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Help Make My Jazz a bit more P...

#21
gt96g said:
These.

nordstrandaudio.com

51J4S

The 51J4S drips dark... blats ballistic—and you like it. It reminds you of the potential in sound—a swirling soup of splitting and recapitulating flavor.
nordstrandaudio.com nordstrandaudio.com
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Oh, that looks very interesting…………

I wander how the neck pickup soloed would sound with it ?

In my particular situation, I would (almost) want to try with a neck pickup only to build a precision bass with a single jazz bass pickup instead of the twin humbucker set of standard p bass.

The thinness of that pickup would leave more space for the graphic of my basses like the one in my avatar picture…..
 
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#22
H13 said:
Got one! Love it!

Doesn't fix the issue of my J Bass having pissweak pickups that could do with an upgrade
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As i understand it the Squier has mini pots for V&T, swapping these out apparently makes quite a difference, I would start there as it's probally the chepest/easiest option.

BTW, I've never own the squier or experienced mini pots.

Good luck!
 
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#27
Gervais Cote said:
Oh, that looks very interesting…………

I wander how the neck pickup soloed would sound with it ?

In my particular situation, I would (almost) want to try with a neck pickup only to build a precision bass with a single jazz bass pickup instead of the twin humbucker set of standard p bass.

The thinness of that pickup would leave more space for the graphic of my basses like the one in my avatar picture…..
Click to expand...
I would advise getting the split coil version of the neck pickup to get the hum cancelling of you're only using one pickup. It doesn't look like it's a standard option, but Nordstrand does custom options so you may be able to request that for an upcharge, but I would surmise you could be looking at close to 200 for a single pickup in that case, so for a little more you could buy a used Squier P.

That said, you need to keep in mind the neck pickup of a jazz bass and a P pickup are not in exactly the same spots, close, but not the same, so doing this will not be a 1 to 1 tone match.

Also, Nordstrand pickups are pricy these days. I believe you're playing a squier? If so, and as I mentioned prior, you can pickup one of the classic vibe squier p basses for around 300 or so. They're super solid basses and that way you'll have the full complement of jazz and P tones to choose from.
 
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#29
tpaul said:
How could mini pots make any difference in the tone?
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Something to do with the shorter contact track i believe.

If you go to Anderton's YT All About the Bass series and find the Fender Standard vs CV vs Player video, it's in there somewhere and they reference another video where someone swapped them out. I can't remember who that was but it seem to make a big difference.
 
#30
1- Get a P bass.

2- Get a set of Humbucking J pickups from pickup maker who does to-order builds, and have them custom wired so that each individual pickup is in series with itself internally, and measures about 10.5K Ohms . The reason the P Bass sounds the way it does is because the split coil is in series with itself and measures about 9K - 11K Ohms. Then solo the neck pickup.

If you do #1, you have a J bass and a P bass and they'll sound like themselves.

if you do #2, your J bass will never sound like a J bass again.

Of course, it also depends on how much like a P you want it to sound. You can just make no changes to the bass, solo the neck pickup, and EQ it to match the frequency response of a P bass. Won't be exact, but it'll probably close enough. Close enough usually works in music more than TB will lead one to believe.
 
#31
My experience with "more affordably" priced basses is that the hardware and electronics are the areas most in need of upgrades.
I think I'd be looking at replacing all of the electronics save the ground wire. As far as which? So much subjectivity there. I like EMG's stuff a lot. Also extremely impressed with John East's stuff. Even though I have no direct experience with Lollar pickups yet, they get so much love here that's probably what I would try out were I looking to upgrade a Jazz. Probably pair them with an East preamp. Will that make it sound more like a P bass? I have no idea, but I'm not really a P bass guy. At least not yet.
 
#32
H13 said:
First of all, let's get the sexy picture out of the way.

View attachment 7196883

This is my Squier Classic Vibe. It's bloody fantastic, but what a shock! The pickups could do some work...

I bought the J after a CV P Bass. I love what a P Bass does to a mix, but I find it hard to make "cool poopie I do on my bass" cut through the mix properly. It does an amazing job of filling everything in and making the mix sound huge, but yeah, when I go for a wanky bit, it gets lost in the mix.

Obviously the wanky parts are the most important bit right?

ANYWAYS

So I got myself a Jazz. I figured the "zing" from the Bridge Pickup would help me cut through. I have tried a P\J before and...ehhh? For me, it didn't do a good enough job of being a P, nor did it do a good enough job of being a J.

So I want to take this J, and make it P-Bass ish but hopefully keep all the zing to help it punch and cut through a mix so that you can hear when I do something cool (which is shagin rare, so damn straight y'all should hear that SWEET Pentatonic run)

Also, the stock J pickups are a BIT...limp-wristed. They sound nice! But they're a bit pissweak. So before you recommend "volume down on the bridge" it didn't really do the job because the pickups are underpowered.

