Jaco's 'Bass of Doom'

[Doddy]

So,I've just bought a copy of the Haynes Fender Bass Manual (really good book BTW),and in the section on
Jaco it mentions that his Bass had 'Fender replacement tone controls,and one capacitor removed'. Now,I
know that the 'Bass of Doom' was a '62 Jazz,and I believe that Fender started using the 3 knob layout in '62
also,so it is possible that the tone controls were original and not a replacement.I've seen pictures of him with
stacked knob Jazzes,but none of these were the 'Bass of Doom' This is also the first I've heard about his bass
having a capacitor removed.
Basically,I'm wondering if anyone has any information on this that I may have missed,as generally I'm
pretty up on Jaco.

Of course,I may be mistaken.

[Fat Rich]

I've a feeling the Bass of Doom was always a 3 knob layout, but he had another Jazz he used a lot that was a '61 and he swapped the stack knobs for the newer layout on that one.

I read that somewhere but can't remember where, so I too, may be mistaken!

[BassBod]

I seem to remember he changed the stack to 3 pot as he felt the 3 pot setup had a punchier sound. There is usually only one cap in a 3 pot circuit, so I'd be surprised if he took that out. It could be a confusion with the extra two resistors used in a stack to stop the two pots interacting with each other - these also reduce the output a bit, so also take away some of the "punch". I did see an article on another early Jbass that he played a lot but never owned, and the owner had allowed Jaco to remove/bypass one of the resistors - and re-finnish the neck.