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Super punchy jazz bass tone

#3
lousybassplayer said:
Dig in real hard, nickel rounds and a little midrange bump over my normal settings. Play over the brdige pup, keep tehe tone dialed up to just under obnoxious, honking, thin trebly garbage. Thats my strategy.
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+1 to every point above.

Here is a clip of my 60's style J with broken in DR Lo Rider Nickels, the passive tone control dialed in a touch, played somewhat close to the bridge, and through a rig that has a strong, tight, midrange tone in its inherent voicing.... FYI! I'm not digging in that hard... but that would increase the mid presence more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDnlGSqQu5w
 
#9
caveat: WhenI say dig in real hard, I kind of meant by my standards. I play pretty light with my pups real close and a very low action. HOwever, the way you attack is not only the easiest way to adjsut the "punch" and sustain, it's one of the most effective. To me punchy means a slightly bassy, midrange heavy "thump" on the attack and a fairly rapid decay of each note. And expiriment away, thats the fun part :)
 
#10
I find it's all in the mids. Alot of bassists that I know scoop out the mids, and I could not dissagree with this more. Low mids are punch and high mids are growl. You have to be careful however; the lower of the low mids can make you feel kind of like you are getting a nosebleed, and the higher of the high mids can make for a squeaky/clicky sound. It really helps to have a graphic EQ (my amp has a 10 band) where you can experiment boosting and cutting each frequency. Hope this helped!
 
#12
Emibass said:
I´d rather leave the eq part aside. For now I want to experiment with the tecnique as I belive is better than aplying eq. (The fact is I kind of don´t like eq´ing things as long as there is a better way to reach the sound that I want)
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A VERY wise observation for someone who claims to be still learning ;). Most people on here sit and argue evverything from eq to fretwire material day in and day out for months on end before they come to that conclusion. As far as that, keep adjusting where you pluck the strings in the area between the pups. I find that I do all my playing in there, somewhere between the midway point and the bridge pup.
 
#13
lousybassplayer said:
A VERY wise observation for someone who claims to be still learning ;). Most people on here sit and argue evverything from eq to fretwire material day in and day out for months on end before they come to that conclusion. As far as that, keep adjusting where you pluck the strings in the area between the pups. I find that I do all my playing in there, somewhere between the midway point and the bridge pup.
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Another +1, and also favoring the bridge pickup just a touch (just before you notice the single coil hum). A bridge pickup dominated tone (in a 60's style J instrument anyway) plucked hard relatively close to the bridge will just burp and punch and grind.
 
#16
It helps to start with an instrument that has the right resonant qualities. My Fender/Alleva Coppolo Jazz has a 35 year old maple neck and I've never heard a more punchy instrument, even with DR flatwounds on it. I found that standard gauge strings (105 - 45) and very low action help to punch out the notes even more. I also usually keep my bass and treble boost knobs off.
 
#17
- Get a nice, comfy jazz bass with good string tension
- Nickels are nice, but I use fender stainless and do just fine (regular gauge)
- Get two Dimarzio Model J's and wire them in PARALLEL
- Play in that sweet spot (between pickups but slightly closer to neck p-up)
- Ease off the treble on your amp, push your mids and low mids. Add bass but dont get too woofy
 
#18
Emibass said:
I´m really interested of how to do this but without the parallel/series button as I still want to preserve the same pots. Do you have any schematic? All the schematics I have found were with the parallel/series switch. Thanks!!
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alright so its very simple and it just takes one solder. you need to connect the the neutral wire from the neck pup to the live wire of the bridge pup. for this you need to de-solder the wire from the neck pup to the ground on the neck pot and the live wire from the bridge to the and connect them. you get the idea?
this way the neck pup volume knob will be your only volume knob. the bridge pup knob wont work anymore and tone knob would stay normal! i did it in like half a minute and i loved it. moreover it only takes another minute to put it back this way if you dont like it

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three steps:
1. remove the black wire from the neck pot shell
2. remove the white wire from the bridge pot lug
3. solder the two of them together!
your bass might not have white or black wires but you'll know by where they are attached. shell=ground/neutral wire, lug=live
 
#19
pjmuck said:
Playing technique and EQ aside, as long as you're considering re-wiring in series, you might also want to consider replacing the bridge with a Badass II. Goes a long way for added sustain and punch, IMO.
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I have the Am. Std.´09 Jazz and I think the High Massive Vintage bridge (or at least I think this how they call it) is a good bridge. I have it strung trough the body.

I´ll leave the re-wiring as the last desesperate thing for now.
 
#20
Emibass said:
I have the Am. Std.´09 Jazz and I think the High Massive Vintage bridge (or at least I think this how they call it) is a good bridge. I have it strung trough the body.

I´ll leave the re-wiring as the last desesperate thing for now.
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i just did it right away when i realied i wanted a punchier sound! honestly i think one should really try it, better still if you like the series sound then you could later install a s/p switch to have both the options
 

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