EssentialTension

Not using open strings seems really odd to me. They are four/five notes that are available in any position and if you're playing fretless they are four/five notes you know are correctly intonated so they are always a clue to the rest of your intonation. One note is only available as an open string.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1327431725' post='1511170'] My packaging says 106... [/quote] 106 it must be then, but strange.

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1327424210' post='1511005'] Oddly enough when I needed to renew the stuff under my pickup, I cut up an old mouse mat! [/quote] Excellent.

[quote name='redstriper' timestamp='1327416480' post='1510859'] I emailed Lakland to ask if their flatwound strings are the same as the GHSs Precisions after reading that they are on their forum and got this reply: [color=#2A2A2A][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]Has anyone compared them I wonder?[/size][/font][/color] [/quote] I've always believed they were the same except for the silk, but no final proof.

I think the 106 on the website is a mistake. The packet I had said 105. In fact even the picture of the packet on the website says 105.

That was unsuccessful.

[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/Negative7bass/DSC01509.jpg[/IMG]

Brian Wilson demonstrates the tug bar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=654H4xfDYKM

[quote name='skampino' timestamp='1327359879' post='1510119'] Sorry if I sound dim but what's the idea of the thumb rest below the G string? [/quote] It's called a tug bar, the original idea was to tug on it with fingers and play with thumb. There are several threads explaining and illustrating this.

[quote name='cytania' timestamp='1327358231' post='1510075'] Weird question time. Obviously the tiny dot markers on the side of the neck are a great help fretting accurately but what about the big abalone/pearl dots on the front. Most the time the neck is angled so you can't see them. Anyone with bass necks 'sans front dot' able to confirm they are unnecessary? Or is it more subconscious? Is their function just as a bit of bling to dazzle the audience with? [/quote] I've had basses without them, they aren't essential but neither are the side dots.

[quote name='Dropzone' timestamp='1327355630' post='1509984'] The lanes in Brighton are lovely and GAK (guitar amp keyboard) is between them and the station. [/quote] ... and Brighton Guitars just around the corner.

[quote name='musophilr' timestamp='1327328166' post='1509340'] If there's a definition of "pwn" here I haven't seen it. Is it rude? [/quote] It's a deliberate mistyping of 'own', so 'pwned' means 'owned' in the sense of defeated.

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1327263574' post='1508608'] I was experimenting with foam under the bridge... I cut a [i]rectangular cuboid[/i] from one of these: and got some quite nice sounds, but they're a bit squidgy and I'd call the effect "soft dampening" rather than "muting". What would you recommend for that real sixties thud? Cheers Richard [/quote] Differnet materials give different results. My preferences are mouse mat, or the stuff that goes underneath pickups, or a Mufler like this [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mufler-Bass-Guitar-Mute-Jazz-Sound-/130597126010?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6831ff7a"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mufler-Bass-Guitar-Mute-Jazz-Sound-/130597126010?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6831ff7a[/url]

[quote name='Linus27' timestamp='1327259664' post='1508515'] Again and this is splitting hairs and down to interpritation but for me (I take it this is the Reggie Hamilton Bass you have shown) Fender actually call this the Reggie Hamilton Standard Jazz Bass and not just the Standard Jazz bass. It comes with a P pickup and a J pickup, a bass extender and is active/passive. Those features were not on the original concept of Leo's first Jazz so to me this is just Fenders evolution of their Jazz bass in the same way that the latest Mini Cooper is an evolution of the 60's Mini Cooper. In my opinion, giving a total stranger and non bass playing person a Reggie Hamilton Jazz bass and saying this is true representation of an original Jazz bass based on Leo Fenders original concept would be very misleading. [/quote] Yes, but I've never once said the Reggie Hamilton or any other bass (Jazz or otherwise) was a true representation of what you call an 'original' Jazz. I was only claiming that it's part of a large family of basses that can be (and usually are) labelled as Jazz basses. I hadn't realised we were in search of the one and only original Jazz. Even the nature of an 'original' Jazz is not necessarily simple to pin down unless you take it to be the bass that Fender first marketed as the Jazz bass in 1960 - so I presume it has the offset body, the 1.5" nut, stack knob VTVT controls, and two single coil pickups in the sixties not the seventies position, it has frets, dots, no binding, no preamp, an earth wire from pickup to bridge, etc. and nothing else can qualify as the original - excpet perhaps the various protoypes. But none of that stops other basses, that don't quite reach that standard, being Jazz basses too. Not sure where that emoticon came from !!!!!

