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Can you get a Jaco tone from a Ken Smith?

#43
NickyBass said:
I don't know--I doubt Jaco could pick up any bass and get the same tone. I have yet to hear anything remotely similiar out of a P bass, or even a Stingray. Tone is in the fingers---to an extent. But you're not going to make a split coil P pickup in the neck position sound like a single coil J pickup near the bridge.
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This needs to be said a lot more! Heaven forbid that a bass sounds different from another bass! If it were all in the fingers, half of my basses would be up for sale. My Rob Allen doesn't sound like my Conklin doesn't sound like my CB, and this is perfectly OK by me.

As for the Smith, perhaps if it's fretless and you roll off the highs, then play with lows and mids. A big chunk of Jaco's tone lies within a coated fingerboard, rounds, low action, and a J at the bridge.

black.rose1402 said:
get a ken smith with single coil pick up
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Ken does NOT do single coils. Ask him this and he may get angry. :p The pickups are 4 conductor, so they could be split, although he tends to have the switches wired series/parallel.
 
#47
lousybassplayer said:
Not sure if you were trying to counterpoint or not, but the spec sheet on thsoe sats stacked coil humbucker Js. They aren't singles.

Ya beat me.
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i was thinking of a kens j bass type instrument for the "jaco sound". when spade mentioned kens series/parallel switches, it sounded at least to me that he was referring to kens bass with soaps that commonly have the series/parallel switching. if thats an option on the bsrj too than thats my bad.
 
#48
narud said:
i was thinking of a kens j bass type instrument for the "jaco sound". when spade mentioned kens series/parallel switches, it sounded at least to me that he was referring to kens bass with soaps that commonly have the series/parallel switching. if thats an option on the bsrj too than thats my bad.
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Sorry, there was a Ken Smith thread where Ken got very grumpy (imagine that) regarding single coils and NEVER using them. I miss his epic posts. He usually somehow found ways to argue with people who were agreeing with him. :p
 
#50
narud said:
wrong. he played fretted. he talked about recording certain tracks over the years with his fretted basses in various articles back in the day. birdland was fretted and he played fretted on that track when they did it live as well.
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Well, Jaco overdubed the fretless there (58s - 1m:30s or something), so he played a fretless bass on that track. The rest of the album is all fretless (amazing solo on Havona, not to mention Teen Town and the other songs).
 
#51
lousybassplayer said:
Dude, if you can play and sound like that, it really doesnt matter if you imitate some other bass player's sound. Thats some fine playing. I now know beyond a doubt that I am so far behind what I should be as a player at my age :bawl:
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Thank you very much for your kind words! I really appreciate it!

I feel my chops are not half what they USED to be...

in 1998 (when I was 18) and was gigging every day and practicing, my chops were where I wanted them to be... I was Jazz Improvisor of the year in Performing Arts High Schools in Down Beat Magazine. National Grammy Jazz Band Bass Player in 97... 98 NFAA Arts Recognition and Talent Search top 5 Jazz Performing finalist out of the world...

And now, the most playing I have done is in those youtube video's... It really depresses me...

Trying to really get back into playing...
 
#52
lousybassplayer said:
Dude, if you can play and sound like that, it really doesnt matter if you imitate some other bass player's sound. Thats some fine playing. I now know beyond a doubt that I am so far behind what I should be as a player at my age :bawl:
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great playing, but the tone is far away from a fretless jazz bass - I own several jazz basses but i also owned a Ken Smith for quite a while, which is a great bass in every sense, but with its own feel and tone, very personal, i couldn't find that tone on any other bass I've played. Some love it ,some hate it. IMHO great for fusion-jazz, but missing that dirty growl you expect from a good jazz bass.
 
#55
narud said:
i was thinking of a kens j bass type instrument for the "jaco sound". when spade mentioned kens series/parallel switches, it sounded at least to me that he was referring to kens bass with soaps that commonly have the series/parallel switching. if thats an option on the bsrj too than thats my bad.
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I had an avodire bodied BSRJ, it was awesome. I put NJ4SE's in it b/c the stock Smith single coils (made by Armstrong I think?) were kinda thin and hi-fi sounding. It was a great bass. For my purposes the BSR-J's are better than Foderas and get close to the same sound. I would love to have another one.

W
 

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