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The joy of the J


Supernaut

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25 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I use 'hit me with your rythmn stick' as a guage on ease of use as it is on the edge of what I can play. I can play it on my ibanezes, I could play it on a J I had, but not a P. I can play it on my shuker, it is a bit hard going on the spector.

If I get a bass its one of the first things I try. If I can't play it there is no point hanging onto the bass as I will eventually get fed up with it.

The wider the string spacing and the higher the action, the harder it gets.

If I used that song as a marker I`d throw all my basses away as I can`t play it 🤣

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38 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

I can play it but only 20bpm 😁

Friend of mine and fellow bass player, his band suggested Hit me... 

 

I just went 'ooof, best of luck. It's a bit of a work out apparently'. Next time I saw him the band dropped the idea. He could play it up to about ¾ speed but not faster. I told him he did much better than me...as I'd never contemplated learning it. 😁

 

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

If I used that song as a marker I`d throw all my basses away as I can`t play it 🤣

 

I tell myself it's a horrid song and I wouldn't want to know it anyway. Lying to myself means I get to keep my basses.

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24 minutes ago, Marvin said:

play it up to about ¾ speed but not faster

If anyone says it’s easy they are (imo) lying 🤥 , it became a bit of a personal challenge for me , I started in about 1982 and I’m probably up to just under 3/4 speed now 😁, there was a thread on it once 

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6 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

If anyone says it’s easy they are (imo) lying 🤥 , it became a bit of a personal challenge for me , I started in about 1982 and I’m probably up to just under 3/4 speed now 😁, there was a thread on it once 

 

I don't find it easy and I mess up a lot on the part that goes back up. Which is why I use it, it is right on the edge of what I can do, so if the bass is harder to play I almost certainly wouldn't be able to play it. I couldn't play it on a P bass.

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I love the jazz bass shape and the tone. I prefer active incarnations like a Sadowsky - never played a passive Fender J I liked, even 60s and 70s vintage, although I wouldn’t mind a 70s in the Antigua finish.
I do find the J a bit uncomfortable playing seated due to the offset body - it really exacerbates neck dive. I’ve never been able to play with the bass on my left leg - feels totally unnatural to me and throws the first fret miles away unless you have the neck pointed almost vertical - but a 0.5Kg ankle weight wrapped around the strap next to the bottom strap button works wonders. My Jazz is well under 4Kg anyway and I don’t set the strap to pull on my shoulder so it doesn’t make the bass feel any heavier and balances perfectly seated. I didn’t think it would work as well as it does, but it does!

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On 21/06/2022 at 15:21, Lozz196 said:

If I used that song as a marker I`d throw all my basses away as I can`t play it 🤣

Neither me, I gave up trying to learn it, same with the fiddly section of Sir duke, I got an approximation going but the fact the part is mirrored on the horns makes it too obvious that im not playing it correctly

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1 hour ago, shoulderpet said:

. . . .  same with the fiddly section of Sir duke, I got an approximation going but the fact the part is mirrored on the horns makes it too obvious that im not playing it correctly

 

 

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Took a while for me to get that one too - and the answer to all these things are to just do it slow and break it into smaller steps that you repeat until you don't get it wrong.

Sir duke is pretty good in that it naturally breaks into a series of obvious phrases.

I have a problem with all of these as my two finger picking is bad (my nail picking and 3 finger picking is fine) and I always try to force it.

 

It really is just small section repetition and speed increases.

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  • 3 weeks later...

After many years of struggling with Jazzes I think I’ve finally found out a way to make them work for me. Ive never managed to set an amp to work well with a Jazz so now I set the amp the same as I would for my Precision (which with everything on the Jazz on full makes the it far too shrill on the top end for me) then use the tone & volume controls to get whatever sound I’m after. It tends to be tone on something like 75% then pickups depending on sound wanted. I’ve always been an everything on full kind of guy but am finding this is really working and am now - at last - understanding the versatility of the Jazz bass.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 10/07/2022 at 03:52, Lozz196 said:

After many years of struggling with Jazzes I think I’ve finally found out a way to make them work for me. Ive never managed to set an amp to work well with a Jazz so now I set the amp the same as I would for my Precision (which with everything on the Jazz on full makes the it far too shrill on the top end for me) then use the tone & volume controls to get whatever sound I’m after. It tends to be tone on something like 75% then pickups depending on sound wanted. I’ve always been an everything on full kind of guy but am finding this is really working and am now - at last - understanding the versatility of the Jazz bass.

 

I think I went 20 years on a Jazz without using the bridge pickup

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Oh well, forever the voice of dissent and to give the thread a bit of balance. I rather dislike them and owned about seven over the years. Kept buying them thinking the next one would be grt but nope...The best was the last one, a Mex RW which for the right bod was a superb instrument.

 

Guess I cannot get over the offset, the skinny lil nut and all that PU/knob palava. I'm a P bass guy thru and thru but even their not as simple as some would think, but once you get a P bass dialled in, ie technique, strings, (dead flats), amp etc there's no going back.

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4 hours ago, greavesbass said:

Oh well, forever the voice of dissent and to give the thread a bit of balance. I rather dislike them and owned about seven over the years. Kept buying them thinking the next one would be grt but nope...The best was the last one, a Mex RW which for the right bod was a superb instrument.

 

Guess I cannot get over the offset, the skinny lil nut and all that PU/knob palava. I'm a P bass guy thru and thru but even their not as simple as some would think, but once you get a P bass dialled in, ie technique, strings, (dead flats), amp etc there's no going back.

Go on the P bass thread then...

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