How to get a Jazz to sound Iike a P or close

[lojo]

Finally got my CIJ Jazz bass on the road , dimazios , kiogon loom and Cobalt flats. The bass has a fatter neck than the thin ones which I don't get on with so this is perfect for me has illness is causing me to struggle sometimes with my love for fat chuncky P necks.

So many people I have read say you can get it sound like a P , if that's you what's your advice for setting bass and amp controls , even just to get near id be happy.

I don't want to have a P v J debate , I've got Ps and I know how to use one , just need to figure out my Jazz now

Ok it's a pointless silly question , a bass is a bass and I also love my Ray , but I'm off sick for the first time in my life and can now worry about silly things like this

Edited September 9, 2017 by lojo

[louisthebass]

Not sure you can get the exact sound of a P bass, but you can get close (imo).

Roll off the rear pickup volume all the way, front pickup on full and pluck over the front pickup. Take the tone off about 3/4 of the way. It will still "bark" like a Jazz, but only slightly.

[BobVbass]

I love the look of jazzes and I've had a few, you can try putting everything through the front PU and roll off all the treble, it's kind of P bass ish but it never creams through the mix like a P does. I guess that's why I've ended up selling all the ones I've had

[Lw.]

You can't, they're inherently different. The closest you'll get is solo neck pick-up & half tone but it's really not the same.

[paul_c2]

I'm not sure if you'll get them exact, but with some EQ, a Jazz bass tone can be made to be very useable in a mix. Just add a bit on bass and roll off the treble slightly, so the graphic eq looks a bit like a gentle downwards slope!

[lojo]

[quote name='paul_c2' timestamp='1504941201' post='3368399']
I'm not sure if you'll get them exact, but with some EQ, a Jazz bass tone can be made to be very useable in a mix. Just add a bit on bass and roll off the treble slightly, so the graphic eq looks a bit like a gentle downwards slope!
[/quote]

Perhaps getting a nice sound in the mix should be my goal rather than the P thing. I played the J for the first time in a band situation during the week and didn't find a happy place , whereas my P was set everything flat and it fell through the mix with a lovely tone

Thanks for all the replies , I need to go listen to the great J players and try to fall in love with it like I did with the P sound , just not sure you can beat that Duck Dunn - aggressive use of P bass spectrum , they all just sound so good

Edited September 9, 2017 by lojo

[geoffbyrne]

If your pickups are DiMarzio 'J's then soloing the neck pup is probably as near as you'll get tp a P.

G.

[No. 8 Wire]

Stick your jazz neck on your p bass?

[artisan]

Do you use a compressor ?
I find my EBS MULTICOMP really fattens up the tone,especially on its tube sim mode.
My G&L jazz has really meaty sounding pickups & gives me a lovely warm vintage P ish tone which is perfect in my black sabbath tribute band.
I run the neck pickup on full,bridge pickup on 3/4 & tone rolled off to 3/4.
I always play close to the neck & never further back than over the neck pickup.
My GK MB800 Fusion I run totally flat with the contour rolled fully anti clockwise,with gain up to give a little dirt.

Edited September 9, 2017 by artisan

[paul_5]

Solo neck pickup, roll some the top end off and boost the mids on your amp. 👌🏻

[HowieBass]

The closest I can get is similar to Artisan, but maybe the bridge pickup at around 1/4 to 1/3 and boost the mids slightly.

[Hazy Bass]

Tape wound or flat wound strings will help - also think about the eq settings on your amp as well as on the bass ... and try and get out front & listen to it in the mix as well as close up (if & when you're gigging or rehearsing) - in my experience the further away you are the low end comes through more & you lose some of the top ... it'll never sound quite like a P, but I can get a sound from my Jazz which is close enough to a P for a live situation.

[Shambo]

The Fender S1 switch was marketed as making your Jazz sound like a P-Bass. It didn't really, but it did have a pleasant sound of its own not wildly dissimilar from a Precision.

Edited September 9, 2017 by Shambo

[chris_b]

A J and a P have unique and different strengths. IMO they sound better not trying to sound like each other.

[Lozz196]

I`ve found that neck pickup on full, bridge pickup backed completely off then gradually roll it back on just until you hear it change the tone a bit. Then drop some highs on your amp a touch, add in mids (low-mids if possible) by the same amount and you`re almost there. Not exactly but say 85/90%.

Precisions are all about chunky low-mids, Jazzes are more scooped with clearer (and more) highs so it`s a case of compensating for that on the amp. The pickups on the bass help - that bridge "just on" adds in some middiness to the sound that the neck pickup soloed just doesn`t have.

