Just curious if any of you play jazzy stuff on your I-35? If so, what combination of settings, strings, gear, etc. do you think wrings best jazz tone out of that guitar? I know this will mean something a little different to each individual, but still curious.

When I had mine, it came with elevens and that's where I left it. Neck pickup, tone rolled about halfway off, amp clean, some restraint with your right hand, and close your eyes and you're Joe Pass or Wes Montgomery. Just angelic. Damn it. thanks tom

I'm a novice, but I'll throw in my two cents to agree with Sonoman. Learning some of the standards (Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, West Coast Blues), the neck pickup is it, and you can even turn the tone knob down to about one-third. I play through a Tweed Deluxe reproduction.

The I-35 is magic.

I am certainly not a jazz player, would like to be, but I am fortunate enough to own an I-35, what a guitar. This is through a Headstrong Lil King, Princeton clone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFa4jlUFza8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp87mQIv6Bc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFnqADIRaZo

I don't know maple...I have a feeling you'd sound good on a First Act Pack from Walmart! And therein lies the real answer to my question anyway I suppose...

maplebaby

real nice use of that I-35! enjoyed your vids

Thanks for the kind words. Philco - what are the specs on your 35? Are you enjoying it - I'd love to hear more about yours.

Here's mine maple (35th I-35 ever made I believe). I am not worthy of it as I am 48 and only started playing < 2 years ago [I have more money than sense as they say). In any event, out of nowhere this journey has developed into a passion. I love mine for blues and jazzy Christmas chord melody stuff. My only regret is that it doesn't have the parallelograms which I LOVE. Steve at AMW has your exact guitar right now, and I have been tempted to work a trade. I am just afraid he'll say I need both :-)

I don't own one, darn it, so my opinion is nearly worthless (not for the first time). I have, however, played a lot of jazz. As the earlier posts stated, leave some treble on. I think that sometimes folks deaden their tone too much for jazz. I like a little snap in my tone. For my 25.5" Guild Artist Award, I mostly use D'Aquisto jazz nickel 13's #230. They do make 12's (#220). I don't know about 11's. The strings are cheap and good. I usually play through either an old Princeton Reverb with a Weber 10" speaker, or a '55 tweed Deluxe with a vintage Jensen P12P 12". Have fun!

It depends on if you mean jazz, with string-bending, or jazz, without string-bending.

For me, 'jazz' means without string-bending.

I use flat-wound nickel strings, as heavy as possible. A wound 'G' is a must and a wound 'B' is even better.

Don't be discouraged if you can't play your pet licks right away with on heavier-gauge strings; that's what practice is for! You always get used to it and the resulting tone is worth the extra effort.

I'm still searching for the ultimate jazz amp - I may have to build one. I'm currently using a LAB L5 solid-state, 100 watts, two 12's, that was designed by Bob Moog for Gibson.

hakujin

[added] As far as rolling off the tone control goes, a good 15-inch guitar (not bass) speaker will make that unnecessary. Find one with a top-end frequency response of around 5kHz...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hakujin,

quote:

Originally posted by Philco:
Here's mine maple (35th I-35 ever made I believe). I am not worthy of it as I am 48 and only started playing < 2 years ago [I have more money than sense as they say). In any event, out of nowhere this journey has developed into a passion. I love mine for blues and jazzy Christmas chord melody stuff. My only regret is that it doesn't have the parallelograms which I LOVE. Steve at AMW has your exact guitar right now, and I have been tempted to work a trade. I am just afraid he'll say I need both :-)

Man that is so nice! Love the finish - and I'm not sure I'll ever be worthy of the genius behind these guitars! Not an original thought but what an improvement!

What strings are you currently using?

I personally could not go with flatwounds - unless I had two of these. I like too many styles to use a flatwound string. However if we both had a couple............!

quote:

Originally posted by maplebaby:...I'm not sure I'll ever be worthy of the genius behind these guitars!

Darn you fingerstyle guys!!! And he flatpicks too! And Beppe's Slow Creek nonetheless! That's one of my favorites. Dale, do you have tablature for that? I know Beppe has an alternate tuning for it. Great playing! Everyone should check out your entire collection of videos on YouTube. And it looks like quite a collection of Collings too.