Commentary on the transition from the debut to the present regarding the equipment used by Master Stanley Jordan
Various equipment information that supports touch technique / Two-handed tapping playing style
Guitars
You can see a photo of an Alembic guitar (model name and details unknown) at the very beginning of the activity. After that, he used Travis Bean’s aluminium neck guitar / TB1000S, which was sold in the 70’s. The stable long sustain produced by the metal neck/flat fingerboard/low action contributed greatly to the touch technique and played a wonderful sound. It is impressive that he held it on the jacket of the substantial first album “Touch Sensitive” which was independently produced and sold in 1982 and the major debut album “Magic Touch”.
However, due to the feel of the neck in winter and the effect of metal on the body, the main guitar gradually changed to a different one. In order to maintain a stable string height and fingerboard condition, which is most important for touch technique, he changed to a carbon graphite neck material that is not affected by weather conditions and environmental factors.
From around this time, videos of the MV “The Lady in My Life” and “Jumpin’ Jack (One night with Blue Note)”, the model called Roadster made by Ibanez would start to appear, which required a carbon graphite neck supplied by Modulus Graphite, which was used (Confirmed by two individuals, one with the default radius and one with a modified flat version).
Then, in 1986-87, the Arpege II custom-made by France/Vigier, which was said to be the synonymous guitar of Mr. Stanley Jordan, was completely changed.
A carbon graphite neck extended to the centre of the body, with custom specifications and a flat fingerboard. beautiful wood-grain wings was used for the body, followed up with a Vigier original arming unit, and a built-in preamp that can be switched between active/passive and hum/single pickup. This guitar was now ideally suited for Stanley. Around 250 Arpege II guitars with the same carbon graphite neck were made by Vigier at that time (general models have a radius).
Effects
In 1987, when I saw Mr. Stanley Jordan played at the Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival on TV, I had no idea what this guitar was and had no information. It was an era when there was no internet and information from overseas was very limited and often inaccurate.
In addition, he used a custom-made Casio PG-380 Midi synth guitar with a carbon neck, Zeta’s guitar-type Mirror 6 MIDI controller (no frets, all fingerboards are buttons), and an Ibanez guitar. -・he used the Mr. Litner’s model LR-10 to a flat fingerboard, which was remodelled to a semi-aco, which enabled him to Perform the beautiful solo piece Treasures in the Hollywood movie Bruce Willis & Kim Basinger | Blind Date (1987)
In summary, he used direct sound without using effectors, but it seems that there are many cases where it is used depending on the music to be played and the form of performance.
For example, the Boss DD-7 Digital Delay, TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb, Lexicon PCM96 Surround Reverb, and overdrives such as full-tone Full-Drive 2 where also used. The format of Stanley-Plays-Jimi, which he played irregularly, also used a wah pedal, but it is unknown which manufacturer it was to this day.
Amps/DI Box
In order to maximise the full range of the touch technique, Mr. Stanley Jordan used and still uses a DI box etc. directly to the mixer / PA rather than using amplifiers whose conditions are not always constant depending on the individual. It seems that he was choosing a specific style to send the sound.
For example, I feel like he preferred a setting that puts the sound out of the PA speakers directly through the Avalon U5 direct box through the mixer.
However, when using a jazz big band or an acoustic set, it seems that there were times where he thought that using an amp would be more compatible with other musicians. It seems that there was also a setting that connects the amp head such as directly to the speaker of Fender Twin. Others like Vox AC-30 and Roland JC-120 were also used.