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P-Bass Vs. Jazz Bass
- Thread starter BrandonA119
- Start date
I would KILL for this P bass. (And the jazz bass would be nice too!)
Jazz Bass vs. Precision Bass - FenderBassPlayer.com
I'm not expert. I own a P and a J. To me the neck pickup on the J sounds nothing like a P. The Jazz neck pickup has a rounder quality to it. The P is more focused and fat in the low mids. It has a presence that cuts through. For some arrangements, the P's strong low mid can muddy up the mix. The J bass has a bit less girth in the low mids but a fatter bottom. I favor it in a dense arrangement because it does a good job of holding down the low end while staying out of the way of other instruments like a keyboard or guitars that are playing in open positions.
Different tools for different jobs. The Jazz works a little more often for the music I play, but there are times when a P and nothing else will do the job. I can usually tell from the moment I begin to work on a song which bass will work better. Since tracks are cheap on a DAW, I'll sometime record the bass line twice using each bass, then decide when I mix which to use.
Different tools for different jobs. The Jazz works a little more often for the music I play, but there are times when a P and nothing else will do the job. I can usually tell from the moment I begin to work on a song which bass will work better. Since tracks are cheap on a DAW, I'll sometime record the bass line twice using each bass, then decide when I mix which to use.
Well, I love my P, and I love my J, but choosing between them? Oh my. Well, the J has a bigger bottom end and a treblier snarl, but the P is just a classic sounding masterpiece of a bass with a huge midrange that sits perfectly in almost any mix. They're both great, but if I had to pick one, I'd go with my Jazz.
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If you play bass, get a Precision Bass and stop bothering about equipment. Instead, start to play, practice and develop a tone, your tone! If needed, or you just have some money to spend, get yourself a Jazz Bass as well, it won't hurt and you will have anything a bass player needs, ever.
Easy as that! ;-)
Easy as that! ;-)
Leo was trying to fix speaker deficiencies by changing the pickup designs, which did not do the job, but ended up giving us more tone choices so it ended up being a good thing. Speakers would take a couple decades to begin to handle higher volume bass thump. Take the SVT for example, in 69/70 when it came out it needed 2 8x10's to handle the 300w output. It wasn't till a few years later that speakers were sufficient enough for "only" 8 10's being needed to handle the power.
I prefer jazz bass, geddy lee influence. My first bass was a squier P, I wasn't in love with it, but was still mainly playing guitar at the time. When I decided to switch to mainly bass, my next one was an ibanez tr80 pj, and a peavey fury (p). It was only a short while before I upgraded to a Mex jazz, and was finally happy with my bass tone. This grew to a 2nd Mex jazz, and the sale of the tr80 and fury, which eventually led to selling both the mexis and getting MIA jazz in 98, and shortly after the geddy lee (I had been pining after a 72 maple/block before the geddy lee took care of that). I guess I am a jazz guy, but I picked up an MIA P in 2000, and don't plan on parting with it. It has it's place in the arsenal, and currently it is the one I am playing, though mine has considerably less low end than the jazz, it has a much angrier midrange, and can get that "clunky" steve Harris tone when I want that.
I still love the jazz though, and mostly play it full up with just the neck rolled off just enough to get that slight mid boost (or more accurately, less of the parallel mid scoop), or with both full up, which is the famous jazz tone. I use just the neck for the jaco tone, and just the bridge for the semi p bass tone, when I don't want to hassle with switching basses. Either serves well as a backup for the other, because let's face it, 90% of the audience couldn't tell the difference in sound, and 75% even in looks, if you were to play one where you would normally play the other. Bassists on the other hand...
If I had to choose one it would be the jazz, I like the narrow nut, and while you can come close to the p sound with the jazz neck, you can't get the jazz bridge or blend sounds at all from a p (not counting p/j of course).
You could call the p bass a one trick pony, but for 60 years nobody is sick of that trick. Although geddy lee never went back to the p bass, and after flirting with stienbergers and wal's, went back to the jazz instead of the p or ric (the ric era stuff sounds great on jazz, as do the p bass classics)
I prefer jazz bass, geddy lee influence. My first bass was a squier P, I wasn't in love with it, but was still mainly playing guitar at the time. When I decided to switch to mainly bass, my next one was an ibanez tr80 pj, and a peavey fury (p). It was only a short while before I upgraded to a Mex jazz, and was finally happy with my bass tone. This grew to a 2nd Mex jazz, and the sale of the tr80 and fury, which eventually led to selling both the mexis and getting MIA jazz in 98, and shortly after the geddy lee (I had been pining after a 72 maple/block before the geddy lee took care of that). I guess I am a jazz guy, but I picked up an MIA P in 2000, and don't plan on parting with it. It has it's place in the arsenal, and currently it is the one I am playing, though mine has considerably less low end than the jazz, it has a much angrier midrange, and can get that "clunky" steve Harris tone when I want that.
