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Don't like PJ's?

#202
JimmyM said:
Here's why I do and don't care if you don't:

View attachment 4356771 View attachment 4356724 View attachment 4356726 View attachment 4356736


Actually, I just wanted an excuse to post some new glamour shots of some of my basses. But since we're here, I've noticed for the past few years that the venerable PJ combination has been slammed for being neither fish nor fowl, and I am here to say that it is, indeed, both fish and fowl.

Let's address the most common complaints:

---It doesn't sound as good when you solo the P pickup vs not having the J on a straight-up P Bass. 100% myth, poppycock, balderdash, and bovine waste products. If a $100 SX PJ with the P soloed can sound the same as a $100 SX P as long as they have the same strings, then there is no reason every bass in the world can't have PJ's that sound the same as a regular P when the P's soloed. I used to have sonic proof of this, but it got lost in a computer crash a few years ago.

---You don't get the best of both worlds with a PJ. OK, so let's assume the sound is so different that you'd rather stick with the J. Fine by me. But the sound is not completely different by any means. I've played plenty of Jazz basses and basses with J pickups in my day and I'm well familiar with what a typical Jazz sounds like. It's close enough for the few times that I go for a J sound that I'm not sweating what little difference there is in a good balanced set of PJ's. Throw pickups in there willy-nilly, sure, it probably won't sound all that great. Just might, though.

And to reverse the situation, a good J with the neck pickup soloed may not sound identical to a good P, but it will do a convincing job as well. I have a preference for a good split P pickup in that position, but I've heard plenty of convincing P sounds out of J's. The first Precisions are single coils, too, and I never heard anyone complain that they don't sound like P's.

---60 cycle hum or whatever frequency it is in your country. Can happen, but only on rare occasions is it an issue you can't do anything about. Many bass and guitar players use single coils with no hum problems all over the world. Granted, I prefer hum-cancelling pickups for both the P and the J, but to say that it can't work because the P's a humbucker and the J is single coil is myth.

So that's why I made PJ's my jam...preferring the split P neck pickup as my main sound, but needing a more scoopy J sound on occasion. And I get it, too, and any complaints that it doesn't sound like a real J are just nitpicking.
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Should sound exactly like a P but you hear some say similar objections to an HH Stingray.

Might not sound exactly like a J but if you use split coil J pickups like so many of us do it will be almost impossible to hear a difference.
 
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#204
Ricky Rioli said:
I like my PJ for sounding exactly what it is: a Yamaha BB. It never sounds like a P, and if it can sound like a J I neither know nor care. Both pickups on full, it sounds like itself and that's wonderful :thumbsup:

And because it's incapable of sounding remotely like a P, I had an excellent reason for buying one of those, too :woot:
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I finally got a chance to play one of those BBs, five string. WOW. I’ve grown away from the thinner neck profiles but MAN was that thing great in every way. I’m too close to buying it for comfort lol

MUST save for impending wedding costs. MUST save for impending wedding costs…
 
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#206
I have the first model BB5000 with a Bart front and a Bart pre. The front PU is built so, if I roll its volume back about 1/4, it sounds like an old P. Both PUs all the way up and it gets a great hi fi sound. Both PU's at about 3/4 up and I can get a reasonable tuba like sound. Back are the way up the bass barks. Mute the strings, and play at the end of the neck and I can pass for an upright in a pinch. All out of one bass. I love PJs
 
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#208
Love PJ's

20210507_210813~2.jpg
 
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#210
I confess: I am a hater of P/J on 4-strings. I prefer the simplicity of the classic one-pickup P layout.
But 5-string is another thing entirely. IME a bridge pickup really helps bring out the growl needed for the best low B string response. Hard to get more relevant versatility IMHO than with a good active 5-string P/J with a passive tone knob.
rosc-pus.jpg
 
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#212
burgerdj said:
I’ve had several PJs and currently really enjoy my ‘96 and ‘98 Warwick Streamers. However, I do secretly want a straight P and a straight J. But then I realize that nobody but me really appreciates the difference, so I enjoy what I have.
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I wanted to come back around to this statement...this is no way to live as a bassist. True, you are probably doing fine with your Streamers. They're good basses. I used to play similar models. I switched because -I- appreciated the differences, felt they were positive differences, and though it meant more to me than our audiences, I felt I was giving a better presentation of the music we were doing by going back to passive P's and J's. And PJ's of course :D
 
