Jazz bass modding thoughts

ewal

So I've got to the point in my current home recording project where I've plugged in my 80s Tokai Jazz Sound for first time in over a year. I was trying out a few of the amp sims on my HX Stomp XL ( acquired since I last played bass) and got some passable sounds which will do the business.

However they all sounded a bit generic... None of them sounded like I think a JB should sound. So back thinking I should maybe upgrade the pickups and maybe pots...

I then heard a song today where the bass sounded very Music Man to me. Could I get a livelier active sound from my old Jazz?

Although would settle for a definite JB sound...

ewal

And my idle musing begs the question - what do I mean by JB sound and what do I mean by Music Man sound?

The sole reason I have the Tokai Jazz is Les Pattinson from Echo & The Bunnymen - so any classic era Bunnyman song is my reference - Killing Moon, Back Of Love, Rescue, A Promise etc.

Music Man reference - Fugazi every day of the week....

ewal

Scratch that. I think I'm being picky. Listened to a couple of demo vids and my bass does sound JB enough. And the Del Sol 300 model with maybe one of the Ampegs is more than enough to get decent useable sounds.

UnclePsychosis

I always have to force myself to remember that tonal variety on bass comes as much from the right hand as it does from the electronics. The difference in plucking over the bridge pickup versus plucking at the end of the fingerboard is huge. You might want to try playing with that a bit as well. 

Funkfingers

ewal said:

I then heard a song today where the bass sounded very Music Man to me. Could I get a livelier active sound from my old Jazz?

The Musicman Stingray Bass is a hybrid of a passive pickup, through a buffer and two- or three-band active EQ.

It is possible to modify a Jazz Bass along similar lines. It is also possible to go fully active with low impedance pickups, with or without active EQ. The main problem is cramming all of the electronical gubbins into the control cavity.

UnclePsychosis said:

tonal variety on bass comes as much from the right hand as it does from the electronics. The difference in plucking over the bridge pickup versus plucking at the end of the fingerboard is huge. You might want to try playing with that a bit as well. 

This is pretty much my approach to any bass guitar with JJ pickups and VVT controls. Bridge volume fully up. Neck volume blended until a notch filtering "honk" occurs. All tonal variety is then extracted by playing position and technique.

ewal said:

what do I mean by JB sound 

This entirely subjective. 

The original recipe is alder, maple, rosewood and, for many, flatwound strings. My personal preference is the snappier sound of ash, maple and roundwound strings.

You can probably guess who is my favourite exemplar of the Stingray/Sabre Bass sound from my forum ID.