🎸My 3 tips for you to achieve the classic jazz guitar tone 🎵 

Clean, warm, rounded, buttery, mellow

Warm, but clear. Not muffled. I also like just a bit of breakup when I dig in.

Thank you Andy... I have played Spanish, classical and fold guitars for a long time. But I have been a lover of Jazz as well, for a long time.. I do now own a guitar where I can start to learn to play some Jazz. Your explanation about how to achieve the sound you may want, is the best I've heard so far. Thanks again for your honest, informative and great guidance on things to look out for in trying to achieve the sound one may want. Cheers.

Very informative and well done video :) Fantastic stuff and thanks for sharing all those details and subtleties!

Very attractive topic! Always great content!

As far as plectrums go, I was reading a biography of T-Bone Walker and the author mentioned the fact that many early jazz and blues players used felt picks. I picked up a pack of felt ukulele picks, about 3 mm, and they provide an amazing mellow tone. I switch back and forth between those and jazz picks, but keep coming back to the felt.

Great video ! Thank you!

I've been trying a number of different picks. I seem to be gravitating toward to the Dunlop Jazz III in the XL size. I've got a few of the red ones, a few of the black stiffos, and a few of the utex type. To my ear, the red ones produce a somewhat softer sound. One of my guitars is a parallel braced 16 inch L5 style which is inherently very projecting and bright (currently with round-wound pure nickel strings). On that one I've been using the black stiffos on the more rounded end. To my ear it produces a richer and warmer sound. When I'm playing a guitar with a pickup, I tend to use the more pointed end. The differences in tone between the red, black, and ultex is pretty subtle to my ear but may be worth experimenting with. And I agree these picks are very easy to hold on to. That, and they are relatively inexpensive.

I have found that whenever guitar tone can't be explained with variations in equipment, it is attributed to the fingers. Eric Johnson had a noticeable difference in clean tone when he downsized his Twin Reverbs to Deluxe Reverbs in 1994. Same fingers, different tone.

For iconic jazz tone I go towards Wes Montgomery and Pat martino

I’ve been really into using fingers over picks the past year. Gives a really dark tone

I use a slightly thinner Dunlop at 1.14. I play les Paul’s, with d addarrio flats. And the amp is a 5e3 deluxe. Someday I’ll get a 175 or 165 Gibson but for now I have a pile of les Paul’s with different pickups( yes a pile, lol) warm, mellow, but still has definition and a little slight break if I dig in hard.

I was using flatwound for my jazz until my wife bought me a MD200 Mitchell strat. I put 9's on it and love the jazz sound all together better. I do use my fi gers though. So I'm re-thinking my setup completely.

Nice

For picks, I use standard heavy celluloid (Fender, e.g.). Lighter picks just feel flimsy to me, and I don't get any flexibility from anything much heavier. I use the same picks for everything I play: acoustic folk, rock, jazz... (except pedal steel; that's thumb picks and metal finger picks, but that's a different beast) For strings, I use 10s on solid body electrics, and 12s on acoustic (phosphor bronze) or arch top (nickel wound, wound g). For EQ, I generally set the amp tone to more or less flat, and use the guitar's tone controls to shape. And try to remember that at my age, high frequency hearing is not what it used to be.

i like a copper metal pick

Not too dull on the bass strings, not too bright on the trebles.

Lots of youtube vids say use thin pick to strum and fat pick for lead. Jazz guitar requires both chords and lines. Do you compromise or persevere with thick picks. (there are many jazz speed players but most playing seems to be at a medium pace).

