Best jazz guitar brand?

[Young Angus]

What do you guys think is the best built/souding/brand of jazz guitars...and for what reasons?

Ive been looking at some guilds recently and they seem to be sooooo nice!

Love gibsons too...the les paul is a great jazzy guitar even though im really talking about semi-hollows and full-hollow bodys.

What are your opinions?

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

I love Guilds, but for jazz... it can get dangerously expensive (bear in mind Guilds are mass produced).

If you have the cash, check out a Ted Megas or a Benedetto. Those are probably two of the very best jazz guitar brands out there period.

 

[Biu]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

Don't forget about the Ibanez jazz guitars! From those new affordable ones to the super expensive signature models.

 

[DiminisheD-7th]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

seriously Ibanez's higher end hollowbodies are REALY suprising.
the gibsons are better though

 

[tone4days]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

for the money, i dont think you can beat the Heritage models as serious top quality archtops ... simply wonderful and at a quality probably higher than Gibson and a price a good deal lower ... i have had my mind changed on the low end Ibanez models .. they are very nice low cost models if you play enough of them to find the pick of the litter ... and if you can find a nice old george benson model, grab it

cheers
t4d

 

[mrfjones]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

I will have to say that guild has made the best jazz guitars i have ever played. They are very well built especially if you can get one from the old RI factory. They may have been mass produced but they used the old techniques and woods, like a carved maple or spruce top. Either new from CA or a used one from RI will be a great jazz guitar and well worth the money since they are still cheaper than the gibsons.

The Benedettos are made by Guild/Fender (unless you can get the man himself to build you one) if you can get one of those do it.

 

[Curly]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

to me, a Gibson ES-175 is the definitive jazz box - that's what Herb Ellis and a lot of other notable jazz players used, although nowadays, you'll see a lot of players with Benedettos, D'Angelicos, and other high end custom axes.

as usual, "best" is always subjective

I see a Diana Krall performance from the Montreal Jazz fest repeated on cable pretty often. Russell Malone plays a beautiful jazz box through a Fender Twin, and has a great tone. I looked for his gear on his site, but no luck - his headstock looks like a D'Angelico, though.

 

[theodie]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

I have experience with an ibanez Pat methaney model. I must say it is very NICE!!!!!!!!

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

to me, a Gibson ES-175 is the definitive jazz box - that's what Herb Ellis and a lot of other notable jazz players used, although nowadays, you'll see a lot of players with Benedettos, D'Angelicos, and other high end custom axes.

D'Angelico, forgot to mention them... good call Curly

 

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

A Heritage looks very attractive to me. I will definitely be getting one later on. Going to keep it dressed with 13-60 - or similar.

I'm thinking a 535 model with 2 seth lover pickups. When my les paul gets here with he antiquities - i'll be able to swap them back and forth to see if the antiuities are better in the jazz box.

 

[mrfjones]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

to me, a Gibson ES-175 is the definitive jazz box - that's what Herb Ellis and a lot of other notable jazz players used, although nowadays, you'll see a lot of players with Benedettos, D'Angelicos, and other high end custom axes.

as usual, "best" is always subjective

I see a Diana Krall performance from the Montreal Jazz fest repeated on cable pretty often. Russell Malone plays a beautiful jazz box through a Fender Twin, and has a great tone. I looked for his gear on his site, but no luck - his headstock looks like a D'Angelico, though.

I saw diana on some late night show not to long ago, and she had a different guitar player. He was playing a guitar that i didn't recognize at all but he was still playing through a twin. That said the old guitar player or the one that has been with her for years played a guild artist award as his #1. I love the sound her guitar player(s) get out of the jazz box fender twin combo. Very talented

 

[KoreanGuitarMan]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

I don't know if it sounds as good as it looks, but this Eastman is gorgeous.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

Gibson in the 40's & 50's made some of the greatest jazz guitars in the world. The L5, L7, Super 400, Byrdland and Switchmaster were incredible. They just aren't being made like they were. However, Epiphone's Joe Pass Emperor model is a very nice box. For the really top end, though, I'd have to agree with Curly. There was nothing finer than the D'Angelicos.

 

[B2D]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

My teacher is a superb jazz guitarist with awesome tone and his weapons of choice are Heritage guitars... they really deliver beatutiful tone. Lots of fat round low end and clear smooth articulate mids and crisp highs. They do a wonderful job of covering the entire tonal spectrum and not just one range. He's got one with a Bartolini pickups and one with the Heritage humbucker in it and I prefer the one with the Bartolini cuz its distorts a little better.

He usually only uses a Fulltone Fulldrive and a Line 6 DL4 for delay and runs stereo through 2 fender Showman or Bassman head into Boogie 1x12's. Sounds so good its scary!

 

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

Epi Joe Pass or the Ibanez George Benson models are very nice & they're affordable. Even the Epi Sheraton I used to have was a really nice jazzer.

If you can afford a Bendedetto or D'Angelico..........Can I borrow a few grand????!!!! :22:

 

[mrfjones]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

Epi Joe Pass or the Ibanez George Benson models are very nice & they're affordable. Even the Epi Sheraton I used to have was a really nice jazzer.

If you can afford a Bendedetto or D'Angelico..........Can I borrow a few grand????!!!! :22:

if you can afford one i just want to borrow it for a while.... yeah borrow. :newangel:

 

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

if you can afford one i just want to borrow it for a while.... yeah borrow. :newangel:

AMEN to that! I saw one on some vintage site not long ago, I wanna say it was a 50's model Benedetto for like $23,000.00. I'm sorry, but that is just friggin' nuts! I'll stick with my Tele, which gets some pretty nice jazz tones in its' own right!

 

[mrfjones]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

those guitars are supposed to be amazing but 23,000? and that was probably used right? I think i will buy a car instead. But if i would ever have the money to burn on something like that i would get one (but i thinik i would go for a master built bennedetto line instead)

 

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

Yeah, used.....it was a 1950s model; don't recall the year. Real beauty, but come on.......It might've been on elderly instruments site. I was searching/researching Gretsch's & stumbled upon it.

 

[Tim]

Re: Best jazz guitar brand?

I have owned the Washburn HB-30 Hollow Body guitar for two years now. I have had many people tell me it is a sweet playing guitar.

My instructor, who owns a Gibson ESS-335, says it is as good as his high priced guitar. He even helped me pick it out.

Go to the Washburn website and check it out.
http://www.washburn.com/electrics/hollow_bodies/hb30.htm

Not bad for under $500.00. Some website list it at below $300.00

Jazz on!