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#213
JimmyM said:
Here's why I do and don't care if you don't:

View attachment 4356771 View attachment 4356724 View attachment 4356726 View attachment 4356736


Actually, I just wanted an excuse to post some new glamour shots of some of my basses. But since we're here, I've noticed for the past few years that the venerable PJ combination has been slammed for being neither fish nor fowl, and I am here to say that it is, indeed, both fish and fowl.

Let's address the most common complaints:

---It doesn't sound as good when you solo the P pickup vs not having the J on a straight-up P Bass. 100% myth, poppycock, balderdash, and bovine waste products. If a $100 SX PJ with the P soloed can sound the same as a $100 SX P as long as they have the same strings, then there is no reason every bass in the world can't have PJ's that sound the same as a regular P when the P's soloed. I used to have sonic proof of this, but it got lost in a computer crash a few years ago.

---You don't get the best of both worlds with a PJ. OK, so let's assume the sound is so different that you'd rather stick with the J. Fine by me. But the sound is not completely different by any means. I've played plenty of Jazz basses and basses with J pickups in my day and I'm well familiar with what a typical Jazz sounds like. It's close enough for the few times that I go for a J sound that I'm not sweating what little difference there is in a good balanced set of PJ's. Throw pickups in there willy-nilly, sure, it probably won't sound all that great. Just might, though.

And to reverse the situation, a good J with the neck pickup soloed may not sound identical to a good P, but it will do a convincing job as well. I have a preference for a good split P pickup in that position, but I've heard plenty of convincing P sounds out of J's. The first Precisions are single coils, too, and I never heard anyone complain that they don't sound like P's.

---60 cycle hum or whatever frequency it is in your country. Can happen, but only on rare occasions is it an issue you can't do anything about. Many bass and guitar players use single coils with no hum problems all over the world. Granted, I prefer hum-cancelling pickups for both the P and the J, but to say that it can't work because the P's a humbucker and the J is single coil is myth.

So that's why I made PJ's my jam...preferring the split P neck pickup as my main sound, but needing a more scoopy J sound on occasion. And I get it, too, and any complaints that it doesn't sound like a real J are just nitpicking.
Click to expand...
I like yours!
Is Hammersmith still around
 
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#214
Kukulkan61 said:
I like yours!
Is Hammersmith still around
Click to expand...
No, Marko had that problem with pre-orders on a model he couldn't get parts for, and it stalled him for a couple years. And just when he was gearing up for a comeback, Covid hit so he tooled up for mass production mask making because of how short Canada was on masks.
 
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#217
Nev375 said:
I used to not like PJs because I tried so many where the pickups didn't really work very well together. Then I happened upon one with Bartolinis that complimented each other nicely and now my main is a PJ with passive Barts.

It's my 2nd favorite bass when it comes to the pickups. My favorite just has a single J-neck pickup. A Lace Transsensor (precursor to the alumitone) that I snagged for $5 on ebay. So I'm fine with any pickup configuration that sounds good.
Click to expand...

Matching pickup outputs is really the key to the PJ bass. For some reason so many manufacturers think it's just fine to have a J pickup be overpowered and useless on its own without volume adjustment. The Tony Franklin is the only Fender PJ I'm aware of that has properly matched stock pickups. My current number 1 bass is a tony franklin body and electronics with a American Pro jazz neck, and I find myself using all 3 pickup settings routinely. This was after almost giving up on the PJ format previously.
 
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#220
Ric Vice said:
I new when I was playing a 1966 Fender Jazz Bass that I would eventually go with a active 5 string. Alembic’s we’re to expensive, ESP 5’s we’re hard to find. So,
I waited until the Lakland 55-94 came along in 1996 and eventually got one. I can get all the different sounds I could ever want. Just my take.
View attachment 4357970
Click to expand...

Does that back pickup do a a pretty decent Stingray sound?
 
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