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Your Jazz Bass settings: static or fluid?

#81
Grinderman said:
Unless you have an inline resistor (e.g. 220K) on the output side of your neck volume pot (that wouldn't conform with any classic or typical Jazz wiring scheme), that's the opposite of scooped with a pair of single-coil Jazz pickups.

When the volume/output of both pickups are set to parity, the mids become scooped and hum is canceled. Even rolling back/lowering the bridge pickup a small amount, relative to the neck pickup, reduces the scoop quite dramatically. This is because frequencies from both pickups are out of phase thus canceling each other, leaving a "scoop" on the midrange.

e.g. Jazz with both pickups wide open; scooped.

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Perhaps my term, "scooped", is not technically correct, but to me both pups full up give a full tone, dropping the bridge pup just a little sweetens the tone to something that doesn't really sound like both pups added together.

It is no doubt due to some frequency cancellations, but it sounds more scooped, to me, than both pups full up. I have heard others describe both pups full up as scooped, but that doesn't really sound like a scooped tone to me.
 
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#83
blr2 said:
I disagree, especially when it comes to JB. You can get a large variety of tones in between fully open/closed PU. May be the norm of guitars (e.g. LP), but not on the Jazz. That's the versatility of the Jazz, and has been used for decades by thousands of bass players.
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Thousands of delusional bass players
 
#84
I guess I'm in the "C" camp. If the song shifts a lot I'll change setting for different sections, but usually I'll find one setting that works for the song and sit with that. Because of how I set things, I'm thinking of having my bass modded with a 3-way toggle so it more resembles my Guild Starfire (I'm also jonesing to have the neck pickup replaced with a Bisonic but that's besides the point).
 
#85
All of my basses are Fender Jazzes. I’m always messing with the tone control; tone rolled closed when practicing at home and fully open or 50% at rehearsal/ gigs. Either both pickups full-on or the mid pickup at 100% and the bridge on just enough to kill some of the hum - usually approx 50% or slightly less. It’s a very close Precision Bass representation in tone to my ears. Really throat-y with a pick and great clank when playing finger style. I love a good Jazz bass!
 
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#88
Swerve said:
Every passive J I’ve owned, not many, didn’t seem to actually blend between the two pickups. If I kept the neck pup on full and started turning down the bridge pup it would just turn it off. I think some folks think they’re blending the two pickups when they’re actually not, it’s an illusion. Or maybe my jazzes just sucked. Lol
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I've always felt this way too but since so many others are blending things I felt like I just needed to listen closer? I feel like on my PJ if I pull back the bridge volume even 5% it's just all P bass.
 
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#89
Elmstreet said:
I've always felt this way too but since so many others are blending things I felt like I just needed to listen closer? I feel like on my PJ if I pull back the bridge volume even 5% it's just all P bass.
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Yeah this has been my experience too with passive J's and P/J's. There might be a blend for a hair of a turn from 100% down to 95% or 90% (even that is sus) but then after that it goes straight to soloed.

Seems like a good subject for a YouTube video. Have someone demonstrate various blends in subtle increments that the listener should be able to hear. Like 100%, 90%, 80%, etc, etc, down to zero with both the bridge and neck pickups.
 
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#92
Neck 80% bridge 50% tone to taste.

These jazz pickups lose high-end noise and thinness below 80%, for reasons I don’t understand. Bridge level different from neck to avoid scoop and overall tone weakness.

All this trouble to try to be as perfect as a precision. Still, the jazz bass has interesting and different tones.
 
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#93
I started playing in 1980. Stopped in 2011. I used three basses Volume and tone all the way up always. Nobody cares where any of your settings are. Never fiddled with anything on the amps I owned other than gain and volume. Again nobody cares or notices variations in your tone.
 
#95
c) Tweak the pickup choice/blend throughout the gig, maybe even multiple times in each tune

I do this all the time. But, maybe IEMs let me hear the subtleties more than listening to an amp on a loud stage. It's all about the attack on the strings.
 
#96
All I know is, I only recently got a Jazz with single coils. Previously all my other Jazzes have at one time or another had every version of hum-cancelling DiMarzios they offer. I never knew what I was missing until I got this single coil beast. Totally different kind of punch and focus compared to the any of the "J-buckers". As a result I run the settings differently. I'll take the risk of a little hum any day now (plus as I say earlier, this bass KILLS with everything dimed anyway).
 
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