Jim Ohlschmidt Liner Notes The Genius of Joe Pass, Vestapol 13073 Video, 2001, 1960s
"Although Pass coaxed a remarkably warm, fat tone from the Fender Jaguar he played in those days, a fan noticed that it wasn't the best instrument for Joe's style.
"Back in my Synanon days, I didn't have a guitar of my own; all I had was a solid body rock and roll guitar that belonged to Synanon," Pass told Sievert in 1976. "I was playing a gig at a local club with it when this guy named Mike Peak came in and saw me playing jazz with a rock guitar. A few months later, on my birthday, I came home and there was this brand new (Gibson) ES-I75 that he had bought for me. He was in the construction business and played a little guitar himself and just felt that I should have the proper kind of instrument. It's the only electric I've used since then.
" . . .
"His studio work during this time also included such lucrative jobs as playing for several television series such as the Woody Woodbury Show, Good Morning America, and the Donald O'Connor Show. Although his work as an anonymous studio musician gave Pass a level of financial security most jazz musicians only dreamed of, it was a realm he apparently was not entirely comfortable with. As Pass told Lee Underwood in Downbeat, "You have to have your regular guitar, a 12-string guitar, a banjo, a mandolin, a wah-wah pedal-all the tools of the trade. When they call you, they expect you to be able to do everything that's contemporary. 'Can you remember what so-and-so did on such-and-such a hit record? Well, we want that.' And if you can't play that, they don't call you again."