How do YOU define "Jazz Bass"?

[Bassbubble11]

I describe Jazz basses as my favorite style of bass.
Love the body contour, love the single coils, Love the necks.
True Fender was the original but all are welcome here.

 

[notverygood]

I believe it is actually called a P Bass Elite II... Fender made 2 pickup Precision basses in 83-84 (maybe 82-83) I don't know if they are the original idea maker but they are the first to bring it to the masses... so the SR would be the ripoff, and I haven't actually seen a 2 P p/u SR myself though.

I don't think you got what i was saying. I'm saying the Fender MP jazz bass pictured is not a jazz bass, but a two pickup fancy p-bass. The bass I saw in the store had two humbuckers and was labeled Fender precision bass. Hence the SR comparison. It was the first bass i could think of with two HB'ers. Actually it was the 2nd, but I'm never sure if I'm spelling Schector right. Schecter, Schector?? I would have switched the body styles and the names. It would have worked better IMO to put the HB's in a jazz body and the split coils in the p-body. This is not to bash the MP line, I hear they are great basses. But the p-bass fans IMO would have been more eager to buy a bass with 2 split coils if they were in that body style.

 

[JimB52]

Jazz is a trade name that has become a generic term, like Band-aid, Jello, or Kleenex.

A Fender Jazz
Link Removed

A Lakland Jazz. Very serviceable copy.

 

[hibachiduck]

To me, it's a 1.5 at the nut and enough resemblance to a J bass to where you don't have to question it. It's pretty subjective for me.

 

[Bubba Ghanoosh]

Fender makes the "Jazz Bass."
Everybody else makes Jazz Bass copies (subjectively better than the original, or otherwise).

 

[Iridescentone]

Two singles.

 

[Munjibunga]

So by my rules, the Sadowsky Moderns, the Fender Roscoe Beck and pretty much every Yamaha ever aren't jazz basses.

Yeah... lots o' conditional stuff. But that's how I roll.

Well, you roll wrong then, don't you.

 

[Kwesi]

Well, you roll wrong then, don't you.

My rolls are the best! King of rolling right here.

 

[Munjibunga]

My rolls are the best! King of rolling right here.

What's interesting is if you compare the top two pictures of Fender Jazz basses in my earlier post. They are both bona fide jazz basses, yet are quite different in many ways. More different from, say, an American Standard Jazz Bass V than the black and pink basses at the bottom of my post are. (Sadowsky UV70 and Lakland JO5.) If you don't want to call the RBV a jazz bass, we can still be friends, but the offset body, two pickups, and thin (although not narrow) neck profile meet my criteria and those of all other right-thinking people.

 

[Lee H]

Not being a huge fender fan, I am obviously not going along with the idea that only fender can make a jazz bass, even though it is a trademarked name.
I think once a name becomes a household term, it loses the proprietary effect.

even thought my frankenjazz does not have the fender logo on the headstock, it is still a jazz bass to me. . I used DiMarzio pups and nordstrand preamp but still a jazz to me. I used the warmoth slim contour neck, and an old fender jazz body, so the look is there, but it doesn't have the traditional fender sound

 

[Alex1984]

I think the pickups, the VVT or stacked knobs, the neck, and the look & feel.

 

[zairozolder]

2 single coil pickup. That all.

 

[mikezimmerman]

TO me, it's the offset body shape (which isn't necessarily "downsized"). It may or may not have a control plate, and it can have any pickup configuration you want, but as long as it has that "Jazz" shape or some reasonable variation on it, it's a Jazz to me.

 

[Brad Johnson]

TO me, it's the offset body shape (which isn't necessarily "downsized"). It may or may not have a control plate, and it can have any pickup configuration you want, but as long as it has that "Jazz" shape or some reasonable variation on it, it's a Jazz to me.

Same here. But I don't have a problem with people who'll nitpick this... what I call it is still up to me.



Might be hard to see but my Brubaker JXB 6 was heavily influenced by my 78 Fender Jazz. Scale length, pickup placement, basic body shape, tone of one of the settings, heavier body, Maple neck.

 

[mtandrews]

Offset body
Two "single-row" pickups (single coil or split, doesn't matter)
Knobs in line
Slim neck
Fender or Fender-style

I concur, but I'll add IMO if its not a Fender, its a copy and there's nothing wrong with that. (I have a copy myself...)

 

[Roscoe East]

I suppose this could qualify as "shape", but I voted "Other" because it's something specific about the Jazz Bass shape:

The Offset Waist.

 

[SurferJoe46]

C'mon --- it will say: Fender Jazz® on it.

 

[bubinga5]

I think its amusing that a control plate or in line tuners determine what a "Jazz Bass" is.

Single coil pickups. Thats it. A Jazz bass with a p neck is still a jazz bass

WHY???? its got a P bass neck.... so its not really a jazz bass.... i tell you what im going to put 2 jazz bass pickups in a warwick buzzard... there we have it ., a lovely jazz bass..:scowl:

 

[khutch]

Since Fender owns the trademark it has to be a Fender family product to be a Jazz Bass. Everything else that looks like a jazz bass is a jazz style bass. Fender seems to call anything with a Jazz body a Jazz Bass so that is what I go with. My Reggie Hamilton is a Jazz Bass, in spite of the pickup configuration.

Ken

 

[villis]

check this jazz bass!