Deep Thoughts on Jazz Basses

[Medicine Man]

I love jazz bass. I fall into the "dime all 3 knobs all the time" camp. Otherwise why play one.

 

[Joe Nerve]

I do the same . Never run either pickup 100% . I did some sound work at some Jack Bruce gigs in the late 80's . I talked to him for about an hour . Trying to get nuggets of wisdom . He said he never ran any two pickup bass with both full . Always 90% and below . Gain and/or volume turned up higher . I've done that ever since .

I really think the best sounds are in that zone. Just easier to use with one of the volumes on full.

 

[red_rhino]

I love Jazz basses. I have always loved Jazz basses. I will always love Jazz basses.

That said, I don't have a Jazz bass at the moment. I have a P bass that I really, really like. (Which is saying something, because I am not a P bass guy.) But I will have a Jazz bass again. Just like my P bass, the right Jazz bass will come along and it shall be mine.

 

[Garret Graves]

I think you nailed the Jazz and P bass in your description, but left out an important part with the Jazz. Its a part I still need to work with and master...

On the 2 Jazz basses I own I noticed there's a blending area full of rich, warm, gooey sounds that can only be accessed when neither pickup is on 10. When I fiddle between 2 and 8 with both pickups, I get very different sounds and a lot more versatility out of the bass than I do when either of the pickups is dimed.

Only problem for me with that is that its tough to nail the same exact tone and volume twice. My favorite Jazz bass tones lie in that area though.

I agree Joe. You can balance the two pickups at lower levels as well, and you can hear when that happens, the hum gets killed when the two single coils are balanced, not just at 10 and 10. To me 10 and 10 is a little edgy and harsh, you roll back a bit to say 8 and 8 and now you are closer to the pick ups sweet spot, the harshness is gone and it sounds fuller and rounder, less ‘gainy’. This is something to experiment with anyway- for instance if you wanted to record a track with full, pure, clean singing tone from your jazz bass- you might consider rolling back from 10 to find a sweeter tone for instance.

 

[DoctorZee]

Then I caught someone making a comment here about having one pickup at 7 with the other one dimed - talk about a light bulb moment! Oh. My. At the next practice I was at our electric guitarist turned around, looked at me, looked at the bass, looked back at me, smiled, gave me the "Now there we go" nod, and away we went!

That's my zone as well. In my cover band, I'm learning that I can basically cover every sonic territory I need to with either neck 100% bridge 75%, or vice versa.

 

[10cc]

Another deep thought... I’ve often considered converting all my main player Jazzes (not my vintage ones) to Vol/Blend/Tone because I don’t really like VVT all that much, and never have. Why Leo, did you do it this way? I like to do volume swells and taper-offs sometimes, and I’ll go for a P bass if possible for those times. Always thought VBT would be more versatile, but I never bothered actually doing it.

Volume swells are so deep...

 

[10cc]

it's a deep coincidence that i'm doing exactly that (VBT) on a passive J i have --- ready to be assembled. truly deep! unless it's not...i'll have to let you know.

Now you’re getting deep

 

[FugaziBomb]

I look at a P Bass as a simple, one trick pony because it is, and it does that one trick wonderfully.

I agree for the most part, but one thing I will say is that the tone control on a P can get you anywhere from Motown to modern R&B to raunchy punk/hard rock. That being said, I personally prefer a Jazz over a P.

 

[John Stephen]

I briefly owned a Jazz bass about ten years ago, and it was truly a one-trick pony. Its trick was the way its headstock would hit the floor every time I tried to play it. Recently I played a Fender PJ at my local GC and was favorably impressed with how well balanced it was. I wasn't expecting that, based on my earlier experience with the Jazz bass. I believe the PJ that I recently tried had a Jazz neck and a Precision body. I don't know which headstock it had, or if Jazz headstocks and Precision headstocks are the same.

 

[Charlzm]

I have several J Bass style instruments (two single coil pickups in the usual positions) and I always run them with both pickups full on and tone all the way up (if passive) or flat (if active). In the sort of music I play, I don't think that changing these settings makes any audible difference.