I used to love tomastik flatwound 13s. ,but my fingers are better off using round wound elixir 10s these days. I can play and practice longer and don't have to change strings too often. On acoustic guitar I use 11s. I use the large triangle fender heavy picks mostly, but I like to change it up with others.... especially since I lose them so often 🙄

Thank you for sharing. Just a few thought here. Music is not about the "tone'. If your music sucks tone wouldn't fix it. And if your music is delightful nobody cares about the tone. You have to precisely declare what you mean. If you're talking about _correct_ sound extraction - this is very important. No "bzzz", controllable muting, no muffled sounds etc. If you're talking about THIS - this is important ! But if you're talking about timbre or "voice", hummbuckers/amps/pedals - nobody cares. I didn't mean it's wrong and you don't have to take care of it. But it's insignificant. It's like talking about colors of racing cars. Who cares ? Also take a look on drawings. You don't care how "clean" and "straight" the lines are in drafts/drawings. You'll find very 'noisy" and perfectly "clean" drawings delightful whatever the style is. You don't have to practice perfect academic hatching to be a great artist. Most of the artists don't. Take a look how little details are there on oil paintings in close view. The most of beauty is made in your BRAIN. Artist makes you just a little _guide_ of what meant to be there. In the music it works the same. You might roughly sketch your music and the ears/brain would obey. The clearer - the better but perfectly clean tone is just like photorealistic painting in drawing. It seems overloaded and mostly boring. It's not about art. It's about "doing things" on OCD level. Record yourself. Check with friends. Don't like it ? Fix it. Is everything fine ? Leave it. Just play more. :) Don't let tedious practice to kill your inspiration whatever it costs.

I’m wondering if anyone has tried half-round strings? I need to order new strings and was curious about trying them.

Joe Pass and wes montgomery are peak jazz tone.

I’d say warm, clean, and creamy. Like a perfect cup of cappuccino ☕️ it’s clean ingredients, with a bit of smooth creaminess within the warmth

Warm, plummy

For picks I use bluechip 60 (about 1.5 mm thick)... expensive but 1 pick will last for years and the literally glide on the strings and stick to your fingers.

Does anyone use fingers only. I come from a classical background...ta

Many jazz guitarists use a slanted pick technique either a "leading edge" pick slant as you do in the video or a "trailing edge" pick slant like the George Benson technique. I find the different pick slants give a different tone. The "trailing edge" pick slant has a broad, bright tone with more definition and a reduction of the pick attack.

I tried many picks...even Chickenpicks...Hawks...but Blue Chip Jazz LG 60 rules them all! Great tone with clarity, no string noise and very very durable. Expensive, but well worth it!! Cheers!

Hi Andy. Nice conversation. My tips for getting a great classic jazz tone: First of all, you need an archtop. Nothing else will do. Your pick is very important. I like a nice, fat, faux tortoise shell pick from JB Guitar Picks in Brooklyn, NY. The model I prefer is a 2.0 MM 351 RB (round bevel). If you’ve never tried faux tortoise shell, you don’t know what you are missing. This big thick pick might slow you down a little bit at first, but the sound is so very nice. Butter. It will quickly become the only thing that feels right between your fingers. For me, D’addario nickel round wound in a 13 gauge sound and feel the best. Any lighter than 13 and the highs are too spanky on my 1953 Gibson ES-175. My instrument has only 1 pickup. I always prefer to simplify, so when I realized that I never use a bridge pickup or a dual pickup setting anyway, purchasing my single P90 pickup vintage archtop was a no-brainer for me. When I look at pictures of my idols playing archtops with dual pickups (Jim Hall, Joe Pass etc) the little selector knob is ALWAYS pointing up, meaning they are just using the neck pickup. I’ve never seen an exception to this. On my instrument, dialing the volume knob up to a healthy level (somewhere above about 7) is imperative. After that, the tone knob goes down to about 4, maybe even 2 or 3 if I’m playing solo. Amp-wise, a solid state amp that gives me the cleanest, most transparent sound is all that I need.

I use the elixir light gauge strings. Is that ok?

Gravity Picks

plummy

tip #4 get yourself a few thousand dollars gibson jazzbox😂

I would describe my optimal tone as thick and buttery. Warm and full but not muddy. As for picks, I only use V-picks made in Nashville. They're usually in the 3-4mm thickness and all acrylic type material. That's produces a full, warm, mellow tone. Their B# model is amazing. As for strings, I prefer round core, pure nickels, usually from DR or GHS. 10-46 on the solid bodies. 11 or 12 for semi or hollow bodies.