Jazz or P bass?

[gregsguitars]

Do you prefer the Fender styled Jazz bass or the Precision Bass ? why?

[Low End Bee]

Precisions of course.
Jazzes necks are too skinny and the extra knob confuses me.

[Huw Foster]

Generally speaking it's the Jazz for me, but a beautiful bass is a beautiful bass.

[Bilbo]

I have absolutely no idea.....

[basshead56]

The body of the jazz, the neck of the Precision and the pups from a Precision= best bass in the world!
The jazz is a better looking machine, but for the sound, it's gotta be a Precision!

[razze06]

Both and neither at the same time.

[bigjohn]

I go through phases. I'm deffo loving my jazz at the moment.

I do love a nice P though And I'm starting to talk myself around into getting another one this year.

Sometimes Jazz necks feel to thin, sometimes P necks feel too wide and thin front to back.

Sometimes I miss the thump of a P. Sometimes I miss the growl of a Jazz.

I've got a nice P/J, but it doesn't quite do the P thing as well as my last P did. And it doesn't touch the Jazz (Although it's a better P sound than my Jazz, it's got a Jazz neck). I might have the pickups rewound to see if I can get it to do better what I want...

[obbm]

When I started into music there was only the Precision and it was the photo of Jet Harris's P on the cover of The Shadows first album that made a deep impression.

The P shape is the archetypal bass shape. When I eventually could afford one though I found that the neck was too wide for my small hands so I changed to a Jazz. Just love that growl. The solution has been a Precision body, Jazz neck with PJ pick-ups. Deep growl and ticks all the boxes. Oh but it's not a Fender, its a Lakland.

[farmer61]

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='731713' date='Feb 1 2010, 01:50 PM']Precisions of course.
Jazzes necks are too skinny and the extra knob confuses me.[/quote]

Jazzes of course.
Jazz necks are perfect and the extra knob makes you look like a musician.

[harvey1-8]

Don't be silly. You need both.

[Low End Bee]

[quote name='farmer61' post='731826' date='Feb 1 2010, 03:30 PM']Jazzes of course.
Jazz necks are perfect and the extra knob makes you look like a musician.[/quote]

I'm definitely a bass player in a band and not a musician.

I'll stick with the Precision. The instrument equivalent of a Ford Transit.

[raze]

Wow can tell im not on Talkbass if someone had posted this on there it would have been flamed by about 50 miserable old C***S that spend more time on bass forums than they do playing bass saying Use the search function you noob !!!

[Earbrass]

[quote name='obbm' post='731777' date='Feb 1 2010, 02:51 PM']The solution has been a Precision body, Jazz neck with PJ pick-ups. Deep growl and ticks all the boxes.[/quote]

Yup, that's the ideal combination I think.

[quote name='obbm' post='731777' date='Feb 1 2010, 02:51 PM']Oh but it's not a Fender, its a Lakland.[/quote]

...or a Peavey Zodiac BXP. And had it been a pound lighter, I'd still have mine....

[chris_b]

If you have to play a Fender then it's got to be a 3TS Precision with a rosewood board.

[Low End Bee]

[quote name='chris_b' post='731962' date='Feb 1 2010, 05:42 PM']If you have to play a Fender then it's got to be a 3TS Precision with a rosewood board.[/quote]

[Huw Foster]

[quote name='alexharvay' post='731838' date='Feb 1 2010, 03:40 PM']Don't be silly. You need both.[/quote]
Agreed!

[henry norton]

I started on Jazz basses but found the body a bit bulky and the neck a bit thin (just like my ideal woman ) I've played a P (with a J at the bridge) for about the last 20 years now but I still think the Jazz is a better looking bass. They definitely make you look more of a muso....

Maybe every Fender player needs to have one of each

[Marvin]

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='731713' date='Feb 1 2010, 01:50 PM']Precisions of course.
Jazzes necks are too skinny and the extra knob confuses me.[/quote]
The last thing you need is too many knobs in any situation.

Never owned either, and never played a genuine Fender so I don't know, but I've never really wanted one. Well, saying that if I was going to buy one it would probably be a Squier VMJ. So a Jazz then by default.

[Stag]

Precision for me. Gets pretty much any tone you want from phat to clank with one volume and a tone knob.

[Cat Burrito]

I'll have a P please Bob

[EmaTheMirror]

[quote name='raze' post='731871' date='Feb 1 2010, 05:14 PM']Wow can tell im not on Talkbass if someone had posted this on there it would have been flamed by about 50 miserable old C***S that spend more time on bass forums than they do playing bass saying Use the search function you noob !!![/quote]

on the Italian Megabass forum as well, they're fairly strict about rules, though they're averagely not c*nts and I agree that some posts are really useless and petty

For what I've seen (quite little), I like the atmosphere of this forum


Getting back to the topic: I personally like both, but by now I favour my Classic '50 P in my band settings, it's got the sound I need and like, and a good neck feel (a thick one... well, not so much for me, being also a classical double-bass player )

Edited February 1, 2010 by EmaTheMirror

[Jerry_B]

I like both but prefer the Jazz simply because I can get more variety out of it. I can also get a P bass like sound out of it with a little tweaking out of the pup and amp controls.

[4-string-thing]

I love my P to bits, owned it for over 30 years, but last year had GAS for a jazz. I ended up buying a Warwick Corvette (modern jazz?)

I'd still like to own a jazz of some kind though, probably a Squier VMJ, if my girlfriend ever lets me have access to our bank account again!

[HarryPotter]

I love my Jazz, I bought it because of the neck and decided to learn to live with the sound (I love the P thump).

I had no idea what people meant about the Jazz growl for a while....

The first time I made my Jazz growl I thought I'd broken it

Now I love it.

[thodrik]

Anything using a passive bass, I'm gonna take a Precision every time. It just works.

I love the neck profile of Jazzes, but I find the passive pickups generally a bit weedy in comparison. I'm not a fan of the back pickup neck 'burp' thing: when used by a great player it works, but sometimes I feel that it just provides a perfect bass tone for music that goes nowhere. I just love the fundamental you get from a Precision.

If you start to get into active electronics though, I do think that the Jazz style pickups provide a lot more tonal versatility, as evidenced by the amount of 'J bass on steriods' basses available. Yet the fact that nobody really describes an insrument as a 'P bass on steriods' says a lot for the original design of the Precision.