Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
The first ever jazz guitar was made with the intention of making it capable of being heard distinctly, amidst other instruments like trumpets, saxophones etc., and long before electric guitars were conceived. The typical jazz guitar is the arch top type with the F-holes, which produce a louder sound. However, the player had to sacrifice sustain for volume. The present day jazz musician uses a jazz guitar that has floating or no pickups for clarity of sound. Rather than use parallel bracing, these guitars use a cross, so that sustain is maintained, making the guitar sound like a steel string acoustic guitar. Some jazz guitars have embedded pickups for higher sustain.
How An Arch Top Jazz Guitar Is Made
An arch top jazz guitar has a spruce wood top, with the most expensive being the European spruce. Spruce is durable and light and is ideal for the jazz guitar. The cut on a jazz guitar is quite distinctive. The top wood is quarter sawn, so that when the top is finished, the growth rings are very compact, to ensure strength. The back of the jazz guitar, made of maple, is also quarter sawn from a single piece of wood so that the curl of the wood is visible, making the back stiff when finished. Both European maple and big leaf maple are used for making these guitars. The back greatly influences the tone of the instrument as it decides the lower range frequency response. If the back is thick, you get a treble instrument that does not have low fat tones.
While conventional guitars have a hole on the center of the top, causing the vibrations to stop there, the jazz guitar has ‘F’ holes.
The arch top jazz guitar’s neck is constructed from hard maple, which is sturdy, enabling the neck to withstand the high tension of the heavy gauge strings used in jazz guitars. Though mahogany is also used for its stability and lightness, maple is preferred because it is more attractive. The neck of the jazz guitar is usually strengthened with an adjustable truss rod. The fingerboard is made from ebony. There are inexpensive guitars that have fingerboards made of rosewood or synthetic resin.
An arch top jazz guitar’s frets are made from copper, nickel or zinc alloy. Some guitars have bigger than the usual frets for longer life. They also make it easier for techniques like string bending. The bridge of the guitar, which has the foot and the saddle, can be from ebony, maple or boxwood. The foot fixes the bridge to the surface of the guitar, with two posts that fit in the saddle. The saddle is adjustable since the posts are threaded. Generally, metal adjustable saddles are not used. The bridge stays in place through the string pressure.
The pickup of the jazz guitar is installed under the finger rest, which is made from ebony. It is fixed to the neck with the help of an aluminum bracket and screws. Bigger finger rests are not provided as they interfere with the F hole and affect the sound.
The jazz guitar’s tailpiece is also made from ebony with an aluminum rear bracket that is covered with wood veneer for making it lightweight. This lets the output jack pass through it. String mounting is done in six holes.
As such, there is no such thing as a ‘jazz guitar’; it is just that the arch top guitar was most conducive for playing jazz in earlier times. With the advent of electric guitars from various manufacturers and most jazz players preferring those, it is more a question of playing the jazz style of music, than using a specific ‘jazz’ guitar!
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Trainer
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Tags: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric guitars, guitar, guitar music, guitar play, guitar player, guitar scale, guitar scales, guitars, jazz guitar, jazz guitars, jazz music, jazz musician, jazz players, music, music theory, saxophones