P bass vs PJ bass

[SteveCS]

I guess I was wondering those with a PJ bass how many just use the P pickups or do you switch between the p and the j

Almost never P alone, in my case. The magic of the PJ is in the blends IME. So selectors are out and VVT (or VBT) is in.

 

[Vinny_G]

With a PJ you already have a P. I see the PJ as an augmented P, if that makes sense.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

...as long as it's purple!
Still can't get over your work on that!

It's satin now too. I'm gonna order a few different pickguards also. Another black, black pearl, and purple pearl. See what I like better.

 

[dkelley]

I find questions like this very similar to a mechanic asking "Whats the better wrench, a 1/2" or a 9/16th"? Two different tools.

But, they're not. One is a 1/2" wrench (p) the other is a 1/2" wrench with a control that lets it change to a 9/16th, if you want it to do that (PJ).

One thing that flummoxes me completely is that folks don't seem to grasp that a PJ can do a P perfectly - it IS a P, just turn off the J pickup.

With one bass, you now own a Precision. You can, if desired, add a bridge pickup into the mix too, and depending on the design it can scoop mids a bit or just add bite and grind to the sound a bit.

Tonal options are great when it's a simple as "turn the 2nd volume control to 0" to get your favorite classic precision tone.

There's a precision bass. Then there's a precision bass that offers other options with the turn of a dial. Both sound exactly like precision basses... one offers more.

 

[diegom]

One thing that flummoxes me completely is that folks don't seem to grasp that a PJ can do a P perfectly - it IS a P, just turn off the J pickup.

I'm sure many a cork-sniffer would tell you that if the bass has a blend or 2 volumes, a PJ will never be a P, because the J is always in the circuit...
I'm NOT in that camp. I prefer a blend, perfect P tone be damned!
Interesting about the PJ, that many have already mentioned, it's not as much about the bridge tone being added by the J, but about the lever of "scoop"...
Oh, the wonders of musical electroacoustics!

 

[dkelley]

I'm sure many a cork-sniffer would tell you that if the bass has a blend or 2 volumes, a PJ will never be a P, because the J is always in the circuit...
I'm NOT in that camp. I prefer a blend, perfect P tone be damned!
Interesting about the PJ, that many have already mentioned, it's not as much about the bridge tone being added by the J, but about the lever of "scoop"...
Oh, the wonders of musical electroacoustics!

Yes I know. And what does it do? the J is out of the circuit, and the 2nd volume pot reduces high frequencies by a teeny tiny amount. That's the facts of the electrical signal.

And yea, totally, whatever the tiny side effect, I'll take blend or two volumes (similar electrical result) either way. And with a blend, turn it all the way to one side and the other pickups is 100% out of the circuit... just the pot still loads the circuit down a bit.

It's like putting in a 250k pot instead of a 500k pot.

 

[Mike Vee]

Another thing is that after i got used to resting my thumb on the J pickup, just having the P pickup TOTALLY throws me off. even the tone of just the P pickup while resting on the J is what I prefer. There's no place in that area on a regular P bass to rest your thumb and it now drives me a little crazy to play just a P. My next bass will be a Jazz bass.

 

[Pet Sounds]

I've never really gotten along with the PJ configuration, but for some reason it seems to work better for me on my American Elite Precision Bass than on other PJs I've owned, active and passive alike. The pickups somehow seem to work together better. I think having a blend knob seems to help. I realize this is pretty inarticulate.

 

[TheDirtyLowDown]

I play mostly fretless fingerstyle funk... on a P/J bass with active EMGs.

I run the bridge J pickup almost wide-open, to get the brightness and clarity that I need for fretless, and I dial in enough of the neck P pickup to give the sound depth and fullness. My first bass was/is a 78 P bass, and I love it for what it does well, and for my history with it, but I love the P/J basses more ... for how they sound and their tonal flexibility.

I'd recommend a P/J to you just for the versatility. I like the range of tones that i can get with the onboard active preamp, and I like not having to go back to my amp to make tone changes.

Good luck!

 

[Yellow Bang66]

Those are three different things:

A Precision Bass has a single humbucking pickup; a single pickup bass if fine, but you lose the ability to dial-in or build a tone from combining two pickups. The Precision pickup is also a humbucking pickup, which is a big part of that solid PBass tone, which is different than . . . . .

A Jazz Bass, a two-pickup instrument, and generally, both of those are single-coil pickups. Single coils sound different than that PBass pickup, still good, and with two pickups you have a lot of possibilities tone-wise just in the mix of those two pickups, how much you turn one up or down vs. the other. A lot more possibilities than the single pickup PBass, although since they are single-coils, some noise can be an issue in some environments. And generally, the sonic signature of the Jazz pickups are different than the Precision pickup, most would think Jazz pickups are just a bit thinner, or brighter mids vs. a Precision pickup, but this is generally the case when you compare single coil and humbucking pickups.

The PJ setup is preferred by some as you combine that beefier sound of the PBass pickup with the bright sound of the JBass pickup back towards the bridge. It's the ticket for guys who like a PBass but wish they had a little more articulation in the highs and mids, or for JBass guys that wish their Jazz sounded a bit beefier. And again, you have two pickups to blend for lots of tonal variation.

There's way more to it than that (do you prefer a Jazz or Precision body shape, a Precision or Jazz neck, the many pickup choices you can make, etc.), but that's the way they line up to me.

Okay this is what i do. both on Full. adjust tone to taste, turn down the jazz til it fits the right "tone". Fine tune with the EQ on the amp if it needs more or less HEAVEN!

 

[Claymore]

Both pickups and the tone knob at 75% almost all of the time. Occasionally I'll drop the J pickup to 50% or lower. This is for a bass with hot pickups, though. For a regular output instrument, I'd probably dime everything.

