. Neck or bridge pickup. That's about it.

[riskotibor80]

What is a typical setting for an jazz sound EQ in terms of Low Mid High? (eg 6 -  7 - 5)

[nielyoungisgod]

something like 9-4-6 sounds good on my amp. mid you my amp is a 30 watt tube amp

[BassistsDoItBetterr]

this taught me nothing, like pretty well every overly short EV video

[Rockinnsk8inallday]

usually something like these examples i found great:

9-1-9

9-5-7

7-2-9

and

7-1 or 2-6 or 8

I found out these by experimenting stupidly!

[riskotibor80]

Cheers mate!

[mancini54]

one of the most neglected approaches with guitarists is that most of us tend to pick too hard on the strings. (stems from playing distorted sound rock) if you try to play as softly as possible you will automatically go in the right direction.

Also try to avoid the pick as much as possible. when using a pick use many legatos glissandos and hamer-ons.

[tylerdurden4495]

"Expert" my ass.

[elvisbeavis]

This should be called watch me get a jazz tone on my amp. He could at least tell folks what treatment he's giving the eq when he tweaks it.

[greenfrog1030]

honestly getting good tone is a subjective process, therefore someone's gotta do it on their own to get the tone they like.

[Axeman89]

that was pathetic! i thought id get some help. I find it helps when you use guitar with humbuckers, the neck pickup, turn the treble controls right down on your guitar, less treble more mid on the amp and no reverb! as you want the notes to sound as short as possible

[meghan3192]

what about bass?

[Axeman89]

quite high on the bass as you want a warmer tone, no contour would so like wood but thats just my opinion hope this helps :)

[meghan3192]

thanks bro

[Axeman89]

yeah sorry its not exact hehe

[SantaClawsJazzGuitar]

Have you ever heard of Ploytone and Spacesonics by Polytone. Fantastic Jazz amps !!!

[Jazzwayze]

Oh yes.. Polytone.. every time. The 'Mini brute' is THE one. Mine is from the early seventies. Still works fine. What else do I need? I even use 20 year old leads. ( I wish the joints in my hands had had lasted as long! :)

[werfisha]

Itsa not he told ytou what amp to use and he told you that to every guitar you need to get different settings. I think it was helpful

[cianinthesack]

It takes great talent to talk for 3 minutes and say nothing.

Good job... *coughs*

[ascrawley]

P.O.I.N.T.L.E.S.S

[philbio66]

oh be nice

[nottubee]

This seems to be about rating the video, so the guy wasn't smooth, he's young, but I think most people on here are young. I am not, and I;ve played every amp out there and my all tube Marshall head and 4x12 1960AX vintage cabs are the best, period, paragraph. But I don't play jazz either. No kidding, right?. You guys be cool. You'll never guess who this is. Peace! Swagger is cool but people hate egos, so watch how you carry yourself, and be nice to everyone. They might be hiring.

[RW889092]

wow. This video was totally useless.

[giantbear12345]

Adjust it yourself, thanks. Worthless.

[xdazednconfusdx]

Thanks for the info!

[doingtheartwork]

ok, he could tell what adjustments he mad not only that you have to make them. That everybody knows

[fuliend]

You're just stupid, then.

[doingtheartwork]

it's good you're smart ;)

[lesmorrison]

This guy is a very good teacher. You always learn something from his lessons. Many Thanks.

[marcoferraz]

i love my roland jazz chorus 77

[garytelecastor]

I use a twin and I also have a Roland Cube 60. This amp is the Bomb for jazz gigs. Check one out. They are clean with lots of headroom, it has on board effects and a 6 model COSM. Single 12, light and portable.

[PatrickjazzguitarBro]

I have had good luck with the Fender Blues Deluxe (1994 I think), and an early '70s Twin Reverb. I also have a late '70s solid state Polytone 104 (Like Benson used to use). I often combine the Polytone with the Blues Deluxe for bigger rooms. I use almost all setting in the middle, about 5. I roll off the tone on my Byrdland to about 6 or 7. My Artist Award has no tone control. I don't like to use digital effects as they seem to kill the fatness of the natural guitar tone.

-PB

[cedarbob]

What are you thinking/aiming for when changing the tone knobs on your amp?