Jaco's bass?

[mentalextra]

I am relatively new to 'jaco' and have a huge respect for his enormous talent. Although Jazz is not my first love by any means. But, what fascinates me is his guitar or rather the condition its in. I have watched various vids of the great man playing live and discussing his playing and getting close ups of his Fender. But what I dont undersand is why, bearing in mind he was pushing boundaries that he wasnt interested in upgrading. Thats not to say that the Fender doesnt make some great noises. After all I own one. But when you look closely at Jaco's own Fender it has clearly seen better days, with marks on the fretboard. To an untrained eye like mine, the pickups even look standard too, although there are many odd suspicious looking holes on the body. Was the options to upgrade not available to him back then? Did he always play Fender Jazz? Did Fender never offer him a guitar or an endorsement deal at least?

[wateroftyne]

What would he have improved by upgrading?

btw, the holes were where the string mutes used to be.

[LukeFRC]

Ahh I think you make a common error. Once you get past a certain level there's no such thing as "upgrade" - just different.
A (good) standard Fender does not need "upgrading"- you can do things that make it different - like expensive pups or something - but that's more a matter of taste than anything else.
An alembic would be more expensive.... but a different bass rather than a "better" bass.

[OliverBlackman]

He played a 60's jazz bass. Some say they are the best bass guitars money can buy. He bought his for $60.

[Kiwi]

At one point he owned 3 preCBS jazz basses, including one that was fretted. All were stock apart from the two fretlesses being defretted and an epoxy coating to the fingerboard. Fender offer a Jaco signature bass but neither they or Acoustic offered him a deal. Who knows why, maybe Fender weren't into endorsements back then because they didn't need to? Hard to say what the benefit for Jaco would have been.

[mentalextra]

[quote name='OliverBlackman' timestamp='1362511324' post='2000572']
He played a 60's jazz bass. Some say they are the best bass guitars money can buy. He bought his for $60.
[/quote]

As I understand it he had one that he "defretted" himself and another fretted that he used for practice to not chew up the fretboard.

[mentalextra]

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1362511476' post='2000578']
At one point he owned 3 preCBS jazz basses, including one that was fretted. All were stock apart from the two fretlesses being defretted and an epoxy coating to the fingerboard. Fender offer a Jaco signature bass but neither they or Acoustic offered him a deal. Who knows why, maybe Fender weren't into endorsements back then because they didn't need to? Hard to say what the benefit for Jaco would have been.
[/quote]

I wondered if it might have been uncool to have a 'new' bass. He seemed quite proud of the "patena"

[Grangur]

If Jaco believed he'd found "his sound" with standard pups in his Fender, then anything he changed them to would no longer have been "his sound".

If Jaco believed 4 strings and standard pups is all you need, then that's good enough for me

[mentalextra]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1362511219' post='2000569']
Ahh I think you make a common error. Once you get past a certain level there's no such thing as "upgrade" - just different.
A (good) standard Fender does not need "upgrading"- you can do things that make it different - like expensive pups or something - but that's more a matter of taste than anything else.
An alembic would be more expensive.... but a different bass rather than a "better" bass.
[/quote]

How standard was his Fender; didnt he famously rip the frets off one. Which implies he wasnt too bothered about trying something different

[mentalextra]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1362511771' post='2000587']
If Jaco believed he'd found "his sound" with standard pups in his Fender, then anything he changed them to would no longer have been "his sound".

If Jaco believed 4 strings and standard pups is all you need, then that's good enough for me
[/quote]


Calm yourself down, I'm talking about his guitar not the man. Sensible people can have these discussion with the usual suspects and there football mentality

[Kiwi]

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1362511619' post='2000583']
I wondered if it might have been uncool to have a 'new' bass. He seemed quite proud of the "patena"
[/quote]
Hard to say now without speculating. He definitely liked jazz basses, maybe he couldn't afford a new one to begin with and by the time he could, preCBS instruments had rocketed in value.

[mentalextra]

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1362511476' post='2000578']
At one point he owned 3 preCBS jazz basses, including one that was fretted. All were stock apart from the two fretlesses being defretted and an epoxy coating to the fingerboard. Fender offer a Jaco signature bass but neither they or Acoustic offered him a deal. Who knows why, maybe Fender weren't into endorsements back then because they didn't need to? Hard to say what the benefit for Jaco would have been.
[/quote]

I find it interesting that he must have done an outstanding job of defretting. I wonder if any Luthier offered to do a more professional job for him, especially mixing in his circles

[visog]

In an old interview - I think you can still find on his site, an interviewer asks much the same question, and specifically cites an Alembic. If I remember correctly, Jaco doesn't seem interested in what's out there. He's happy with his bass. Same again in one of his last interviews - infamous cover story on Guitar Player, he says that Sting got him to try a Steinberger which he liked but again he went back to his sound. There's a video of him playing a JD too somewhere. And I think he got a free Guild Pilot towards the end of his life too.

