Transform guitar into a sweet sounding jazz guitar

[justheretolook]

Alright first of all sorry if this is in the wrong section.

I have a Sante Fe something something electric guitar. It has 2 I-dont-know pickups, 3 way selector, a volume control knob and a tone knob. It has a very clean tone, but it isnt bass-y. Whatever you call it. haha.

I want to completely modify the guitar. I want it to sound like an Epiphone Casino, if possible that is. I want that thick jazz/bossa sound that Joe Pass creates. Basically I want to transform this guitar into a sweet sounding jazz guitar. And I also want to add another tone knob, if that's a good idea. And I want to add a Bigsby.

The problem is, i don't know what pick-ups to use since im quite new to the Jazz, so I would like recommendation. And like I said I don't know whether adding another tone knob would be a good idea. And the most important thing is, I need you guys to roughly tell me the price of this total modification. From the cheapest to the most expensive.

Thanks alot guys.

 

[lightice]

Making another guitar sound exactly like one other of another make is probably the most impossible thing to do.

Getting 90% there is much easier and more doable.

But is your guitar a hollowbody?

 

[eieio]

My poor man's jazz/blues sound setup -

I mix an old bass amp (warm frequency) + another old 10w guitar amp (treble frequency)
Nothing fancy, just a simple plain analog experiment for that mono jazz/delta/blues crunch.

For my old strat copy a bit tricky on the bass side, easier to achieve on my old les paul copy.
As for my old semi-hollowbody copy, now that it has a sweet tone due to its age (plywood body I guess) + different humbukers swap.

Before that bigsby & pickup modifications maybe you can try zero down your pickup treble knob, control the string tones by using your thumb/fingers instead of using picks (cheap trick I develop... hehe)



*
notice the gears I experimented with are all old, either by choice subconcious or unconciously I dont know,
but it works for me at least for now which is much on par with my limited funds available & my very amateur playing...

 

[iwantdigimon]

haha a fellow joe pass lover.. +1 for you my friend!

 

[justheretolook]

thanks guys. but anything structured? No it isnt a hollowbody guitar. I wasnt trying to achieve 100% copy of the Epi Casino, just wanted a sound similar to that. so any recommendations?

 

[kuang89]

i use a line 6 amp, when i select channel, i use either the red TWANG or the green BLUES, and my bass is at 12 oclock position, mids at 2 oclock, treble try to keep it from 12-2 oclock, dun want to bright sounding n happy...jazzy is abit sad too...mid drive, no pedals, i use a sx strat copy n it gives me a cheapo 335 sound or at least sounds like one...

 

[eieio]

Interesting, if you're not using hollowbody
Perhaps can elaborate which Santa Fe guitar that you're trying to achieve?
Maybe you can try on what they call "amp simulation" gadget which I'm not into(for now).
I recently tried various settings on an acoustic amp with electric but just cant hit the sweet spot yet.

 

[eieio]

I'm not into jazz, but I appreciate the beauty of clean tone produced by any jazz guitars.
The early intro part is quite a good advise abt modifications & tone, thought I'd share
But this only applies to hollowbody of course, inspiration to those who owns this epi -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLFLye05VDk