Hey everyone! I have been searching this kind of info, and there is a huge world out there!
can you share your opinion on this?
how you split the sound of your best bass in term of:
- woods used: body, neck, fretboard.
- construction.
- painting or finishing
- tunners.
- brid3220..ge
- pickups: location and construction:alnico/ ceramic/ neodymium.
- electronics.
Thanks.
Well, I've only had two Jazz Basses. One was a 1965 Jazz Bass that I bought in 1966. Besides playing it through high school and a couple of years of college, I toured in a nightclub group for 3 years playing about 750 gigs in that time (5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year, 3-years). So I got to know the neck of my '65 real well. Then in 1976 it was stolen along with all my touring gear.
In 1985 I bought my second Jazz which is a MIA passive Jazz with a maple neck. Bought it because the neck was the same shape, profile, and radius, that my '65 was and when I picked it up and started playing it, it just felt like home. They are however distinctly different sounding Jazz Basses. My '82 Jazz has significantly more sustain than my '65 and my guess is that it's the maple neck. She's also a very pretty bass but her action was actually a little high once I get above the 12th fret. So I loosened the neck up enough to adjust the truss rod and it was as tight as it would go.
I had removed the neck once before and removed a spacer at the front of the neck leaving only one at the back by the heel trying to adjust for this and I held onto that shim. So I pulled it all the way off again and put that spacer on top of the one at the back of the heel, and put her back together. That brought the strings above the 12th fret (towards the heel) fight down to a nice spot but got a little buzz when I plucked the strings hard. So loosened the neck again and turned the truss rod 1/4 turn counterclockwise to add a little relief to the neck. Put her back together and now the buzz is gone and the action is low up and down the neck. I am very pleased with how she plays now. I do demand more of my '82 than I did of my '65 because I play above the 12th fret a lot more than I did with my '65
It's also a bit brighter than my '65 was. I attribute that a little to the maple neck but mostly to my pickups, or rather the spacing of my pickups. The spacing of the pickups on my '65 was the 60's era 3.6" center to center. My '82 on the other hand has pickups spaced 4" center to center, which is the 70's era spacing. I believe that accounts for most of the brighter sound than the '65. It also is the reason I can get my '82 to growl easily. If I just dig into the strings next to or over that bridge pickup it will growl all night.
Odds are many of you have seen my pics of the two basses. The only ones I have of my '65 are from about 1972 and are in black and white. My '65 I believe had an alder body and it had a rosewood fretboard with MOP dots. The rosewood was lighter and more red than most fretboards I saw. The tuning pegs were the backwards-wind type that was standard then. It was the 3-color sunburst with the obligatory tort pickguard.
I played it at the time with the Ashtray pickup guard still mounted but had removed the open-cell foam mutes that had been glued to the underside of it. I also removed the neck pickup guard. I was using the Fender nylon taped strings at this time and kept those on it as long as I had it. The bridge was the standard bent metal bridge. I had a 3½" wide light tan leather strap because those skinnier straps were really uncomfortable. She was not a light bass. You can see my Standel amp behind my guitarist (Steve Bivins) in this shot.
I believe my '82 also has an alder body but has a white-bound maple neck with black dots. It's Olympic White that has matured to a buttercream color but has a stark white pickguard, pickup covers, and strat-type control knobs. I even have a wide white strap on her. I call her my White Lady. She has LaBella White Tape Wound strings, which are the brightest of LaBellas Tape Wound options. The bridge is the standard bent metal bridge. The high-mass bridges available are supposed to add a little sustain, but this Jazz has sustain for days and I don't want to take a chance on screwing it up.
