Getting A Good Jazz Tone

JonoRicher

New Member
Hey guys. I've been trying to get a classic kind of rounded yet bright enough Jazz tone. I'm close but I'm missing a few small details that I just can't get right. Any help? Thanks guys
 
What amp are you using in the Axe II?
What guitar do you use?
Using flat Monitors or a guitar cab?
By Jazz I am assuming you mean 60's soul jazz (Kenny B.), or straight ahead clean (Joe Pass)- not fusion or modern smooth jazz.
 
There are a few acoustic patches here in the preset exchange that sound great for jazz, even providing a bit of a hollow body tone to a solid body.
 
No details about his rig. No details about which amp and cab sims he's using.
1st post is a vague ass question. Do us all a favor and just tell these 1, 2 post
guys to do a search. Help them help themselves. Other wise we wind up with a
forum full of question and no answers.
 
For a traditional fat jazz tone try using a PEQ instead of an amp block, raise the low shelf and lower the high shelf until it sounds right - how much depends on your guitar, with a jazz box you won't need much eq'ing, but with a solid body you'll need more to make it sound big and fat. If you need more clarity or brightness you can play with a couple PEQ bands in the highs to cut where you need then peak for clarity. You won't get a carved archtop with floating pickup sound, but you can get the vibe of an ES-175 using front pickup with tone turned down.

Try one of the 15" cab IR's (the 1x15 LA Bass cab works good), or split the signal after the PEQ and send one row to a cab block and the other row direct (no cab).

For a Metheny type sound use 2 delay blocks, one at 12ms the other at 24ms, add reverb. Add a little modulation to one of the delays for a little swirl.

There's a lot of room for experimentation if you split between a Cab block and a direct signal by adjusting the level of each row to mix the Cab and direct sounds, bringing the cab and direct rows back together for delay & reverb, or putting different delays on each row.
 
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I've been playing with a jazz tone since my last post and try both the LA Bass cab and the 2x15 Doubleshow. The LA Bass will give a really big low that you might have to compensate for with the PEQ or set the Lo Cut in the Cab Block around 100 - 110hz. The Cab block has a Delay parameter, adding a little delay when running parallel with the direct row (about 0.024ms) with the LA Bass cab has a nice effect that can be reminiscent of the sound of a carved top w/ floating pickup.

Definitely play with the PEQ to get the sound you're looking for. Your monitoring system will have a big influence on the exact settings you'll use.

Try a compressor in front and lengthen the delays if you're not into the Metheny thing.
 
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How about basically replacing the cabs with archtop semi/hollow IRs (if any)?

Are any of these available?
 
For most jazz stuff, I've been happy with the Mr. Benson patch. Most I've had to do is add a light chorus, and play with the tone controls. I think it's pretty close right out of the box.
 
Im a jazz player and i do it for a living( I say that with a straight face lol) I don't like solid state amp for jazz and if you look at most modern jazz players like rosenwinkel, metheney,Vic juris, lage Lund, scofield, even older cats like Wes were all using tube amps. For live gigs I use my red plate with the axe as an fx only processor, but at home I sometimes practice with head phones and I found the weasel really usefull for a very nice jazz tone. It's a very articulate sim and responds nicely to dynics wich is huge for jazz.
 
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I'm getting a fine tone for straight ahead jazz and fusion using the Doubleverb amp sim in the Axe II.
Drive = 2.5
Bass 4.5
Mid 5
Treble 5 (Brt Off)
Master 9
Level 4.0

Everything else is stock but I lower the Low Sprkr Res to 63.8hz (from 90hz) for my EVM 12L loaded open back cabs that I power with a Bryston 2B LP Pro power amp.
When and if I go FRFR I just use the stock EV 12L Cab Sim w/ no mic and everything else in the Cab Block stock.

I'm playing a custom-made "jazz-Tele" with a mahogany neck, chambered mahogany body and a Gibson 57 Classic in the neck position - strung with 11-49 roundwounds with a wound G string.
This is the best tone for jazz (Metheny through Bickert through Wes through Me) I've ever been able to get in all my years of playing.
 
No details about his rig. No details about which amp and cab sims he's using.
1st post is a vague ass question. Do us all a favor and just tell these 1, 2 post
guys to do a search. Help them help themselves. Other wise we wind up with a
forum full of question and no answers.

That's a little harsh. Especially when the search function of this forum sucks. I have tried to look up specific posts before by their exact title and the search has not pulled them up.
 
That's a little harsh. Especially when the search function of this forum sucks. I have tried to look up specific posts before by their exact title and the search has not pulled them up.
User error. Search function is fine. Good in fact.
If you use quotations like this-> "user error", you can find exact post.
Also, words like "a" and "to" tend to mess the search up and can be left out.
And its not harsh, its common sense and part of this forums etiquette.
This is how we keep the trolls and other misinformers under control.
 
A lot depends on the guitar you're using and the tone in your head. Back in the 70's jazz tone was defined by Pass, Ellis and Mongomery. These days 'jazz tone' has become quite diverse. Maybe it was my early playing years with an es-175 and Super Reverb, but to me the 'iconic' jazz tone is fat and punchy with some highs rolled off.


An es-175 has got that great full sound and punch identified with Pass, Ellis, Metheny and many others. Carved tops with floating pickups, and often no tone controls, have become popular again and these have a very unique sound with an acoustic quality and more clarity in the highs. Scofield, he's got his own thing going. And there's many solid body players out there like Kevin Eubanks.

The cool thing with the Axe is we have the ability to approach the fat, full, punch of a big jazz box with a solid body - just takes some eq-ing and creative thinking.. What it can't emulate is the inspiration that comes with wrapping yourself around a big old jazz guitar!
 
User error. Search function is fine. Good in fact.
If you use quotations like this-> "user error", you can find exact post.
And its not harsh, its common sense and part of this forums etiquette.
This is how we keep the trolls and other misinformation under control.

And sometimes it's a new user looking for a little help with their new gear. There's not a lot of jazz posts around here and the presets aren't oriented towards Jazz. The OP had a valid question that I don't recall seeing on the AxeII discussions, it did come up a couple years ago on the Ultra forum.
 
Im a jazz player and i do it for a living( I say that with a straight face lol) I don't like solid state amp for jazz and if you look at most modern jazz players like rosenwinkel, metheney,Vic juris, lage Lund, scofield, even older cats like Wes were all using tube amps. For live gigs I use my red plate with the axe as an fx only processor, but at home I sometimes practice with head phones and I found the weasel really usefull for a very nice jazz tone. It's a very articulate sim and responds nicely to dynics wich is huge for jazz.

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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