Good point -- the OP never mentions what style of jazz he's going to play or even what portion of his repertoire it would be. My original response was that yes, you can play jazz on a Strat even though wouldn't be my first choice. Now if he'd said "90% of what I want to do will be vintage like Gabor Szabo or Joe Pass or modern mellow players like John Pizzarelli", then I'd have said sorry ... won't really get it.

But Jeff Golub (nice choice ... one of my favorites!) or any of the heavily fusion influenced players ... sure, why not grab the Strat!

Jazz is so open to expression that I think you could use anything for playing it.
Mike Stern uses a Tele style guitar( he did use a telecaster early on); Steve Khan uses ES, Fender Tele & strat, depending on the song. I've seen some clips of Larry Carlton using a Strat and his nickname is Mr. ES-335!

If you are going to play a Wes Montgomery type sound you'll do better with a Gibson humbucker. But there are always exceptions. Eric Johnson plays a nice tribute to Wes (east-wes) on his Strat and it sounds good.

I think that the guitarists on Steely Dan recordings show what a Strat can do on jazzy arrangements. If Walter Becker isn't playing bass, then he is using a strat. Like I said it doesn't matter.

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2007 Classic Player Baja Telecaster
1991 Strat Ultra
1990 Gibson ES-347
1986 Yamaha SBG2100
1980 Gibson L6-S
1971 Stratocaster
Fender Stage Lead Combo
Marshall MOSFET 100 watt Amp

As indicated above, it depends what you mean by "Jazz". You ain't gonna sound like Django or Eddie Condon on a Strat, not no how.

On the other hand, if we're talking about the jazzier moments of young Matt Schofield then those are mostly done on a Strat's neck pickup. I've seen plenty of small jazz groups where the guitarist is using a Strat or S-type guitar. Possibly more towards the jazz-rock, jazz-fusion end of the range, to be sure...

I've a Strat with Lace Sensors. My Silver Sensor at the neck produces some very jazzy sounds with the tone rolled well off. Definitely not a humbucker on a hollowbody, but inside the gate of the ballpark at least...

Cheers - C

Les Paul might not agree with you. LOL

I dig Gretsch for jazz.

But I can get some out good sounds out of my strats too.

Neck/Mid pickup, roll the tone back a couple of hairs, turn up the gain on my clean channel. Ready to roll.

_________________
-Kc
"Payin' dues."

Les Paul- Blues, Rock
Archtop-Jazz

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

If your asking what Fenders sound nice for jazz, I have the Strat Deluxe Player and prefer to use my Tele 72 Deluxe RI with 2 HBs as it sounds really nice for jazz... especially the neck pickup.

No, Les Paul = Jazz
I am referring to the person not just the guitar.

He is a Master but theres something about Archtop's. Many Jazz guy's use the Ibenez guits.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Right. I sat about eight feet in front of Frank Gambale (in Steve Smith's band Vital Information) playing his Ibanez archtop through a Marshall half-stack: took my head clean off and splattered it on the far wall!

Mind you, a lot of purists would faint at the idea that was jazz...

Cheers - C

Mike Stern uses Strats and he is pretty jazzy. He also uses telecasters as well. I don't know what pickups he uses.

Lets bear in mind that jazz and fusion are not entirely the same thing.

_________________
-Kc
"Payin' dues."

Cool songs... why is eric dressed like a soldier in the first video?

Yeah my blue neck sensor can make an acceptable P-90ish sound. It has a pretty high resistance making it hotter, I think marginally less than a red lace. They are in the double digits (12-14K). So I wish it was a more normal gold (about 5K). I like the clarity of these pickups.

Later-q.

_________________
2007 Classic Player Baja Telecaster
1991 Strat Ultra
1990 Gibson ES-347
1986 Yamaha SBG2100
1980 Gibson L6-S
1971 Stratocaster
Fender Stage Lead Combo
Marshall MOSFET 100 watt Amp