When A Strat Plays The Blues.ahh Jazz

[kenposurf]

Goes to show ya..Leo put the tone knob on there for a reason...

[elreydlp]

Jimmy Smith-NICE! A Strat on the neck pickup with the tone rolled back and some big ol' fat flatwounds can do the Jazz thing just fine. Some of the fattest Jazz tones I've heard were from a Tele neck pickup.

[kenposurf]

Jaguars too..

[ric480]

The only view of the controls on that Strat come around the 1:19 thru 1:23 marks. I see the pickup switch in the treble pickup position; can't tell where the tone knobs are set, however stock Strat treble pickups are not wired through the tone knobs AFAIK. So unless some mods were done, I don't see how the tone knob statement applies to this clip.

[scott_s]

The only view of the controls on that Strat come around the 1:19 thru 1:23 marks. I see the pickup switch in the treble pickup position; can't tell where the tone knobs are set, however stock Strat treble pickups are not wired through the tone knobs AFAIK. So unless some mods were done, I don't see how the tone knob statement applies to this clip.

That's correct. Unless the guitar is rewired so that one tone control has been moved to the bridge pickup or a jumper added so one of the tone controls affects two pickups (my favored mod), there isn't a tone control in the picture.

I don't claim to be an expert in jazz guitar playing or tone, but I think the "rolled-off tone" thing is a stereotype, a gross misrepresentation of what most players actually do. It's not that they have the guitar's tone knob rolled way down, they just don't have the treble control on the amp cranked all the way up. In addition, they're using the neck pickup (generally), flatwound strings (at least in the classic era we're discussing), and a lighter attack (but not always) which tend to produce a softer, mellower tone. The closest I ever get to copping Wes Montgomery's tone is when I switch to the neck pickup, leave the tone control on the guitar all the way up, and pluck firmly but not aggressively with my thumb. Rolling off the tone control immediately muddies things up and takes me further away from the Wes tone.

- Scott

[elreydlp]

You're probably right about the amp tone controls Scott. Since the video is in black and white that would date it to a time when modification of a stock guitar was unusual. There is another possibility that I've seen. A jazz guy I knew used only his neck pickup and kept hitting the 3-way switch and knocking it into the middle position. He simply reversed the pickup switch so the first position was for the neck and the switch was out of his way. Only saw it once, so your explaination sounds more likely.
I have been a Strat guy since the early 60's. My '62 had the standard 3-way and I became pretty adept at getting the "out of phase" 2 and 4 positions with it. No modification.
I had Ron Eglit who played with Dick Dale rewire the 5-way switch on my '83 Fifty Seven Reissue so the middle position was the bridge/neck combination (my favorite and certified "surfy"). I never used the middle pickup by itself. Rons Strat used 3 mini-toggles-one for each pickup so he could get any combination. That's when I fell in love with the Bridge/Neck combo.
My current 2 "Strats" are actually G & L S-500's with a factory installed mini-toggles for the bridge/neck combination.
A modification I like changes the upper tone control into a master tone for all pickups-including the bridge and the lower tone control is replaced with with a blender pot wired to the neck pickup so it can be brought into any other setting gradually until the desired mix is achieved. Very versatile.