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Thursday, 6 March 2014

Jazz Guitar And The Jazz Guitar Amp

By Leticia Jensen


Jazz guitars were conceived in the early 1930s due to the need to use amplification in order to increase the volume of conventional acoustic guitars in a live setting so it can be heard more clearly. Very few instruments have had a greater influence on the evolution of music since the start of the 20th century. The earliest forms of jazz guitars were acoustic but by the 1940s, musicians were playing with either a hollow body acoustic or electric guitars along with a jazz guitar amp.

Jazz guitarists typically use an archtop guitar. The archtop is instantly recognisable with its broad sized hollow sound box, floating bridge, magnetic pickups and f shaped sound holes, much like a violin. These are collectively known as hollow body guitars and have been mass produced by many leading brands since the 50s.

Jazz guitar involves several ways of playing, including comping and blowing. Comping involves the playing of jazzy chords beneath a song's melody or a jazzy solo; it often incorporates a walking bassline. Blowing refers to the use of improvisation over the top of a chord progression with jazzy phrases and ornaments. Scales, modes and arpeggios are used within a tune's chord progression when improvising and soloing.

It is possible to play this form of music on any type of guitar, whether it is a hollow body, solid body or acoustic. However, the archtop hollowbody guitars produces the famous jazzy tone. Epiphone, Gibson, D'Angelico and Stromberg are among the most well known manufactures of archtop guitars. Hollowbody archtops are usually made from one piece of wood that has been shaped into an arch to form the guitar's shape, with a spruce top and maple back. Hollowbody archtop guitars enjoyed renewed popularity during the 1990s with the jazz musicians, pop musicians and rock musicians of the time.

Archtops or hollowbody guitars may be responsible for the famous "warm" jazzy tone, but the amplifier also plays a major part. Tube amps are usually the most popular form of amp for guitarists and there are many amplifiers that are dedicated to helping create the classic jazzy tone.

Tube amplifiers are usually favoured to produce a warm tone, and they also have a more musical overdrive sound compared to solid state amplifiers. However, tube amps are harder to maintain and valves need to be replaced. They are also heavier and more expensive than solid state amps.

One of the most popular amps for this style of music is the Roland J-120 Chorus Amp. Released in 1975 it was the first amp that came compete with effects built into into it, such as reverb, delay and distortion. George Benson, Larry Coryell and Pat Martino used the Roland J-20 Chorus Amp during live performances, making the amp a classic.

There are several excellent amps produced by Fender. These include: The Fender King, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Fender Blues JR and the very popular Fender Jazzmaster stack with amplifier head. Each one of these amps does a fantastic job of creating a beautiful and jazzy tone, especially when combined with a classic archtop or hollowbody.




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