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Precision PJ but no Jazz PJ
- Thread starter u84six
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- jazz bass pj precision bass
Cage the Elephant guy could just come out and admit he loves him some Blink 182. No shame in that.
Didn't want to spring for a new pickguard eh?
Doesn't MM always play a jazz??
I just saw this EXACT bass in a pawn shop last week!....very interesting looking...a feel GAS coming along
playing a Fender Aerodyne I picked up right here, as I type. It's friggin' mint that way. All J feel ( although bod is contoured), lighter than my slabassed 5'er ( lakland, which is all 70's J bliss - which in fact I picked up indirectly thru TB, its started as the bass in my avatar right from Chicago) . In fact, its such a nice instrument, I came on the site to see if one can bind a neck easily enough. This one is worth the dime to have someone bind the fretboard just like the bod.
Best purchase on here on TB classifieds ever! ( an that includes Sadowsky's , Valentis and the like - exe my J5, which is a custom built thru contacts made here, Dan Lakin, Larry Pollack and Pat Wilkins - and its as good , if not better than any J bass I have every touched, to include the Js of my youth in the 70s. Blows all Sadowsky's away! )
Best purchase on here on TB classifieds ever! ( an that includes Sadowsky's , Valentis and the like - exe my J5, which is a custom built thru contacts made here, Dan Lakin, Larry Pollack and Pat Wilkins - and its as good , if not better than any J bass I have every touched, to include the Js of my youth in the 70s. Blows all Sadowsky's away! )
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The neck pickup on a Jazz bass is closer to the neck than a P. With a PJ bass derived from the Precision platform you basically have to plant a J pickup into an unrouted area of the body, which is relatively easily done. I think the appetite in bassists who go down this route has always been to squeeze a brighter tone out of a P bass, so historically it was P basses that ended up routed for extra pickups.
Basses like the Aerodyne simply plant a P pickup where the J neck pickup would be, which shifts it closer to the neck than where the pickup resides on a proper P bass. If you produce a Jazz pickguard with a P pickup route, in the correct P pickup location, you end up with a tiny sliver of pickguard left at the rear behind the pickup route. I had a guy make me a pickguard for my old Jazz bass (which I sometimes miss) with the P pickup in the correct location, and the solution was simply to produce a mashup that was 90% Jazz pickguard and 10% Precision pickguard where the pickup was. I've attached an image of the final outcome. From memory the bass ran on a set of low budget Schallers that were sold to me as Dimarzios.
Basses like the Aerodyne simply plant a P pickup where the J neck pickup would be, which shifts it closer to the neck than where the pickup resides on a proper P bass. If you produce a Jazz pickguard with a P pickup route, in the correct P pickup location, you end up with a tiny sliver of pickguard left at the rear behind the pickup route. I had a guy make me a pickguard for my old Jazz bass (which I sometimes miss) with the P pickup in the correct location, and the solution was simply to produce a mashup that was 90% Jazz pickguard and 10% Precision pickguard where the pickup was. I've attached an image of the final outcome. From memory the bass ran on a set of low budget Schallers that were sold to me as Dimarzios.
Attachments
It's in the "was" category - but they are common enough and recent enough they shouldn't be TOO hard to find.
My understanding of those is they are actually closer to being a Jazz b/c the pickups which look like PBass Pickups are wired in parallel - so you get much more of that single coil "clang" than the humbucking "grumph" (sorry - don't know they accepted phonemes for the difference between a single coil and a split single coil).
But that certainly is rectifiable by someone handy with a soldering iron or a new set of p/us.
Each pickup (set of split coils) is wired in series, but then the pickups themselves are in parallel (which is the default for most basses with two pickups).
If you wanted some extra Oomph, you could wire it all in series.
That is the norm, which is why I used a Reggie Hamilton-sig Jazz pickguard as a routing template for my own project. Originally, I went with a Blacktop Jazz guard for positioning. It was plenty-fine, but I wanted the P-pup to sound a bit more "traditional/thumpy", so I had it redone. Zowie, what a difference!!
Here's a pic of the "naked" body. The route in the middle is the stock, Jazz position. To the right is the Blacktop position and the leftmost route is the Reggie "sweet spot".
Having experimented with both now, I usually tell people who want a wee bit more "thump" to go with the Reggie-position, but if they want a touch of "growl/grind", go with the Blacktop.
To the best of my knowledge, they're wired up as normal, split-coil pickups. Either way though, it sounds nothing like a Jazz bass. Hands down, this bass is a cannon! It may have a bit more "growl" than a standard Precision or P/J, but it is very much it's own beastie.
Wouldn't a Fender Aerodyne be what you are looking for?
Body, Neck and feel of a Jazz with the PJ pups
Body, Neck and feel of a Jazz with the PJ pups
Off the top of my head I can't think of a way to retrofit binding to a neck. The process would seem to be fraught with danger even if one defretted it first. If fretboards were totally flat it would be a different story. Switching necks to a bound one would be the sensible choice.
Okay, I read (and I thought it was Bassplayer - which is usually reliable for this sort of stuff) that it was the individual pickups in parallel- though this clearly shows them in series, so whatever I read was obviously wrong) Good to know actually, because I was thinking about one of these until I'd read that - always liked the idea of a double P - and the only obvious way to have the two pickups would be parallel - two Ps in series would be a bit TOO much OOMPH - the exact opposite of the Danos that NEED to be in series because they're so low output individually.Each pickup (set of split coils) is wired in series, but then the pickups themselves are in parallel (which is the default for most basses with two pickups).
If you wanted some extra Oomph, you could wire it all in series.
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Good to know - thanks - I will go BACK to considering this bass as I had before I'd read whatever clearly wrong info I read (I'm in Canada, so you have to use the info on the interwebs to narrow things down, cause most of the stuff never shows up just hanging on a wall and you don't want to special order something that might be wrong for you).That is the norm, which is why I used a Reggie Hamilton-sig Jazz pickguard as a routing template for my own project. Originally, I went with a Blacktop Jazz guard for positioning. It was plenty-fine, but I wanted the P-pup to sound a bit more "traditional/thumpy", so I had it redone. Zowie, what a difference!!
Here's a pic of the "naked" body. The route in the middle is the stock, Jazz position. To the right is the Blacktop position and the leftmost route is the Reggie "sweet spot".
Having experimented with both now, I usually tell people who want a wee bit more "thump" to go with the Reggie-position, but if they want a touch of "growl/grind", go with the Blacktop.
To the best of my knowledge, they're wired up as normal, split-coil pickups. Either way though, it sounds nothing like a Jazz bass. Hands down, this bass is a cannon! It may have a bit more "growl" than a standard Precision or P/J, but it is very much it's own beastie.
I'm glad to hear this (from you and Killed by Death) cause I'm currently without P and this is a reasonably affordable option and I always liked the idea of a double P.
