Jazz Player

[booklover]

My husband plays jazz guitar, but loves the tele design. I would like to surprise him for his birthday. I wanted to do a tele build on Warmoth, but want a true jazz sound. From my research, I was thinking a mahogany chambered body or thinline with pau ferro neck. Will this combo help produce a warm jazz sound? Also, which pickup, Warmoth has the Alnico Pro II, but will another pickup designed specifically for jazz work with this tele setup?

Any suggestions on this would be great.

Thanks

 

[Patrick from Davis]

It depends on what you are going for looks wise with the guitar.  If it is in the mold of the classic tele, then a mahogany or korina body with a goncalo neck would be a warmer guitar.  If I was going to build a tele for jazz, but more because I'd just love to try this, I'd put Lollar Charlie Christian style pickups in it.  The neck pickup would require some help to get it in there.  It is not a standard size thing, so some one would have to route a bit to get it to work.  However, for what you are asking about, it would hit the nail on the head.
Patrick

edit, If you were using a pick guard, and I would suggest going this route, you could always contact Lollar and ask if a p90 route would accommodate the pickup, or even the Jazzmaster or WRHB route which should accommodate just about anything.  Then you would just need a custom routed pickguard, and it would be much easier to assemble.

 

[dmraco]

Booklover...I know nothing about jazz but had to comment, THE WORLD NEEDS MORE WOMAN LIKE YOU!!!!!!
:rock-on:

 

[Tonar8352]

Hey booklover good for you. 
Actually a traditional early 50's style Tele makes a great jazz guitar in a jazz players hand. I would look for a light weight Swamp Ash body, 1 piece Maple Neck with Kluson Tuners, Traditional Tele Bridge, and vintage style pickups and you should have a wonderful Jazz Guitar.

Check out what Ted Green could do with one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDuee6blvj8

 

[jrfox92]

It depends on what you are going for looks wise with the guitar.  If it is in the mold of the classic tele, then a mahogany or korina body with a goncalo neck would be a warmer guitar.  If I was going to build a tele for jazz, but more because I'd just love to try this, I'd put Lollar Charlie Christian style pickups in it.  The neck pickup would require some help to get it in there.  It is not a standard size thing, so some one would have to route a bit to get it to work.  However, for what you are asking about, it would hit the nail on the head.
Patrick

edit, If you were using a pick guard, and I would suggest going this route, you could always contact Lollar and ask if a p90 route would accommodate the pickup, or even the Jazzmaster or WRHB route which should accommodate just about anything.  Then you would just need a custom routed pickguard, and it would be much easier to assemble.

I've checked out those Lollars and she could always go with their Tele Bridge CC instead of worrying about a special route.
http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LGP&Product_Code=263&Category_Code=charlie-christian-pickups

 

[mayfly]

Hey booklover good for you. 
Actually a traditional early 50's style Tele makes a great jazz guitar in a jazz players hand. I would look for a light weight Swamp Ash body, 1 piece Maple Neck with Kluson Tuners, Traditional Tele Bridge, and vintage style pickups and you should have a wonderful Jazz Guitar.

Check out what Ted Green could do with one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDuee6blvj8

I agree. There are several Jazz folks who use an old style telecaster. One possible modification from stock that you may consider is a hum bucking pickup in the neck position. That would turn it into the perfect Jazz guitar IMHO

 

[bagman67]

Two modern jazz players who are closely associated with Telecaster-style guitars are Bill Frisell and Mike Stern.  In Stern's case, he's got a Yamaha signature model with a maple neck and ash body loaded with a Duncan '59 in the neck and a Duncan Hot Rail tele-style pickup in the bridge.  He sounds pretty jazzy with that setup.  Frisell is all over the place with his gear, but among other things, he's endorsed the Harmonic Design Z-90 pickup.  It's all over his "Good Dog, Happy Man" album, which has some really wonderful tones on it.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

It depends on what you are going for looks wise with the guitar.  If it is in the mold of the classic tele, then a mahogany or korina body with a goncalo neck would be a warmer guitar.  If I was going to build a tele for jazz, but more because I'd just love to try this, I'd put Lollar Charlie Christian style pickups in it.  The neck pickup would require some help to get it in there.  It is not a standard size thing, so some one would have to route a bit to get it to work.  However, for what you are asking about, it would hit the nail on the head.
Patrick

edit, If you were using a pick guard, and I would suggest going this route, you could always contact Lollar and ask if a p90 route would accommodate the pickup, or even the Jazzmaster or WRHB route which should accommodate just about anything.  Then you would just need a custom routed pickguard, and it would be much easier to assemble.

