I still like mine. I roll off the neck pickup and play it through a Boss CEB-3 chorus for all the 80's goodness a person can handle.
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Are Jazz Basses becoming less popular?
- Thread starter Warpeg
- Start date
WHOA! Calm down there, this is so groundbreaking we might fall into the earth's core
I completely agree with you, I was bored as hell at work and making dumb jokes to speed the time up.
Are jazz basses becoming less popular?
I can only speak from personal experience and say that since purchasing the basses shown hereunder, MY 2012 American standard jazz bass - with CS60 pickups/flats - has not been taken out of its case. As good as it sounds - and it DOES sound good - it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as these two...
So yes, with me they're becoming less popular. In fact I'd go so far as to say that since acquiring the BB, jazz basses are no longer on my radar. I'll keep mine though, because it's a very good bass and is a blast to play. Tonally though, it's just not on the same level as the CS '59 precision or the BB 2000.
I can only speak from personal experience and say that since purchasing the basses shown hereunder, MY 2012 American standard jazz bass - with CS60 pickups/flats - has not been taken out of its case. As good as it sounds - and it DOES sound good - it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as these two...
So yes, with me they're becoming less popular. In fact I'd go so far as to say that since acquiring the BB, jazz basses are no longer on my radar. I'll keep mine though, because it's a very good bass and is a blast to play. Tonally though, it's just not on the same level as the CS '59 precision or the BB 2000.
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The people selling Jazz Basses may already have another (or several) JB they like better.
I haven't looked at all the latest NAMM stuff but I don't doubt you. Kiesel released a new headless model that's a Jazz Bass copy. No headless P Bass copy.
I know Pees are very popular but it seems most of the high-end clones are JB rather than P. Even the P clones have a single coil pickup in the bridge much more often than not.
If I played 4-strings, I'd most likely be a P Mang. But long live the Jazz Bass and long live John Paul Jones and Geddy Lee, two of Herrick's favorite Fender Jazz Bass players!
I haven't looked at all the latest NAMM stuff but I don't doubt you. Kiesel released a new headless model that's a Jazz Bass copy. No headless P Bass copy.
I know Pees are very popular but it seems most of the high-end clones are JB rather than P. Even the P clones have a single coil pickup in the bridge much more often than not.
If I played 4-strings, I'd most likely be a P Mang. But long live the Jazz Bass and long live John Paul Jones and Geddy Lee, two of Herrick's favorite Fender Jazz Bass players!
I'm not sure. But I've never noticed them being all THAT popular, in the grand scheme of things. They're common, and they're one of the classic bass designs. But when I worked live sound for several years, seeing literally hundreds of bands, they were by far less likely to be seen on stage than P Basses. Same thing in 25+ years of gigging out and about with other bands, seeing countless opening acts, following acts, etc. Jazz Basses are a bass you see commonly, but P Basses are used more often IME, by far.
I love Js for looks, and I do gig with them. They're bit anemic and fiddly as they come, and they have poor string-to-string volume balance when they have no pole stagger. I find the bridge pickup to be barely useful, if at all, and I don't really like the tones you can get with the two pickups mixed (makes the J even more anemic than it already is). I don't like the neck profiles.
The two J builds I have going at the moment work around some of these issues that I have. Both have wider nuts, and beefier neck profiles. One has a neck pickup only, and I custom ordered it with staggered poles. The other has Model J pickups, and they will be wired so that when you use both, they are in series, not parallel.
Basically, they are going to be Js pretty much in looks only. The necks are closer to P necks. The string volume balance problem is eliminated on both (pole stagger on one, adjustable poles on the other). One eliminates the bridge pickup, and the other will have series pickups, not parallel. Therefore neither one will have the classic J settings that use both pickups. One bass uses a set of pickups that is designed to emulate P Bass tones.
My AV '64 is such a beautiful work of art and great tribute to the originals that it stays the way it is...though I might some day bite the bullet and carefully attempt to lower the outer sets of pole pieces.
When it gets down to it, I can make them sound like I want them to sound, by just using the neck pickup, upping the gain a bit, and adjusting my playing to deal with the volume imbalance string to string. I will never like the feel of the skinny string nut. But with a P, it's pretty much just plug-n-play, and it sounds good, feels perfect, looks amazing, etc.
I love Js for looks, and I do gig with them. They're bit anemic and fiddly as they come, and they have poor string-to-string volume balance when they have no pole stagger. I find the bridge pickup to be barely useful, if at all, and I don't really like the tones you can get with the two pickups mixed (makes the J even more anemic than it already is). I don't like the neck profiles.
The two J builds I have going at the moment work around some of these issues that I have. Both have wider nuts, and beefier neck profiles. One has a neck pickup only, and I custom ordered it with staggered poles. The other has Model J pickups, and they will be wired so that when you use both, they are in series, not parallel.
Basically, they are going to be Js pretty much in looks only. The necks are closer to P necks. The string volume balance problem is eliminated on both (pole stagger on one, adjustable poles on the other). One eliminates the bridge pickup, and the other will have series pickups, not parallel. Therefore neither one will have the classic J settings that use both pickups. One bass uses a set of pickups that is designed to emulate P Bass tones.
My AV '64 is such a beautiful work of art and great tribute to the originals that it stays the way it is...though I might some day bite the bullet and carefully attempt to lower the outer sets of pole pieces.
