What are your favorite Jazz Bass control settings?

[prater]

The jazz bass is a versatile bass, you can do a lot with the three knobs (VVT) on a passive model.

I've always played mine with everything all the way up but I've started experimenting with different settings.

Assuming EQ is not a factor, what are some of the ways you shape your sound with just the bass controls and what kind of sound do you get.

 

[Mastermold]

On my stack knob Jazz 62 reissue (wears La Bella flats) I tend to favor the neck pickup, on my three knob Jazz 75 reissue (wears nickel rounds) I have both up full.

 

[line6man]

Neck pickup at 0, bridge pickup at 8, tone at 7.

 

[Frenchy-Lefty]

With flats I favor the neck pickup and roll off the bridge pickup a quarter turn and the tone half a turn. That's my reggae set up. With rounds on a 70's style Jazz, I use both pickups full or slightly favor the bridge to cut through. That's my funk/groove set up.
In general, when playing live, I always keep more highs to cut through. To record, I tend to roll off the tone knob.

 

[David Jayne]

Both pickups at about 70%, tone about the same. Fat tone this way. Biggest Jazz bass trick is to know that the volume controls act more like tone controls.

 

[BornboreD]

I find most of the time I play with both pickups on full, tone at 75%, and change my sound by switching between playing over the neck or bridge pickup.

Sometimes, I'll back the neck pickup off to about 80%, and the tone to about only 40%, but will play only over the bridge pickup when doing so.

 

[Reindeer93]

Tone all the way, neck around 75%, bridge at 60ish

 

[neren]

I like this thread, definitely going to try out everyone else's settings. I'm boring, all knobs dimed. Sometimes I'll solo the neck with tone all the way down... if I see a belly what needs rumblin'.

 

[AltGrendel]

No tone, both vol pots 80%. I'll play with the bridge vol to alter tone.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Tone and bridge pickup usually wide open with the neck pickup backed off slightly. (My jazzes are also fretless and epoxied...)

I don't like the scooped tone when both pickups are wide open.

 

[Bongolation]

I like this thread, definitely going to try out everyone else's settings. I'm boring, all knobs dimed.

It sort of pointless to fool with this because the V/V/T Syndrome screws up the way the volume controls work a little differently from one bass to the next due to the minor variations in the pickups -- but it always screws it up to some extent and the pickups will never really mix right (and sometimes barely at all).

Because of this, when I use my Jazz basses the volume is full-on on one or both pickups, always. The tone full-on as well because I do my EQ upstream in the signal path.

 

[The Bass Clef]

Biggest Jazz bass trick is to know that the volume controls act more like tone controls.

I agree. The way I see it, I get 3 different useable "tones" out of the 2 volume controls of a Jazz. I set my tone knob to where I like my highs (basically it's my EQ), which is usually at about 30-50% depending on the room, and then I have 3 choices when it comes down to it:
Both P/Us up.. neck up/bridge down.. and bridge up/neck down.

Anything in-between (like neck 70%/bridge 30% for instance) is really just a quieter version of neck up/bridge down IME. Not saying that isn't useful, but to me the difference in timbre is negligible. So I figure I get 3 different tones with a Jazz and 1 tone with a P.. and I love em all! YMMV.

 

[MovingPitchers]

I have everything on full: love that classic jazz bass sound.

But if I roll back either volume knob back even a bit, it cuts out.
But if I have one pickup, regardless of which one, turned down and another at a volume less than 100%, it still works albeit very quiet. If I crank up the volume of the quieted pickup, then the 100% volume pup takes over....what's going on?

 

[7dollarbologna]

I love the sound of balancing the volumes, tone all the way up.

 

[extreme]

I've gotten a pretty good general purpose tone out of my jazz favoring the bridge pickup (75% neck, 100% bridge, 50% tone) and boosting low mids on the amp to keep it fat enough.

If playing through a flatter amp, then I'll tend to favor the neck pickup (100% neck, 75% bridge) and adjust the tone knob to taste. Of course, everything dimed (100% neck, 100% bridge, 100% tone) is a good basic starting point as well.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

Depends on the tune; Usually wide-open, but if I wanna sound like a P - roll the back p'up off. If I want to sound like Jaco and/or just cut through - roll the front p'up off. If I'm playing a darker ballad, roll back the tone. Really, not that many options - but in the end plenty to do the job.

 

[Linnin]

I have a ton of great Jazz bass tone & volume settings here -> Invalid Link Removed

 

[peterpalmieri]

I would add turning either pickup volume down 20% gives you the majority of the tonal effect without a lot of the hum. I don't see many reasons to turn a pickup all the way off.

3 sounds both PUs, or favoring one vs the other. 3 variations to each of those. Full tone, tone off or somewhere in the middle. Tone pots vary so 50% isn't always the sweet spot. That alone gets you 9 distinct sounds.

I would now add in slap, palm muting or a pick. 9 settings, 3 finger techniques equals 27 options.

Traditional finger style can be soft or hard percussive. Ahead of between or behind the pickups. Is that another 54 possibilities?

The beauty of this is that any of these alterations can be made with a measures rest.

 

[petergales]

Both Volumes on full and the Tone at about 50%.

 

[Jbassrockboy]

Use to be a must have everything full on open but getting older and hopefully a little wiser..

So now it's like neck pup at about 70 bridge at about 30 and tone at a bit under a quarter or tone at full depending on how I feel

I like this blend on labella dtf's and I mostly now play pick... So this might not hit home for finger style ...

It took me a while of trial and error but got there with a subtle responsive tone...for me it's like I am more connected with the instrument

Might be just my imagination but it feels right ....

I have a 2012 USA jazz and I find the tone control can be a bit fiddly. It is responsive on the turn but the key impact seems to be a bit all or nothing and not much variation past say 25 until almost 100

Rossa