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Roger's Neck Pickup Shoot-Out

Recorded December 5, 2005

Objective

I love a juicy, jazz neck pickup tone. And I own quite a few guitars that excel in that area. So I decided to record them all in a controlled manner and compare the results.

The Recording Chain

Each guitar was run with tone and volume controls set full, neck pickup only. The guitars were processed through an MXR Dynacomp stompbox compressor, set only to get a consistent signal to tape.

The signal then went to a 1990's Fender Super Amp (Pro Tube Series), sporting 60 watts of all tube power and four 10" speakers. Controls on the amp were set to treble 5.5, mid 4, bass 2.5, reverb 3, volume 2.

The amp was mic'd with a vintage Sennheiser MD421 dynamic microphone, positioned about 4" from the inner edge of the bottom left speaker. A Mackie SR24*4 mixing board provided preamplification, and a Roland VS-1680 recorder committed the signal to disk.

The Guitars

I recorded all of my electric guitars except my two Stratocasters. They are just not that interesting for jazz. All of the guitars are strung with roundwound D'Addario XL strings except as noted below. So here are the players. I've listed them in order of their reputation as a jazz-oriented instrument. Click the model name to hear each clip.

Year Make Model Body Top Neck Fingerboard Pickup Strings Notes
1980 Gibson L-5CN maple spruce maple ebony Gibson BJB floating TI Bebops .011"
1957 Gibson ES-175DN maple maple mahogany Brazilian rosewood original Gibson PAF .011"
1992 Gibson ES-775 maple maple maple ebony Gibson 490R .012" flatwound
1970 Gibson ES-335 maple maple mahogany rosewood Gibson "patent #" .010"
1983 Ibanez AM-255 Artist mahogany mahogany mahogany ebony Ibanez Super 88 .011" semi-hollow, small 335
1997 Warmoth Les Paul Special mahogany rosewood mahogany pau ferro Duncan Alnico Pro II .011"
2004 Warmoth Thinline Tele swamp ash maple rosewood (1 pc) rosewood Gibson Burstbucker 2 .011" hollow w/f-holes
2003 Warmoth Thinline Tele swamp ash maple maple (1 pc) maple Fender "Original Vintage Tele" (single coil) .010" hollow, no f-holes
1975 Fender Starcaster maple maple maple (1 pc) maple Fender humbucker .010"
2003 Fender Jaguar alder alder maple rosewood Fender Jag (single coil) .011" 'rhythm' circuit used

Conclusions

My impressions of the results were interesting to me. By and large, all of these instruments render a useable and pleasant tonality for jazz or "jazzy" playing. Judging solely by the recorded sound, they all can fit the bill. It showed me just how much of the jazz "thing" comes from the non-sonic components of the guitar package: the shape of the instrument; the aesthetic appointments; the model and its heritage. Also, the feel is very important. A chunky vintage neck on an old ES-175 makes a player react differently than a slim Fender maple neck. But in the end, they all sound good.

A large subgroup of the guitars sound very much alike indeed. The 175 has a bit more woody brightness; the L-5 has the dry tone afforded by a floating pickup; the ES-775 is the only guitar sporting flatwound strings, and it sounds the warmest. A surprise to me is the Fender Jaguar. This guitar has a nice 'blunt', dry but warm tone that works great for jazz.

Some of these guitars have a 'vintage' sound even though they are not vintage or even traditional. The maple-necked Thinline Tele has a tone reminiscent of Grant Green. The Ibanez Artist has as warm and "PAF-esque" a tone as I've heard (and my 175 has a first year PAF).

It's not what you play, necessarily, but how you play it - and how it makes you feel like playing. Draw your own conclusions!

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