'70s Jazzes

[Belka]

So, a week ago I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at the Gallery in London, trying out basses. I wanted to know more about 70s Jazzes, so I tried out about seven of them. Two of them were early '70s basses with alder bodies and rosewood fretboards, four of them were early '70s basses with alder bodies and maple fretboards, and one was a late '70s bass with an ash body and maple fretboard, with the three-bolt neck My favorite by far was the latter, it just had THAT tone. They were all very nice, but the cheaper, heavier, ash bass just killed. Is the ash body the secret to that '70s tone? It just had an upper-mid grind to the sound, along with a heavier bottom, that made it sound like an active bass. Had me gassing hard, I can't get that bass out of my head. I also compared it to a '74 reissue, which also had an ash body (I think, I might be wrong) which sounded a lot like the earlier alder bodied basses. So is it really just the ash body, or was there any change to the pickups that happened about that time as well? Any thoughts?

 

[God's Favorite Bass]

So, a week ago I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at the Gallery in London, trying out basses. I wanted to know more about 70s Jazzes, so I tried out about seven of them. Two of them were early '70s basses with alder bodies and rosewood fretboards, four of them were early '70s basses with alder bodies and maple fretboards, and one was a late '70s bass with an ash body and maple fretboard, with the three-bolt neck My favorite by far was the latter, it just had THAT tone. They were all very nice, but the cheaper, heavier, ash bass just killed. Is the ash body the secret to that '70s tone? It just had an upper-mid grind to the sound, along with a heavier bottom, that made it sound like an active bass. Had me gassing hard, I can't get that bass out of my head. I also compared it to a '74 reissue, which also had an ash body (I think, I might be wrong) which sounded a lot like the earlier alder bodied basses. So is it really just the ash body, or was there any change to the pickups that happened about that time as well? Any thoughts?

Keep in mind that you are playing 40 something year old basses from a time in Fender history that some categorize as sketchy or inconsistant. Yes, ash has a bit of a tone difference but it is likely as much variances in pickup windings, whether someone spilled beer in it, kept it in some barometric light filtering humidor, let their toddler play it with peanut butter fingers, etc. They are old basses, some will be better than others for less than scientific reasons...play them all, buy the good one.

 

[Belka]

I see your point, but there was nothing really wrong with any of them. And all of the alder bodied basses, whether they had a rosewood or maple fretboard, sounded pretty similar. The best looking was a mocha colored '74, but sound wise you couldn't beat the 77. I'd always thought the pickup placement and the fretboard were the key to the '70s Jazz Bass sound, but after trying those basses I have to say the heavy ash body must have a lot to do with it.

 

[cabcreaser]

I know not everyone is on board (though Alex Al, Marcus Miller, Tommy Sims, etc seem to agree), but my absolute favorite jazz bass tone is a 75-77 J bass made with heavy northern ash.