When it gets down to it, I can make them sound like I want them to sound, by just using the neck pickup, upping the gain a bit, and adjusting my playing to deal with the volume imbalance string to string. I will never like the feel of the skinny string nut. But with a P, it's pretty much just plug-n-play, and it sounds good, feels perfect, looks amazing, etc.
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After (mumble mumble) years, I'm returning to my Jazz Bass roots. Feel free to ship me all your outdated Fender Jazz basses. I promise to give all those worthless pieces secure retirement homes. I'm offering this strictly as a courtesy, of course.
You have to take into account the circumstances someone bought a Bass.
You will find a lot of the bottom $ jazz & practice amp specials years later almost unplayed.
A lot of people only had a Jazz bc that all anyone played in certain eras, and they are trying to scrape every $ together to pay for their Holiday excesses.
Side note, I went to the range today with a bunch of coworkers.
You could totally see them mouthing the wisdom of whatever ad campaign they bought a pistol based on what they were shooting this afternoon.
One guy busted out a S&W 10mm that was cool almost 35 years ago for a minute.
Bunch of weird garbage stuff appeared that was Glock-like.
There's one guy I shoot with regularly thats like me, hand me anything decent and I can make it work.
We have our preferences, other people that aren't shooters like to go to ranges and talk about whatever weird reasons they bought a handgun they can't group off a rest and primo factory ammo.
You will find a lot of the bottom $ jazz & practice amp specials years later almost unplayed.
A lot of people only had a Jazz bc that all anyone played in certain eras, and they are trying to scrape every $ together to pay for their Holiday excesses.
Side note, I went to the range today with a bunch of coworkers.
You could totally see them mouthing the wisdom of whatever ad campaign they bought a pistol based on what they were shooting this afternoon.
One guy busted out a S&W 10mm that was cool almost 35 years ago for a minute.
Bunch of weird garbage stuff appeared that was Glock-like.
There's one guy I shoot with regularly thats like me, hand me anything decent and I can make it work.
We have our preferences, other people that aren't shooters like to go to ranges and talk about whatever weird reasons they bought a handgun they can't group off a rest and primo factory ammo.
Second from the right, is that the Japanese Domestic JB66 with matching headstock?
Fender Jazz basses maybe, but the jazz body style and pickup configuration seems to be the one most frequently produced by other manufacturers. There were plenty in the NAMM pics.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
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Not how I saw it, but all good. I was at the show hanging out and "working" in a luthier's booth where JBs make up at least 60-70% of his market. And Ps and MMs make up most of the rest. But we all see through different filters I guess. I'd say the ratio of basses like you describe to broadly defined JBs (i.e. not just Fenders) would be 1:10 at best at the show.
That Lance is one nutty dude!
Actually it is not jazz basses but Fender basses in my area .
Previously pro player use them but right noe I see they are migrate to other basses brands like warwick pro player ,Hand made and special basses Mayones ,Fodera ,bass mods .
The reason is that we did not have fender so when they arrive here ,A lot of players bought them to try them but it was not what they though it was .So huge selling on american jazz basses (p basses did not arrive here properly only one model ).
At end the starter here are buying squier jazz basses but after a while the noise of single pickup make them wanna other models which leads a jazz bass in second hand market.
For me, the number of used Jazz Bass-style instruments in the used market is simply the function of it being by far the most popular style of bass for the last so-many years, whether Fender or any of the scores of 'other' builders.
But make no mistake, musical instruments are fashion and crowd driven, and for a while now, it has been the time of the Jazz Bass. I worked retail in the 70's when Precision Basses were the overlord, I couldn't give away a Jazz, and the only real inroads against the P-Bass were made by the then new Music Man, essentially Leo's update of the P-Bass. Then into the 80's, neckthrus, influenced by Alembic, like BB Yamahas, Ibanez Musicians, and Aria SB's began to be fairly common, driven by, what else, MTV. You can complete the narrative since then.
Jazzes will run their course, and then somewhere down the road, everyone will begin to glom on to something else, just as surely as lightweight Class D amps and Neo cabs are sweeping away much of the old rigs. Or it may be in this age of digital commerce, and you can shop at any music store on the planet, or buy from small builders you'd have never found back then, it may be very stratified with so very many choices. Tastes and tones change over time, and something new will become the new 'thing to have'.
Bank on it.
But make no mistake, musical instruments are fashion and crowd driven, and for a while now, it has been the time of the Jazz Bass. I worked retail in the 70's when Precision Basses were the overlord, I couldn't give away a Jazz, and the only real inroads against the P-Bass were made by the then new Music Man, essentially Leo's update of the P-Bass. Then into the 80's, neckthrus, influenced by Alembic, like BB Yamahas, Ibanez Musicians, and Aria SB's began to be fairly common, driven by, what else, MTV. You can complete the narrative since then.
Jazzes will run their course, and then somewhere down the road, everyone will begin to glom on to something else, just as surely as lightweight Class D amps and Neo cabs are sweeping away much of the old rigs. Or it may be in this age of digital commerce, and you can shop at any music store on the planet, or buy from small builders you'd have never found back then, it may be very stratified with so very many choices. Tastes and tones change over time, and something new will become the new 'thing to have'.
Bank on it.
