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Jazz vs precision?

#44
I once heard someone describe the difference as a P bass cuts through a mix like a saw, whereas a J cuts like a razor.

For me it's all about the J which is why I've got 3 J types. Just to prove that both can do the job though...if you check out the Jamiroquai YouTube links that got posted earlier.

You'll hear a P bass on the new single, but a J bass on the live version of Love Foolosophy from the same session.

P bass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzyj3Wxhjr4

J bass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XbJSFqLjhA&feature=related
 
#48
Yeah, those are perfect examples. If that doesn't answer the OP's question, nothing can. And it illustrates why you need a P and a J!!!

Forgive my Jamiroquai ignorance - I knew Zender had been gone a long time, but I didn't know that "Runaway" was a recent tune. I haven't been a serious follower of the group, but that's going to change - I love that style.

Who is that bassist?
 
#49
I've been a P-bass guy. I love the tone and the feel and the way it cuts through the mix. A couple months ago I met a G&L JB and fell in lust and bought her and took her home and put my Fender P in the case.

This is going to prolly deserve its own thread but we had a very big gig yesterday and had approximately 1000 people get exposed to our music. It was a great gig and went off very well and we got several folks interested in booking us for gigs, etc.

The catch - For the first 2/3 of the show I played the JB and it sounded fine but were a 5 piece with me, drums, and 3 guitars (Strat, Martin and SG) and it just didnt cut thru at all. I picked up my P-bass for the last 5 or six songs and BAM! it was like a shot of adrenalin. Just the right punch to the chest. I didnt change anyhting else. Damn, I think I may just be a p-bass guy. The JB sounded great in the rehearsal room but nobody is paying us in the rehearsal room.

Im trying to reserve judgement until I hear the recording (our sound recorded everything and taped with zune) but I wasnt really happy with G&L. Its a gorgeous and well made instrument, it just might not be right for my band.
 
#50
My experience is that a jazz have more tone, and is somewhat less anonymous. A P bass works for laying down the grooves, and sounds a little more muddy IMO. IME a jazz bass is generally easier to get to work in a mix. I'm sure many people would disagree, but I don't find it particularly easy to mix songs containing a P bass. I have never actually played a P bass myself, but what I've written is based on experiences as a sound engineer.
 
#52
InLeoWeTrust said:
Forgive my Jamiroquai ignorance - I knew Zender had been gone a long time, but I didn't know that "Runaway" was a recent tune. I haven't been a serious follower of the group, but that's going to change - I love that style.

Who is that bassist?
Click to expand...

The new bass player is an English session guy called Paul Turner who joined a few years ago. Between him and Stuart Zender was a guy called Nick Fyffe. I read a story somewhere about Nick Fyffe not getting the gig for a Jamiroquai tribute band at about the same time that he actually got the Jamiroquai gig!!!

This isn't meant to be a slight on Nick Fyffe, but his period in the band is my least favourite, largely due to the direction that the material took. It became much smoother and more like modern club tracks than the more organic funk of the early stuff. The presence and character of the low end got rather squashed.

Stuart Zender had quite a distinctive style and sound but also quite a serious falling out with JK which caused him to leave the band. Perhaps the change in the sound and feel was an attempt to distance himself (JK) from the older stuff.

From what I've heard of the new tunes (which isn't much I have to say) it sounds like a bit of a return to form. To me the sound of Jamiroquai is JKay sitting on top of a bass line that's dancing around leaving footprints in big pillowy keyboards.

If you want to get up to speed the check out Emergency On Planet Earth and Return of the Space Cowboy. Zender's on most of the first album and all of the second. I think Andrew Levy from the Brand New Heavies did the rest of Emergency...

Check out "Too Young To Die" particularly. The first note of the bass line seems to go on for days. :D

Here endeth the Jamiroquai lesson ------- END OF OFF TOPIC BIT !!!

To me P basses have a more limited tonal range than Js. On the flip side it is as near as dammit impossible to make a P bass sound bad or wrong in pretty much any context, whilst I think it is possible to make a J sound wrong from time to time.

One day I will own a Jamerson-correct P bass because every bass player ought to, but I will always favour the J. It's the only bass that I know of that can give both Aston Barrett and Jaco Pastorius their signature sounds and I can think of now two tones that are farther apart on the spectrum.
 
#57
OP, you can use any type of electric bass to play any type of music. There is no "best bass for _______" because, in the end, it's all subjective. If you can, head out to your local music store and play some basses until you hear one that looks and sounds good to you. If that's a P, great; if it's a J, also great; if it's a Spector-Warwick-Ibanez-Schecter et. al., you guessed it: also great. What matters is not whether a given bass is "a good bass for playing _______," but rather, is it comfortable for you to play and do you like the sound and look of it? If it meets those criteria, buy it ... then play it! A lot. Like every day.

Keep in mind, too, that you can get a number of great entry-level instruments -- the Squier vintage Js and Ps are well-reviewed and hot right now, so they come to mind, as do SX basses, which have a very enthusiastic following here at TB -- for far less money than a Lakland (even a Skyline). If you're new to playing, I'd say start out with a less-expensive instrument and see how you take to it before dropping $1000 on a mid-level instrument you might not be picking up three months from now. But that's just my $.02.
 

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