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Are P Basses better than J Basses?

Are P Basses better than J Basses?

  • Yes

    Votes: 197 47.9%

  • No

    Votes: 214 52.1%
  • Total voters
    411
#182
alaskaleftybass said:
In the 70's I started out on both the J and P basses. In the early 80's I moved to Ibanez where I've been until now. I've been reminiscing and listening to a lot of older rock classics from the 70's and 80's. I found a large percentage of those recordings used P basses. I've found there's a sound out of a P that I just can't get from my beloved Ibanez SR series basses. So I'm on a quest for a P bass this year. Last year I bought a J bass clone and really enjoyed the tone, but it just didn't have the 'burp and thump' of a P bass.

But there's a caveat. I don't like the wide neck of the P bass. I think the J bass sounds "lighter" than the P bass. On the flip side of that it's also been on a gazillion recordings and is the Swiss Army Knife of the industry. But there's something about a P bass-- you can recognize the tone in almost any song that uses one. So the big question for me is how much will the tone of a P bass change if I swap out the P neck for a J neck. I'm pretty sure I read that they're interchangeable.

While many of the jaded eye rolling TB'ers who have already seen this question asked a thousand times, and have your snarky comments down pat, please bear in mind that there are always new bass players coming aboard and these are new questions to them. We need to treat them with respect and remember we were all there ourselves at one time. Even though I've been here a while I find I'm always revisiting my tone options for playing so these questions never get old for me. I appreciate every player's opinion on using them.
Click to expand...

Sire makes a P with a jazz neck.
 
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#183
It should be pretty obvious that the J Basses are far better than P Basses, for the following reasons:
  1. The Jazz has 2 large, wide pickups. The P has 2 lil ones.
  2. The Jazz has 2 volume controls and 1 one. The P has only one volume, useful to turn it down, and one tone.
  3. The Jazz was introduced by Fender as the Deluxe model, much classier than the utilitarian P.
  4. There was an even better Jazz, the "stack-knob": 2 volumes and ... 2 tones!!!
  5. Most people refer to the Precision Bass as a "P-bass". When most people talk about the "J", they go the extra mile and refer to it as the "Jazz"!
  6. The controls on a Jazz Bass are mounted on a metal plate (That's what it takes to control that awesome tone!!!). The P lost its "metal" in '57, allegedly after a fight with the soon-to-be king of the bass hill, a Jazz.
  7. The Jazz has a slinky-stringed cousin: The Jazzmaster Guitar!. There is no "P guitar". (Now that I think about it, what an awesome project for an adventurous luthier!)
  8. I ran out of time, not out of reasons!!!
The Jazz Bass RULEZZ!!! All others DROOOL!!!
 
#188
A P bass plugged into a molehill sounds better than a J bass thrown into a puddle. That said, if a J bass is scraped across a gravel road it sounds better than a P bass tied to a chair being asked pointless questins.
 
Last edited:
#192
diegom said:
It should be pretty obvious that the J Basses are far better than P Basses, for the following reasons:
  1. The Jazz has 2 large, wide pickups. The P has 2 lil ones.
  2. The Jazz has 2 volume controls and 1 one. The P has only one volume, useful to turn it down, and one tone.
  3. The Jazz was introduced by Fender as the Deluxe model, much classier than the utilitarian P.
  4. There was an even better Jazz, the "stack-knob": 2 volumes and ... 2 tones!!!
  5. Most people refer to the Precision Bass as a "P-bass". When most people talk about the "J", they go the extra mile and refer to it as the "Jazz"!
  6. The controls on a Jazz Bass are mounted on a metal plate (That's what it takes to control that awesome tone!!!). The P lost its "metal" in '57, allegedly after a fight with the soon-to-be king of the bass hill, a Jazz.
  7. The Jazz has a slinky-stringed cousin: The Jazzmaster Guitar!. There is no "P guitar". (Now that I think about it, what an awesome project for an adventurous luthier!)
  8. I ran out of time, not out of reasons!!!
The Jazz Bass RULEZZ!!! All others DROOOL!!!
Click to expand...
The P is better for all the reasons you stated.
 
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