Your Favourite Jazz Bass Tone/Player?

[Dr. Keebs]

Marcus, Jaco, Joe Osborn

 

[Sparkl]

Jadran Ogrin, the one and only.

 

[HowieD72]

Finally...One of my biggest heroes and influences

Robbie!! R.I.P.

Black Uhuru was all I listened to back in the day. I had all there records. Taxi Gang, Sly and Robbie. That's what got me onto Robbie. And Robbie was the reason I first started on bass!

 

[ravelax]

Vern from Unwound has entered the chat

Yes!

Other than Vern, probably Geddy for me too.

 

[Admiral Akbar]

JPJ — the ‘best’ representative of the classic 60s jazz sound
Joe Osborn
Will Lee
Jerry Jemmott

Marcus — for creating that Maple neck/Ash body sound
Jaco — for popularizing fretless AND the bridge pickup

Laura Lee — nice and phat

 

[Swamp_Ronin]

Marcus. Marcus. Marcus. Duh.

also that guy from the killers- Jenny was a friend of mine.

I love family man and Laura Lee, but those are not distinct jazz bass sounds.

 

[funkinbottom]

Verdine White
Barry Oakley
Victor Baily
Darryl Jones
Billy Cox
Leonid Vorobyev

 

[logdrum]

Burpy. I like my tone and I think I like me unless I am in a self loathing mode. It's not a sin to recognize oneself. Plus no one has to like my style or sound or me.

 

[_Obra_]

Always JPJ

 

[Marihino]

Was listening to Jamiroquai Rock Dust Light Star yesterday Paul Turners tone is killer throughout.
Don't know what he used on that album, Fender, Alleva, Stenback?

Mostly his '66 jazz except for quirky moments such as the reggae section in "Hey Floyd" (that was a Hofner Club). Paul didn't have a Stenback until at least 2013.

 

[JenderBazzFass]

I don't like the nasally Jaco tone at all personally, I like the classic both pickups full up (or balanced) burpy Jazz bass sound, played with fingers but played harder, like a Geddy style attack.

 

[Londo Molari]

Richard Sinclair's bass on this album.

 

[Michedelic]

I’m not really a Jazz person but…

Obviously, this guy…


Anyway… Greg Lake’s King Crimson and early ELP sound…that solo riff on the verses of “Knife Edge” is perfection…



Later on, Klaus Flouride on “Holiday In Cambodia”.
I really have no use for flats. Hated them back when that’s all there was, then especially after hearing Entwistle.

 

[Just Wrong]

Chris Wood here





perfection

This is great. Do you know what strings he happen to be using?

 

[Flaked Beans]

I don't like the nasally Jaco tone at all personally, I like the classic both pickups full up (or balanced) burpy Jazz bass sound, played with fingers but played harder, like a Geddy style attack.

Both pups full up? You don't like Jaco's tone at all? Go harvest some carrots and forget about your music carrer as a bassplayer..

 

[MARVIN MECKLER]

Both pups full up? You don't like Jaco's tone at all? Go harvest some carrots and forget about your music carrer as a bassplayer..

It's ok to not like something.

I appreciate Jaco's tone - when Jaco played it.

It is so identifiable with him that I dont care for it at all when others copy it. I find it's extra thin and twangy with no balls, especially when players try to adapt it to a more rock band. Jaco made it work. The imitators, not so much.

 

[JenderBazzFass]

It's ok to not like something.

I appreciate Jaco's tone - when Jaco played it.

It is so identifiable with him that I dont care for it at all when others copy it. I find it's extra thin and twangy with no balls, especially when players try to adapt it to a more rock band. Jaco made it work. The imitators, not so much.

Obviously, I appreciate his virtuosity as player. I just don’t care for his tone and his music really isn’t my thing.

I think it’s fine for people to like different things.

 

[LetItGrowTone]

This is how I hear it:

1) High frequency stuff from pickup self-resonance:
JPJ < ... < (don't want to name an example)
2) Burp:
JPJ < ... < Jaco (for example?)
3) Another resonance, between pickup and tone cap, at V=10 and T=0:
I don't know of a good example clip. Do you?

I like the JPJ end of ranges #1 and #2, but there are many examples in this thread of tones with #1 very much shut down (at least as EQd and mixed), and #2 moderated so that instead of burp, it's just an exquisite little edge. (I think Jadan Ogrin, in the clip above, is a great example. Based on a majority of photos on the internet, and the way it sounds, I think it's a 70s spacing 5-string (or equivalent)).
Unfortunately, this varies as you move up and down the neck; when it's strong like that halfway up the neck, it's burpy closer to the nut. JPJ, on for example Ramble On, has this set lower - not edgy on the high notes, but you can hear the edge increasing as he moves to low notes (but it doesn't get burpy because he has it set lower).

That edge is not from pickup self-resonance, because it's in tune with the note being played (while pickup self-resonance depends on the properties of the pickup and circuit, independent of the note, and to me is a splash of noise). It must be from just the right amount of bridge pickup being mixed in, and the pickup heights and EQ of everything being right. I'll continue to try to understand it better.

 

[Bob_Ross]

4:10 mark after piano solo.
Yeah baby.

Is that Wayne Pedzwater?
Not my favorite example of tone, but he was a phenomenal bassist, seems way under-the-radar on TB.

 

[ProbablyTooLoud]

Is that Wayne Pedzwater?
Not my favorite example of tone, but he was a phenomenal bassist, seems way under-the-radar on TB.

Yeah I sorta went off-piste with this vid, but I realized I haven't seen to many people just walking four on the floor on a jb, and found this after some googling. Not that that's all he does, but I like this as an example of the jazz bass in a fairly trad jazz setting. I have no idea who he is, but I'm glad I do now.