In my head, I can hear a bass which has the sharp transient of the J, that then blooms out like a P. However there are also voices in my head which tell me I should stack rocks from smallest to largest. My brain is a weird place that doesn't make sense. Obviously I'm going to have to make compromises but I'm sure I'm not the only person who has dreamed this up.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE:
- Hotter pickups
- More growly low-mids
- Don't want to loose that J Bass zingy attack\brightness

I've seen the Dimarzio Model J pickups discussed like this before? Also a series switch for the pickups? Any other tips and tricks?
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IMHO, before buying whatever pickups.....hotter single coils, or dual coils, or whatever.....................go to your amp and increase the gain control for a "hotter sound". Also on the amp, increase the bass eq and the mid eq for a "more of a P Bass sound. Then, there is the string experimentation option also. In fact, different strings are usually the #1 starting point for a sound more to a player's liking.

Start with easy sound fixes on your J Bass before shelling out money, time and effort.

Good luck
 
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#34
I agree with the others who suggested a series/parallel switch. Apparently the mod itself is very easy to do, and you can find plenty of YouTube videos that demonstrate how effective it is. It'll definitely bring you forward in the mix with the added mids.

Can you share any examples of songs that have bass tones close to what you're looking for? Who knows, you might be chasing the zing and punch of a StingRay! ;)
 
#35
I have a '72 Jazz and no issues with it cutting through the mix or sounding big. It has the stock pickups which were just rewound by Tom Brantley. But it is a very different tone than a P-Bass.

72_Jazz.jpg
 
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#36
I am also a preferred p bass player but also have a Squier J bass that I just got new noiseless pickups installed . They drastically changed the tone, and I liked it better before (except that I hated the single coil hum), so I did a lot of experimenting. I found the most useful thing for changing the tone is a parametric eq pedal. It made the weak, honky sounding Fender j pickups sound absolutely monstrous. With the correct frequencies boosted and the right ones cut….it sounds fantastic in a mix. While fooling around with the eq, I did get it sounding more like a p bass—but on steroids.

In your case, I would do the following….
1) Parametric EQ pedal. A cheap solution is what I do…a Zoom pedal. But most any parametric eq pedal would work. The MS 60b+ is around $100 new.
2) DiMarzio Model J pickups. I would have chosen these myself, but the Fenders that I purchased were on sale and the music store guy is a huge fan of them, so I took a chance. Initially I was not impressed, but with a parametric EQ pedal…I don't regret it, and love the tone now.
3) Series/Parallel switch…I can't comment on this, because I have never tried it.

I tried adjusting pickup height and even a graphic equalizer with my j bass, but there was very minimal change with that. I was actually surprised that the parametric worked as well as it did…but it did take some experimenting with both frequency boosting and cutting, along with experimenting with different q bandwiths.

For my j with the Fender pickups, boosting 100hz with a wide q bandwidth, and cutting 800hz with a wide bandwidth was the magic formula. With that setting, I can use different pickups, different tone knob settings and it still sounds huge.
 
#37
@H13 - You mention that volume down on the bridge pickup didn’t work because the stock pickups sound a bit weak.

Definitely start there - raising the pickups - before over-engineering a solution.

A note on pickup height for a jazz. You should get more volume and mids when favoring one pickup volume over the other. When they’re both full on, they’re running in parallel, which will cause a slight volume dip and a bit of mid scoop. Point being, if you’re getting less overall volume when backing off the bridge pickup volume knob, there may be an issue with pickup height. They also could be out of phase…
 
#38
H13 said:
How does that make it more P-Bass-ish? Do you lose a lot of zing?
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Only when you engage the series. It thickens the sound pushing it towards a P thump in a way that the neck pickup and tone knob don’t.

Turning it back to parallel gives all the growly glory again.

Honestly it ‘completed’ my Jazz.
 
#39
In my view, this is where basses of this type are weakest, more often.

If you are satisfied it is a good enough player to warrant investing in...and this is not a given.. then you'll likely need to commit to spending more on parts than the bass costs. And that money probably is not going to add much value to thd bass on resale, it just makes it more attractive up against the next one in the same price
But assuming you want to do this, upgrade the pickups and add a pre amp.
You might want to consider bridge and tuners as these would be the areas of skimp too.
See where this is going? You might be throwing $700 at it.

If it were me, the bass would have to have massive sentimental value to not just sell it and buy something which has everything you need..
or you are hellbent on a fixer-upper, just for the experience.

IMO/IME
 
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