3/10/2014

The Jazz Guitar Amp And Guitars

By Leticia Jensen


Jazz Guitars first emerged in the early 1930s because the musicians of the time found the need to increase the guitars volume within an ensemble in order that they are easier to hear. These guitars greatly influenced music's evolution during the 20th century. The first of these guitars were acoustic but by the 1940s the hollow body, solid body and semi-acoustic guitars were favoured by musicians along with a tube jazz guitar amp.

Jazz guitarists typically use an archtop guitar. The archtop is instantly recognisable with its broad sized hollow sound box, floating bridge, magnetic pickups and f shaped sound holes, much like a violin. These are collectively known as hollow body guitars and have been mass produced by many leading brands since the 50s.

There are several styles used in this kind of music, such as blowing and comping. Blowing involves improvising over a jazzy chord progression with ornaments and jazzy phrases. Comping involves the use of extended chords underneath a tune's melody or another musicians soloing. Comping often uses walking bass lines. When a guitarist improvises they will make good use of scales, modes and arpeggios within the song's chord progression.

In reality, this type of music can be played successfully on any type of guitar whether acoustic, hollow body or solid body. However, the guitar of choice is often the hollow body archtop. The most popular archtop guitars are made by Epiphone, Gretch, D'Angelico and Stromberg. These guitars enjoyed a resurgence of interest in the 1990s among the jazz guitarists of the day, as well with popular musicians. The archtop is usually made from a solid piece of wood that has been carved into an arch, Spruce is usually the wood of choice for the top and maple for the back.

These guitars have an instantly recognisable "warm" tone that is arguably best achieved with the archtop with its hollow body and magnetic pickups. However, the guitar's amp also plays an important role in creating a beautiful jazzy tone. Most jazz guitarists swear by tube amps to get that classic jazzy tone.

Tube amplifiers are usually favoured to produce a warm tone, and they also have a more musical overdrive sound compared to solid state amplifiers. However, tube amps are harder to maintain and valves need to be replaced. They are also heavier and more expensive than solid state amps.

The Roland JC-120 Chorus is one of the more popular amps. It was first released in 1975 and was one the first that came with effects built in. Many of the great guitarists used the Roland, including George Benson, Pat Martino, Larry Coryell and many other legends in this type of music.

Fender also make very popular amps. These include the Hot Rod Deluxe, Fender King, Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight Speaker Cabinet with Amp Head, Fender Blues Junior, All of these amps are capable of producing that classic and instantly recognisable jazzy tone that is so sought after. Modelling hardware and software is also available that can produce the classic tone and can be used with any type of amp.




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