Mid-Range Active Jazz?

Looking for a mid-priced (hopefully $400-800) Jazz bass with an active preamp. I do not want this to be a project though, I don't enjoy upgrading pickups and all that. This will be my first good bass, since I have an Ibanez GSR200, and I want to make the right choice.

All I'm asking is your experience with a mid-range active jazz. If you have one, played one, ect, just tell me about it. What was it, how was it, price, tone, feel, ect. What ever you can tell me about your experience will be a huge help.


Just a little background on my search so far....
My #1 choice at the moment is a Fender Jaguar.. the versatility is over the top and had me sold from the start. The passive/active switch is a massive plus. I know about the hum on these, and I already know about the easy fix so I'm cool with that.

My only worry is that people around TB have been recommending that you upgrade the pickups, and other electronics on the Jaguar because they aren't very good. I just don't see the point in me spending hundreds of dollars to get a mediocre bass, then spending more on upgrades to make it good. I want quality from the start. It doesn't have to be top of the line perfect, I'm not expecting a Fender MIA Jazz sound or anything, but I want a true upgrade from what I have now. If it sounds pretty damn good from the start, I'm good to go!

Then again, I've heard a lot of talk saying that the Jags were great sounding stock basses.. so I have no idea what to believe.

I've looked at a Fender Active Jazz, but when I brought this up on TB, I didn't get too many good responses. It was either "mid-range active jazz basses aren't very good" or "go with a passive jazz". This confused me even more..


The most frustrating part is that most of the basses I've considered or would consider aren't in stock at local stores. And I don't have the cash at the moment to order a bass for a test run. So no hands-on experience.


I went from looking at Ray34s to this.. but I know I want a Jazz now for a more rounded tone. I play mostly with fingers, and use picks to get a more aggressive sound every now and then. I'll get a distortion in the future, probably use a Sansamp BDDI's distortion settings for this, so I want something that'll sit well with that.

Please help. After reading around on TB, I have no clue which active jazzes are actually good.

 

Anyone?

 

Thanks man, I really appreciate the post! I know for a fact I really want a Fender now, so I'll try to get my hands on both the Fender Active Jazz and the Jaguar at some point. Oh and btw, how do the pickups sound soloed? Not that I know much about "Noiseless" pickups, but do they live up to their name? It'd be nice to not have a lot of buzz on these.

 

Gotcha, I see what you mean. Yeah, the hum is what I meant, I'm not to anal about the overall buzz that you described so it seems like that bass would do the job. I'll probably head over to a thread like the one you recommended to get more suggestions, and get around to testing this thing out somehow eventually. Thanks a lot for your help!

Btw, if you have any clips of your bass around on the web, could you post them here for me? I'd really like to hear how your setup sounds. I'm pretty interested in it at this point lol

 

In addition to a good Jazz sound, does it do a Stingray sound well? If its a nice 2-in-1 bass with quality & price to back it, this is a nice option.

 

Sounds good on paper, but not enough meat in the sound for my tastes. Especially with an MM style pickup, I wouldn't want something that sounds thinner than an MM.

 

Its a Cort


a GB4-Custom (I think it used to be called GB94)

 

I like both passive and active basses, they each have their good qualities.. and while a bass with a passive/active option would be ideal, I know my entire search for my new bass started with an active sound over passive.


I was originally set on a Ray34 because I love the sound of a Stingray, and I think the desire for that active sound kind of carried over in my search for other basses. I'm not expecting a Stingray sound from a Jazz, I know better than that. But I really do like having that hot kind of sound that active basses give.

When it comes to passive Jazz basses in this price range, I think the only one I've really considered is a Highway One. This one sounded the best to me.. but I'm sure there's other basses I haven't even heard that could top it. Even though I'd probably be more satisfied if i got a passive/active bass, if I can't find one that really works for me, I'd probably be more likely to look into a passive Jazz.




So far, the Jaguar honestly seems like the best option. It does the passive Jazz sounds that I like, and the active sounds I want, plus more




I guess my second guessing just comes from the first time I picked out my own bass (around when I first started playing). I listened to all the good reviews on the GSR200 as a great low price bass, so I went ahead and got it.. but when I actually had an ear for what sounds good a few years later, I knew (for my sound at least) it was lacking, especially compared to some of the Squiers in that price range.

Now that I can finally start saving for a new bass, I just REALLY don't want that to happen again lol. I know after I get this new bass, I won't be getting another for a while, so to get a bass that can cover almost everything I want to do would be great.

I was just curious about what else is out there. This thread is helping a lot already, because a week ago I didn't even consider Cort basses, but now I know more about them that I would've known otherwise.

TalkBass is awesome.

 

And btw, that's a REALLY good deal. wow, if that was in my area, I'd probably have to jump on it!