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When did you become a Jazz Bass guy (gal)?

Right now I just got off summer tour with a band called Cats Under The Stars. It's a Jerry Garcia Band tribute band. But I also do tons of stuff ranging from rock to straight-ahead jazz to pop-country to (my favorite of all) funk/soul/r&b type stuff. So it's good to have a lot of tones in the arsenal. But a jazz bass takes care of just about all of it.

That sounds great, best of luck with your career.
 
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Bought a Jaco tribute fretless J bass for about $1700 when they first came out.
Got lucky, got a great one, and I find myself playing it as much or more than
any of my other basses ( which are all over the place ). I have "better" Jazz's,
but that one just hooked me.

EDIT: It did not hurt that I saw him live use one several times :)
 
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2001 – Picked up a MIA Jazz and fell in love with it, put it on layaway and picked it up a month later. Up to that point, I rarely played Fender basses and the only Jazz I had was awful. But after that, I played Fender Jazz basses exclusively, only adding a different model (a Precision!) about a year ago. I'm back and forth between the Precision and the Jazz, but I still favor the Jazz a bit more.
 
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I had a Sadowsky RV4 a long time ago. Probably the best jazz bass I have ever played. I decided that I had to have a 5 and sold it and got a Sadowsky MV5 that I hated. I had some Laklands or something next, then had a Geddy Lee for a while that I really liked - 2nd to that Sadowsky. Then I tried Roscoe and have been playing them for a while now, maybe 5 years. 5 string mostly.

Since I've been playing the same bass for about 5 years now, I am starting to get the itch to change things up again. I have been looking at Sadowsky MV4's and US Geddy Lee's a bit. For a few hundred more I can get a used Sadowsky over a new Geddy so I'm not sure. I've played an active soapbar 5 for a long time. Going to a passive jazz would be different for sure. That's why I lean a little to the Sadowsky.

So after all that, I'm not a "jazz bass guy" yet but maybe soon...
 
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P basses never fit me, the neck contour was too clubby. Had a couple of J basses in the 70's and one Ibanez copy that was superior to both of them, even though I had added EMG's brass hardware, etc to my J basses. But at the time I dreamed of an Alembic, I went through Yamaha NT, Pedula, Alembic, Tobias, Kubicki and my final Boutique bass a Warwick NT 6. But I ended up back with J basses playing in church, they just cut thru the mix better. And I finally ended up with one of them J basses on Steroids, and I don't find myself tempted by any of the high end boutique hippy sandwich basses.
 
When I started learning bass, I bought a P-J. But then I always want that Jazz Bass since it is so popular, offset body, and I would expect more mellow tone coming from it since it's...jazz...

When I finally get one, it is somewhat different from what I expected. I still like it but I like the thumping tone from P-bass more.
 
First jazz bass + 34 years = my last jazz bass
2008 AmStd Blizzard Pearl
Most. Fun. Ever.

2011%20Fender%20Precision.jpg
 
It started in the late 70's when I was in high school. The older kids in the really cool bands who I looked up to all had old Fender Jazz basses. The first bass I ever played was an early 70's Jazz. The thing just looked cool to me. At that time we would sell our equipment to our friends selling old 60's-70's Jazz for $200-$400 a pop. Its just what you did back then.

When I was studying music at University in 1987 and the Jaco instructional video came out everyone went after the vintage jazzes and prices soared.

For me it took decades of trying out a multitude of Fenders and came up with two keepers. One Jazz and one Pbass. Best studio basses I have ever heard.

Here are the " Dynamic Duo". A 1969 Fender Jazz on the right and a 1960 PreCBS Pbass on the left.

image.jpg2_zps8vm7uda3.jpg
 
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Very nice pair.

It started in the late 70's when I was in high school. The older kids in the really cool bands who I looked up to, and also had more money because they were older, all had old Fender Jazz basses. The first bass I ever played was an early 70's Jazz. The thing just looked cool to me. At that time we would sell our equipment to our friends selling old 60's-70's Jazz for $200-$400 a pop. Its just what you did back then.

When I was studying music at University in 1987 and the Jaco instructional video came out everyone went after the vintage jazzes and prices soared.

For me it took decades of trying out a multitude of Fenders and came up with two keepers. One Jazz and one Pbass. Best studio basses I have ever heard.

Here are the " Dynamic Duo". A 1969 Fender Jazz on the right and a 1960 PreCBS Pbass on the left.

image.jpg2_zps8vm7uda3.jpg
 
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