A mate of mine uses a 70s Jazz but unless you saw it you`d swear that it was a Precision - I think the fact that he changes his roundwound strings at most every 10 years helps as well. Loses a lot of the bottom and top end from them, so left with a bucket-load of mids. Always going to help on this.

[lojo]

Thanks for all the replies , nearly there is good enough and I might find the neck pick up nice to dial in

Don't want to swap necks around but nice idea , I actually have an un used MIA precision neck and tuners sitting around

It will mostly likely be for my last gig ever and I've gone for the Jazz as the neck is better for me than my Ps or Ray

[paul_c2]

I play in a couple of different groups. In the big band, which despite its name isn't that big, has neither piano nor electric guitar (so its drums, me, saxophones x 7, trumpets x2 and trombones x2). The Jazz bass on flat EQ fills in the rhythm section very nicely. In the other groups, the EQ is a gentle slope down.

[uk_lefty]

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1504941891' post='3368405']


Perhaps getting a nice sound in the mix should be my goal rather than the P thing. I played the J for the first time in a band situation during the week and didn't find a happy place , whereas my P was set everything flat and it fell through the mix with a lovely tone
[/quote]

I balance my j pickups completely differently playing at home and playing with the band. Far more front pickup with the band, just helps find my space in the mix. At home I love playing almost all on the back pickup for that open sound but it isn't right for the band.
I find a j is better for messing about with than a p, slimmer neck and more tonal options, but playing live I just want one or two solid tone options without too much fuss or fine tuning.

[Danuman]

Turn down the bridge pickup, roll off the highs and stop worrying about it. It's not exactly the same, but the only people who are likely to notice are going to be bass players. If you're after some '60s thump, stick a bit of washing-up sponge under there.

The other day I saw Curtis Harding's bass player do just that!

[spectoremg]

[quote name='Danuman' timestamp='1504996618' post='3368802']
Turn down the bridge pickup, roll off the highs and stop worrying about it. It's not exactly the same, but the only people who are likely to notice are going to be bass players. If you're after some '60s thump, stick a bit of washing-up sponge under there.

The other day I saw Curtis Harding's bass player do just that!
[/quote]The only people who are going to notice are BC pedants.
Anyway isn't it all in the fingers?

Edited September 10, 2017 by spectoremg

[lojo]

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1505037484' post='3368965']
Anyway isn't it all in the fingers?
[/quote]

I hope not my fingers are losing sensitivity due do my condition

I realise the thread is pointless and only we care or notice

Thanks all for replies

[Trueno]

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1505039819' post='3369002']


I hope not my fingers are losing sensitivity due do my condition

I realise the thread is pointless and only we care or notice

Thanks all for replies
[/quote]

Sorry to hear about your fingers, lojo.
I'm losing sensitivity and fine control in my fingers due to peripheral neuropathy... although it's worse in my feet and legs. Sometimes working around these conditions can lead to "interesting" results.
Best wishes anyway.

[NickA]

I have an experimental J-bass that I keep meddling with. It recently acquired a series parallel switch; with the two pickups in series it does sound quite precision-ish. Sort of solid and thumpy. The pickups are no longer loading each-other so you get a "sum of" pickups instead of a kind of "average of" that a standard J-bass has which changes the frequency spread. Takes a bit of a re-wire - but interesting results.

It will never be exact because the P's pickup is in a place that the J doesn't have one (see below, which also shows why a PJ doesn't sound like a J either).

[prowla]

Put a P-bass body & pickups on it?

[kev b]

I ended up in a band that needed the P Bass sound, awkward because the only bass I owned at the time was my 1978 Jazz.

Anyhow after messing about with the sound at every gig and never being completely happy I found that setting the neck pickup at around 8 to 9 and about the same on the bridge gave me the best tone, opening the pickups fully did not work at all. If you experiment with the volumes you can plainly hear the difference around the 8/9 setting, changing the tone almost like a wah pedal, until you find the sweet spot.

I realised that what I needed was a P bass with a J width neck but all I had was an Ibanez Blazer fretless with a narrow neck, took it to rehearsal and the tone was there straight away, no faffing around, little tone change when lowering volume, tone knob working from thud to biting.

Conclusion, if you want to sound like a PBass player then you need a Pbass, you might have to find a narrow neck version a la Duck Dunn but its a Pbass you need, anything else is an approximation.

I bought a Jazz back in 1978 and stuck with it because the wide Precision neck didnt suit me, tried a Precision recently, still doesnt, but for the music I play its a Precision I need. They are plug and play always sound at least ok and are easy to control.