 

[Nebadon2000]

You can play any bass for any genre. Does not make the least bit of a difference apart from teh visual thing... some BLs prefer to see certain things.
I personally would always go for a P over a PJ. I don't like PJs all too much.

 

[noeinstein]

I love the idea of a PJ bass, but they don't always pan out. I've had others, but this is my favorite. If you can find one, grab it. Among other great features, it has two classic Fender pickups; an American Vintage '63 Split Single-Coil P in the mid position, and an American Vintage '64 Single-Coil J in the bridge position. Soloed, the P pickup has everything you could ask for from a P bass. But then, when you dial in some of that Jazz, well, it's music even to my old, beat up ears. I use the Jazz pup for coloration. Soloed it's kinda uninspiring.

 

[groove pump]

Hi all I was just wondering what are your thoughts for general usage bass for say rock / soft rock type of music what do you prefer a P bass or a PJ bass ?
Is it better to have a P bass and a J bass or have a PJ bass rather than the 2 ?
Thanks

I was a long-time J player when I picked up a P/J a while back. It was time to add "something else" to my lineup. My findings:

The P/J isn't the best of both worlds. I can solo the P and get that extra "honk", but blending in the J pickup doesn't give me a tone that's particularly close to what I get with a Jazz bass. Solo'ing the P is the more aggressive tone, but I can mellow it a bit by blending in a bit of the J - my bass has a blend control, not a pickup switch. I never play with my blend right in the middle or the J pickup solo'ed.

If I partially blend in the J pickup with the P and also roll off some of the passive tone control, I get a much better sound for playing smooth 'n groovy stuff like slow blues, etc. where I don't want to sound like a Tasmanian Devil. But solo'ing the P can bring some extra anger to my tone and let me sit in the band's mix with authority. It rocks!! The J pickup just seems to bring and extra dimension to it.

If I do any quick slapping with the P/J, I like it with the J partially blended in and the tone wide open. That works in a pinch, but a Jazz bass does that sort of sound MUCH better for me.

If I could have only two basses to cover lots of ground, I'd want a Jazz and a P/J instead of a P. That's only how my preferences run. In case you're thinking about shopping one bass that can "do it all", that's a tough call, but I'd say have a look at some basses with a HH layout and maybe a preamp and some switching.

I recently found a Bacchus 24 which has a pair of JJ humbuckers and I'm getting three or four different tones with it that I'm liking a lot. Recording situations may call for specific tones that we'd get from a P or a Jazz or even a Ric, but I have all the sounds that I want for my gigs on hand with this one instrument.

 

[garp]

I truly love the diversity of TB – that's why I'm here.

That being said, my sole P/J has a three-way switch...none of this intricate "blending" nonsense. But honestly, for "soft rock," I'd advocate for what
Joe Osborn ultimately went with: a Jazz.

 

[sotua]

I guess I was wondering those with a PJ bass how many just use the P pickups or do you switch between the p and the j

When I had PJs, it was either both full blast or only the P, I was never a fan of the bridge J tone by itself (mostly rock context, so never got the thinner bridge J tone to work with a band without requiring massive boosts in the amps which never gave a really satisfactory tone).

 

[bigtone23]

With a PJ you already have a P. I see the PJ as an augmented P, if that makes sense.

Yep! A P+, if you will.

When I had PJs, it was either both full blast or only the P, I was never a fan of the bridge J tone by itself (mostly rock context, so never got the thinner bridge J tone to work with a band without requiring massive boosts in the amps which never gave a really satisfactory tone).

...yep again! I'm either full P (1/3 of the time) or full both (2/3 of the time). Never solo the J.

I'm not really a full on P guy, I like the scoopy sounds you get from 2 pickups blended equally. That said, I'll take a PJ over a P most any day to be my "P" bass. My passive PJ has a series/parallel switch for the P pickup, in parallel mode, I can get close enough for RnR J tones live, too.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

I love P-basses.
I don't like the nasal sound of bridge pickups.
I don't like the scooped, hollow, phased out sound of combining two pickups.
I don't like the look of that J-pickup near the bridge.
Therefore a PJ is kinda wasted on me.

Having said that, I like the sound of the P-pickup in a PJ. The difference to a true P-bass is marginal to the point where practially everything else about the bass matters more.

So ideally I would want a true P-bass but if I like a PJ in P-only mode better... I will go for the PJ and just pretend the bridge pickup isn't there.

 

[Nebadon2000]

I recently bought a Ultra Precision; my first PJ Bass; actually first Bass with 2 pickups. I get none of the quirks mentioned here and on other threads.

J pickup is not weak and has maybe touch more perceived volume soloed than P soloed or center on blend control[using Fenders pickup height specs]

no drastic 'scoop' when blend centered or volume loss both active and passive; A more Modern sound yes; attractive and useful also; maybe what a Stingray may sound like passive or with flats?

P soloed sounds like a Vintage P passive and a tad brighter/clear active; I attribute to cord having no loss active

J soloed sounds like P bass played at bridge on steroids not nasal maybe burpy?

I mainly played P basses from '75 on with a 3yr stint with EBMM single H and preferred them over multiple pickup Basses I played briefly but at 65 I decided to go outside my box and I am very satisfied with my purchase.

 

[equalizin]

My main 2 basses are a P and a PJ (Geezer Set). I find the J pickup is nice when you add a little in with a full on P. If you are trying to feature the J on its own its kinda worthless though. Both turned all the way I dont like. The J is either all the way off or 30% on. A PJ is just a P with a little extra on demand bite. No negatives. If you slap a bit the PJ can get a much better slap tone.