Fender P in a jazz trio

[FenderP]

Which nylons tapes? (Sorry if it should be obvious, I'm a relative newbie on bass.)
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I used to use black nylon tapes exclusively on all my fretless basses. I don't always now depending on the sound I am going for.

When I do use them, my preference is the Rotosound RS88. I have tried most of the others and have posted before. YMMV Here they are on this bass:

 

[FenderP]

Thanks for posting those videos. I've got that Bill Holman arrangement for Doc's band as a PDF file, if you'd be interested. I'm a reformed pro trombonist now playing bass. I grew up playing 'bone in swing combos with some older folk who'd played with Doc when he was a precocious teenager in S. Central Oregon. Lately I've been playing bass in several big bands on an SG, now setting up an '81 P-Bass for that purpose.

PS I've also got Buddy's "Nutville" as arranged by Greg Hopkins, and "Flyin' Home" arr. by Dick Lieb (for Doc).
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I bought that A train arrangement. I'll probably do it in my big band I'm putting together. I also got the Holman version of Monk's "Bemsha Swing" which is also excellent.

Here are some examples of me playing a P in a jazz context (I have others with different basses - see my Instagram account which has one example above; here's another with me doing a bit of swing and a solo ):
Swing from a much older album of mine on the main fretted P; no idea how old the strings (RS77LE) were at the time - Full Throttle

The rest are from my latest two albums from the past few years. The first three are swing.
"Working Man" - a fretless P (no longer own it) with a rosewood neck; this had the Pyramid gold flats (50-110)


"Well You Needn't" - fretless P (early-mid 70s with a maple neck) with Dunlop DBFS50110 flats


"Mr. Roboto" - Same fretless as "Well You Needn't"


Here's a Latin:
"Times Like These" - my main fretted P again still with Rotosound RS77LE flats that at the time of recording were close to 10 years old


Ballad-y/Latiny-y
"Steppin' Out" same fretless P as "Working Man"


Solo bass piece:
"The Looking Back Suite" - Parts I - V, here's Part I and it will play the other four; same fretless P as "Well You Needn't"


Something swing-y but modern:
"Moving Forward" - the fretted P again

 

[Brians356]

I use SBP-2, but SBP-1 should work equally well.

How would you describe the SBP's contribution to the acoustic waveform you seek?
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[VJP]

Here's Pino in a piano trio setting

 

[Kerem Koseoglu]

How would you describe the SBP's contribution to the acoustic waveform you seek?
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My ears like the sound of a passive P with flats running through a SBP where the bass and treble are boosted moderately. I didn't make any waveform measurements, but I listen through my calibrated home studio speakers to decide what I subjectively like. I send this core sound to the desk and let the sound engineer do the final shaping to fit it into the mix.

That's why I like the simplicity of the SBP - I can apply a rough EQ curve corresponding to my target sound and let the responsible person do the fine-tuning. The attempt to shape my EQ in detail doesn't make sense to me since I can't hear what the venue is hearing.

 

[Marihino]

Regardless of genre, not limiting to jazz, a P bass is not always the best choice, but it's never a wrong choice.

 

[Brians356]

I was surprised to find the nut width listed at 1.75" for the Pino model on Fender's site.
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[Brians356]

My ears like the sound of a passive P with flats running through a SBP where the bass and treble are boosted moderately. I didn't make any waveform measurements, but I listen through my calibrated home studio speakers to decide what I subjectively like. I send this core sound to the desk and let the sound engineer do the final shaping to fit it into the mix.

That's why I like the simplicity of the SBP - I can apply a rough EQ curve corresponding to my target sound and let the responsible person do the fine-tuning. The attempt to shape my EQ in detail doesn't make sense to me since I can't hear what the venue is hearing.

Got it. The '81 P Special I'm setting up has active electronics. I haven't yet played with it, but it's nominally about the same function, just not sure what the freq cutoffs are.
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[BargeOn]

Regardless of genre, not limiting to jazz, a P bass is not always the best choice, but it's never a wrong choice.

Dang, that's good. I'm stealing that.

 

[Marihino]

Dang, that's good. I'm stealing that.

I won't claim to have come up with it, I'm sure I've read something to this effect a million times on this forum over the years

 

[Rich-Cincy Kid]

Jazz is 95% the player, 5% the bass!

Most definitely!

 

[Brians356]

Jazz is 95% the player, 5% the bass!

It ain't the arrow, it's the Indian. But he wants the right arrow.
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[Brians356]

The '81 P Special I'm setting up has active electronics. I haven't yet played with it, but it's nominally about the same function, just not sure what the freq cutoffs are.
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I note the SBP description includes "Bass + 18 dB boost at 40 Hz, Treble + 18 dB boost at 4 kHz". I gather from this that the Sadowsky strives for a scooped contour.

The original paper owner's guide with my '81 Precision Special says: "Bass boost or cut (±15 dB)", "Treble boost or cut (±15 dB)" with no frequencies specified. So quite different, but I suppose in operation a similar signal shape could be effected.
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[dylanjohnson]

Name a few. Monk Montgomery comes to mind, and maybe Jim Hughart. I'd like to hear more. I don't see them often in straight ahead trio jazz. Fusion yes, probably some soft stuff, but not much outside of that.

Is there any video of Hughart playing electric around? He plays electric on that live Joe Pass album.

 

[dylanjohnson]

...and, I still haven't heard it.

Seriously, turn up the bass in the mix Mr. Engineer. This isn't 1949.

Bill is the man, but swinging this is not.

 

[dylanjohnson]

Tom Warrington seems to have disappeared in recent years. I don’t know if he realises how unique he is in terms of playing jazz on electric bass, I’m not a Buddy Rich fan at all but I listen to these old recordings for bass inspiration quite often.

His albums (where he plays upright) are not available online anywhere now. I’m glad I have them all on cd, Back Nine is one of my favourite jazz albums. He had a few other jazz recordings without Buddy Rich where he plays his fretless P, all discontinued and difficult to find.

Last I heard he was teaching in Las Vegas. He's a killer upright player. Back 9 is so good! I used to see him play often.

 

[dylanjohnson]

This is my late friend and mentor, Fred Atwood. He played upright and a 66 P bass with an added bridge pickup and a humbucker at the neck. He always played jazz with a felt pick using alternate picking, but played upright traditionally. He was able to get a killer sound on the precision for walking. He at some point converted it to fretless, too. He was a mainstay of the LA jazz scene in the 70's and for a time was basically the house bassist at Donte's.

 

[BargeOn]

Bill is the man, but swinging this is not.

And he tries so hard, poor guy. He made a "jazz" recording years ago with Ralph Towner and Eddie Gomez. Decent stuff but same story. That's not to deny BBs skills, but there is a line of rock drummers who tried the same thing with limited success. Charlie watts comes to mind.