Fender Jazz Bass Tone

[JayPH]

Hi all

This might be common knowledge but I've just discovered how awsome my new jazz bass sounds with the following settings:

Neck p/u @ 100%, bridge @ 0, and the tone @ 0. Absolutely brilliant for reggae. Really mellow.

How do you set your tone and what are good settings for different genres of music?

[risingson]

All round: neck 100%, bridge 100%, tone 60% on my Fender as it can sound brittle anymore, but on my Lakland slightly more tone.

I don't really change unless I need a more vintage R&B sound in which case I roll the tone back a tiny bit and bring my bridge down by 25%.

[Bankai]

Used to play with tone at 0% and Bridge 100%, Neck 70%

[Doddy]

I usually set my main Jazz with tone and bridge pickup full up and the neck pickup between all off and
about half,although I sometimes run both pickups in series mode.

[acidbass]

Mine is stack knob configuration, I generally have the following balance:

Everything Maxed - 50% of my playing (organic and natural sounding to my ears, nice brightness)
Neck full with tone maxed, Bridge full with tone off - 30% (warm with just the right amount of definition)
Neck Pickup solo'ed - 10% (almost Precision-like)
Bridge pickup solo'ed - 10% (great for Paul Simon stuff and simulated fretless)

Danny

[Jigster]

neck pick up full, bridge 80%, tone full -

halfwound strings and a pick

nice

[skankdelvar]

Neck 100% - Bridge 80% - Tone 75% for most things. Bridge off for old school blues.

[Len_derby]

Stack knobs

Both pickups 100%
Tone on both at 50%

I find that the most versatile. For variations in sound I move my left (plonking) hand nearer or further from the bridge.

[chrismuzz]

i treated the only Jazz I played just like my current bass. Both pickups and tone on max!

[Lozz196]

[quote name='chrismuzz' post='1213215' date='Apr 27 2011, 09:54 PM']i treated the only Jazz I played just like my current bass. Both pickups and tone on max! [/quote]
+1 on that.

On the Jazzes I had, everything on full, all the time.

Think my philosophy is rather like that of Nikki Sixx with his basses - they`re either on or off!

[paul h]

I always play with everything on full. More to do with being slightly OCD than tone. Even if I roll down the tone or a pickup I will invariably just turn it back up during the song.

[chrismuzz]

Am I right in thinking that passive tone controls only serve as a treble cut?

[leonshelley01]

I'm another of the everything on full people. I have on occasion knocked the tone down a little if using brand new strings, but that is the only time.

[bubinga5]

On board redeemer curcuit with no colour ON..

Front Pup 90%

Back Pup 100%

Tone 60-70%

jazz bass heaven..

[bubinga5]

[quote name='chrismuzz' post='1213231' date='Apr 27 2011, 10:06 PM']Am I right in thinking that passive tone controls only serve as a treble cut?[/quote]cuts everything, boosts nothing..

[thisnameistaken]

I only use the front pickup, sometimes I have the tone all the way up, sometimes I have it all the way down.

I used to use the bridge pickup when I was younger but I think I grew out of it.

[JayPH]

I'm going to try every one of these configs. Especially bubinga5's jazz heaven settings haha. If you haven't tried my original settings give it a go. Go on, yer will, go on

[TRBboy]

I'm usually both pups 100%, tone about 40 - 50%, although in my current rock covers band I do tend to play with the settings a bit more to try and get closer to the record. Until I recently installed Dimarzio Ultra Jazz pups, I'd never really found the neck pup much use on its own.

[JTUK]

I have retro's on both mine so have both pups flat out and the tone wide open.
In either passive or active I used the pup switch to go full-both or full-bridge.

I use the active to enhance the basic passive sound, not change it dramtically which the pre has the option to do, so I used the active to beef up the inherrent sound of that bass...
Both Jazzes have different characters..one is classic MM the other more vintage Paul Turner which is not surprising since he commmisioned it.
Love them both

[BB3000S]

Mostly all wide open, may occasionally turn down either PU slightly but very rarely touch the tone.

[TomKent]

Neck - 80%
Bridge - 100%
Tone - 95%

You know the tone I'm going for.

[LawrenceH]

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1213239' date='Apr 27 2011, 10:10 PM']cuts everything, boosts nothing..[/quote]

Not quite...the added capacitance lowers the resonant peak of the pickup which gives a little boost just before the rolloff frequency. So for example (and where I find this most useful) there is a bit more low-mid output from a bridge pickup solo'ed with the tone off than with it full on. It's not very obvious on some basses but it's a very clear difference on my aerodyne.
See here [url="http://terrydownsmusic.com/technotes/guitarcables/guitarcables.htm"]http://terrydownsmusic.com/technotes/guita...uitarcables.htm[/url] scroll down to the 'tone control' heading for a graph showing this.

[funkle]

Neck and rear pickups both down at 60-70% of max (but equal), tone turned down to somewhere between 50% and max, depending on strings - perfect for straightahead jazz, very mellow indeed. Turn up at amp if more volume needed.

NOT the same tone as turning up both pickups to max and turning the tone knob down. Don't ask me why this is, I don't know. It just works.

Other settings essentially as per previous posters.

Pete

[Horizontalste]

Neck- on
Bridge- on
Tone- on
Smiley face eq's for a nice bright sound or roll off the tone and sad/ish face the eq's for some thump.

[Ross]

Bridge or neck wide open.
Tone wherever I like.

I can't run both pickups at the same time or my bass makes next to no sound, really odd, I have to turn it up like 3-4 times what I'd put a normal passive bass through if I have both pickups cranked. Giving up and rewiring it soon.