Getting A Good Jazz Tone

I'm still messing w/this predicament.. Of course I'm far more picky about the jazz sound than the OD sounds on the Axe2...

But some things that haven't been mentioned... when editing your amp, flip thru the pages... you can change:

- Amp voicing... I'd probably recommend "Warm". Seems to make the bright Fender amp models fit jazz tones better.
- Master vol.. Perhaps lower this to reduce gain?
- Sag is directly connected to the Power Amp Master... I assume that disabling this may get you closer to that solid-state/headroom jazz tone. Again, I haven't gotten good results yet.

I feel like I need to program entirely diff. patches for each of my guitars, and my 335 esp. needs the input gain almost reduced to 0% (in the I/O settings) to avoid the output peaking.

Maybe I'm crazy, but since doing firmware 7 update, while the Tonematch patches I've added have been phenomenal, some tones I use to like, like the Benson preset... are worse. Again, I have no means of verifying whether it changed drastically or not, but ehh.
 
MrSparkle said:
...and my 335 esp. needs the input gain almost reduced to 0% (in the I/O settings) to avoid the output peaking.
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From the wiki: "Note that the Input Level setting DOES NOT AFFECT GAIN, It optimizes the signal-to-noise ratio only. This is different from the Axe-Fx Standard/Ultra."
 
clarky said:
for a good jazz tone you need to have the pitch shifter set to 100% wet
then set all the notes to 'wrong'
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Talk about going out and never coming back. I thought that was what the ring modulator was for. Oh...that would be industrial where you play all the wrong notes at once.
 
clarky said:
for a good jazz tone you need to have the pitch shifter set to 100% wet
then set all the notes to 'wrong'
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Where's the fun in that? There's nothing like the satisfaction of going so far out that the rest of the ensemble gets lost because they stopped counting and reading the charts! Then you end up with the bass player yelling "where's 1", the keyboard player yelling "what bar are we on?" and the drummer laughing his ass off!


Danny W. said:
Wes frequently used a solid-state Standel, and a number of older players switched to solid-state amps at some point, including Pass, Ellis and Kessel.

Danny W.
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Metheny used a solid-state Acoustic 134 until going to a modeller - Digitech 2101, but he's rumored to have an Axe. Chet Atkins used a Standel for a long time but changed to a Music Man hybrid.
 
Danny W. said:
Wes frequently used a solid-state Standel, and a number of older players switched to solid-state amps at some point, including Pass, Ellis and Kessel.

Danny W.
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True. I'm referring to the early wes stuff. On his organ trio recordings you can hear a really nice break up that can only come from a tube amp.
 
MikeyB59 said:
Tomorrow night I get to see what Metheny's using. Yea.
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Enjoy the show, I haven't seen Metheny since "The Way Up". Great show, there were speakers throughout the theater, even the bathrooms, and out to the edge of the parking lot playing a rhythmic theme in "The Way Up" so the "performance" or experience began as you stepped from the parking lot onto the theater grounds.
 
MikeyB59 said:
Tomorrow night I get to see what Metheny's using. Yea.
Click to expand...

Sooo... what's he using??

On 1 hand, you'd think the Axe would be perfect for Metheny, a guy who always jumped on new guitar technology...

On the other hand, I feel like the fantastic Axe modeling isn't totally relevant/necessary for a guy who primarily plays hollow-bodies and acoustics.

I remember an interview where he talked about how he likes sitting with a unit for a looooooong time, and uses 1 patch he likes and tries to make it perfect, and adjust his playing to the timbre of that patch. I imagine it'd be overwhelming to do with this with an Axe II, given as there are so many usable patches and effects. :lol Seems like he's more interested in expanding his Orchestrion rig anyhow...
 
Gr300. Digitech 2101. Looked like a couple of TC units, but most of his rack was blocked by his monitor. Had his harp guitar, Roland synth trigger guitar and 2 electrics, plus pieces of the orchestrion. It was absolutely amazing. Chris Potter is a fantastic sax player and their interplay was off the charts.
 
I was in a rush when I responded before. He also had some kind of modern Moog synthesizer with organ style foot pedals, a Novation Launchpad on a stand (couldn't see what it was connected to and didn't notice him using it) and a controller pedal of some sort with maybe 16-20 small red switches on it and no display. He also had a Mackie control fader box on top of his rig. Again, I'm not sure what it was controlling and didn't see him do much if anything with it during the course of the show.

It was a ridiculous amount of stuff. They only used the orchestrion on the last song before the encore. Before that all the stuff was covered behind them. They had a xylophone piece, an accordion looking thing, a giant set of what looked like tuned bottles and then a huge electromechanical drum/percussion deal. When they played that piece, Antonio Sanchez (drummer) put on a pair of in-ear monitors, I assume to be able to hear the timing of the loops that Metheny created with the orchestrion.

It was an awesome show, ranging from opening acoustic segment with the harp guitar through a bunch of full band pieces, into a series of duets with Metheny and each of the other players (mindbending version of "All the Things You Are" with Chris Potter), then the orchestrion piece and finally a cheery latin feeling encore. Everyone in the band was phenomenal and the scope of the music was breathtaking. I was about 20 feet back from the bandstand loving life. It's about as much gear, crew and attention to sound detail as I've ever experienced in a place this small (maybe 250 max).

At least one of his jazz guitars had 2 cords coming out of it (the one with one obvious pickup I think, not sure about the other). I'm thinking maybe he has a piezo or something like it in addition to the electric style pickup. His sound has a very present and acoustic sounding attack and then a tail with the delay/chorusy sound.

As much as Metheny likes some kinds of technology and I could easily see him using an Axe FX, it doesn't seem in any way necessary for him. His guitar sound and his GR300 sound are pretty much like what I've heard from him for years. It's the orchestrion where I'm hearing very different things from him. On the other hand, he's made records like the one with Ornette Coleman where his sound wasn't always the signature sound we're used to, so who knows what might come out of the Axe.
 
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