My Jazz Bass has no balls. Help!

[bigtone23]

The MIJ pickups are nothing to write home about, but will sound much meatier in series mode. Series mode is the special sauce for Js on this P centric site.
As mentioned before, you can try hard wiring it in series first, if you like it and want the variety of tones, get a push/pull pot to do the switch. There is also this wiring you can do with the stock parts, it gives you neck pickup soloed and you blend in the series wired bridge pickup. You lose the ability to solo the bridge PU and get the signature J 'both pickups in parallel' scoop tone.

 

[Corevalay]

EMG JVX pickups. Thank me later!

 

[wyleeboxer]

I think wiring a Jazz in series or putting humbuckers defeats the purpose of having a Jazz, unless your absolutely in love with the feel and want a P bass tone I suggest routing for P pickups a getting a P pickguard for a jazz body? But the thinner clear articulate jazz tone is perfect for live band settings to cut through a mix while still maintaining low end.. if it’s more beef you want then explore eq’ing with high powered amps. I can always get more then enough low end with my rig then my bass.

 

[fhm555]

Have you tried raising your pickups?
If that fails to work, i’d second the Dimarzio Model J’s. I’ve got a set of them and they will bring the thunder. I’ve also got a bass with a set of Dimarzio Ultra j’s and they are like a hotter stock pickup without the annoying hum. Either one would most likely fix you up

 

[Jim Carr]

I have a pair of the MIM 60s classic series jazz pick ups laying around. Anyone know if those are any good?

I swapped that type pickup out of a nice 2009 MIM 60's Jazz in favor of some Frailin hum-canceling split coils. IMHO, while the Frailin's sounded fine and were quieter, the stock pickups actually sounded great (made me think of Harvey Brooks on those old Electric Flag tracks), were used in the Road Worn series, and might well be a nice choice for your MIJ Jazz.

 

[Yogi Bear]

Before you go modding your bass I would suggest checking your amp settings as previously mentioned. All jazz basses I've owned have benefitted from a bump to the mids/low mids. Seriously... Give it a try and see if that helps. It could be that easy of a fix.

 

[rtslinger]

I had my Jazz wired in a series and also didn't care for it either.
It essentially became a P bass to my ears it was louder, but it lost the Jazz bass tone,which is why I bought the jazz in the first place.
I already owned a P, so I ended up changing the pickups which worked out better hope this helps you out. RTS

 

[Hardbassjunkie]

Before you go modding your bass I would suggest checking your amp settings as previously mentioned. All jazz basses I've owned have benefitted from a bump to the mids/low mids. Seriously... Give it a try and see if that helps. It could be that easy of a fix.

Bump in mids and where does the bass and treble go?

 

[Jim Carr]

Bump in mids and where does the bass and treble go?

What amp/preamp are you using? Which speaker cabs?

 

[mrjim123]

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but maybe your bass has no balls because it is a female?

 

[Yogi Bear]

Bump in mids and where does the bass and treble go?

I generally will move the bass to 2:00, treble to 10:00 or 12:00 - depending on how powerful the amp's eq is. Play with the mids as needed. Oftentimes people will boost he bass, but all that usually does is muddy up the bottom. Turns a good sounding bass from low end punch to mush!

 

[eastcoasteddie]

All these suggestions for installing an onboard preamp...I say DON’T do that until you try better pickups first. I learned the hard way. Installed a preamp into a Squier with crappy pickups, only made it sound worse - the preamp boosted what sucked about them - brittleness and noise.
Duncan Apollo hum-cancelling J’s are clear and punchy, Quarter Pound J’s are thick and growly.

 

[interp]

DiMarzio Model J™ | DiMarzio

Get a set of these pickups. Problem solved.

These are great pickups. I’ve used them on every Jazz bass I’ve owned since 1982 (except my pre-CBS 1962). An additional advantage is the ability to adjust each pole piece to achieve perfectly even response across the strings.

 

[Kipp Harrington]

A hotter set of pickups may help, indeed. A Hot Jazz or Quarter Pound Set are pretty much the definition of 'balls'.

Love the QPs!

 

[Rabidhamster]

I have a made in japan Fender Jazz bass 62 reissue. It is a thing of beauty and has a great neck but I don't know why but it just feels like it doesnt have any balls. It's hard to describe what I mean but basically my precision feels like Harley davidson and the jazz feels like a Yamaha bike. I hope that makes sense haha. So my question is I was offered a Fender Aerodyne to trade for this bass which would give me the balls I need BUT is there a way to get my Jazz to sound more inspiring? A set of pickups maybe?

If it has MIJ pickups then a pickup swap is all you need! Swap the potentiometers too if they’re the small ones.

 

[Hopkins]

Just like every Tele should come with a 4 way switch, every Jazz should have a series/parallel switch. Both benefit greatly to have the option for series switching, and both are a completely different beast in series.

 

[LoTone]

I think you have just discovered that you are a Precision Man!

It's a bit like when you are a teenager and you discover that you like Girls more than Boys!

 

[attackz]

If I'm playing a jazz I'll often turn the bass up on my amp quite a lot, up to about 3 o clock. I usually play mostly on the bridge pickup and have the tone up only about 10%. If you want to make it sound a but more like a P bias towards the neck pickup and play right over it. Just a couple of things to try before you start replacing things.

 

[Brad Johnson]

So you're getting a lot of suggestions and no one has so much as asked what you are currently doing.

How are you setting the pickup volume and tone controls on your bass? How is your amp setup? You might have to change the amp EQ when switching basses because the instruments are voiced differently.

On a passive jazz bass wide open volume sounds different than backed off volume. Backing off the volume of one pickup and leaving the other wide open changes things. If you back off the bridge pickup it should sound a little closer to a precision, maybe you'll like that better.

Let's talk about what you are currently doing before you start cutting poopie up and rewiring things

The initial focus is usually the last resort around here. Suggestions to spend money first just highlight how slapdash most advice is.

The overwhelming cause of most issues like this is the player having no idea how to get what they want. They don't understand the importance of a setup geared towards how they play or how how much how they play causes problems.

I've had people ready to sell instruments, I ask them to show me what the problem is and invariably they're doing stuff like turning the bass' volume down and unwittingly killing the highs, boosting the highs and killing any thump, cutting the mids and complaining about... the lack of mids.

The quickest way to figure out if a bass is really a problem is to hand it to someone who knows what they're doing and seeing if they have the same issues. If not don't get discouraged, get to the shed.

Dirty little secret: turn your bass and amp up. Set everything flat. That brings everything forward. If you still have no balls at volume...

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Did anyone ask how the bass sounds acoustically? Does it have balls when you put your ear to it? If it's dead sounding acoustically, even with fresh strings, no pickup swap is gonna have any effect. If you can feel the responsiveness of the bass without even plugging it in, then feel free to swap pickups to your heart's content, but don't bother if it doesn't respond acoustically.