Jazz Bass tone settings

[interpol52]

Having recently rediscovered my Jazz Bass love, I was wondering how you all use the tone and volume controls.

My favourite at the moment is

Neck - 100%
Bridge - 80%
Tone - 50%

I then tend make slight alterations in tone if the song needs it by moving my right hand playing position and/or digging in or holding off on how hard I hit the strings.

I also like the neck pickup isolated and the tone rolled off completely.

So how do you get the best from your Jazz?

Edited May 28, 2016 by interpol52

[Wonky2]

Depends on the demand ofthe music i guess, but my own pref is :

Bridge 100%
Neck 60%
Tone 60%

Right hand usually has thumb resting on bridge pup... My jazz is a 76'er so that 4" pickup spread has the bridge pup that little bit closer to bridge.....

Kinda nasal sound in the mid range....

Edited May 28, 2016 by Wonky2

[Cato]

On a passive jazz everything on full usually gives me the perfect sound.

Actives generally require a lot more fiddling about.

[Roger2611]

Neck 100%
Bridge 0%
Tone 100%

[Cosmo Valdemar]

I always found with every Jazz I've owned that almost as soon as you start to turn down a particular pickup, it vanishes from the overall sound leaving the other one dominant. There was a tiny margin of actual blending.
So in my case it was either everything on full or neck on it's own.

[JTUK]

Depends how the pots are wired up, but I'll have the rear on full and the neck to balance the bass.

If I want the bass to have the rear pickup fingerstyle funk, I'll roll back the tone.

[Mike]

Everything on full!

[ahpook]

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1464465974' post='3059693']
Neck 100%
Bridge 0%
Tone 100%
[/quote]

Start here and roll off the tone if I'm feeling sek-say

[Lozz196]

When I`ve had Jazzes I have neck pickup on 100%, bridge pickup on about 33% - 50%, and tone on 100%. This way I achieved a nice Precision sound. And after I realised that`s what I was doing, I finally realised there`s no point in me having a Jazz and trying to make it sound like a Precision when I already have 3 of those. As Homer might say, doh!

[discreet]

When I had one it was neck on full, bridge on full (then backed-off about 1/8th turn), tone on full. Then fart about trying to play that pencil-thin neck like a big fairy gay then rush straight back to a P-Bass, which is the bass of choice for proper men.

Edited May 30, 2016 by discreet

[bubinga5]

Everything on full, then EQ from your amp. Whats the point in making it sound like a P Bass. ?

Edited May 30, 2016 by bubinga5

[Raslee]

Depends on the genre for me,
Reggae, bridge perhaps 10% N 100% & T 0%...I use some tone for definition every now and then.
Dub as above but bridge 0%
Modern funk, all 100% but I adjust the tone for taste (all tastes like chicken to me )
Vintage soul N 100% B 50% T 50%...this is my most common setting.
Fusion/Jazz, I like N 0% B 100% T 50%-0%

These are just my preference. I'm sure fingers & feel, strings and amps account for a lot of the sound too. Also my favourite is to have the concentric pots set up and have tone on each pick up...loads of variations to be had.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Raslee

[Raslee]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1464570623' post='3060421']
When I had one it was neck on full, bridge on full (then backed-off about 1/8th turn), tone on full. Then fart about trying to play that pencil-thin neck like a big fairy gay then rush straight back to a P-Bass, which is the bass of choice for proper men.
[/quote] Is this a discriminating dig at homosexual obesse fairies who have a penchant for the superior Fender?

[Highfox]

I like my jazz, but I seem to be forever twiddling it's knobs Seems to come across better for me on recordings than how it feels playing live.

I have played on the same bill as a few guys using jazz's and got what I thought was a great sound, had a peek at their amp settings and was surprised to see a lot of them had cut their mids drastically.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Highfox

[CamdenRob]

I love a good jazz bass but the control set up is flawed for me... A balance / volume / tone setup would be far better IMO.

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1464593879' post='3060479']
I love a good jazz bass but the control set up is flawed for me... A balance / volume / tone setup would be far better IMO.
[/quote]
Agreed - I hate the vol/vol thing. Although a balance doesn't yield the same results as a vol/vol.