I still love the jazz though, and mostly play it full up with just the neck rolled off just enough to get that slight mid boost (or more accurately, less of the parallel mid scoop), or with both full up, which is the famous jazz tone. I use just the neck for the jaco tone, and just the bridge for the semi p bass tone, when I don't want to hassle with switching basses. Either serves well as a backup for the other, because let's face it, 90% of the audience couldn't tell the difference in sound, and 75% even in looks, if you were to play one where you would normally play the other. Bassists on the other hand...
If I had to choose one it would be the jazz, I like the narrow nut, and while you can come close to the p sound with the jazz neck, you can't get the jazz bridge or blend sounds at all from a p (not counting p/j of course).
You could call the p bass a one trick pony, but for 60 years nobody is sick of that trick. Although geddy lee never went back to the p bass, and after flirting with stienbergers and wal's, went back to the jazz instead of the p or ric (the ric era stuff sounds great on jazz, as do the p bass classics)
rolling off the bridge pup on a jazz gets you ONE of the P's tones, but the P has many tonal nuances.
For any one pickup bass to have many tonal nuances, a two pickup bass can have many more.
Otherwise, we are talking about amps/pedals
Otherwise, we are talking about amps/pedals
When talking 4 strings and Fender P vs Fender J my first choice would be a Fender P with a Jazz neck haha. But I don't really have any use for a 4 string anymore. I played a 5 string Jazz at GC and liked it, but haven't played strictly a 5 String P. I own a 5 string P/J, and love it. I deactivated the J Pickup. It's not a Fender though, so I'm trying not to base my opinion on it.
When talking Fenders, I would want to really sit down with both basses and formulate a real comparison, and I've yet to do that. I've played more Fender P's though so for now that wins by default.
When talking Fenders, I would want to really sit down with both basses and formulate a real comparison, and I've yet to do that. I've played more Fender P's though so for now that wins by default.
Even though this is one of the top three dead horse topic on TB, I'll bite with the obvious that has already been stated to the point killing yet another horse: OP, adjust tone controls to taste. And if you don't like what you hear, buy a Precision!
My new Squier sounds so much better than those old crappy basses too, like those 60s precisions.
With slap, a jazz bass is snappy and trebly, like a normal slap bass. With a P-bass, it's not as trebly, but is CHUNKY AS HELL! Seriously, slap a P at top volume and both your speakers and head will explode.
I would say the jazz bass was created for the jazz players, they could change the tone to fit a lot of that style of play. more tone's, the p bass is more of a one trick pony. the p has more bottom with a edge. i have a p bass and a jazz bass, it just depends on what style of music i'm
going at.
going at.
This +100
They are both fantastic instruments and have different characteristics. Don't think you can cop a nice deep bass sound with a Jazz? go listen to anything Joe Osborne did in the 60's with the fifth dimension, or America, or any of the hundreds of other groups he recorded with. Then go listen to Marcus Miller and Geddy Lee and then Jaco Pastorious. Jazz basses are wonderful. So are P basses, just listen to James Jamerson, or Freddie Jackson, Donald "Duck" Dunn, etc.
I don't need to advocate for either bass, players have made history on both and sounded fantastic doing it. My advice is to pick one now and save up for the other so you have both.
I have a feeling we are dealing with a very intelligent human here.....
The only things I am pretty sure about regarding P vs J debates, are-
* 90% of the people providing "historical" reasons for the J's development, or Leo Fender's design intent, are possibly very likely wrong, and likely got their wrong info from another interweb site a few years ago, and that one was, at least to a degree, wrong and so on. Thats how fables and myths and fairy tales were passed on centuries ago, and it still happens today...just with more technology. Assumptions, misinterpretations, whatever.
* People who say they can get a P sound from a J neck pickup, either haven't experienced many P's, or at least good ones... or they have an extremely low threshold for what constitutes an acceptable "P"-type sound.
* People who say a J has more midrange than a P don't understand what midrange is.
* The majority of audience members may not know or care what kind of bass is being played, but they certainly are able to discern the affect that 2 different types of basses like a Jazz or a Precision provide in the context of the music, how it feels, etc. They probably can't put their finger on why the music "feels" a certain way, but I'm sure they can discern that there is an overall difference in the music, and they may prefer one over the other by quite a bit.
* 90% of the people providing "historical" reasons for the J's development, or Leo Fender's design intent, are possibly very likely wrong, and likely got their wrong info from another interweb site a few years ago, and that one was, at least to a degree, wrong and so on. Thats how fables and myths and fairy tales were passed on centuries ago, and it still happens today...just with more technology. Assumptions, misinterpretations, whatever.
* People who say they can get a P sound from a J neck pickup, either haven't experienced many P's, or at least good ones... or they have an extremely low threshold for what constitutes an acceptable "P"-type sound.
* People who say a J has more midrange than a P don't understand what midrange is.
* The majority of audience members may not know or care what kind of bass is being played, but they certainly are able to discern the affect that 2 different types of basses like a Jazz or a Precision provide in the context of the music, how it feels, etc. They probably can't put their finger on why the music "feels" a certain way, but I'm sure they can discern that there is an overall difference in the music, and they may prefer one over the other by quite a bit.
