When looking to buy your first or upgrade your current jazz guitar, there are many factors that should go into that decision. What body type do you want? What tone range/quality do you want/need? How much money do you want to spend? Etc. In this article we will explore some of the more popular jazz guitars on the market today from a variety of brands and price ranges.
The first question one must ask when looking for a "jazz" guitar is "What style of guitar do I want?"
There are three options:
- Solid Body : This is the type of guitar that you usually find in rock, country and blues music, although solid body guitars do get used by many jazz guitarists as well. John Abercrombie has used an Ibanez Artist and Gibson SG, John McLaughlin has used many different Gibson solid body guitars over the years and Mike Stern has always used a Fender Telecaster, or a Yamaha version of a Tele.
- Semi-Hollow Body : This guitar is the "in between" model of jazz guitar. It is not as small as a solid body, but not as big as an archtop, it is somewhere in between. These guitars have some feedback issues, give a nice warm "jazz" tone and are known to be more versatile than the more specialized archtop guitars.
Some of the famous players that have used these guitars are, Emily Remler and Larry Carlton (Gibson 335's) and Ben Monder and John Scofield (Ibanez Artists).
- Archtop Guitars : The archtop guitar is the quintessential jazz guitar as it has been used by numerous jazz legends throughout the history of the instrument. It is commonly associated with famous players like Wes Montgomery (Gibson L-5), Joe Pass (Gibson 175), Johnny Smith (Gibson Johnny Smith Model) and newer players like Russell Malone, Buscarino, Mark Elf, Benedetto and Craig Wagner (American archtops).
The archtop has two sides to its presence in the jazz guitar world, the collectable guitar, and the performing guitar. Many high end archtop makers routinely sell their guitars for $20,000+, and are geared towards collectors and the few top professionals who can afford these instruments. On the other hand many other makers, Gibson, Gretsch, Ibanez etc, are aiming their instruments at the average player and making instruments that are much more affordable to today's players.
By Matthew Warnock - http://www.jazzguitar.be/jazz_guitars.html
