I love the versatility of PJ basses (i.e. a PBass with a J bridge pickup) but I prefer the feel and look of a Jazz... why hasn't Fender made the Jazz Bass equivalent?
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Why not a Fender JP?
- Thread starter Bass Master General
- Start date
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
- Jan 21, 2006
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- fEARful Kool-Aid dispensing liberal academic card-carrying union member Musicians Local 72-147
Wait! A P/J is not what you say....and...because Roger Sadowsky has so spanked Fender in that area! (see below)....
No, no, no, those are all P/J.
OP is asking about J/P. J pickup at the neck position with P pickup at the bridge.
Why not? Well, historically there has never been an easy path to get there. If you had a J you already had a J shaped PU at the bridge. Routing the body for a P over the top of the bridge J would have made it very ugly. If you started with a P you could add a P to the bridge but that would give you PP rather than JP. You would then have to route the neck for a J and build a new pickguard for a J. Doable but, again lots of work.
Many bases are J/MM but I've never seen a J/P
OP is asking about J/P. J pickup at the neck position with P pickup at the bridge.
Why not? Well, historically there has never been an easy path to get there. If you had a J you already had a J shaped PU at the bridge. Routing the body for a P over the top of the bridge J would have made it very ugly. If you started with a P you could add a P to the bridge but that would give you PP rather than JP. You would then have to route the neck for a J and build a new pickguard for a J. Doable but, again lots of work.
Many bases are J/MM but I've never seen a J/P
That's not it, I'm just mixed up on the terminology (I now perceive that the order of P and J indicates p/u order)
Basically, looking for the same p/u configuration as a PJ (P neck, J bridge) but on a jazz body with jazz type neck...
Basically, looking for the same p/u configuration as a PJ (P neck, J bridge) but on a jazz body with jazz type neck...
Yeah, I don't recall ever seeing one. BC Rich used to make lots of P/P and there have been P/J for years. My Washburn B20 and Ibanez Roadsters have them. It seemed to be "the arrangement" before all the soapbar pickups and MM style pickups. I'm guessing someone will post one shortly. At least I hope they do. Would be cool to see how it looks.
LOL oh well.... on a different topic from the OP. Has anyone ever seen a bass with a J/P pickup arrangement... Split P by the bridge and jazz in the middle of the body? 
There's also the Fender '70s Hot Rod Jazz.
Oh, and then there's the one I had put together from parts. I used a Blacktop Jazz pickguard as a routing template for the neck pickup. If I were to do it again, I probably would've used a Reggie Hamilton-style guard to get it directly over the oft-mentioned "sweet spot". Still, I get a perfectly acceptable P-sound anyway, so it's all good.
As a proud Aerodyne owner, I am honor-bound to say, "Fie upon thee, Sir!"
However, there are many, many types of Aerodynes beyond the "Export Editions" we most often see outside of Japan…such as this lovely "Non-Export Edition" 'Dyne;
LOL oh well.... on a different topic from the OP. Has anyone ever seen a bass with a J/P pickup arrangement... Split P by the bridge and jazz in the middle of the body?
Well, you could do the reverse of what I did on my parts bass…take a Blacktop Jazz and use a standard Jazz pickguard to route-out a spot for a single-coil Jazz pup, or any other type of pickup one prefers. (Imagine dropping a Fender Super 55 split-coil J-pup into the neck position. Now that would have some "BALLS" to it!)
The great thing about doing this is, one can switch-up between pickups whenever the urge strikes.
A split coil precision pick-up in the traditional "sweet spot" is a proven winner. It just works which is why it's a common platform for so many designs.
On the Fender USA website they have these below. All have the 1.5" nut width of the Jazz but are sold as a P bass. Love the blue one with the gold 'guard.
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The terms PJ or JP do not necessarily indicate the pickup order or placement.
As posted above, the Fender JP-90 had P neck pickup, J bridge pickup, and J body.
Fender: JP-90 | Pictures @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com
There's always the Jaguar basses, several versions of those are P/J and the Jaguar body has some similarities to the Jazz body, such as the offset waist and sloped bottom, plus it looks cool and has a Jazz-style neck. Shorter upper horn may mean a bit of neck dive, though my VM Jaguar doesn't have much of a dive problem.
I dont know, the aerodyne looks pretty darn sweet to me.
OP there is always this gem if you want to get something handmade :
OP there is always this gem if you want to get something handmade :
- Jun 30, 2010
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Fender was late to the party of P/J's (not till the 80's) - the first of which were custom mods in the late 60's by players who wanted 'more'.
Dear Fender, ......please bring back Fender Japan and their forward thinking designs!
