Why not a Fender JP?

[Matty Koff]

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'.

Someone bedazzeled the hell out of that jazz bass. And I wants it.

 

[Johnny Znuff]

My man Chip Z'Nuff plays a FrankenFender made up of a vintage J body and vintage P neck (yes, the headstock is, uhhh, "chipped").

 

[bassrich]

JP-90 I have one coming as you read this

 

[Rattfink]

View attachment 664552 My man Chip Z'Nuff plays a FrankenFender made up of a vintage J body and vintage P neck (yes, the headstock is, uhhh, "chipped").

yah, but how did he get a hold of my mothers hat?

 

[JIO]

Someone bedazzeled the hell out of that jazz bass. And I wants it.

There's more that meets the eye - black & blond P makeover (etc) | Page 6 | TalkBass.com starting with post #110

 

[fretter]

Maybe the question should be, can the P pu be moved, or does it have to be centered where it is? You can't have a PJ configuration with the J pu in the neck position, because no one's ever moved a P pu closer to the bridge. At least that's what I'm thinking.

 

[troy mcclure]

The key to the P sound is the placement of the P pickup. I have seen a few double P's the blacktop Jazz seems to come to mind ( ironic that the black top P has double J pickups).
Nearly all of my bass are P specials ( P bass J neck and P/J pickup configuration).

 

[Duder]

Well, ask and ye shall receive! Not a fan of the Aerodyne vibe but that Reggie Hamilton is spot on. Thanks!

You might be surprised by the Aerodynes. They're super light, comfortable to play, and the non-exports from Japan come in some nice colors like the red one that someone already posted and there's a vintage white with black binding/pick guard that is just beautiful. However, they are contoured more than regular jazz basses so if that's the turn-off then I'm guessing the other features won't matter.

 

[Dan Bass]

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?

P-J Bass.

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?

PJ Bass.

 

[Dan Bass]

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?

Hawaiian KOA wood PJ Bass.

 

[Dan Bass]

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?

Black & white PJ Bass.

 

[Dan Bass]

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?

Natural PJ.

 

[Dan Bass]

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?

Purple!

 

[Dan Bass]

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?

It's PJ Bass day.

 

[Antisyzygy]

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

I'd think it would have limited appeal, but would be interesting.

The point of a PJ is to get the P sound, but have some extra versatility to get some quasi Jazz sounds. The point of A J/MM or P/MM is to blend the sounds of a Jazz and/or P with a MusicMan sound. These hybrids are trying to mimic two already existing iconic bass sounds in one bass.

Now a J/P configuration would be giving you what? You could do the J neck sound, or a P-bridge sound which doesn't really exist on a mainstream "iconic bass" though there are certainly dual P-pickup basses.

To my knowledge people don't really find the J neck sound solo'd as all that amazing or distinctive. I personally think of the sounds produced when both pickups are blended together in one way or another. Either that scooped sound from both pickups full on, or a slight mid-peak shift by rolling one or the other pickup off a little bit. I don't roll off the volume completely because you lose hum-canceling. Some folks might think of the J bridge sound as being iconic because of Jaco, but this theoretical J/P bass wouldn't have that.

I'd just try out a Jazz bass with two P pickups if I was going to get something like a J/P bass. Like that Blacktop Jazz Bass that came out awhile ago.

 

[Dan Bass]

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?

And BLUE!

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?

 

[Doner Designs]

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...

That makes more sense, otherwise I would have said you need to put that combination in a lefty body to complete the bassackwardness.

I have been thinking of building a P/J and was debating which body style to use. I wonder if the P shape is inherently lighter - seems like the overall size is a little smaller but maybe that's an optical illusion.

 

[Doner Designs]

The MM/P seems like a nice combination to me but you don't see many of them.

 

[Treadstone71]

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?

Back to the OPs original question, you assume they haven't but odds are, there's a prototype JP bass sitting in a back room of the Fender plant, that never got made into production because for whatever reason, it didn't sound as good as a PJ.

 

[thomas-k]

It's PJ Bass day.View attachment 664610

Hey Mr DanBass, OP said A JAZZ BODY, like you quoted a number of times… all you show are P bodies...