Deep Thoughts on Jazz Basses

[4StringDave]

I agree almost 100% with the OP, except I usually have all controls all the way up. My "other" sound is front pickup with the back pickup rolled off. I have begun experimenting with the tone control, but live I like to keep it simple and 100% is an easy reference point....

I also dislike the "Jaco Zipper"....

 

[Kael]

I simply don't agree with you about Jazz basses not having their pickups in their own sweet spots, and repeating yourself isn't going to change my mind, sorry. In fact there are Jazzes with '60s pickups spacing and some with (wider) '70s spacing, which means there are different Jazzes with different "sweet spots" that have different tones. And which one is "better" is also just as subjective. And that's nothing to get offended about, you have your opinion, I have mine. But there's only one of us here that believes their opinion is the only correct one, and it's not me.

Once again, the sweet spot is a specific spot that

I simply don't agree with you about Jazz basses not having their pickups in their own sweet spots, and repeating yourself isn't going to change my mind, sorry. In fact there are Jazzes with '60s pickups spacing and some with (wider) '70s spacing, which means there are different Jazzes with different "sweet spots" that have different tones. And which one is "better" is also just as subjective. And that's nothing to get offended about, you have your opinion, I have mine. But there's only one of us here that believes their opinion is the only correct one, and it's not me.

The point is this has nothing to do with opinion and everything to do with basic fact. There is something called the "sweet spot" and it has a defined location.

Carry on

 

[Michael Jewels]

I'd just like to add, that I played both a Fender Performer Jazz, and a Fender Professional Jazz yesterday.
Both were very nice, but I leaned more towards the performer. Very vintage-sounding to me.
Mike

 

[The Bass Clef]

Once again, the sweet spot is a specific spot that


The point is this has nothing to do with opinion and everything to do with basic fact. There is something called the "sweet spot" and it has a defined location.

Carry on

Your argument is a P has a predetermined sweet spot for the pickup, so that = a Jazz's pickups are not in a sweet spot of their own because you haven't found it or don't believe it's there. Okey doke.

 

[undercoverhippy]

"Jaco zipper"? *** is that?

I've never heard it be called that before either but I'm sure he means it in a way to describe the sound that would be produced when he played above the bridge pick up.

 

[Dluxe]

I've always preferred everything full up on a Jazz Bass. The little bass solo on Slowride when I was in 9th grade really piqued my interest in the bass guitar. As for Precision basses the bass solo on Post Toastee made me want to buy a bass and learn.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

I've generally preferred single pickup basses for a while, but recently started putting together a Jazz (mostly just to have one with a Precision neck), and I'm really enjoying it.

I mostly play hardcore punk in a live setting (more variation at home), so I can't claim to be after the same tonal nuance some are discussing here - but I generally find either everything on full, or either pickup rolled back slightly to around 90%, are the best for me.

I do find myself adjusting EQ much more with a Jazz. A Precision is so easy to make sit in a mix, I feel like the Jazz takes a little more effort to be heard and felt in the same way. The extra bite is a huge plus for me, though.

Was considering changing it to a PJ configuration, but now I'm tempted to wait a bit on that and try a series/parallel switch for a bit first.

 

[4StringDave]

It's about the fact that a P has a single pickup in the "sweet spot"

I think this "sweet spot thing is a myth and here's why:

As soon as you fret a string you are effectively changing the scale length and "pushing" the pickup location closer to the "nut". There is therefore not only one pickup position, but continuously variable....

It's also one of the reasons why a C on the third fret A string sounds different from a C on the 8th fret E string....

 

[4StringDave]

Just saying that a p bass has a wider variety of tones available due to the technique used at the price of having fewer tones available due to knob turning. That shouldn't be a point of argument. It's just a fact.

I really don't see how that is a fact....

 

[Kael]

OK, hold your stance. At this point there is no point discussing it further. Single pickup basses with the pickup in the whatever you want to call it spot are more touch responsive than a J. J basses have more options available from knob twiddling. You want to think something else, knock yourself out. I mean, you're wrong, but go for it.

 

[The Bass Clef]

OK, hold your stance. At this point there is no point discussing it further. Single pickup basses with the pickup in the whatever you want to call it spot are more touch responsive than a J. J basses have more options available from knob twiddling. You want to think something else, knock yourself out. I mean, you're wrong, but go for it.

Why don't you start your own thread about the sweet spot on a P bass and stop hijacking the topic of my thread, which is about how everyone get's the sounds they love ON A JAZZ BASS. Yeah?

 

[4StringDave]

OK, hold your stance. At this point there is no point discussing it further. Single pickup basses with the pickup in the whatever you want to call it spot are more touch responsive than a J. J basses have more options available from knob twiddling. You want to think something else, knock yourself out. I mean, you're wrong, but go for it.

I still don't (genuinely) understand. How is a P pickup "more touch responsive"? What if I use only the neck pickup on the J?

Sorry to continue the thread hijack TBC...

 

[MG Wolf]

Why don't you start your own thread about the sweet spot on a P bass and stop hijacking the topic of my thread, which is about how everyone get's the sounds they love ON A JAZZ BASS. Yeah?

Or "get a room" over at the P Thread Joe Nerve started

 

[Elusive1]

OK, hold your stance. At this point there is no point discussing it further. Single pickup basses with the pickup in the whatever you want to call it spot are more touch responsive than a J.

This thread was meant to focus on the Jazz Bass itself. It was not started with the intent to dispute that the Jazz Bass is better than the Precision Bass or the other way around. We're simply sharing how each of us operate our own individual instruments.

J basses have more options available from knob twiddling.

Good to know you're at least aware of the fact that Jazz Basses have a wide variety of sounds. You can start fiddling around with the knobs on yours to figure out which sound works for you.

