Tone knobs on Jazz Basses - how much are they actually USED?

[alembicbones]

If I'm emphasizing the bridge pickup, I roll the tone knob off to 20 - 30 % of maximum. If I'm equally blending the pickups, I roll the tone knob off to 80% of maximum.

Interesting thread.

Bones

 

[Chef]

1) I keep a P bass with flats for when that’s what a producer wants. Otherwise, flats are right out for me
2) you seem to presume everyone has a passive bass. Given that as a presumption, I would probably mostly never roll tone poopie at all. Wide open. Same for volume.
3) I most often play an active J5, with treble and bass boosted a bit, and passive tone somewhere between 80% open to rolled back a lot for some specific things.

I can’t make your poll work for the above

 

[juancaminos]

When my Jazz was stock it was everything 100%. But with the John East drop in I adjust the EQ settings to my preferred piano bright sound, then make sure I have a little headroom on volume.

 

[Martin Beer]

I only really use the tone control to get that mid-bumped character on songs where I favour the bridge pickup. If I'm favouring the neck pickup or both on full, I'll keep the tone rolled up.

 

[JoeWPgh]

I tend to roll of the highs on ballads

 

[Double E]

I use mine all the time.

 

[bulldean]

Mine has been modified. It has volume, pickup blend, and a six position David Certain Varitone for different tones.

 

[nnnnnn]

Active jazz basses do have tone knobs, more properly they are EQ knobs, and generally leave them flat but will occasionally use them for certain songs.

If an active bass's EQ knobs don't have centre detents, how do I tell what is "flat"?

 

[Mvilmany]

Leo gave us a tone control for a reason.

 

[mikeswals]

I like bright basses so I can dial back to fit. I also use Mesa amps which are notorious for being mid foward and having lots of highs.
So yes, I use my tone knobs as needed, and on a Jazz its generally 50-60 open.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Dump the VVT and go VBT (volume blend tone) Much, much better for pickup blending!

I completely disagree. "Easier" doesn't sound better. Separate volume controls do things that a blend can not do. Turning both volume controls down part way sounds very different than setting the blend control to the middle and turning a single volume control down. Likewise, the impedance that each pickup sees is different if you're using a VB vs. VV, which means the effective RLC filter that's created with the pickup is different.

I have both, and I prefer VV to VB. Just sounds more open and I can get a much more natural blend between the 2 pickups, as well as do other things that can't be done with just a blend pot.

 

[Bass V]

I love a bridge J with the tone at/near 0 and set similarly on my amps. made me a P/J devotee

 

[Swingin]

I like the tone down when I’m playing finger style. It takes noisiness out of the attack. With a pick in more likely to have it on. Of course at the end of the day it depends on what the song needs.

 

[bucephylus]

Like others, I mostly use an active preamp in my J’s now - the Sadowsky. But, you can get a variety of tones even on a passive J by changing the pickup balance and rolling the tone knob. A few configs I’ve used:

1) Both pups full on, tone wide open - slap and plectrum, some rock pizz

2) neck pup backed way off, bridge pup full on, and tone knob backed way down - staccato pizz; this is the classic “Jaco” setting. Great for funky articulate pizz parts

3) Neck pup backed down 30%, bridge pup full on, tone full on - harmonics!

4) Neck pup full on, Bridge pup backed of 30% - 40%, tone knob backed way off - Motown thump.

#4 effectiveness depends on the pickups being used. For single coils, I like Seymour Duncan SJB2’s.

Hope that helps.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I'm curious about this! Most of my basses I run tone control wide open, all the time. I rarely dial down the tone ever, in typical use. (not counting the very rare situation where I might want a real thumpy acoustic bass -ish effect)

What say you?

As long as I have a good EQ stack on my rig, and I do, there is little reason to mess with tonal variations on my bass. Tone and volume on my fender bass wide open.

 

[JIO]

On a J I use all three knobs for what each provide.

 

[Pbassmanca]

The tone control is like the "office manager" of the bass guitar ; Subject to a wide variety of internal and external influences and yet in possession of the authority and ability to influence the overall sonic output of the instrument.

 

[Two-Spirit]

Tone knobs? For almost all Jazz Basses, it is tone knob. Singular tone knob. With the exception of the few J Basses with dual concentric knobs.

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I've played some Peavey Jazz with 2 tones and a master volume. I've played them with the middle on 0 and the bridge on 10. Its a cool sound.

 

[JIO]

Some players prefer to control their tone from the amp, leaving the bass controls dime'd. Same with recording - controls dime'd, settings from the board. For live - unless the room/space has specific needs in term of amp manipulation before starting the set, I leave my amp settings as is and do any tonal adjustments at the bass or my MXR d.i.+ pedal. Once that's dialed - all song-to-song tonal difference comes from the way I play, using fingers, a pic and palm-muting.

 

[Chrisk-K]

If you don’t use the tone knob on the J, you are using only 50% of what the J is capable of.