Possibility?

bopeuph · #1 04-09-2008, 02:29 PM

I was told that Jaco recorded Donna Lee on one of his fretless P-Basses, not on a Jazz. Could that be possible? I always thought otherwise.

Ideas?

Nick

Mushroo · #2 04-09-2008, 02:38 PM

Sure, it is possible. There are stories that Jaco used to swap out a fretted P bass neck onto his fretless J. Allegedly, he felt the slightly wider P neck helped him practice, plus it reduced wear and tear on his fretless fingerboard. I have never heard that he owned a fretless P or a fretless P neck, but why not?

There would be no way to tell from the recording if it was a P neck or a J neck; there would be no difference in sound, and the 1/8" difference in size would be insignificant for a player like Jaco.

bopeuph · #3 04-09-2008, 02:53 PM

Actually, come to think of it, it WAS a J replaced with a P neck. I remember the guy saying that, and he said after Jaco put this neck on, it wouldn't fit in the case any more because it was a few frets longer. The bass in question was under his bed at his parents' house when he died, and his father sold that one off apparently. It wasn't one of the two main basses he played, and apparently, Jaco had basses laying all over the house.

Nick

Mushroo · #4 04-09-2008, 03:14 PM

Your friend's story sounds a little fishy. P and J necks are the same length, have the same number of frets, and will fit into the same case. It's only about an extra 1/8" width at the nut, no big difference.

Mushroo · #5 04-09-2008, 03:15 PM

ps if you watch Jaco's "Modern Electric Bass" video, you can see him putting a fretted P neck on the J body over the opening credits.

bopeuph · #6 04-09-2008, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mushroo

Your friend's story sounds a little fishy. P and J necks are the same length, have the same number of frets, and will fit into the same case. It's only about an extra 1/8" width at the nut, no big difference.

Hm. I am now going to wonder about that. Ah well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mushroo

ps if you watch Jaco's "Modern Electric Bass" video, you can see him putting a fretted P neck on the J body over the opening credits.

Is THAT what he was doing? I thought he was just fixing the action on his bass to make sure it sounded fine for the video. He must've gotten good at it; I bet if I tried that, it would take hours, and I would do it the night before just in case.

Which, by the way, makes me think of my Geddy Lee neck and that I'm supposed to take it off before I adjust the truss rod. The guy who showed me how to do it said it's not difficult, but it makes me nervous thinking about it!

Nick

Mushroo · #7 04-09-2008, 03:32 PM

The story I heard is that he put the fretted neck on right before the video was filmed, because he thought it would be a more helpful video for the average bass player if he demonstrated the examples on fretted. Who knows if this is the real reason.

Jaco clearly was not afraid of messing up his basses; allegedly he would adjust his action onstage between songs or during set breaks. And of course, the ultimate example was ripping the frets out of his bass.

Don't be scared to use the truss rod on your Geddy. Simply take the strings off, remove the four screws that hold the neck on, and make SMALL adjustments to the truss rod. There are a couple of good tutorials stickied in the Setup forum. It is something every bass player should know how to do, in my opinion.