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Jazz Guitars – A Breed Apart

Here at Joys-of-Jazz.com we love jazz guitar.  Some of the finest examples of guitar playing the world has ever known come from the genre of jazz.

Jazz guitar can be thought of two ways.  It can either mean a style of playing or the type of guitar “usually” but not always used by Jazz guitarists.

One of the main reasons the jazz style guitar was created was that it needed amplification to play with the bands back in the 30s.  Virtually all jazz guitarists since the 40s has used the amplified guitar similar in style to what we now call a jazz guitar.  Certainly jazz music can be played on ANY style of guitar, however.

Typically a jazz guitar is an archtop guitar that is medium to large in depth.  Now days it is common to see thin acoustic guitars and what are called “semi-solids” as well.  The archtop with “F” holes named after the shape of the holes in the top is by far the most common.

These big bodied electric archtop guitar project sound like nobody’s business.  They are fairly loud even without amplification and sustain extremely well with amplification.

Jazz styles typically include a more complicated chord progression than most styles of music requiring a more thorough understanding of music theory.  It often substitutes complex chords for standard chords to make the effect more interesting.  There is often a walking bassline as well.

Jazz guitar players were some of the first to use different modes as well as scales.  Plus they were known to arpegiate chords to add interest.

Some of the best loved jazz guitars were the Gibson ES175, Gibson ES335, L-5, and the Super 400.  But there were many makers of jazz guitars beyond Gibson, such as Ephiphone, D’Angelico and Stromberg.  In recent times Ibanez has produced some well know jazz guitars such as the George Benson Signature model and the Joe Pass JP-20.  In the 1950’s Gretsch had a great jazz guitar call the G100 and is still in production to my knowledge.  It is a very affordable guitar.

One thing you can say about jazz guitar is that whenever you try to pin it down you will find exceptions.  It almost defies definition.  Part of the idea of jazz was to break away from the norm of music both in playing styles and techniques.

So if you find yourself in need of a fine new or used jazz guitar you have come to right place.  You can find a fantastic selection here of Jazz Guitars.

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