Lakland JO 4 Skyline Question

You're probably not EQing it properly. I have a similar problem with my 55-02, though I hear the exact same bass sounding phenomenal in other people's hands.

What they don't tell you is that a new bass comes with a few months of trial-and-error with the knobs before you find the tone that you like best.

IMHO and YMMV and all the rest.

 

The punch you're missing is because of the bridge pickup. When you use both pickups, it gives you a smoother tone than just the neck pickup, but it takes out the punch that you get with just the neck pickup. You can try boosting 200 hz a little to get it back in, but when I used a Jazz, I just used the neck pickup by itself when I wanted more punch. Not quite the same as a P pickup, and it gets noisy on stages with poor noise rejection unless you have humbuckers (the JO comes with single coils), but it added some punch when I needed it.

 

Don't give up on that bass. What Jimmy says is true. But you may find an e.q. setting, pickup set, string brand...that gets you where you want to be. I've played Jazz basses with punch to spare. Don't quit yet.

 

First, DON'T GIVE UP ON THE BASS! That's a fantastic bass, certainly one that won't need replacing.

As far as punch, people alwayss have different ideas of 'punch,' very similar to their conceptions of 'growl,' etc. If I were you, I'd play with the EQ, try different strings, and change up your right hand technique. Placement, attack, etc.

 

Well...

For strings, who knows? Strings speak to different people differently just like basses.

EQ...start flat, then take every band and turn it up all the way and down all the way by itself. This gives you an idea what happens when you boost and cut each freq range. When you boost, though, make your boosts slight. It's always better to make only slight boosts, or even better to cut freqs you don't like. Over-EQing tends to make everything sound false and unnatural.

 

For strings, all I can tell you is experiment. It seems kind of expensive, but what I do is just every time I need new ones I try a new set (rather, I used to, I'm set on Hi Beams now), so it didn't end up being any more expensive than buying any other set of strings. You find what you like pretty quick.

As far as EQ, set it flat, and go from there. Mids are your friends. Play with them and find where your sound lies. But don't be too extreme with your settings; there's no reason to have any frequency boosted or cut all the way. So hover around flat, boosting/cutting slightly where it sounds good. And remember, what works sitting and playing with your amp in your bedroom doesn't necessarily work playing in a mix.

And use your fingers. They shape more tone than you think.