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Looking for a cheap *Jazz* Guitar


rock-lobster

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RL - fwiw, I love the sound of the Strat on PU positions 2 or 4 strumming jazz-chord voicings. Particularly thru my Roland cube doing JC voice.


for soloing, just roll-back the tone knob & hava really nice day

 

 

The same goes for a Tele. A lot of guys use Teles to great effect, especially if they have a humbucker in the neck.

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There's plenty of cheap and good electrics out there these days, but i hardly ever see any that seem fit to sound good with jazz.


Can anyone name some good jazzy guitars for $300 or under?


I wonder how those Xaviere 335 types do for jazz?

 

How about a used Ibanez AS73? They go for $399 brand new, but I think they're worth every penny. Wonderful guitars! I kinda like them better than the Epi Dots.

 

Here's mine in Ivory.

 

DSCN4533.jpg

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You can play it with a Tele or Strat, sure, but if you want the semi or full hollow SOUND than you need to get a semi or full hollow. That's just how it goes.

 

A 335 type works fine. It still has some of the air/acoustic feel of a full hollow and better clarity plugged in that an HB-equipped solidbody. Whether the pickups in the Xaviere are geared to that kind of sound, I don't know. They could have put hotter pickups in to appeal to a more rock/blues oriented crowd. The nice aspect of the 335 type is that it is super versatile and can handle just about any style and sound really good. But they still won't capture that old school Wes-style big jazz box sound either.

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I got my Ibanez in trade from a gigging jazz guy. He mostly plays a Thinline Tele with a humbucker in the neck position, and he plays with both pickups on 99% of the time.

 

He made the Ibanez sound like a million bucks, even with the crappy stock pickups. I'd think one of the Ibanezes (Ibanezi?) with a quality neck pickup would carry you quite a ways down the jazz path.

 

I don't play much jazz, but I've probably played 20+ Ibanez and 20+ Epiphones and pretty much every Ibanez killed every non-Elitist Epi I played...

 

Occasionally there'll be a used Elite/Elitest Epi at one of the local Guitar Centers and they seem to sell for $600 or so. Quite a bit less than the Elite/Elitest solidbodies. Might be worth looking into if you can stretch your budget a lil bit.

 

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I've played some Korean Epi ES-175's that were okay, some that were "meh." You can easily find these off ebay for around $400 delivered to your door. If your lucky $300 before shipping. No idea what the Chinese built Epi's are like.

 

A Korean made Joe Pass just sold on ebay for $300. I've played a couple that I liked almost enough to pull the trigger.

 

I've been on a serious Wes Montgomery kick lately and to be honest my Les Paul can pretty much nail his tone.

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There's plenty of Ibanez Artcores out there for $300 or less.

 

Also check out Canvas and Johnson.

 

I'll bet you want a budget hollowbody to take to college and not worry about it getting stolen.

 

I just bought a used Johnson Las Vegas. Thread here:

 

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?t=2509537

 

It's very playable. Sounds quite good.

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I picked up a Jay Turser a few years ago to fill my jazz-box desires. After dropping in a decent set of pickups (the originals were too hot) and setting it up with flat-wounds, it does the job for me just fine :thu:

 

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*the brown lefty one belongs to a friend of mine, who set his up in more of a Rock-a-billy fashion (hot pickups/ chickenhead knobs/ TOM bridge)

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The classic electric jazz guitar tone on the cheap:

 

1) Forget that your guitar has any pick-up other than the neck unit.

2) Roll your guitar tone control all the way back.

3) Roll all the highs off your amp.

4) If your amp has a slip-cover, leave it on.

 

There. EEEZEEE!

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find yourself an old Fender red knob SS amp for a few bucks on CL instead

 

 

Those are great amps. Wish I still had mine.

 

And to what others have said - I would think the Mira could do *jazz* just fine with the neck PU and some EQ'ing.

 

EDIT: All that said - I love my artcore, too. See them on CL for about $250-300 up here with some frequency.

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Haven't heard too many complaints about the Ibanez Artcore series. Epiphone Broadway is a classic L-5 design and the Joe Pass model looks good, but I haven't seen a used one in that price range that was playable. Godin 5th Avenue gets some love too. Neither of these is a Benedetto, but they don't have to be mortgaged either.

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How about a used Ibanez AS73? They go for $399 brand new, but I think they're worth every penny. Wonderful guitars! I kinda like them better than the Epi Dots.


Here's mine in Ivory.


DSCN4533.jpg

 

I have that exact guitar, and love the hell out of it. :thu:

 

It can do everything except metal.

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