How to get a gypsy rhythm tone out of my electric guitar?

MikeK · May 2021

Here's the way I view this subject, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about it & working on it recently (I have a recurring gig every Saturday where I'm alternating guitars each week, 1 week GJ guitar, the next week archtop):

You cant have it all, but you can have fun trying to have it all. When I play my GJ guitar (through a Fender Blues Jr) , I couldn't be happier with my rhythm tone. It's punchy, dry & percussive, just the way I like it. But my soloing tone isnt as satisfying to me. It tends to be a bit thinner than I'd like, but it's acceptable enough to enable me to to find that inspiration that we all crave to be able to play our best. Most of the time. When I play the archtop (also through the Blues Jr), it's the opposite. I'm delighted with my lead tone, but my rhythm sound is a bit thinner, flimsier & muddier than I want for la pompe, but acceptable.

So there you go. Good luck with your tone quest. Most experienced players will tell you that you're after a moving target & that the quest never truly ends. Some will say we should knock of the obsessive nonsense & just practice more. But we all know how great it feels to be in "the zone" when your tone is just right. One last thought--I love Django's electric stuff. But I've noticed that on lots of his later recordings (ie. electric stuff), he doesn't play much rhythm guitar. Many of these recordings find him with large ensembles or in a quartet, with drums, bass & piano, and without the need (or desire?) to play a lot of chords.

billyshakes · May 2021

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/106680#Comment_106680

Interesting @littlemark ...I know this practise vs. practice distinction exists in British & Australian English. American English does NOT use practise, so it is practice for both noun & verb. I guess it would make sense that Canada uses the Commonwealth spellings.

What was more interesting to me is that under your examples for the verb, you used/copied "practice what you preach", "practice medicine", "practice the act", etc.... which were not using "practise."🧐

Bones · May 2021

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/106682#Comment_106682

Good point. Staying on the low strings and using Freddie Green sparse voicings works well to calm down an electric. Are you talking about an acoustic or electric archtop?

Lango-Django · May 2021

True, but you do need to practise religiously.

...but is that amount of practice really in keeping with the ol’ ‘rhythm method’...?

littlemark · May 2021

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/106689#Comment_106689

Lol. I do practise what I preach when I'm writing. But to be honest... I copied and pasted it from Mariam Webster. :/ I know.

I know people from the United States (and most in Canada too) don't differentiate between the two. But they were correcting someone from Portugal. International English does differentiate.

Similar with licence and license. Noun vs verb. I find language fascinating.

billyshakes · May 2021

ha ha. Also fascinated by language (and not just English!)

Buco · May 2021

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/18000/how-to-get-a-gypsy-rhythm-tone-out-of-my-electric-guitar

I mean, I'd clarify something first. They all have their own voice and you can't really make them sound like something else. For the same reason you won't often see a country player use a Les Paul or a blues player use a Telecaster. But that's not to say you can't use either to play both genres.

Same here and with you. I think your goal is to get better at playing rhythm in Gypsy Jazz style. You can do that on any guitar. Having a genre specific guitar halps because it gives you better feedback. It's kinda letting you know if what you're playing sounds like the right thing or not because it's much easier to compare the sound to the bands and players you like and listen to. Then when you're practicing on the jazz archtop like in your case. Still better than the Martin I used before getting my Selmer copy. I can and have picked up the Martin to play GJ. It still sounds like a Martin even though I now more or less know what I'm doing. But the music coming from it is GJ.

Don't worry much about how the guitar sounds, worry about how you sound. Get a heavy pick and go at it.