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' timestamp='1327256106' post='1508439'] Absolutey, I didn't mean that badly for one second I love a passive P bass me, all I meant is that it doesn't have the extra versatility of a 2 pickup bass and it stands in that same frequency response for ever and ever amen, although its a great sound, I would add that it's THE right sound for many styles of music but thats all it does sonically compared to multy p/up basses. [/quote] Fair enough, but I'd still say the Precision can have a range of sounds/tones with judicious use of EQ, movement of the right hand between bridge and fingerboard, pick or fingers, round or flatwound etc. JJ Burnel does not sound at all like James Jamerson, nor like Carol Kaye.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1327233394' post='1508012'] [size=4][color=#222222][font=Arial]Back in the day Deep Purple and I'm sure many others only plugged in the bottom cabs in their stacks ...[/font][/color][/size] [/quote] They might have been better off only plugging in the top.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1327229682' post='1507943'] Some of the best examples of sparkling dry white wines are made outside the French region of Champagne. They are, therefore, not "Champagne" and not allowed to call themselves such. Doesn't stop them being better and more pleasurable than the "original" though! Does that make sense? [/quote] 'It's a lovely drink, that Cava'.

[quote name='Fat Rich' timestamp='1327228489' post='1507929'] I would say historically the PJ configuration came about more from people adding a Jazz pickup to their Precision basses than people changing the neck pickup in a Jazz bass to a split P bass pickup..... so it's more of a Precision than a Jazz ... [/quote] It has a Jazz body, a Jazz neck, and one Jazz pickup, and Fender sell it as a Jazz bass. One Jazz pickup is replaced by a Precision pickup. I'd say it's not a P/J, if anything it's a J/P, but it's definitely not a Precision, it's much more a Jazz bass.

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' timestamp='1327220639' post='1507851'] In response to the Original Poster's question Leo Fender invented the Jazz Bass to give an alternative to electric bass players to his original design of the Precision bass. He wanted to achieve a few goals with this new bass, one was to have more tonal variety than the P bass with the focus on achiecing a more midrange and brighter sound to compete with the Rickenbacker bass introuduced in 1957 which was reknowned by being very bright. He did this by featuring two individual single coil pickups with indipendent volume and tone controls which when both on full volume would hum cancel each other by wiring them in series, and the offset body / narrower neck were borrowed by the Jazzmaster guitar, seen as the original p bass was built to match the Telecaster the Jazz bass inherited most of the look feautures of the Jazzmaster. The main features of a Jazz bass are 2 single coil pickups that could be blended together or played solo, the neck pickup sound is fairly similar to that of a P bass but the bridge pickup was the new "animal" feature of this bass, punchy, bright and full of harmonics, this pickup became Jaco's signature go to sound he used to pluck it right up the bridge with a 70% chocked tone control and fast syncopated lines to reproduce that nasal, burpy in your face sound that became immediately recognizable as the Jaco's sound in songs like Punk Jazz, Barbary Coast, Teen Town, and many other. 70's funk, soul, blues and even jazz bands all incorporated the Jazz Bass as the bass to have because of it's ability to embrace a wider sound spectrum than the P bass who in its greatness remained a one trick pony, although a great one at that. Of course other companies have "borrowed" the design and milked it to the max from Aria to Zon you can get a Jazz bass sound in a million different basses but then the choice is spoiled by exotic woods, active preamps and all other features that expanded on the original concept but sadly the more the features the less the similarity in sound with the original Fender bass which in conclusions it means if you want the real thing buy an original Fender bass or one from another company which have kept the features as close as possible to the original. [/quote] The narrower neck of the Jazz bass was in order to attract more guitarists to electric bass playing. BTW, the Precision Bass is not at all a one trick pony.

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1327194045' post='1507786'] what a band.. love midnight rider... sounds just like a jazz bass.. thanks for posting.. im sat here with head phones on listening to this great music... [/quote] I'm doing the same, now that you got me started.

[quote name='StraightSix' timestamp='1327194235' post='1507788'] Nothing but it's getting tedious reading " they should be like this" "No, they should be like that". The OP asked for the best example... [/quote] He asked 'So what is a Jazz bass?' and 'What is the best example?'. I can't see that it's tedious, I thought it was an interesting discussion. But as I don't myself think there is a 'best example', I didn't bother answering that bit.

[quote name='StraightSix' timestamp='1327193795' post='1507783'] ... I think defining the Jazz will always be contentious so let's discuss our favourites and why... [/quote] What's wrong with contentious?