To be more explicit: I did try soloing pickups and changing tone controls in a couple of songs during rehearsal, but I couldn't detect any audible difference that was worth the effort IMHO.

 

[JW56789]

After years of playing active fives, two years ago, on a lark I bought the Squier James Johnston Sig Jazz, basically because I always wanted a matching peghead Jazz in that LP Blue or Candy Apple Red. After playing since the late 70's, this was my first Fender and first Jazz Bass.

I now understand the attraction of these axes, BUT . . . . . it drives me completely nuts setting the two gains to get the sounds I'm after: As others have pointed out, it's hard to get repeatable settings. I've had combination locks on my school lockers that were easier to operate. I'm going to upgrade the pickups to side x side humbuckers and a vol / blend / tone setup as soon as possible. I'm all for honoring history, but geez, this is like going back to a kick-start motorcycle or 8-track players . . . . .

Then I bought a Precision, and it's as expected: Get enough top end on the one tone pot, then where you pick the strings is the ultimate determiner of final tone, as on any single-pickup axe. A lot to be said for that simplicity, 'one-trick pony' or not.

 

[pappabass]

I had a nice fender jazz, nicely set up. I was a last minute fill in at a church. I played the beat up house ibanez bass with active eq. Something 200?? (This was 20+ years ago). I brought my jazz the next night. The jazz could not touch the ibanez in sound. So, jazz the left,

 

[ELG60]

I have quite a number of Jazz and similarly configured basses. For the factory Fender units with 2nd gen 3 knob controls, to get the tone which I generally prefer, which is a tight, warm tone with a decently full bottom end and prominent lower mids (what some refer to as the round, or brown sound . . . similar to JPJ's early work with LZ), I tend to max the neck pup, back off a bit on the bridge pickup to avoid the scoop, and keep the tone knob more toward the bass end of the spectrum. Also, most of them are equipped with flats . . . either TI's or EB Cobalts.

I've noted that there is something to be said for the opinion that the tone rests in the fingers, to some extent as it seems that I can get "my sound" with any of my equipment combos.

 

[joker820]

They sound nice but the 60 cycle hum bothers me. P it is for me.

 

[Michael Jewels]

With both pickups on full, my Filakovsky Jazz produces a "Blue Bayou," type tone naturally.

Sadowsky pickups and VTC, but I mostly play it passive through my Empress Para EQ.

Koa over swamp ash.

This photo is a little over-exposed.

Mike

 

[PWRL]

I used to just turn everything all the way up on a Jazz. Now, I'm usually playing around in The Gooey Zone, which I will now dub it from Joe's comment. I like the ability to play with all that balance. Having this ability was especially handy in the past when I was playing a lot in a synth-heavy environment. It gave me the ability to either cut through a heavy low-end synth sound, or go down under a more high-range part and support it. That's one of the great things I love about a Jazz. Also, with very few exceptions, the only time I use effects is with my Jazz.

 

[nilorius]

I don't experiment on my fretless jazz, i use only bridge pickup and tone fully off. I really like that sound would it be or not be the Jaco signature sound.

 

[bassfreakah]

I love my jazz and love my P.
Thank God we live in America and can do both!!
With volumes and tones how ever we want.

 

[Chrisk-K]

To me, the J has three distinct tones - neck or bridge pickup soloed, and both full on. All other pickup blending positions (e.g., neck full, bridge 50%) don't sound distinct enough. Having said that, I use only the neck pickup 99% of time. I can't stand the super mid-scooped tone of both pickups full on.

 

[brianrost]

I'm with Joe and chris_b, there's a lot of sounds in a J to be found by turning one or both PUs down. On J-style basses with blend pots, you can actually use the blend as a first level tone control, the passive tone removes a bit of highs when desired.

I don't like the bridge only but the bridge full and the neck somewhere between 5 and 10 yields a lot of bright tones with varying amounts of thickness.

I hate fiddling with two volumes, so I've wired both Fender Js I've owned in series. Only one volume works and it sounds an awful lot like a P. Adding a toggle switch to move from series and parallel is a great mod for J players who need a P sound now and then. That's what the "S-1" switch on MIA Jazzes some years back was. On my Peavey Palaedium, I mess with the blend pot all the time.