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Jazz Basses with Soap Bar Pickups

#82
Music Man has their Dummy Coil on their HS setups, so is that Single truly that? And G&L has tried to offer differences in their soapbar offerings. L2000 vs M2000. I think people get use to a certain things from particular builders, though being a bit closed minded. Be honest... when someone mentions Music Man, the first thing to come to mind is the Stingray, right. Yet they offer so much more.

Come to think of it... I have a Spector that's not your typical NS-2 PJ that they're known for...
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#85
Dr. Cheese said:
...I am seriously streamlining what I own.
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I landed there several years ago.

Thanks to TB classifieds, I have honestly gone through at least 50-60 basses and probably more. At any given time, I’d be holding 8-10. When I found myself opening cases and surprised because I forgot I owned that bass, the absurdity of it all became clear.

I started my “split-double” tactic of selling two $500s and buying one $1k bass until I’d worked my way down to a pair of top shelf instruments.

For the longest time, I had only the Sadowsky, and I was happy as could be. I only bought another bass because I landed a gig that warranted a backup.
 
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#89
Jesuguru said:
I admit I'm partial, I like his tone because it because it sounds a lot like my Ken Smith, kind of zingy/pingy. But the low end seems rolled off, either due to the electronics or the poor recording. I'm willing to bet that it could sound a lot fuller than the recording does justice to it.

Versatility is key for me, so my next bass purchase may well be dual-coil humbuckers (in soapbar form) that can be tapped to do single-coil, like the Fodera in an earlier post. I'd rather one bass do several tricks than several basses do one, though I know in reality it doesn't always work out that way - just like many PJ's can't sound exactly like a P or a J. Foderas can do such versatility well, but I don't have 10 grand to spare right now.
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I just picked up a Bacchus 24 off the classifieds here after deciding to find a sort of J-bass on steroids in a lighter package than my old beefy passive Jazz. This thing is still giving me that honeymoon perma-grin and I'm also still finding new tweaks that make decent tones.

I don't mean to gloat, but this was a spectacular deal on what's turning out to be a really great bass for me. The ad in the classifieds includes some pictures and you can see that there's a little similarity with the Fodera in post #19 in terms of its layout. I'd probably never be able to handle owning something like a Fodera in terms of worrying about it getting damaged or swiped, but this Bacchus is giving me nothing but upside so far.

This bass can run active or passive and it can also switch between humbucker and single coil modes. Although switching to single coil mode is a little less hearty sounding, the preamp can easily fill in the lows. So the bass can make different tones, but they're also useful - not just a gimmick.

It looks like many of the offerings from Bacchus are "modern J's", but these "24's" are honeys!!
 
#94
Dr. Cheese said:
I settled on the Geddy. I am keeping the Pedulla. I will keep my Squier Dimension V, that bass is so well made and plays so well, it is hard to believe I ever let it go. I should a five string Jazz, I don’t know which one it will be.
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Cool. I'm currently at 4, of which one is an EUB. Ultimately I'd like to go fretless four, fretted five, and a real upright. But affording a nice upright is going to take some doing.

FWIW, my friend does near-Jazz Basses with both thin single coils as either singles or stacked 'buckers, or soapbars in either format. My house is electrically noisy and I just can't hack single coils at all. But as always, if a project demanded it I'd buy in as long as the project paid enough to justify that. Not too likely for me these days, but you never know.
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#95
malthumb said:
Funny thing. When I look across all my basses I see a lot of soap bars. Only one of my basses has a pickup that is not a soap bar. That’s my Fender Deluxe P5. It has a split P-bass pickup. And a soap bar. I didn’t plan it that way. I just keep the basses that I like to play and listen to, so it’s more of a result than a plan. I guess given that early on my favorite basses were Music Man and Alembic kinda set the tone (bad pun).
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Unless you are getting paid well not to get your personal favorite tone. Get the sound you like!:)
 
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#96
LoTone said:
Let me throw a wrench in the debate, is a Jazz Bass with soapbar pickups still a Jazz Bass?

I mean the tone character of the instrument does change a lot when you have soapbars instead of skinny single-coils, right?

To Me, it is another animal; shared lineage but different.
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As I said earlier, I still call it a Jazz if the body still has a Jazz profile.
 
#100
Relsom said:
Music Man has their Dummy Coil on their HS setups, so is that Single truly that? And G&L has tried to offer differences in their soapbar offerings. L2000 vs M2000. I think people get use to a certain things from particular builders, though being a bit closed minded. Be honest... when someone mentions Music Man, the first thing to come to mind is the Stingray, right. Yet they offer so much more.

Come to think of it... I have a Spector that's not your typical NS-2 PJ that they're known for...
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20190809_143142.jpg

I was just about to post my Spector. Mine is an older Made in Korea that has two humbuckers.
 

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