I’m done with jazz basses

[cdef]

Same experience here. I've tried Jazz basses at various points, but somehow they never had the sonic girth and 'bloom' of a P on the same rig, and didn't carry so well. Someone like Jerry Jemmott with Aretha Franklin could work it, but I'm resigned to the notion that there are imponderables involved. You need to play what works for you, however trite an observation that is.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

Series and straight to the jack is what did it for me. Glad I figured it out too because I like how J basses feel in my hands.

But yeah @Garagiste if the feel isn't something you're worried about, you may as well stick with what you know you like.

Too funny really....Peavey did the 80's USA Foundation bass; J style neck and a pair of hot Super Ferrite pickups.....why are so many afraid to play a bass that can be bought for under $300, is a J bass on steroids and the build quality is very good?

Series wiring on a J bass.....why is this such a mystery to "purists"?

I'll go even further as an owner of MIM Fender J and P basses (which i love) .....if you want a nice USA P style bass with a J neck then the late 80's Peavey Fury.

Try the series wiring and/or a set of hotter pickups and/or a preamp on a Fender J...Fender J are some of the COOLEST looking basses ever imo.

 

[MojoPenguin]

Well I found out that for me in a band, Humbuckers work better than single coils somehow. I guess it depends on the band you play in, or your type of playing.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I miss my mim fretless Jazz but for fretted I prefer p bass over a jazz bass . P bass isn’t my favorite tone by itself but i agree with a lot of people that it does sound good in a mix live and if you’re recording is an easy bass to mix. I’ve turned into humbucker guy over the last couple years. Emg 40dc in the esp basses. My Warwick thumb NT6 has Delano humbuckers that can run as single or humbucker but I always play with all the coils on.

 

[Nanaki]

I used to use my Jazz pretty exclusively (the one in my avatar), joined a five piece with two guitarists and it just didn't cut the mustard the way I was used to with one guitarist... bought a P and use that more now. Still love my Jazz for smaller settings

 

[BigDrew]

Try this; turn up both volumes and tone. Then back off of the bridge p/up by like 10-15%. Then slightly roll off a tiny bit of tone. That sounds great on my MIA jazz.

Good luck.

 

[chris_b]

I had a Lakland 55-94 (I know not quite a J) and a Mike Lull M5V. Jazz basses that excelled at everything I asked them to do. They were both put on the subs bench, and subsequently sold, by my Sadowsky Jazz.

Sounds like the OP isn't using the right Jazz basses.

 

[wvbass]

Well, the two that I have. For the life of me I can’t get them to deliver, either in rehearsal or live. They sound great at home, but they just don’t have that punch that my P basses do. More power to those of you who can get this instrument to sound good. In my hands and to my ears, it’s thin. I know this is old hat, but I think I’m just done doing the same thing every few months and expecting a different result. For the record, I have a ‘74 Jazz with rounds and a ‘66 MIJ reissue with TI Flats. I bought the latter hoping that the 60s pup spacing would deliver more punch. But no way. My number one bass the last 18 months has been my Japanese Sting bass with chromes. It’s a one trick pony but it always delivers. I know it worked for JPJ, Larry Graham, Jaco, Geddy, but the Jazz Bass doesn’t for me. My research project is over.

Here’s a recent clip of my Sting bass delivering the goods.

I've got nothing to add to the P verses J debate, but man that's some good pocket right there!

 

[mesaplayer83]

Do you dial back the bridge pup a little bit?

Yup - either that, or the pups run in series works for J basses for me...

 

[micguy]

When i read threads like this, my first reaction is to wonder why I can get a very P-ish tone out of my J, and others seem to have so much trouble. Then I remember all the things I have done in terms of rewiring, pickups, etc,. and then....OK, that's why. My J is actually built on a P shaped body, with a P shaped neck (large hands), so it feels like a P, but that's not the magic - that's all in stuff you can't see.

Leo did a bunch of things that, when you want to make a simple instrument, easy to build, with very few electrical parts, those decisions make sense. But, to the user, it's not as usable as I could have been. If it doesn't work for you, I understand why. Unfortunately, it's also not a simple process to do the mods I have on my J. My avatar is actually the wiring of one of my client's J's - which includes the things I have in my J, plus a couple other twists. They aren't gonna wire things that way at the factory.

 

[Jeffrey A-Bomb]

I totally get it, however, I ended up going the Rickenbacker route. They do for me what a precision does for you and are that weird animal between a jazz and a precision.

 

[Frank77]

I hear ya. I like the sound of jazz basses on recordings (totally love the signature "zing" of the single coils on bass solos!), but when I tried my first p-bass I was immediately in love with the split coil burp - it instantly settled the debate of which one I should get. The only advantage of the J (for me) was the slim neck, so I got myself a G&L LB-100 with a J neck.

So, I have my LB-100 when I want the p-bass tone and my L-2500 for everything else - I'm all set. If I ever buy another bass, it'll be a 4-string HH or H, or another P that I'd string with flats.

 

[stringthrough]

I totally get where you're coming from. I recently sold my 2 Jazz Basses. Don't see me buying another. Am very happy with my parts P bass, G&L SB-1 and 4 and 5 string Ibanez SR 1400's.

 

[Mike Marshall]

I have found that by playing with the volume between the two pickup's I can get good variety of sounds. The sound I don't like is both volumes on full, it sucks the mid's out too much. I have found that the mids are the area to really pay attention to when matching an amp with a jazz bass. Speaker cabinets that have a scooped mid are out and amps where the bass frequency is centered too low don't cut it.

 

[southpaw723]

I always have some trouble dialing in a good tone with my jazz in a band mix. Even when I bump the mids it's hard to get along with

 

[TheSlug]

I find that I am usually disappointed when I use my J or PJ at a gig. My go to basses are a MIM p with delano pup and a G&L SB-1. When I'm at home practicing with headphones the PJ sounds way better, but NOT in a live mix.

Is using only the split-coil pickup on a PJ different from a P bass? I have only had PJs, and I thought the J was just an extra pickup.

 

[Joe Nerve]

I thought you were going to say you were writing a book or something.

 

[swarfrat]

J neck, P pickup, Ibby bridge. I never really understood strings in different time zones.

 

[Felken]

That's too bad. I've never had any problems with a thin sound. My jazz bass actually has a booming low end.

 

[pbassnut]

It's a similar situation for me. I like Js and have some truly stellar ones in my stable, but reach for one of my Ps 95% of the time as I grab a bass on my way out the door to a gig. I play mostly roots music and am a bottom dweller and just prefer the girth of the P sound. One way I've tried to draw "the P-ness" out of my Js is to put P necks on them and string them with flats or rounds that have good bottom end (DR Marcus Miller Fat Rounds do nicely for this purpose). The extra mass of the P necks seem to add some of those punchy low mids to the sound that I crave. Another thing I've done is have amplification that the bass control has a center frequency between 80 and 120 Hz which is the range between which "P-ness" takes place (IMHO). For example, my (older style 1.5 rack spaces) Demeter VTBP-201 preamp has a 120 Hz/60 Hz center point switch for the bass control and the 120 Hz setting really works well with my Js to give them some of that P like high bass/low mid girth. Lastly, with some of the humbucking J pickups that are available (Fender Noiseless and Dimarzio Area Js come to mind), the neck pickups solo'd have a similar tone as your Sting '54 P reissue with its single coil P pickup.