subject: Joe Pass - Jazz Guitar Music Legend - Part 2 [print this page] Many guitarists have been surprised to learn that Joe Pass played Fender solid body guitars on his early jazz guitar music recordings. Normally associated with surf and rock and roll performers, the Fender Jazz Master and Fender Jaguar models seem unlikely foils for his advanced bebop style, but Pass made the most of his circumstances. His Fender guitar sound is heard on recordings like 1961's "Sounds of Synanon", 1962's "Something Special (Groove Holmes) and "Moment of Truth" (Gerald Wilson), and 1963's "Catch Me", his first album as a leader. He also employed a Fender Bass VI six string bass guitar for a couple of tracks on the latter date. Pass used a thinline Gibson ES-355 briefly during 1963. This was heard on his sessions as a sideman with Les McCann.
Pass played these atypical jazz guitars until a kind and generous soul, Mike Peak, gave him a Gibson ES-175D in 1963. This guitar is an archtop electric acoustic with two humbucking pickups, a sunburst finish and a 16 inch laminated body. The 175 produced the definitive Joe Pass sound and became his workhorse instrument for most of his career. It is heard prominently on such classic recordings as 1964's "For Djang" and "Joy Spring", 1967's "Simplicity" and 1963's "Jazz Concord" (with Herb Ellis).
In the 1970s and 1980s, Joe Pass dabbled with a few other jazz archtop guitars, including a custom made James D-Aquisto archtop acoustic with a thinner body and a floating pick up, and an Ibanez JP-20 signature model. He later lent his name to a line of Epiphone Joe Pass Signature guitars in the 1990s. In 1992 Joe took delivery of a custom made Gibson ES-175. According to jazz guitarist John Pisano, Pass's longtime friend and frequent musical collaborator, this instrument has a thinner body, a single humbucking pickup, a sunburst finish, gold-plated hardware, and an ebony fingerboard. Pisano also mentioned that this is the guitar heard on Joe's final recordings, including his last: "A Meeting of the Masters: Roy Clark & Joe Pass Play Hank Williams".
Like most jazz guitarists, Pass used the neck pickup on his ES-175 almost exclusively and adjusted the tone control to produce a warm bassy sound. Joe was supplied with a full custom medium to heavy gauged set of strings from GHS. Joe had an unusual habit of breaking or biting his picks in half to a smaller size that he felt was more comfortable. These were originally smaller teardrop shaped picks and after breaking them he played with the pointed end.
In the 1960s, Joe usually performed and recorded with various Fender tube amplifiers. He used several combo and piggyback models including a Twin Reverb and a white tolex Bandmaster. The latter was seen and heard mated to a Fender Jaguar in a telling 1962 TV performance included on the "Genius of Joe Pass" DVD. Session photos reveal that an Ampeg combo amp was used during the landmark "For Django" recording. By the early 1970s, Pass switched to Polytone solid-state amps and became one of the company's leading endorsers. Fortunately for aspiring guitarists, Joe Pass released numerous jazz guitar tab books and instructional DVD courses that teach his single note improvised solos and chord melody solos as well as the pickstyle and fingerstyle guitar techniques he used to play them.
