Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Fender am jazz bass tone


Majid
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi bass lovers,

 

I have recently bought a Fender American jazz bass pro. II which I was dreaming about since many years ago. Up to now, I have been mostly playing an active Yamaha RBX 374 with a Fender rumble 100 combo and with focus on slapping technique and tone. Now I started playing slaps on my new Fender J bass but honestly I expected a clear and clean tone out of Fender (as I heard on Youtube videos by fender bass players). Maybe it is not a fair comparison to compare an active with a passive bass, but at least I expect a tone similar to what I've heard and watched on Youtube.

I changed the strings of the Fender from Nickle Roundwound to pro steel in order to get a brighter sound which would fit for slapping but I am still getting a bit round and fat sound and not bright enough as expected (I had already adjusted the amp combo with cutting mid and boosting low and high freq. by the way). 

My main issue is that when I do double popping on the strings or using ghost notes in triplets, the muted/ghost notes are not heard well. It causes me popping harder which hurt my finger and not so convenient. I was told by customer service of two different music stores that a bass booster/preamp can solve my issue. 

 

Currently I am checking two options for bass preamps:

  1. MXR M 81 Bass Preamp

  2. TC electronic Spark Booster

I know the second one is not a bass preamp but as I understood it can also be used for bass and will probably meet my requirement. Moreover is much cheaper than the 1st option.

 

Now, I would like to have and appreciate your point on views on if a booster/preamp can help me get the tone I'm looking for and also what booster/preamp you recommend.

 

Best regards,

Majid

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For what its worth, I found my player to be a bit tame and was expecting punch. 

The am pro ii have the v mod pickups so need to cater for vintage and modern. Maybe the performer would be better? Yosemite pickups are hotter. The best slap tone is a stingray for me but that's just my opinion of course.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think the fender 100 combo has a tweeter or high frequency horn. If this is the case its probably why you can't get the slap sound you want. You need a speaker with a hf component for a good bright slap sound. If I'm wrong and your combo does have a tweeter/horn then ignore what I'm saying. If you don't have a speaker that can produce high frequency then it doesn't matter what pre amp or bass you use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Majid, pressing the bright button will send more hf to the speaker but if the speaker isn't good at producing hf then this will not have much effect. A normal bass speaker/ woofer can produce the frequency for most bass sounds but will probably not be good for the pops especially. If you have a headphone out on your amp try plugging in some headphones and try some slapping you'll probably notice a big difference.  if you  don't have a headphone out you probably have a line out socket   if you can connect the line out to a stereo system or something similar you can use that to hear your bass through a system  with more hi fi speakers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Majid said:

Hi Tdw,

Thanks for your reply.

Rumble 100 doesn’t have a so called high freq horn but it has a bright function I use when I am slapping. Maybe it has the same functionality as tweeter. Right? 0A3D1DE3-C657-4F99-80AB-A45B2685D345.thumb.jpeg.a451aadc5a28a5a136767417d2bb6532.jpeg

Not exactly, a horn will enable your amp to reproduce the highest frequencies your bass produces, you can still get high frequencies without a horn but the very highest frequencies will not be reproduced.

 

I had a Rumble 500 and i used to get a bright tone from it by turning up the treble and switching on the bright switch but turning the bass down a quarter or so

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi shoulder pet, I dont exactly disagree with you, I think it depends on what you want in a slap sound, if you want a bright slap sound especially on the pops then I think a tweeter or some other hf component is necessary if you are happier with a less bright slap sound then it may not be necessary. To be fair I don't know how the speaker in this combo performs but from what the op says about the slap sound lacking brightness I suspect the speakers freq range may be an issue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Tdw said:

Hi shoulder pet, I dont exactly disagree with you, I think it depends on what you want in a slap sound, if you want a bright slap sound especially on the pops then I think a tweeter or some other hf component is necessary if you are happier with a less bright slap sound then it may not be necessary. To be fair I don't know how the speaker in this combo performs but from what the op says about the slap sound lacking brightness I suspect the speakers freq range may be an issue.

