Help me improve my jazz bass tone

[/\/\3phist0]

Beautiful finish! Did you do that?

Thanks so much. !!
I did. Roth metal flake rattle cans.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

I have a 2015 MIM Jazz bass that I love. The neck is great, it's light weight and just feels good. The only downside is the tone. It feels like it lacks some "oomph".

For example, I'm playing in a pop-punk cover band. I do have a player plus P-bass that I'll use but it does not play nearly as good as my jazz bass. The downside is that most of these songs sound much better with the P-Pickup than my jazz bass neck pickup with that lower-midrange tone the P-bass provides.

I was considering replacing the pickups and maybe go with the EMG setup that also has a preamp.
I also thought for a second of putting a p-pickup in the body but I'd rather not go that route.
Would a pedal with EQ help more? (I've had my eye on an hx stomp)

What would be the best way to get my jazz bass closer to that tone?

Before you do anything else, run the Volume controls and your Tone control of your Jazz all the way up. Then go over to your amp and add just a little boost to the low-mids, anywhere between 250Hz and 500Hz. If you add too much boost, your sound will HONK at you. If that happens, just turn it back down slowly until that HONK goes away. I use Eden and DNA amps. Both have a really clean and clear sound. On the Eden amps I dial in the boost using their semi-parametric controls to 250Hz and boost it to 1:30 running the rest of the EQ's flat. With my DNA-800 amp, the low-mids are centered at 500Hz and I boost that also to 1:30 also. Those low mids are your sonic space when playing with a group. Bass kick has the low Bass, guitars and keys have the high mids and highs. You own the low mids, so use them. Just a little boost there will give your bass presence and definition in the mix.

If you are doing recordings, boost the low-mids slightly at 500Hz or as close to it as your amp allows. Had to use my WTDI (DI stompbox with built-in Eden WT preamp) at a pro studio recording session in Seattle back in 2019 and with it I can boost or cut either 2Khz (High-mids) or 500Hz (low-mids). So I toggle it to the 500Hz position and boost it as above. At the end of the session the sound engineer and the owner of the studio came out to see what I was using that sounded so good. Said they didn't have to make any EQ adjustments or add any compression on the raw takes, just adjust my level with the rest of the group.

My Jazz is a 1982 Jazz with an all-maple neck and 70's era pickup spacing (4" center to center). I am convinced that that all-maple neck is the source of the better sustain with my '82 Jazz (bought in 1985) than my '65 Jazz had (bought in 1966). The 70's era pickup spacing puts the pickup almost 1/2" (0.4" to be exact) closer to the bridge and gives it a bit brighter sound than my '65 had. Nonetheless, I even run that low-mid boost when I use my 5-string which is not a Fender let alone a Jazz. So try a touch of low-mid boost before you go spending any money. You may not need to spend the $$.

 

[smeet]

Have a good tech rout your bass and put a P pickup in there. Looks and feels like a J, sounds like a P.

 

[ProbablyTooLoud]

With a good preamp you can get there. Onboard, pedal, or on your amp.

 

[Bassamatic]

Changing your strings to a different kind / brand makes the MOST difference! Pickups only a little. hardware like bridge and pots and caps make the least. I have gone through 4-5 different sets of strings on a bass before finding that "magic" string that makes the bass shine.

 

[bigdaddybass12]

It feels like it lacks some "oomph

I have owned 2 fender jazz basses. Sold them both for this reason. Try a good pedal.

 

[AK Bass Guy]

As mentioned. Wire the pickups in series. Oh, and turn the tone knob down.

Series/Parallel switch, most effective $8 mod you can put on a J bass.