Archtop jazz guitar without a proper amp?

Question

I've just got a great deal on a jazz guitar from my guitar teacher, but I won't be able to afford a "jazz guitar" amp for a while now... I have a nice PA and a mixing board at home and I'm wondering if it will sound good for small solo gigs? I know a lot of jazz players use solid state amps...

The guitar is a Yamaha aex 1500 by the way.

Thanks and excuse my English.

Answer 1

"Jazz guitar amps" are a dime a dozen, in my opinion. For example, a Crate (12 inch speaker) is great Jazz amp. Any Fender with a 12 inch speaker is probably a great Jazz amp. Any Peavy tube amp with a 12" speaker should work. Probably would not recommend the cheap Marshall, because it has a sort of scooped sound and are more specialized. Someone mentioned the Roland, might as well mention the VOX. Even the Raven is not really that bad. The Peavey Vyper also comes to mind - it is loaded with effects.



Your guitar won't sound "great" in a PA, but you could get a used EQ pedal - which you will likely get anyway in your guitar career, and it will sound fairly decent through a PA.



This idea that you need a "Jazz Chorus Amp" or something like that is not true at all. A Jazz chorus amp is great, but has way too much power, has too many speakers, and is just way too much for your purposes. I find the best sound is just a clean amp with a bit of reverb and a EQ pedal is great. You don't need a chorus pedal. I find these to be too artificial sounding.

Answer 2

It doesn't matter what kind of amp you have unless by Jazz amp you mean one with jazz effects like chorus echo or things like that. I say just use your normal amp and keep the sound clean. Or if you want the effects pick up a pedal so that way you can switch between effects easier.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Yep, effects pedals. You can buy individual effects like a Boss Phaser or get a multi-effects pedal with lots of built in ones like Digitech and Zoom. I've got a Digitech RP350 and it's pretty good, has tons of effects. Some are pretty stupid though and have way too much crunch or overdrive. I used to use an old Zoom multi-effects pedal that I really liked but it quit working.

Answer 5

I've never plugged direct into a PA. If you can find a Roland Cube 30, which are fairly cheap, they have really good cleans for jazz.

Answer 6

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