JazzBox
Chambered
Guitar
for Jazz and Rock

Carved Korina body with arch-top front and a choice of colours and sunbursts.
Low weight chambered construction for ultimate tone and sustain.
Angled 22 fret 25.5 in maple neck.
Compound radius fret-board of a choice of woods.
Thin acrylic, oil, and wax finish for finest tone.
Floating rosewood bridge for Jazz tone and feel.
Fender LSR roller nut for easy tuning and string weight tolerance.
Seymour Duncan Jazz humbucker pickup and vintage P90 pickup.
7 pickup voices: combinations of 1, 2 or 3 coils.

Rees JazzBox
Enlarge Photo

This body design is available with different pickup combinations and different bridges for rock and other styles of music.

 

The JazzBox offers the rich smooth jazz tones of vintage arch-top guitars, now in a more comfortable compact guitar with longer sustain and much greater resistance to feedback. Common arch-top jazz guitars from the big names are mass-produced with glued laminated maple fronts. The several layers of glue shortens the sustain. The very best jazz guitars from specialist jazz luthiers have fronts of solid wood that are carved by hand like making a cello. They are extremely expensive, but sound wonderful with better sustain than the glued laminated fronts. The front of the Rees JazzBox is carved from solid wood providing fine tone and a sustain longer than traditional jazz guitars, but shorter than most Rees guitars that have metal bridges.

The bridge of the JazzBox is of identical construction to a vintage arch-top guitar and is a major contributer to the jazz tone. The bridge is adjustable for height at each end, and for overall intonation by sliding it over the body. It floats on the body and is simply held down by the strings, like all of the violin family of instruments. The overall tone of the instrument can be varied greatly: both by changing strings and by changing the bridge when strings are changed. Round wound strings are brighter than tape-wound strings.

Four interchangeable bridges are available which progress in order from jazz tone to rock tone:

1) Jazz tone: rosewood bridge as pictured
2) Bright Jazz tone: looks similar, but is made of dark ebony
3) Mellow Rock tone: has a bone top on a wood bridge
4) Rock tone: uses a tune-o-matic metal adjustable bridge on two wooden feet

 

Controls (from left to right on image)
1) 3-way rotary switch alters bridge pickup voice: single coil / humbucker / phased
2) Tone knob
3) Volume knob
4) 3-way toggle pickup selector: bridge PU; both PUs; neck PU

 

Ben Smith recorded a JazzBox in the studio

Ben's amplifier is a Fender Hot Rod Deville valve amp retro-fitted with a pair of Jensen vintage alnico V 10 inch speakers and cryogenically treated Electro-Harmonix and Svetlana Valves. No effects, no reverb, no compression, have been added to these recordings. The sweet modulations of some samples are the natural vibe of the guitar when played well. The sustain is natural and not enhanced.

Jazzy Recordings (rosewood bridge; tape-wound strings):

3-way toggle PU Selector Bridge PU Both PUs Neck PU
Normal P90 Bridge PU p p
"Humbuckerized" P90 Bridge PU p p same
Phased P90 Bridge PU p p same

Dirty blues-rock recordings (rosewood bridge; tape-wound strings) wow!

3-way toggle PU Selector Bridge PU Both PUs Neck PU
Normal P90 Bridge PU p p
"Humbuckerized" P90 Bridge PU p p same
Phased P90 Bridge PU p p same


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