Mid-Range Active Jazz?

[Calaverasgrande]

I played a nice looking GC "exclusive" active Jazz at GC yesterday. Ash body, natural finish (clear). It played well but $600 for a made in china bass?
greedy.
It's basically a Squier!
Also surprised to see a made in india Jazz as well, not bad. I usually think of cost plus doodads being from india with their crude woodwork. But this bass was kinda good. Slightly thick neck though.

 

[khutch]

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

The bad news is that I am an old guy who just doesn't do that sort of thing and, trust me, you wouldn't want to listen anyway. The good news is that you can find Active Jazz Basses to try yourself at tons of guitar stores through amps that that are similar to yours or ones you may aspire to owning. I'm guessing that no one here would be impressed by the old Peavey keyboard amp I use to practice with anyway!!

You had me confused until you said cello tuning!
I tune my bass in C but it comes out C-F-Bflat-E.
Or something like that.

Well if you tune in fourths it would be C-F-Bb-Eb but only you would know what your top string is tuned to and apparently even you don't know! A tuning in fourths is certainly the norm and it retains the advantage of giving you very compact fingering patterns for common bass guitar runs no matter what note the bottom string starts on. I went with the CGDA cello tuning in fifths to get the range of a five string from four strings. I also recently got a five string and I can't say that I'm loving that fifth string. Tuning in fifths is easier to learn than I would have thought and it is nice to have that range from a familiar, comfortable four string bass. Sometimes when you try to do something you find that it even gives you a shorter reach but when you want to go up a major third you are moving a long way down the neck! I think it will prove a good choice for any bass guitar work but it is especially useful for playing string music, or so I am told.

I'm still in the trial period for both fifths and five strings. If I decide to go with fifths for the long haul I might drop it another whole tone to Bb-F-C-G to pick up that B without a Hipshot and still retain my G string. I might even decide to keep both my "electric bass cello" and the five string bass guitar which I could use when I find I really need a low B or want to play in fourths. With the aid of single string suppliers like Circle K strings and BassStringsOnline the tuning of your bass has become a free choice. Anything that you find useful and learnable is available and affordable these days.

Ken

 

[SurferJoe46]

I keep two active basses - an Ibanez SR500 (2009½ model without the Mid Switch) and a 2010 MIM Deluxe Fender Jazz.

I find them to be both very closely interchangeable in sound and voice with just some subtle aural differences in sustain, with that value going to the Fender. The necks of course - are different as is the string spacing, weight, shape and fit - but none of that is a negative: just different.

What I find I like most about either/both of them is the broader pallet of tones and vocal qualities with the active circuits. I don't care if there are detractors, they just sound good and can pump or diminish frequencies as one sees fit for pretty much any venue or musical style.

Many times I can just grab either bass and a combo amp and leave the pedal train at home; they are that able to compensate for EQ and boost all by themselves.

Your experience with your Ibanez may have caused you some second-guessing and thoughts about that brand, but frankly they are a sweet guitar once you cross the SR500 threshold.

On my Fender Deluxe I immediately put the Elixir Nanos with the coated string since I like them so much on the SR500. I know there's a lot of badmouth about them for the kitty fur that develops - but they play good, sound super mellow and last forever.

The 'fur' that develops isn't any big deal nor is it something to worry about as it doesn't affect their sound at all. Enough about strings.

If you consider the Fender Deluxe Jazz I don't think you'll be disappointed at all. It's flashy in black and tort with chrome hubcaps and it's a very versatile tool that will fill many desires and needs for years to come as it can fit any style and voicing for any music. It's easy on batteries - with classic lines that are easy on the eyes and easy on the bank account you can certainly do a LOT worse.

OTOH: as much as I love both the iconic design and general acceptability of all things Fenderesque, the Jaguar didn't do 'it' for me as I found it to not be what it's purported to be. It found it was finicky and hard to dial in and generally I dislike all the knobs and slider/roller switch thingys.

I also bought the Squier VM-Jaguar, and although it isn't active, it sure can find places to sing that will be able to fit into any musical style given that one finds the correct strings for it.

I kept the purported 'Fender 7250 NPS' strings on it, but being as they are MII, they aren't really what they are rumored. They are NOT D'A strings made for Fender. They are NOT Fender 7250s either. What they are is something much better. I have a set of GHSs in the wings for this bass and they may get put on sooner than later.

What my story boils down to is that there are a lot of orphaned basses out there, the Deluxe Jazz and even the VM-Jag, that respond very well to just a string change. The only time I am in the market for new p'ups and hardware is when I am building a bass from scratch.

I tend to buy what I like and just keep it that way.

 

[Calaverasgrande]

The bad news is that I am an old guy who just doesn't do that sort of thing and, trust me, you wouldn't want to listen anyway. The good news is that you can find Active Jazz Basses to try yourself at tons of guitar stores through amps that that are similar to yours or ones you may aspire to owning. I'm guessing that no one here would be impressed by the old Peavey keyboard amp I use to practice with anyway!!



Well if you tune in fourths it would be C-F-Bb-Eb but only you would know what your top string is tuned to and apparently even you don't know! A tuning in fourths is certainly the norm and it retains the advantage of giving you very compact fingering patterns for common bass guitar runs no matter what note the bottom string starts on. I went with the CGDA cello tuning in fifths to get the range of a five string from four strings. I also recently got a five string and I can't say that I'm loving that fifth string. Tuning in fifths is easier to learn than I would have thought and it is nice to have that range from a familiar, comfortable four string bass. Sometimes when you try to do something you find that it even gives you a shorter reach but when you want to go up a major third you are moving a long way down the neck! I think it will prove a good choice for any bass guitar work but it is especially useful for playing string music, or so I am told.

I'm still in the trial period for both fifths and five strings. If I decide to go with fifths for the long haul I might drop it another whole tone to Bb-F-C-G to pick up that B without a Hipshot and still retain my G string. I might even decide to keep both my "electric bass cello" and the five string bass guitar which I could use when I find I really need a low B or want to play in fourths. With the aid of single string suppliers like Circle K strings and BassStringsOnline the tuning of your bass has become a free choice. Anything that you find useful and learnable is available and affordable these days.

Ken

Yeah that's what it is C-F-Bb-Eb. I have been tuning this way for a while, but it actually shows up on my tuner a lot different than that so I have a hard time remembering what the top G string is, since it's transposed on the tuner.
I bassically get the "E" to C, ballpark the other 3 string, then use the tuner to nail it, while igonring what the actual note letters are.
As far as note names go, I actually tend to ignore them as much as possible in the interest of simply knowing the notes as the notes themselves. Kind of an ineffable apprehension of ideal forms thing going on there.

I tried tuning my old Tobias 5-er in 5ths and then even 6ths for a while. It was interesting to be able to hit so many octaves and play unusual chords. But getting the strings to feel AND sound good was tedious and expensive. I would buy a heavy 5 string set and buy a couple extra lite D and G strings then mix and match.

 

[dougjwray]

Audere and John East make great drop-in preamps. Very minimal work, especially on the j-retro. Pick a passive jazz you like and add preamp. Just my $.02

This is what I was going to suggest. The OP could find a good used Fender Standard (Made in Mexico) Jazz Bass for around $300 and add one of these preamps. Or, a used Sadowsky outboard preamp (like the one I'm thinking about selling). Or, even a Gallien Krueger MB200 amp, using the direct out as a preamp. (These amps are really not much bigger than the Sadowsky preamp.)
Just some thoughts...