I've checked out those Lollars and she could always go with their Tele Bridge CC instead of worrying about a special route.
http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LGP&Product_Code=263&Category_Code=charlie-christian-pickups

It is the neck Charlie Christian pickup I'd be worried about fitting into the body.  It is not a standard shape.

As was said by Tonar and Mayfly, you can use a standard tele to get marvelous results.  I just tend to go a step further when doing something custom like these builds.  And there are not to many Charlie Christian pickup guitars out there, so it is an excuse to try it.  If you are interested in using the traditional pickups, or adding a humbucker to the neck, I'd find a couple of artists, and songs that represent the sound you are going for, and give Ken (another board member here, TroubledTreble) at Roadhouse Pickups a call or email to see if he can make some for you that match the sound you are going for.  He makes great pickups and they are equivalent in price to most things out there, or better.
Patrick

 

[swarfrat]

While the CC pickup looks cool and is jazz, this being a guitar for someone else, I'd be inclined to stay with routes that allow tons of choices. It'd be a lot easier to swap out  if the guitar were routed HxH, HxT or even TxT.

I know I'm not the first person to say it, but I recently had a chance to Jam with my nephew playing his strat (i think Area 67 or whatever  dimarzios lower output stack is) while he played his tele through the same amp at the same time. The strat was NOTICABLY brighter. I tend to think of nails on blackboard when i think tele bridge but it was a lot rounder and warmer than the strat.

 

[lucky13]

Cant go wrong with some of these Lollar Charlie Christian pickups

http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=charlie-christian-pickups

 

[jrfox92]

OH, and there's some company i found called Rautia that makes something called a T-Neck, CC style. Pretty cool and probably closer to what you'd want.
http://www.rautiaguitars.net/ccbar.html

 

[mayfly]

Cant go wrong with some of these Lollar Charlie Christian pickups

http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=charlie-christian-pickups

I hate to be a nay sayer, but I've had a set of those Lollar charlie Christian pickups.  The tone was dark and there was no articulation.  They are more suited to dark swampy blues than Jazz. 

BTW - I didn't like them. I put in a traditional set of tele pickups instead.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

What route did you use on the body?  Worst case is you buy another pick guard and do what you did, and sell the Lollar Charlie Christians.  It seems to me that there are a lot of options.
Patrick

 

[lucky13]

I appreciate that heads up Mayfly the reason I opted out of getting the Lollar Paf's is I had heard several people say they were a bit sterile sounding which did seem to be the case on most of the clips I had heard as far as response and bloom when I heard them being played, its all a bit subjective with amp preference and all.....so its nice to get first hand info, so thanks for that, dont mind an honest opinion.

 

[Dan025]

My husband plays jazz guitar, but loves the tele design. I would like to surprise him for his birthday. I wanted to do a tele build on Warmoth, but want a true jazz sound. From my research, I was thinking a mahogany chambered body or thinline with pau ferro neck. Will this combo help produce a warm jazz sound? Also, which pickup, Warmoth has the Alnico Pro II, but will another pickup designed specifically for jazz work with this tele setup?

Any suggestions on this would be great.

Thanks

that actually sounds like a good combo and a beautiful guitar. i'd have to recomend a hum-bucker for the neck, there are many good choices. honestly don't over think pickup choice. keep it conventional. a 59, jazz, alnico2, anything "PAF" shoud be fine. really anything could sound jazzy with the tone in the right position and a bit of reverb. jazz players might like the gibsons but much of the sound just comes from playing style. i've seen videos of bill lawrence getting jazz tones from a strat. granted it had his single coil sized humbuckers in it.

the charlie cristian pickup is an interesting choice too being that it's uncommon and was designed for a famous jazz player.

 

[AprioriMark]

Just be careful when marrying a neck humbucker with any traditional Tele pickups.  I've found (through building many for myself and others) that very few Tele bridge pickups hold their own with a HB in the neck.  I'd suggest a mini bucker, or a full sized HB underwound with Alnico II magnets.  That Harmonic Design bridge pickup works well with that, but I prefer Roadhouse Pickups' 390 in the tele housing http://www.roadhousepickups.com/RH_390.html.

-Mark