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My jazz bass is ridiculously bright

E

eoinwalsh

Jun 10, 2011
136
5
#1
When I play over the bridge pickup I have the bridge volume up full, neck volume at zero and treble at zero. It's a passive jazz bass. I don't use the the neck volume unless I'm playing where the strings are less taught. But I like to play over the bridge pickup where the strings are very taught and when I do this I use the settings describe above.


With every amp/combo I've ever used, I've always had to turn the treble and mids literally down to zero and the bass up to 3/4 or sometimes up full to get some low end from the E and A strings but with the D and G strings it's hopeless. Even with no treble or mids from the amp and loads of bass coming from the amp, the 2 high strings sound painfully trebly, so much so that I'm afraid to touch them, especially the G string. All 4 strings sound horribly trebly but G string is virtually unplayable. This is with the bridge pickup setting on my bass that I mentioned in the 1st paragraph.

I'm not going to try adding in more neck pickup and taking some bridge away because on my bass, playing over the bridge with neck pickup volume up sounds and feels awful. So I'm keeping my jazz bass settings.

I just think it's ridiculous that with the treble on my bass at zero, the mids and treble on the amp at zero and bass up loads (and with the tweeter off if there is one), I still can't reduce the brightness. A sound engineer at a gig the other night was baffled by it.

Has anyone experienced this?
 
#3
So, let me get this straight...you use nothing but the bridge pup that will be the brightest of the two pups, and you play right near the bridge, which will give you the brightest, thinnest sound. You seem to want a sound that is the complete opposite of what you wiould naturally achieve with that pup selection and playing style but you're not willing to change your settings or technique?

Good luck with that then....
 
#4
Playing by the bridge for a specific feel - okay, I get that, even though it will give you the opposite sound to what you want. But why does adding neck pickup make it 'sound and feel awful'? It should do nothing to the feel and give you a rounder, less bright sound.

Other than that, strings? Maybe try flats?

The main problem seems to be that you want the bridge pickup of a Jazz to sound unlike the bridge pickup of a Jazz. On my P-J bass I accept the J pickup for what it is, and use it when I want that sort of sound. If I want a warmer and rounder sound, I add more P to the blend.
 
#5
Jools4001 said:
So, let me get this straight...you use nothing but the bridge pup that will be the brightest of the two pups, and you play right near the bridge, which will give you the brightest, thinnest sound. You seem to want a sound that is the complete opposite of what you wiould naturally achieve with that pup selection and playing style but you're not willing to change your settings or technique?

Good luck with that then....
Click to expand...

No, you don't understand. For fingerstyle playing over that pickup, that's the only setting that sounds in any way close to what I want. I want that growl and with every other jazz bass I've played that's how I've got it but with mine it's not working. From experimenting with my bass, i've found that using neck pickup volume while playing over the bridge pickup just sounds atrocious. As I mentioned, I feel that neck pickup volume only works when playing where the strings are looser. Over the bridge the strings are very taught - I like the way this feels but with neck pickup volume up it sounds so wrong. Also, I can't seem to add just a little neck pickup because the knob does virtually nothing until you turn it all the way up, so it's all or nothing.

Furthermore, you're missing the main point :


  • The amp treble and mids are at zero
  • The amp bass is up a lot
  • The instrument treble is at zero.

but it almost sounds like I'm using the complete opposite settings.

I know the bridge pickup is bright but even with it up full and with the neck at zero it shouldn't be this bright. That's why I'm thinking some else must be wrong.
 
#6
Jools4001 said:
So, let me get this straight...you use nothing but the bridge pup that will be the brightest of the two pups, and you play right near the bridge, which will give you the brightest, thinnest sound. You seem to want a sound that is the complete opposite of what you wiould naturally achieve with that pup selection and playing style but you're not willing to change your settings or technique?

Good luck with that then....
Click to expand...

Not crazy.

I use the bridge only most of the time, and pluck at the same spot. It is NOT ultra bright for me. With round wounds. I do back off tone a bit because I like the top end off a bit.

To The op:
Have the electronics been modified. A wrong, very wrong, tone capacitor coupled with a wrong pot will result in not much treble being removed. Do you hear a big difference in both extremes of the tone setting? Fully on vs fully off?

What strings do you use?

What bass is it?

Can you post a clip so we can hear it?
 