[bootleg]

How about stacked pots? Vol/tone for each pup? I tend to go with everything full on, neck only, bridge only. A recent AVRI purchase which I am still playing around with. For bridge only I've had to use EQ on my amp for first time to get fatten out the sound.

[bootleg]

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1464475669' post='3059779']
I always found with every Jazz I've owned that almost as soon as you start to turn down a particular pickup, it vanishes from the overall sound leaving the other one dominant. There was a tiny margin of actual blending.
So in my case it was either everything on full or neck on it's own.
[/quote]

This happens on my stacked pots as well, vol and tone, sort of step effect. Isn't there some capacitor/resistor fix for this?

[RickyV]

For me, both pups at 100% with the tone usually at around 50% but back up to 100% at times, depending on the mood.

[Wonky2]

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1464575290' post='3060428']
Everything on full, then EQ from your amp. Whats the point in making it sound like a P Bass. ?
[/quote]

That's interesting, you see im in the opposite camp... I Like to leave my amp as flat as possible so that you hear the tone dialled in from the bass rather than the amp. Never teally have a problem and can use parametric eq to deal with the room. Ok, so thats cutting frequencies at yhe amp but b, lm,hm,t are all ususlly flat.
Then again, come think of it, some of those pots are shelved , so i wonder what true flat is for me?

Jebus !

Simple answer, the room dictates.

[ras52]

Mine's a G&L JB-2 - so it's a Jazz improved :-). I find everything-on-full is inferior to having one of the vols rolled back just a little.

[Wonky2]

Id agree, rolling off the neck pup vol just a tad opens up a whole different sound. To my ear it sounds fuller than wide open ???

Edited May 30, 2016 by Wonky2

[ras52]

[quote name='Wonky2' timestamp='1464631123' post='3060996']
Id agree, rolling iff the beck pup vol just a tad opens up a whole different sound. To my ear it sounds fuller than wide open ???
[/quote]

Some clever person will be along shortly to explain... something to do with capacitance, or resistance, or something like that...

[Marvin]

Pickups both on full and tone wide open.

I like the slight phase from both pickups being on and the back pickup adds bite to contrast with the rounder neck pickup.
All my EQing is done via the amp

It provides a nice and useful contrast to the p bass I have

[bassjim]

here we go.... generally speaking as there are lots of variables..
mines got vol ,bal, tone.
playing with fingers, no pick. if using back PU then plucking over back PU most of the time but still will move hand towards the neck for variations. Both pu on full then plucking between pups and over front pu.
9 times out of ten:
If its a recording studio (which is usually mates pro tools set up in a spare room) bass straight into desk : tone off. always start here then pickup to taste. add more tone if required.most of the time tone all the way off works here. I usually start with the back pick up and go from here.
live recording if going through EBS DI on the head. tone up high or all the way on plus pickups to taste. (my live sound dictates whats going on so most likely the tones up full in this case)
on a live pub gig with no PA support: tone up full. it adds the right amount of presence when all the other idiots are making a noise.
playing a tune like "feak out" or any other kind of bernard edwards,70-80s dance floor type of classics : back pick up. tone up full. If this works here it will work across the board.
Marcus millery approach : same with the tone but both pickups on full.
because I gig usually every weekend in a funk soul covers band I get to experiment a fair bit. I will try using both pick ups on full for some tunes that I would normally only use a back pick up and vis versa to see what happens.
If i dont like it I dont do it next time and sometimes it works so I think I'll do that next time but next time it doesn't.
If its a rock covers band then mostly its both pick ups plus tone all the way up.
Most of its the bleedin obvious: back pu= clear and loud. More articulate and in ya face. Both pu on full = darker,deeper, rounder,good for slap.
In a live situation, depending on volume of the band,where I am standing/sitting in relation to my amp and the rest of the bands amps drums ect, will dictate how much use I can actually get out of the tone control. Loud= not much real use other than up full. Quite = oh so thats what that does.
Amp eq according to the room but not any thing really out there like bass boost on 11 and treble off. reasonably flat if poss.

Edited May 31, 2016 by bassjim