Jazz tone question

[Pragmatist]

Thinking of getting another PRS as I miss them so much. Which would be best for a nice jazz tone out of the Custom 22 or custom 24?

 

[sleary]

Both really but I'd say the cuu22

 

[Pragmatist]

Yes i was thinking the C22. Some say the 24 is a little too bright even with the tone rolled off.

 

[vchizzle]

I think I'd go with a McCarty or hollowbody of some sort.

 

[Brad737]

Jazz is all about improvisation. It doesn't matter what guitar you play, it's about the notes. Having said that, I'm not a good jazz guitarist, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But it kills me how 99% of jazz dudes totally roll off all of the treble. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Wes Montgomery, and he's one of my Top 5 favorite guitarists. But I'd pay in blood or money to have been able to crank that L-5s tone knob off 0.

 

[NomadMike]

Sometimes the tone is rolled off because of the venue but it's just more neutral than rock guitar. Many of the jazz and dinner clubs I've been to or played at were really quite small and not all that noisy compared to a rock club. So you really don't need to cut through when you're playing with just a drummer, piano player and bass at levels you can hear the audience talk at. My favorite amp for those kind of gigs was a 30 watt Ampeg with a 15 inch speaker as it push a lot of air at low volumes.
We've also gotten used to a lot of treble for guitar sounds not to mention a lot of us have lost a few of the higher frequencies in out hearing from playing the rock and roll musica.

 

[AaeCee]

Some look at me like I'm crazy when I say this, but I LOVE that jazz tones I get from my Cu24 with a VB neck with the tone rolled down to around 3 or 4. IMO, it's an ideal combination of round and articulate, far from bright, but still maintaining a nice punch. I think the location gives it a tad more definition, thus avoiding the more woofy tones some complain about with 22 fret necks.

 

[C&M Music - Lafayette]

Al Dimeola likes the C22, yep has his own PRS model. At least he did anyway till this coming year. A Hollowbody II is great for Jazz also. There are some great vids on youtube of the HBII working out some jazz.

 

[jfine]

I find that I can get a good jazz tone on my Brent Mason with the neck pickup in humbucking mode and the tone rolled off just enough to get rid of the high end. That way I can get brighter tones by turning the tone back up and/or switching pickups. I've done gigs where I had to go from Wes Montgomery to Eric Clapton to James Burton without changing knob settings on my amp, just switching channels and pickup settings on the guitar. But then I don't like to roll off all the tone, even when I'm playing jazz, unless I'm going for early-Clapton Cream-era stuff. Some of the early electric guitar players in jazz (Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, to name a couple) used more treble than you'd think. And Junior Barnard, who played with Bob Wills in the late-'40's and early-'50's, sounded almost like rock 'n' roll guys did a few years later.

 

[jimfisher]

My spruce PRS HB is a perfect tool for that. I'd encourage you to listen to a few of Carl Filipiak's tunes where he recorded with a spruce Spruce archtop that is some of the best sounding jazz I ever heard. Live he played the same tunes on an original McCarty and that also sounded great.

http://www.carlfilipiak.com/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF4C5EFCD4D992807

Jim

 

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[squirrel211]

I can get a PLENTY dark enough jazz tone on my Custom 24 that has 57/08's in it. I usually wind up around 3 on my tone knob.

 

[Huggy Love]

Sure, music is art and "anything goes" to achieve the artistic goal but getting a solid body to do jazz IMO is not the way to go. You can roll off the highs and play thru the neck PU but there is a roundness to the tone of a hollow body guitar that a CU22/24 cannot produce, even with my HBII I don't get the fullness that a true jazz box can produce, but I get close. People mention Al DiMeola but let's be real here, he's one of my main influences but he's a fusion guy and doesn't have that jazz tone, and I also can understand people being put off my muddy sounds, Pat Metheny is another hero of mine but he sounds like he's playing underwater with all that chorus & rolled off highs. Still, I'm not a fan of jazz on a solid body, the tone is flat to me.

I think the best bet is to get to a shop that has a CU22, an HB, and a real jazz guitar to find for your ears where you want to be tone wise and versatility wise, you might have to drive or hit a few stores. Good luck in your quest for the sound you hear in your mind.

 

[The Viking Gangster]

I find that I can get a good jazz tone on my Brent Mason with the neck pickup in humbucking mode and the tone rolled off just enough to get rid of the high end. That way I can get brighter tones by turning the tone back up and/or switching pickups. I've done gigs where I had to go from Wes Montgomery to Eric Clapton to James Burton without changing knob settings on my amp, just switching channels and pickup settings on the guitar. But then I don't like to roll off all the tone, even when I'm playing jazz, unless I'm going for early-Clapton Cream-era stuff. Some of the early electric guitar players in jazz (Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, to name a couple) used more treble than you'd think. And Junior Barnard, who played with Bob Wills in the late-'40's and early-'50's, sounded almost like rock 'n' roll guys did a few years later.

I'll second that for the Brent Mason

 

[CVS]

I have gotten good jazz tones from my CU24, NF3 (believe it or not) , and HB II
I must admit, my HB II with 57/08's can sound magical to me at times when playing jazz type songs