P lover going J

[VeryTallBassist]

FWIW, if you're dead set on not getting another bass, I say mod this one to a PJ first. It's a Warmoth body, it's not a vintage Fender. You can't go wrong adding a J pickup to it. If that doesn't do it for you, then swap the P to a J. But I think you'll get a lot more miles out of the PJ considering you're a P bass guy at heart.

 

[Marc DLarosa]

Seems like a troll thread to me. Too easy to remedy, without routing a bass...

 

[BazzaBass]

It hurts to say it, but I am planning to convert one of my P basses to a J.

I have preferred the P sound for decades. Had Js and always liked the neck PU soloed. Also likes the bridge PU soloed but never liked the scooped mid sound of both pickups together. I hate hum so always ran split coil hum cancellers.

Lately I have noticed the best sounding basses at church are single coil Js and the players run both pickups. My P and stingray basses are better instruments but through the church PA they don’t sound better.

So I will very likely be disassembling my fav P bass, routing J pickup cavities and making a new pickguard. If it doesn’t work out, I can change it to PJ.

Does your P Bass want to be converted?

 

[Anthony Fury]

My P basses are both Warmoth med scale with 1.5 inch nuts, so I would need a specific hard to find body. Can’t just swapping in any cheap J body. I also don’t want to add another bass to my collection. Changing to J pickups is my cheapest option and is mostly reversable (end up with PJ if I switch back).

The thing nobody tells you about switching back and forth between a P and J is that if you practice or perform seated *at all*, the neck location shift REALLY throws off your position jumps. As a lifelong J player who once bought an amazing sounding/looking P that I had to sell because I couldn’t play it, I was on your side from the get-go. This quote makes it make even more sense.

Anyway, unless you’re going for the Kurt Cobain gaff tape look, you’re in for a new Warmoth pickguard. If you ask nicely, I’ll bet they’ll put a neck J route in at the “correct” spot, and then you’re off to the races on the neck position route.

As a recovering 3-knob / dimed tone knob J player, I cannot recommend dual stacks (with 500K tone pots) enough. You’ll have less routing and less knob re-postioning this way, too. I also recommend the Fender J under-pickup shields. While you’re on the phone with Warmoth, get one of their wiring kits with the *shielded* bridge ground cable and run that. Shield the cavity, tie it all together and you will have no noise in any pickup setting.

Do you have any pickups in mind?

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Personally, I’d buy a loaded jazz body or build one out before modifying a favorite bass. If you don’t like the end result, you can likely sell the loaded body for close to what you have in it whereas your P may never be the same.

Or if you like the P-shape, get a PJ body and a new scratch plate and add a J in the neck position.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I set up my basses so the pickups have equal output when they are both full on, or the blend is set to the center. That's not how I run them, as I don't care for the resulting mid scoop either.

When playing I usually adjust the controls to slightly favor one pickup or the other. The effective range of blend is pretty small...a fraction of a turn. If you adjust beyond this, it's pretty much the same as running only one pickup.

With most basses I like the bridge pickup to be dominant. But with my #1, it prefer the neck pickup to be dominant. Usually don't like the bridge pickup soloed on this bass. Neck pickup soloed gets pretty close to a P-bass sound, which is not really my thing.

For my Js I try to get the balance between neck and bridge pickup the same. Then I turn the bridge pickup down and never use it again. Simples. The bridge pickup makes a great thumb rest and psychological crutch as I could use it if I needed to.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Converting the P pickup to parallel might offer an additional tonal option you might feel is closer to a Jazz. It's more different to a standard P than the same as a J but it might be the tonal change you need. With a push-pull pot it's not even a visible change. Obviously, this only gets you the neck pickup change so PJ might also be required. But I'd suggest getting an old, loaded Squier J body first. The pickups on an old VM or CV Jazz or the Standard Series would be close enough for government work at least.

 

[Geogio]

Think real hard about screwing up one of your basses when it is completely avoidable and totally unnecessary.

Besides... in MY humble opinion a PJ is a compromise. I don't know why I think that. I have two PJs and they are not my favorite configs. I will go to the P first, and I'm fresh out of a J and I've had 3 over the years. I think J's look great, I never could get them to do what I wanted them to do sonically. I have thought about taking a blanked contol cavity backed J body and one of those gigantic Music Man 3 pounders and sticking it in there. With a 1.75" nut neck. But at this point in time, it's just not gonna happen.

 

[darwin-bass]

Seems like a troll thread to me. Too easy to remedy, without routing a bass...

Really?

Having built many basses, routing a couple of pickup openings in a body is pretty easy for me. I have the tools and experience. Pickguard will cover the overlapping P and J route so it will continue to look factory.

My instrument closet has no more room. I already have more basses than I need or deserve. Adding another bass is a no go. Won’t do.

