OT: Re: jazz on tele's etc.

["Kris Hartung" <khartung@q.com>]

Speaking of strings. I've been doing this hybrid thing for a year or so 
and 
really love it.
It's something I read about Pat Martino doing.  I use flatwound 12's on 
the 
lower half of my
strings (E-A-D) and flatwound 13s on the upper half (G-B-E).   One 
complaint 
that
jazz guitarists have with their tone is that the low strings are too boomy 
and the high
strings are too thin. So one way of addressing that is with this hybrid 
set. 
It produces
a more balanced tone across the strings, less discrepancy in tone between 
high and low
strings...that way you get a nice fat tone on the high strings and a 
complementary tone
on the low strings.

Now Martino goes to extremes, and uses a 15 guage for his high E string. I 
have considered
that and have a set of his Labella strings...but I can't stand the Labella 
flatwounds or any
of the other flatwound besides the D'Addario Chromes, because they feel 
too 
stiff and
brittle, and are too bright. I've been using the Chromes for years and 
absolutely love them.

Kris



----- Original Message ----- 


I have to agree with Charles: the Flying V is a fantastic instrument
with a unique sound! Not sure I would pick it for jazz though ;-))  It
sure looks ridiculous but I have always loved that sound, just as much
as I love the Strat sound. IMHO slapping thick flatwounds on only
turns the already unique sound a bit more "jazzy", doesn't change the
main character. When I was using an Ibanez George Benson I did the
experiment to replace my usual thick 0.013 set with thin 0.010 strings
and noticed that it just sounded like "a jazz box with way too thin
strings". And today I use a telecaster with flatwound thick jazz
strings and it still sounds like a Telecaster - although without
frets. But all this is just a matter of taste, not much worth
discussing really. It's up to each player to find the sound that
inspires him by trying out lots of combinations.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com



On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Charles Zwicky <cazwicky@earthlink.net> 
wrote:
> I realize that you're simply trying to make a point, but I want to hip 
>you
> to a little known fact: Flying Vs make FANTASTIC jazz guitars.. the body
> and neck are made from a very thin piece of mahogany , and they have a
> natural warmth and resonance... you'd prolly only get away with it in the
> studio... nobody in a Jass club wants to see some middle aged Jass guy 
> with
> a flying V (and spandex)....
>
>> Good point on the flatwounds. My observation is that you can take any
>> guitar, and I mean any guitar, that has a neck pickup, put flatwounds 
>on 
>> it,
>> and plug into any amp that allows you to pump up the lows and roll off 
>> the
>> highs, and you can get at least 50% to that "jazz guitar" tone. I don't
>> care if it is a Gibson Flying V....humbucker neck acticatd... into a amp
>> with bass on 5, mid on 4, and treble on 2....I can play a jazz gig and 
>> sound
>> halfway decent. I may look ridiculous, however :)
>>
>> Hmmmm, maybe I should have a custom hollow body archop Flying V made. 
>Hah
>> hah.
>>
>> Kris
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>> It's interesting how certain elements work together on specific guitar
>>> models. A Tele can be a great jazz guitar with the treble rolled off, a
>>> humbucker or P90 in the neck position certainly helps, but heavy 
>strings
>>> even more so. Put some 12 or 13 flatwounds on a standard Strat and off 
>>> you
>>> go!
>>>
>>> I got that from a studio player friend of mine who is constantly 
>>> changing
>>> instrument's setups, putting nylon strings on older Martin's, thin 
>>> strings
>>> on a jazz box, heavy gauge stuff on a Strat just to see what he comes 
>up
>>> with. Quite a bit of setup work there (also some cheaper guitars might 
>>> start
>>> to go south under 13's these days), but probably more rewarding that 
>>> trying
>>> out your 12th variant of a modded Tubescreamer clone.
>>>
>>> On the other hand my luthier once as an experiment (no extra holes
>>> drilled) put a Tele bridge on my 1960 Gibson Melody Maker (the single 
>>> cut
>>> LP shaped variant with P90's added) - and that small mahagony 
>swampthing
>>> suddenly started to put out some serious twang, amazing difference. Too
>>> much twang for me, we put the Pigtail one-piece- bridge back on...
>>>
>>> Best, Andreas
>
>
> --
>
> ...
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