• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Jazz or Precision for old disco 'n funk?

R

raymond tx

Aug 20, 2005
1
0
#1
Hi,

Which would best for 70s disco and funk: the Fender Jazz or Precision? it's subjective I know, but I'd still like your opinions. what did the bassists of these genres use back then? I've always loved the tone of Bernard Edwards.

I'm limiting my choices to these two because I won a local contest and I have to choose between these models :) they're both beautiful, Custom Shop models, stripped down vintage style (passive electronics, etc.)

Thanks, Raymond
 
#2
To be wishy-washy, BOTH were quite popular and both are great, depending upon the specific funk you're playing.

But if someone put a gun to my head and told me to choose, I'd go with a Jazz, mainly because you can always dial off that bridge pickup for a nice P-bass approximation.
 
#5
Personally, I would choose the Jazz bass, but that's just me.

In the 70's they both were used in that style of music. I did a little searching and the only two pics I could find of Bernard was of him holding a non-fender bass but with a p-bass pick up configuration and on the cover of Chic, Live at the Budokan. He is holding a Music Man.


I think if you search this forum with "Jazz vs. precision" you will find a lot of information. This topic has been covered allot.
 
#6
Taken from www.marcusmiller.com:

'Yeah, Bernard was a friend of mine. We would run into each other in studios, in the street. He would give me advice about a lot of things. He told me not to move to LA (I didn't listen :-)
I remember, around 1978, I saw Bernard on a Chic album cover with a BC Rich bass. It was white with this unusally shaped body. Anyway, the song "Good Times" was on this album and I thought it sounded so good, I ran out and bought a white BC Rich.
I got it home and started playing Good Times...I'm saying to myself, "This don't sound like the record........."
I met Bernard shortly after and told him I bought the BC Rich but couldn't get that cool sound. He said, "Man I didn't play a BC Rich on that album. I played my Fender Precision!" I said, "But you have the BC Rich on the album cover." He said, "Yeah, well the BC Rich looks good, so I take pictures with it!"
God rest his soul......'
 
#7
The stuff on the first Chic album is a P-bass. I think that my Real People ("Rebels Are We") he was using a Stingray. I saw him live in 1980 and I think he was playing that B.C. Rich. I could have seen him in 1978 but I didn't know enough to care :o . I did hear Chic in the distance while I was at Six Flags though.
 
#9
Although I love Larry Graham's tone with the maple necked J, I have to admit when I saw your thread the first bass part I thought of was "Forget Me Nots", which was played on a P.

Precision Bass...Wins...

PS In fact, almost every tone on a record that I've fallen in love with almost always turns out to be a maple fretboard P...

L
 
#10
Although I'm not a fan of Fender basses and even less of the Precision Bass, I must admit that the real Precision tone can't be achieved by any other instrument, not even by soloing the neck pickup, which is a way to recreate it. That Precision sound is so prominent in most of my favorite 70's funk-disco recordings. I'm posting a great example which maybe most of you know, but just in case... "Yo-Yo", performed by Rose Royce and taken from the "Car Wash" OST LP (Not a downloaded mp3 or a CD rip. I transferred to digital from the original vinyl). The whole LP is a Fender Precision Bass fest played by Lequeint "Duke" Jobe. Link Removed. (YouSendIt link)
 
#12
both basses were used on a lot of those records. i usually reach for a jazz, but a p with roundwounds will sound great on almost any r&b and disco type gig. old, pre-ernie ball music man basses also sound very "fender-ish" and were popular. I normally don't dig the music man sound, but old ones are a different story.
 
#13
Alvaro Martín Gómez A. said:
The whole LP is a Fender Precision Bass fest played by Lequeint "Duke" Jobe. Link Removed. (YouSendIt link)
Click to expand...
Well that's going on the iPod :) Thanks!

That little slap lick in the tune car Wash always screamed p-bass to me but there is a thread here somewhere saying it was an Alembic. I can't imagine an Alembic sounding like that.

raymond tx, have you thought about getting the pbass and adding a bridge pickup down the road?
 
#17
Caca de Kick said:
I was going to lean more toward the P, but since it's a free bass from a contest, take the J.
Click to expand...

zombywoof5050 said:
if it's true that you won one of these basses and you are getting it for free, then go with the Jazz because it's worth more.
Click to expand...

+3. My point is, the Precision tone may be distinctive, but I like versatile basses and the P isn't. Again, you can approximate the P tone by soloing the J's neck pickup and get other cool and growly tones with the bridge pickup. IMO, you'll be the happy owner of a more versatile (and sexier) bass if you go with the J.
 
#20
maple neck ash jazz sounds awesome,

p's sound awesome. i would want both and switch coz i'm silly. :)

just to throw this in and cause trouble. why not look at a lakland skyline with the jazz and mm config??? :hiding:

not the exact tone but flexible and phat for that style of music.

EDIT: man i'm sure tired, didn't even read you won a comp....

:scowl: my bad.

congratulations!!! i edge for the jazz because of more sounds...
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back