#8
SoVeryTired said:
Playing by the bridge for a specific feel - okay, I get that, even though it will give you the opposite sound to what you want. But why does adding neck pickup make it 'sound and feel awful'? It should do nothing to the feel and give you a rounder, less bright sound.
Click to expand...


Well, I can't seem to add a little of the neck pickup because the knob doesn't seem to do anything until it's turned all the way up so it's all or nothing. And this does sound nasty over the bridge pickup.


Also, the sound that i want is that jazz bass growl which seems to be only achievable on my bass by using the settings I've described. But it seems like I can't have this without having this intolerable brightness which is why I've resorted to turning treble and mids on the amp to zero and bass up loads. - remember, as I said above, I can't use the neck pickup unless I use all of it.
 
#10
mcnach said:
What strings do you use?

What bass is it?
Click to expand...



I've used a variety of strings. It's always been the same.

It's a highway one jazz bass like this Fender Highway One Jazz Bass (3-Color Sunburst) | Sweetwater.com


mcnach said:
To The op:
Have the electronics been modified. A wrong, very wrong, tone capacitor coupled with a wrong pot will result in not much treble being removed. Do you hear a big difference in both extremes of the tone setting? Fully on vs fully off?
Click to expand...


The electronics have not been modified. When you say fully on vs fully off, do you mean bridge at full and neck at zero vs neck at full and bridge at zero ?

If so, yes there is a big difference.

Also, the neck pickup tone knob does not do anything unless you turn it up all the way and then it's at full whack, so I can't really add in a little neck.
 
#12
eoinwalsh said:
Well, I can't seem to add a little of the neck pickup because the knob doesn't seem to do anything until it's turned all the way up so it's all or nothing. And this does sound nasty over the bridge pickup.


Also, the sound that i want is that jazz bass growl which seems to be only achievable on my bass by using the settings I've described. But it seems like I can't have this without having this intolerable brightness which is why I've resorted to turning treble and mids on the amp to zero and bass up loads. - remember, as I said above, I can't use the neck pickup unless I use all of it.
Click to expand...

Well, from my limited bass experience (which has all been on Jazz or P-J basses), it does sound like the electrics are messed up, as others have said. That's not the sort of behaviour I've experienced from the MIA Jazz I've played.

I'm no technical expert so my best advice is to take it to a decent local luthier/repair guy and explain the problem. If you want to have a go at fixing yourself I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me will be along in just a minute. :)
 
#13
Try an outboard preamp, like a Sadowsky. Select that bridge pickup, and dial in the bass on the preamp.

I'm pretty sure I know the sound you want. See if you can hunt down something like that, or try an active bass with bass//treble/balance controls. If you can hear the sound you're looking for from such a bass, an outboard preamp may help you get there.
 
#15
If you have a highway one, you have the greasebucket tone circuit that also incorporates another capacitor and resistor in the circuit.

The greasebucket is designed to "prevent a resonant bass boost when the tone is at 0" Fender's words, not mine.

I'd get that rewired to a normal tone circuit if I were you.
 
#17
Deja Vu all over again. Here we go with another one of these threads. Lots of solutions offered by helpful TBers, but none will work. Reminds me quite a bit of that "My Amp Is Too Loud" thread. Jazz bass is too trebly? Assuming that your pickups are not out of phase, turn down the bridge pickup, turn up the neck pickup, or ditch the twangy roundwound strings.
 
#20
JB696 said:
Deja Vu all over again. Here we go with another one of these threads. Lots of solutions offered by helpful TBers, but none will work. Reminds me quite a bit of that "My Amp Is Too Loud" thread. Jazz bass is too trebly? Assuming that your pickups are not out of phase, turn down the bridge pickup, turn up the neck pickup, or ditch the twangy roundwound strings.
Click to expand...

Well, to be fair, I had tried most of the solutions offered here many times long before I even made this thread. None of them helped, which is why i made this thread. I had tried all the obvious, logical solutions, they didn't help.

As I've stated a few times already, turning down the bridge and turning up the neck left me with a nasty sound that i didn't like because the neck volume knob doesn't seem to add any neck volume until it's up full and playing over the bridge with the neck pickup up full sounds bad.

To make a long story short, my jazz bass behaves very differently to any other one I've played. I've used this setting on a lot of jazz basses with roundwound strings and it's always sounded ok. It's never been this bright.
 

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