J vs. P
 

This perhaps isn't a fair comparison as I've an American Standard P Bass and and Indonesian Squire J.

But I've noticed the J likes the pick a lot more than the P. Much more attack and clarity from a pick vs. fingers on the J.

The P sounds great, don't get me wrong. But switching from fingerstyle to pick style doesn't have the impact on the P like the J.

Is this just the make of basses I've got, or do Jazz basses in general accept the pick treatment better than P's?

Sounds like you might have purchased a defective pick .

What PU-config were you using?

+1.

P bass should be more aggressive with a pick than a J with a pick. Js are usually played with fingers.

i'm playing the J with both pick ups full on. and i've tried various pick makes.

the P sounds great, pick or fingers. i can just tell a bigger difference switching to a pick on the J.

The sound of a P bass with flats and a pick with the tone wide open is one of the coolest bass sounds ever!

I'm not touching this with a ten foot pole. Don;t you know not to say anything bad about the P-Bass?

If this would be helpful, here are sound samples of both basses playing the same riff and using the same pick

http://www.zinfanus.com/zoom_b3

Cheers!

The tones created depend greatly on the area of the string you strike in its relation to the position of the pickup..Basically,closer to the bridge gets you a brighter tone and further up the neck gets your warmer,"rounder" tones,regardless of pickup configuration..