Awesome jazz bass tone

[Simon Ferocious]

Depends on one's definition of the Classic Jazz Bass tone. Joe Osborn was the exact opposite of all of this.

Yes, and his tone, for example, is more relatable to me and the sort of tone I look for. Jaco was amazing but he was mostly a jazz musician and that playing of his is like playing a bass like a lead guitar as never done before and he can sound like a horn instrument sometimes too, I never heard the sounds of a bass that he made when I first saw him (on tv)

 

[pepj]

I have a BL trying to convert me to a P..but when I dailed up my best P Hurley sound on my Jazz he never noticed it.
Plus, no doubt a P kilks on some tracks but is way wide of the mark on others...and if I swapped out basses per track, he'd moan about that too.

Yep, he is a guitarist.

 

[Spirit of Ox]

Trio? Guitars, plural?

Meant Guitar's sonic space, just one in my band.

 

[Iridescentone]

Kinda the opposite for me.

Lately I'm getting my best sounds from jazzes with various flats.

And my best sounds from my P's with nickel rounds.

It could easily be the reverse, next month. Or next week.

 

[Geogio]

I played mostly fretless jazz bass for a long time. I do have a P-FSO that has the wide fat neck profile and I use that somewhat. It really depends on the gig, however the Jazz fretless remains my favorite choice but not in all musical situations.

 

[Malak the Mad]

Has anyone had great experience with stacked / humbucking J pups that sounded really close to single coils?
I thought Fender 55's would be the solution but not all that impressed.
I really like the tone on many 70's J pups as well as Duncan SJB-1's.

Sadly, I don't have any field experience with humbucking J-pups, but two things do come to mind;

1. I'm not surprised the Super 55's aren't exactly what you expect. I've used them once and a while and my best assessment of them would be "BEEFY!". For Jazz pickups, they are pretty thick and chunky.
2. I've been gravitating towards Bartolini B-Axis pickups recently. They have a lot of the characteristically Jazzy growl, but not at the expense of the low end. But then, that could my own tastes shining through. Check out whatever demos and shootouts you can find online before even considering them.

If you go hunting for pickups, good luck!

 

[edwinhurwitz]

The J has always resonated with me (more for the neck profile) but sound wise, I think the J can sound like a P but I'm not sure a P can sound like a J!

I listen to 'Fat Time' and Marcus is on the J and boy does she sound hella good both finger and slapping!

I saw that band live. It was amazing. It's a bit of a story, but at the time I was at UMas Amherst and deciding I wanted to study electric bass for real, but they wouldn't let me be in the music department with an electric instrument. So, I went to Berklee and asked the bass department if I could take lessons. They pointed me to Bruce Gertz and he told me to come back a couple of weeks later at 10AM on a Saturday morning. Friday night was an absolute blizzard and it took hours to negotiate the 90 minute drive back to Boston from Amherst. I showed up the next morning, with the streets silent and covered with snow. Bruce answered the door and told me he had a gig with Stern (??? I had no idea) the night before and they still hadn't gone to bed. But then he invited me in and this chubby greasy haired guy came out of a back room and stumbled forward, leaned on my chest and asked me if I had anything to get high on and tumbled into the kitchen. I had no idea who he was. Bruce attempted to give me a lesson, but it took a long time and was kind of half-hearted.

About three weeks late, Miles played at UMass and I look up on stage and, Oh my god, it's that guy! He was transcendent. That summer, I transferred to Berklee and saw Mike and Bill Evans (sax) play around Boston regularly in little clubs. Amazing shows.

Meanwhile, Marcus was starting to produce, work on movie scores, and engage in a busy session life, so I didn't get to see him as much and up close and personal as I did Stern. That was a great time for music in Boston (Bill Frisell every Saturday afternoon for free at a tiny club in Cambridge where he got ignored by the clientele who were drinking getting ready for their Saturday nights!).

On topic: I discovered Fender basses about 18 months ago and I'm loving playing Jazzes. I'd been playing all kinds of other basses for decades, but finally came around. What great sounds!