So, not a troll, but someone with a different set of goals and constraints than you.

 

[chris_b]

. . . . I have preferred the P sound for decades. . . . Lately I have noticed the best sounding basses at church are single coil Js and the players run both pickups. My P and stingray basses are better instruments but through the church PA they don’t sound better. . . . So I will very likely be disassembling my fav P bass, routing J pickup cavities and making a new pickguard. If it doesn’t work out, I can change it to PJ.

First, you need to discover what is happening with the bass EQ through the PA. Fix that and your Precision basses might sound better than the Jazz basses.

Maybe you just need a better sounding Precision. My Mike Lull P bass beat my Fender Jazz bass hands down.

Have you asked the sound man and other bass players what they think of the bass sound? I've hated my sound on a gig, only to be complemented by the band!

 

[JenderBazzFass]

If there is anything I have learned in my years of playing guitar and bass, it's not to make mods that aren't reversible. The majority of the mods I have made over the years did not solve the problem I was hoping they would solve and many of those I eventually reversed.

I wish I had all the money back I spent modding guitars instead of just buying what I needed or discovering a better way to do what I was doing. Not saying you are doing anything wrong OP, just my experience.

 

[darwin-bass]

The thing nobody tells you about switching back and forth between a P and J is that if you practice or perform seated *at all*, the neck location shift REALLY throws off your position jumps. As a lifelong J player who once bought an amazing sounding/looking P that I had to sell because I couldn’t play it, I was on your side from the get-go. This quote makes it make even more sense.

Anyway, unless you’re going for the Kurt Cobain gaff tape look, you’re in for a new Warmoth pickguard. If you ask nicely, I’ll bet they’ll put a neck J route in at the “correct” spot, and then you’re off to the races on the neck position route.

As a recovering 3-knob / dimed tone knob J player, I cannot recommend dual stacks (with 500K tone pots) enough. You’ll have less routing and less knob re-postioning this way, too. I also recommend the Fender J under-pickup shields. While you’re on the phone with Warmoth, get one of their wiring kits with the *shielded* bridge ground cable and run that. Shield the cavity, tie it all together and you will have no noise in any pickup setting.

Do you have any pickups in mind?

Warnoth doesn’t do a J route in their SS pickguard. They might for an up-charge. Or I can get a blank one and route it myself. I will have to route the body so it is not much extra work.

Not sure about pickups. Want single coils. Fralin gets lots of love. Fender has some as well at a bit lower price.

this whole thing is still in the thought-experiment stage.

One factor may be the variability of our sound techs. It is possible that the J sounds better because the mix is better.

 

[murphy]

The big danger there is you might get another neck for the extra body, then wind up with more bass guitars than intended. (DAMHIK) But there are worse fates.

That is exactly what happened to me!

 

[ThunderV]

I kinda did the same thing......my main bass is a warmoth jazz.......with a pbass neck. Something about the neck width at the nut just feels better.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

The big danger there is you might get another neck for the extra body, then wind up with more bass guitars than intended. (DAMHIK) But there are worse fates.

I did that. My 'bonus' bass which I made from parts spare from upgrades and ended up being the one I kept...

 

[Bass Ape]

Sounds like GAS to me. Whatever you’re hearing in the church PA is not because the J just sounds better.

Why not ask one of your congregation bass players to test their J out first so you can AB them.

In the end. You do you and don’t listen to any one of us because we’re not you. Please remember though, everyone here is just trying to give their best advice so you can avoid any unnecessary work.

 

[MattZilla]

Really?

So, not a troll,

it’s this that makes it seem like a troll post:

Had Js and (…) never liked the scooped mid sound of both pickups together. (…) Lately I have noticed the best sounding basses at church are single coil Js and the players run both pickups.

 

[Snarf]

A J bass with both pickups on sounds wonderful. But of course the scooped mids can be a challenge in the mix. What I do to solve this is determine what mid frequencies are lacking in the mix and boost them a bit on my amp (currently a Subway WD-800 where I can sweep the EQ). Then you get that nice scooped J-bass sound that does get lost as easily in dense mix.

I read this and thought "The solution to the jazz bass problem is a P bass."

 

[Bag of Lazers]

My instrument closet has no more room. I already have more basses than I need or deserve. Adding another bass is a no go. Won’t do.

What about keeping the new one at your church? Seems that's a good place to store it since you'd buy it just/mainly to play it there. Or, you could sell off a bass you don't play much to make room. I recently moved one of my basses to my office to make some room at home and to have something me and my coworkers can thump around on. Could something like this be a possible solution for you?

 

[Mike Vee]

There's so many good cheap jazz basses available, id never give up my straight P, NEVER. A J isn't a replacement, but a compliment that is great, but not as usable, IMO.