As a listener - I'm loved his sound and glad he stayed with it.

[xilddx]

I've always said he should have upgraded to a Ritter Jupiter.

[mentalextra]

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1362512055' post='2000595']
Hard to say now without speculating. He definitely liked jazz basses, maybe he couldn't afford a new one to begin with and by the time he could, preCBS instruments had rocketed in value.
[/quote]

Did he own a factory standard fretless

[Kiwi]

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1362512108' post='2000597']
I find it interesting that he must have done an outstanding job of defretting. I wonder if any Luthier offered to do a more professional job for him, especially mixing in his circles
[/quote]
He defretted his instruments pretty early on in his career. Again, maybe he couldn't afford a luthier at the time. But with a radiussed sanding block and a range of grit, it's not a hard job to do so long as the epoxy is given time to cure and the sanding block is run parallel to the centreline of the neck.

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1362512217' post='2000602']
Did he own a factory standard fretless
[/quote]
I'm not an expert on Fenders but I'm not aware fretless jazz basses were available when he got into fretless, only the precision was.

[Grangur]

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1362512003' post='2000594']
Calm yourself down, I'm talking about his guitar not the man. Sensible people can have these discussion with the usual suspects and there football mentality
[/quote]
I'm calm. No offence ment, none taken either. I'm just intrigued how so many of us say we need 5/6 strings, then we see the real, widely respected greats with 4 strings on a bog-standard bass

ok... correction... standard with his own changes, like taking the frets out.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Grangur

[thisnameistaken]

I think some players realise the sound they're getting is good and so they spend their time playing music instead of tossing around with gear.

[mentalextra]

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1362512110' post='2000598']
In an old interview - I think you can still find on his site, an interviewer asks much the same question, and specifically cites an Alembic. If I remember correctly, Jaco doesn't seem interested in what's out there. He's happy with his bass. Same again in one of his last interviews - infamous cover story on Guitar Player, he says that Sting got him to try a Steinberger which he liked but again he went back to his sound. There's a video of him playing a JD too somewhere. And I think he got a free Guild Pilot towards the end of his life too.

As a listener - I'm loved his sound and glad he stayed with it.
[/quote]

Thats interesting, and yes he has an amazing talent. I wonder if he would still be resisting temptation to change if he were alive today

Edited March 5, 2013 by mentalextra

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1362511619' post='2000583']
I wondered if it might have been uncool to have a 'new' bass. He seemed quite proud of the "patena"
[/quote]
I doubt it. At the time it was usually 'cool' to have a shiny new bass or guitar. If you got a ding in your guitar or bass in the 70s (and you could afford it) you'd px it for a brand new one. There are even tales of guitarists in UK bands when touring the U.S. would trade in their 'last years' guitars for new ones. Relics just weren't the fashion back then.

[mentalextra]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1362512300' post='2000605']
I'm calm. No offence ment, none taken either. I'm just intrigued how so many of us say we need 5/6 strings, then we see the real, widely respected greats with 4 strings on a bog-standard bass

ok... correction... standard with his own changes, like taking the frets out.
[/quote]

No problem, He has a huge talent and I have great respect. I am sure he cold outplay us all with a rubber band on a shoe box. I am fascinated by that guitar though!

[xilddx]

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1362512318' post='2000608']
Thats interesting, and yes he has an amazing talent. I wonder if he would still be resisting temptation to change if he were alive today
[/quote]

Musicians like that are obsessed with music, as long as the instrument enables them to express themselves, most of the couldn't give a toss about what else is out there. Why would they? It's almost only us amateurs that keep thinking we could really 'speak' through a Fodera, or a pre CBS Precision, or whatever bollocks.

[mentalextra]

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1362512428' post='2000612']
I doubt it. At the time it was usually 'cool' to have a shiny new bass or guitar. If you got a ding in your guitar or bass in the 70s (and you could afford it) you'd px it for a brand new one. There are even tales of guitarists in UK bands when touring the U.S. would trade in their 'last years' guitars for new ones. Relics just weren't the fashion back then.
[/quote]

Yeah, but surely, at his level, he would be surrounded by luthiers examining the minutest problem with his bass, especially the DIY defret

[Kiwi]

I should also mention that John Diggins (Jaydee) made Jaco 5 black fretless jazz style basses and was on the verge of endorsing him just before Jaco was beaten up. So he ALMOST got endorsed. A basschatter has one of those instruments in their collection.

[risingson]

Jaco likely won't have cared about upgrading his instrument providing that it played well, after all he was rather good on the old electric bass and if something ain't broke then why fix it? Likely he didn't need the hassle. It's also not entirely true that he didn't include at least one or two mods on his instruments, he was known to use P-Bass necks on Jazz basses so that he could get a stretch on with his left hand, something about him cramping up on jazz bass necks.