Yes I suspect you may be right, if the Rumble 100 eq is voiced the same as the 500 them the treble is voiced at 10khz so it would make sense that the speaker may struggle to reproduce this, I also remember that my Rumble was quite heavy on the low end which also didn't help

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, shoulderpet said:

Yes I suspect you may be right, if the Rumble 100 eq is voiced the same as the 500 them the treble is voiced at 10khz so it would make sense that the speaker may struggle to reproduce this, I also remember that my Rumble was quite heavy on the low end which also didn't help

That sounds pretty likely to me, I've got a bf 110 cab which has a quoted hf of 6khz if I remember correctly (which is fairly high for a cab with just a woofer/bass cab speaker), the slap (or rather pop) sound is OK ish but not as clear or bright as a cab with a hf speaker, certainly nowhere near as hi fi as my acme low b cab.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Tdw and shoulderpet. But I dont think that the combo can’t produce the high freq. The reason is that I can get a bright sound with my Yamaha RBX 374 when slapping with the same string set and the same combo. But again maybe it’s because my Yamaha is an active bass and also it has basically a thinner tone. That’s why I was suggested to use an outboard preamp/booster. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I turned all the pick up control and tone all the way up.
On the amp, When using my Yamaha then I put the low and high mid on 9 o’clock, bass on 12 o’clock and treble on 2 O’clock. But when I connect the Fender, I have to turn the treble up to around 4 or 5 O’clock, bass to 2 O’clock with cutting low mid and adding a bit to high mid to get a bit brighter sound.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe it helps a bit to toy with the pickup heights and balance between them.. you can lose that deep clarity if they are too close to the strings.

 

Jazzes can sound a bit different from each other though. My '81 has that very clear and warm jazz sound, where my former 71 definitely had more pronounced mids. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t think that the stringe are very close to the pick ups. I agree with you that different fender J basses have different personalities and tones. However, I’m comparing the videos and demos I had watched on youtube about these Fender J pro II with mine and see a difference. That’s why I think probably they have been using a booster/preamp to boost the signal and maybe adjust it a bit more with Eq! I’m also comparing its sound with my active Yamaha RBX which give me a possibility to adjust the tone via an onboard preamp and get ehat I’m looking for in tone. I know that it’s not a fair comparison but do you think if an outboard booster/preamp could help me have more clear sound?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My issue as I mentioned above is not the tonal personality. My issue is that when I pop the string I have to pop it harder than I use to in order to get a crisp and piercing sound. Also when I double pop or play ghost popping notes they are not clearly heard specially on the D string. G string does better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, Majid said:

Maybe it is the nature of an active Yamaha.

I am thinking from the posts on this thread that this is the case, on an active bass you can boost frequencies before they even reach the amp which then gives the treble control on the amp more treble to work with which would translate to a more responsive treble control on the amp.  I think you have a couple of options here 1) Have a preamp fitted to the Jazz bass, 2)get an eq pedal or preamp pedal, the pedal in this link has a treble and harmonics control (which is basically like a 2nd treble control) Dr J Sparrow pedal 

You could look at brighter pickups but I would probably advise against going down that rabbit hole

Edited by shoulderpet
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Shoulderpet. I’m still in the 30-day return time frame. So I can check the preamp and if it’s not fully satisfying with that solution either, I have a possibility to return the Fender pro II and go for a more expensive model e.g. a fender am j bass ultra which also has an active circuit in it (a bit more expensive around 350€ more) I’m not sure if it’s worth paying that extra money though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One possibility which I think shoulderpet touched on earlier is that the treble control on the amp works at too high  frequency for the speaker but the treble control on the yamaha bass is working at a frequency more appropriate to the speaker. In which case a pre amp or eq pedal would help. Does the treble control on the amp have an easily noticeable effect on the sound of either bass?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, Tdw said:

One possibility which I think shoulderpet touched on earlier is that the treble control on the amp works at too high  frequency for the speaker but the treble control on the yamaha bass is working at a frequency more appropriate to the speaker. In which case a pre amp or eq pedal would help. Does the treble control on the amp have an easily noticeable effect on the sound of either bass?

 

 

 

when I slap on Yamaha I set the treble knob at around 1 o’clock but when playing the fender I have it at 4 O’clock ti get a sharper tone when popping. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...