Guitars in Jazz

John Mclaughlin

I often find myself struggling to find ways to make the guitar sound good in a pure jazz setting. The guitar, and especially the electric guitar, were not conceived with jazz in mind. The relatively thin tone of most guitars without distortion--which is too dirty and messy for most situations--doesn't mesh well with swinging drums and walking bass line.

John Scofield

The jazz guitarists I really respect and admire are the ones whose tone fits and meshes with the jazz. Jim Hall is one of the best examples of a guitarist who, in a pure jazz setting, makes the tone work, sound beautiful, and really accomplish something. The guitar often comes off as quite plucky, I feel. Too sharp, not enough comfy breadth. A saxophone is wide. A trumpet is a fat plop of sound. But most clean guitars are too much head, not enough tail, too big of an attack and not enough sustain. 


Frequently, I find myself attracted to those jazz guitarists who have engineered a tone with effects pedals and fancy amps. John Mclaughlin and John Scofield are noteworthy for this. Both use distortion pedals to great effect. Mclaughlin's tone is brazen and powerful, with excellent sustain. Scofield is more refined, with a groovy tightness.