- Jun 28, 2005
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- Builder,mcdcustomguitars
The only logical reason it is called a Jazz Bass is: That is what Leo named it. He was it's father, ya know.
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What makes a bass a jazz bass?
- Thread starter jnevi9nr
- Start date
I'm surprised no-ones mentioned the humbucking between 2 coils very far apart, I'd imagine that's got alot to do with it's distinctive tone regardless of what electronics may be used.
That.
In addition to the offset waist body & dual single coil pickups in their more-or-less specific locations already mentioned in this thread, to my mind the thing that makes something a "Jazz Bass" (not to be confused with a Jazz Bass®) is the tapered neck with the relatively narrow nut.
I think any one of those characteristics can suggest a Jazz Bass, but you'd need all of them to actually be a Jazz Bass.
Ask yourself this: If it wouldn't, would another bass that you then went and installed those swapped-out pickups into now be a Jazz Bass?
(I actually had a classmate back in college who had a Rickenbacker 4001 that he had installed Fender Jazz pickups and a Badass bridge on...and he kept insisting he now owned a Jazz Bass!
Fail.)
Above and beyond any characteristics, a "Jazz Bass®" is a Fender. That and only that is "What makes a bass a jazz bass". Everything else is a copy, an imitation built and sold on Leo's coattails. It’s a little sad that so many copycats have knocked off his design for profit, rather than come up with their own ideas, but it’s legal.
I think it’s disingenuous (to be polite) when people refer to their cheap imitations as "my Jazz Bass®", or even "my Jazz". To them I say step up to the plate and get the real deal, or refer to it as "my SX SJB62QMD 3TS" instead of inferring that you have something you don't.
At least the players with the expensive Jazz Bass® copies usually refer to them as such.
I call my SX Jazz bass "my Jazz bass" .........so what?
I'll call it my tallywacker if I want to.
I'm pretty sure that 95% of Jazz bass players would say the same thing, but personally, I can't stand that tone of both pickups. The tonality I have always associated with the Jazz bass is that of just the bridge pickup.
With that being said, I don't think that sound is much of a defining factor of a "Jazz bass". With different electronics (Even with the same two-J-style-pickups-passive setup.) the bass can sound like just about anything.
The main thing would be the overall range of tones that come from a Jazz bass rather than just any one sound.
So all this time, Marcus Miller hasn't been playing a jazz bass? Somebody let him know, he'll probably feel pretty stupid.
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That body shape, combined with two pickups in those positions, single coils preferably.
That body shape, combined with two pickups in those positions, single coils preferably.
Actually, Leo wanted to name the first ones just "Deluxe".
As marketing move they called it "Jazz Bass".
IMO... the Mark Hoppus signature bass is a jazz bass.
I wouldn't call that ugly looking, bad sounding bass a Jazz Bass, but i think he already knows it
Christ almighty, we get it, you like the standard Fender Jazz bass. Despite your obvious ego, your opinion isn't the be all and end all. A lot of people think its a great looking, great sounding JAZZ bass.
A certain head needs to be removed from a certain hole.
nope. just want to know what is it about my jazz bass that makes it a jazz bass. i am seeing that its not widely accepted, which is interesting. i thought it would be more cut and dry.
Really, a Jazz Bass is whatever Fender decides to market as a Jazz Bass. It's their trademarked name. Nobody else can call their bass a Jazz Bass. That's why there are all kinds of other names like JV or JJ assigned by various companies to their similarly styled instruments.
That said, if you look at a bass you can see if it is a Jazz style bass. The offset body and two Jazz shaped pickups in their traditional placements. Fender has used so many different pickups and electronics in their various Jazz Basses that I don't think you can say a Jazz Bass must be a passive single coil instrument. Don't forget that some Fender Jazz instruments have a P pickup at the neck, too.
That said, if you look at a bass you can see if it is a Jazz style bass. The offset body and two Jazz shaped pickups in their traditional placements. Fender has used so many different pickups and electronics in their various Jazz Basses that I don't think you can say a Jazz Bass must be a passive single coil instrument. Don't forget that some Fender Jazz instruments have a P pickup at the neck, too.
fwiw -- and irrespective of how it looks, or what I think of how it looks -- to my ear Marcus gets such a distinctively personal tone that it's immaterial what the bass was called when it left the shop. By the time we hear it it is a "Marcus Miller bass", period.
(...even when it's not.)
It's a very hard question.
I think the main thing would be the offset waist body. For me, a Jazz can be either active or passive, bolt-on or neck-through (and set in of course), 34" or 35", 4 or 5-string, Fender or non-Fender, single coils or humbuckers, but as long as it has that offset waist body (or something very similar), it's a Jazz for me.
For example, this is a Jazz:
Link Removed
But this isn't:
This is:
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But this isn't:
All IMHO of course.
I think the main thing would be the offset waist body. For me, a Jazz can be either active or passive, bolt-on or neck-through (and set in of course), 34" or 35", 4 or 5-string, Fender or non-Fender, single coils or humbuckers, but as long as it has that offset waist body (or something very similar), it's a Jazz for me.
For example, this is a Jazz:
Link Removed
But this isn't:
This is:
Invalid Link Removed
But this isn't:
All IMHO of course.
It's a very hard question.
I think the main thing would be the offset waist body. For me, a Jazz can be either active or passive, bolt-on or neck-through (and set in of course), 34" or 35", 4 or 5-string, Fender or non-Fender, single coils or humbuckers, but as long as it has that offset waist body, it's a Jazz for me.
For example, (snip) this isn't:
.
Um... that bass has an offset waist body.
