JBFL versus PBFL

[Beedster]

A guy I used to play with said that whilst he could immediately hear the difference between me playing a fretted Jazz or fretted Precision, he could never hear any difference when it came to fretless, suggesting that platting style made more difference than PUPs etc in the latter. 
 

That’s all really. Any thoughts? 

[Waddycall]

I’ve just swapped my fretless jazz neck from my p bass onto a j. The j can make the p sound but the p can’t do what the j does.

[Hellzero]

As said millions of times, it's all in the fingers. 😉

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

A guy I used to play with said that whilst he could immediately hear the difference between me playing a fretted Jazz or fretted Precision, he could never hear any difference when it came to fretless, suggesting that platting style made more difference than PUPs etc in the latter. 
 

That’s all really. Any thoughts? 

I wonder if the fretless sound itself, being so distinctive, colours what he hears to the point where subtle differences between P & J are lost. He's just hearing 'fretless'. 

[Beer of the Bass]

Do you tend to favour the neck pickup on a Jazz? I feel like the bridge pickup sound on a jazz is pretty distinctive whether fretted or fretless, but the neck pickup definitely overlaps in territory with a Precision, and the high end/scooped mids of both pickups together stands out more on a fretted bass.

Edited March 4, 2020 by Beer of the Bass

[EliasMooseblaster]

Having ping-ponged from one to t'other in the last few years, I've always felt a little conscious that in a band setting, my old fretless Jazz never quite had the low-mid grunt that I was accustomed to from years of playing Precision-type basses. When I finally part-ex'ed it for a fretless Precision (well, a P/J), straight away, I felt more comfortable with the tone it was giving me.

Did anyone else notice? Almost certainly not. As Senor Mandrel has suggested above, both basses had that distinctive swell on the notes, along with - crucially - doing that thing where they sound like a bass guitar, so no comment was passed.

I have, however, found that the fretless Precision could be make to sound like a fretted one. I don't know whether this is unique to the Tony Franklin model, but with rounds, and the tone control wide open, the "clank" one can get from isn't far off even my brightest-sounding fretted P. Your old bandmate might notice a difference if you take that approach!