You want to think something else, knock yourself out. I mean, you're wrong, but go for it.

Everyone has their own opinions on how stuff works. It's okay to not be in agreement with another person's opinion, but if you go out of your way to put another person down and declare their opinions wrong simply because you're trying to enforce yours as the only correct one, then you're losing credibility yourself.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

This kind of disputes aren't useful and, moreover, justifiable.
Both bass models have their own specific merits and, in fact, many bass-players, such as the undersigned, own several specimens of both models and are very happy to use than at the best of their knowledge and abilities.
One aspect that should not be overlooked, and which constitutes a notable difference between the two basses, is the shape of the body.
Notwithstanding the fact that the J-bass was designed with a so-called offset body to be more ergonomic than the P-bass, I often get less fatigued when playing the P!

 

[bucephylus]

Why don't you start your own thread about the sweet spot on a P bass and stop hijacking the topic of my thread, which is about how everyone get's the sounds they love ON A JAZZ BASS. Yeah?

FWIW, your OP (perhaps, inadvertently) opened the door through which @Kael has decided to make his case.

I'd suggest both take a step back; because both have valid, but differing points.

First, the P is NOT a "one trick pony," even though it has a single pickup. The "tricks" are performed by the player, not the bass. An accomplished player can get a whole library of tones from the P. Dedicated P players will rightly bristle at such mischaracterization, even if unintended.

That said, basses with two pickups do have some additional sensing options; and it is useful to exchange the ways these can be exploited. But, it is simply untrue that having two pickups makes a bass to NOT have touch sensitivity.

Seemed that @The Bass Clef 's intent was simply to discuss ways that different players use different pickup blends on two pickup basses. Debating prefs between one and two pickup basses is a pretty pointless exercise. That's a personal choice; and either / both can be hip. Peace.

 

[Bassa Nova]

I know that someone has done a side by side comparison and lined up the pickups on a Jazz and precision. The jazz pickups lineup directly with the E/A half of split precision. Arguably they have the same sweet spot. Just saying.

 

[The Bass Clef]

FWIW, your OP (perhaps, inadvertently) opened the door through which @Kael has decided to make his case.

I'd suggest both take a step back; because both have valid, but differing points.

First, the P is NOT a "one trick pony," even though it has a single pickup. The "tricks" are performed by the player, not the bass. An accomplished player can get a whole library of tones from the P. Dedicated P players will rightly bristle at such mischaracterization, even if unintended.

That said, basses with two pickups do have some additional sensing options; and it is useful to exchange the ways these can be exploited. But, it is simply untrue that having two pickups makes a bass to NOT have touch sensitivity.

Seemed that @The Bass Clef 's intent was simply to discuss ways that different players use different pickup blends on two pickup basses. Debating prefs between one and two pickup basses is a pretty pointless exercise. That's a personal choice; and either / both can be hip. Peace.

Right, and I said multiple times in this thread, that the player's manipulation of a P Bass will change the sound, but that's true for all basses, so it doesn't add "tricks" to a P bass. Like I said earlier, when a Producer says, "I want the P bass sound", everyone knows what they mean, and it's understood the player plays the instrument how they decide to play it, which will result in some variation of that sound. But that's all in the player and their choices. Much like a pencil isn't a "billion trick pony" because different artists can draw wildly different things with it (I hope the visual artists on here don't start losing it now over their beloved pencils). Again, my point was a P doesn't have all the options that a Jazz has, with all the different tones baked into a Jazz. And a P is sure not an Alembic or some other bass with 10 knobs and multiple pickups to tweak its sound.

Basically the only thing I disagreed with Kael about is that a P has more touch sensitivity, and I think several others see the disconnect in that too. I have several Ps and Js and I get equally as dynamic and can play with equal sensitivity on either one. As 4StringDave pointed out, the sweet spot doesn't stay the same anyway because as you play different notes, the string length gets longer/shorter, which changes the relative sweet spot anyway. So... the sweet spot is super sweet for open strings and then becomes less sweet as you play up the neck? And we're to believe that a Jazz's spot was not as sweet to begin with, so it just get even un-sweeter from there? I think that's bogus.

 

[bucephylus]

Right, and I said multiple times in this thread, that the player's manipulation of a P Bass will change the sound, but that's true for all basses, so it doesn't add "tricks" to a P bass. Like I said earlier, when a Producer says, "I want the P bass sound", everyone knows what they mean, and it's understood the player plays the instrument how they decide to play it, which will result in some variation of that sound. But that's all in the player and their choices. Much like a pencil isn't a "billion trick pony" because different artists can draw wildly different things with it (I hope the visual artists on here don't start losing it now over their beloved pencils). Again, my point was a P doesn't have all the options that a Jazz has, with all the different tones baked into a Jazz. And a P is sure not an Alembic or some other bass with 10 knobs and multiple pickups to tweak its sound.

Basically the only thing I disagreed with Kael about is that a P has more touch sensitivity, and I think several others see the disconnect in that too. I have several Ps and Js and I get equally as dynamic and can play with equal sensitivity on either one. As 4StringDave pointed out, the sweet spot doesn't stay the same anyway because as you play different notes, the string length gets longer/shorter, which changes the relative sweet spot anyway. So... the sweet spot is super sweet for open strings and then becomes less sweet as you play up the neck? And we're to believe that a Jazz's spot was not as sweet to begin with, so it just get even un-sweeter from there? I think that's bogus.

I understand your point. But, your call as to whether your thread descends into the muck of the unresolvable P vs J debate. Didn't seem like that was your intent. Of course, I could be wrong.

 

[The Bass Clef]

I understand your point. But, your call as to whether your thread descends into the muck of the unresolvable P vs J debate. Didn't seem like that was your intent. Of course, I could be wrong.

It definitely was not my intent.