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Why did Jaco remove the pickguard?

#163
steubig said:
imho, basses sound better without pick guards. i think the plastic being tightened down onto the body with all those screws chokes off some of the wood's resonance. makes the bass sound less good to me.

not sure that jp did it because of that, but i did.

call me crazy if you will
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Crazy!

I would like that to be proven in a blindfold test
 
#166
whocaresnotme said:
LOL!!!!! P-Bass knobs and no pickguard that's the secret!! Actually I think it was somebody else's bass that he borrowed one day and took the frets off and told the guy that it was "OK, don't worry about it". I'm assuming he never gave it back.

If you could find the original pickguard from Jaco's J-Bass would you install it on your J-Bass?

Just to make this reply credible, does anyone know who owns his basses? The family? I suppose if they went up for auction that you could probably wipe out the national debt with the proceeds.
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HAHA you guys are P knobs!!:cool:

I kid I kid

seriously tho Jaco is the love of my life his p knobs and all
 
#167
double-facepalm.gif
 
#172
My guess is he sort of liked the beat up look. All the Jazz basses you see him with are usually beat up looking. Look at the way he dressed in his later years, kind of beat up looking don't you think? Could you ever picture Jaco playing a formal gig where he had to wear a tux and have a shiny new Jazz bass? So it seemed to fit his character, but in no way do I mean that of a slander of him personally or his talent!
 
#174
The answer is all in the grin:
JacoPastorius.jpg


1) He removed it to reveal to the world how Fender cut corners sunbursting the bits nobody will see.

2) He removed it because he knew scores of guys would do it in later years only to find a huge CNC anchor hole in the body and hastily put the guard back on.
 
#175
Showdown said:
Being a curious sort I did just that. Here are two clips (I won't say which is which) on my Lakland JO, one with one without, all settings the same. Let me know what you guys think. I won't say yet what my conclusion is. And ignore the sloppy playing, my wife kept talking to me while I was trying to record.
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okay. i just gave a quick listen.

to me they sound very different.

i'd say two would be the one without the pg, but frankly it be that your attack changed between the two cuts.

to me the fist clip sounds less full and more tentative than the second.

so that's my best guess and i'm sure i'll be wrong and get crucified for it here.

again, i'll just say that 30+ years ago i did it (for a reason i don't remember) and it made a difference on my bass.

thanks for doing it. i'm interested in hearing your experience with it because you're the only person who seems to have tried it instead of just saying that it's bs without actually doing it.

waiting for flames.
 
#176
Showdown said:
Being a curious sort I did just that. Here are two clips (I won't say which is which) on my Lakland JO, one with one without, all settings the same. Let me know what you guys think. I won't say yet what my conclusion is. And ignore the sloppy playing, my wife kept talking to me while I was trying to record.
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VLC identifies the tracks as : "Lakland JO with PG" and "Lakland JO without PG". The 'with PG' track sounded drier to my ears. Certainly a difference between the two.

Any ideas what 'PG' means?
 
#179
steubig said:
okay. i just gave a quick listen.

to me they sound very different.

i'd say two would be the one without the pg, but frankly it be that your attack changed between the two cuts.

to me the fist clip sounds less full and more tentative than the second.

so that's my best guess and i'm sure i'll be wrong and get crucified for it here.
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I agree, that is what I heard too. I was surprised to hear that much difference. I don't think in a band situation it would matter much, but soloed like this there is definitely a difference. To me with the pickguard it sounds more compressed, with slightly muted highs. Without it sounds more open, with more highs. I think which sounds better is a subjective thing though. I think I actually prefer the more compressed sound with muted highs of a pickguard than the more open sound without. But many would disagree. I don't think either way sounds bad, just different.

Before this test I would have bet that there would be no difference with or without the pickguard. I would have been wrong.
 
#180
Emmaemme said:
VLC identifies the tracks as : "Lakland JO with PG" and "Lakland JO without PG". The 'with PG' track sounded drier to my ears. Certainly a difference between the two.

Any ideas what 'PG' means?
Click to expand...

That is weird. I originally named them that (PG means pickguard), then changed the names before I posted them. I guess the original names stayed somewhere though, for VLC to find them.
 

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