Thanks. Do you know if any jazz centric amps were modeled in the FM9? I could (probably) get there with a fender model, but was curious if there was an iconic jazz amp (aside from the Jazz Chorus [whis is never recommended for jazz by “jazz guys”]) that is tailored toward an archtop guitar.
Edit: I will RTFM myself for which amps are modeled to look for Jazz amps
People like to label amps as "Jazz", "Metal", "Country", but that's because someone in the genre they like uses that amp so they assume that's what it's good for, but few are fine-tuned for one specific style, instead they cover a range because they're just amps with knobs to twiddle and they sound good. What they DO fine-tune are things like headroom, early or late breakup, and the ability to adjust the overall tonality but those really just make the amp more flexible. And, in the Fractal world, we laugh at the rigid definitions because we can freely change so many parts of the amp without it blowing up.
The
factory presets are useful for browsing…
- 023 - SMOKEY JAZZ
Jazzy guitar tone, based on Roland's JC-120 amplifier and its built-in chorus. Amp: Jazz 120.
- 054 - EAST WES
Clean tone with compression, delay, reverb, and some chorus, based on the jazzy song "East Wes" by Eric Johnson. Amp: Vibrato Verb.
- 096 - EJ CLEAN — Eric Johnson's clean signature sound, using a Fender Vibroverb, chorus and tape echo. "ACL" means "Austin City Limits". Some scenes were created by Cooper Carter. Control Switch 1 freezes the delay.
Start turning the tone knobs in the amp block and maybe adjust the Cab IR and I'm sure you'll find sounds you really like.
I attached two I put together, kinda based on the ones above, for somewhat of a Wes Montgomery or Pat Methany sound. They sound nice with my Strats, my PRS SC-245 (like a Les Paul) and Custom 22 Semi-Hollow (kind of like an ES-335), all of which have been used by various jazz artists. The important thing about the guitar is that its pickup isn't too hot and that it has a good frequency response. The body construction affects the frequency response too, but so does the tone control on the guitar. The choice of amp and cab controls the rest of the sound.
The Fender Princeton, Deluxe and Twin models, maybe Vox-ish and class A amps, are where I'd start, but do not ignore things like the Marshall and Mesa-type amps which can get very clean and sound great. Heck, look into the Tweed models because set right they're big and fat and clean.