Upgrade or Sell my Jazz?

[TmcB]

Good god I love them. Wish I hadn't sold mine TBH. P-bass -> SFT -> DI or P-bas -> SFT -> Greenstone was pure joy. Had to have the gain down fairly low though.

I must admit I really enjoyed mine on guitar, didn't catch my ear on bass unless it was very low gain, then it was great but pointless for my uses.

[druz15]

I'm thinking more and more that the best way to improve your tone is to get lessons.

definitely this. Not that I'm saying you need lessons Tony but I know a lot of people who fret over the output level of their pickups between guitars/basses and getting the right combination of speakers to go with their toob heads, and in all honestly, they usually have sloppy technique and I feel like telling them "if you nput half the effort you do worrying about gear into actually improving your playing, you would sound ten times better no matter what gear you used" but I can't actually say it cause it sounds so harsh.

I'm also being a little bit of a hypocrite here, as I have reasonably sloppy playing and just bought a set of BKPs, but meh.

on topic a little more, I would upgrade it T. If you really like the way it plays and you replace it with something that sounds great but doesn't play very well, there will always be a little niggling in the back of your mind 'oh what if I had had kept the Jazz'... the Sootying goes on and on...

[TmcB]

I'm thinking more and more that the best way to improve your tone is to get lessons.

definitely this. Not that I'm saying you need lessons Tony but I know a lot of people who fret over the output level of their pickups between guitars/basses and getting the right combination of speakers to go with their toob heads, and in all honestly, they usually have sloppy technique and I feel like telling them "if you nput half the effort you do worrying about gear into actually improving your playing, you would sound ten times better no matter what gear you used" but I can't actually say it cause it sounds so harsh.

I'm also being a little bit of a hypocrite here, as I have reasonably sloppy playing and just bought a set of BKPs, but meh.

on topic a little more, I would upgrade it T. If you really like the way it plays and you replace it with something that sounds great but doesn't play very well, there will always be a little niggling in the back of your mind 'oh what if I had had kept the Jazz'... the Sootying goes on and on...

The gear thing really is a bit of an Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole; you can go on the tone quest endlessly without actually playing anything. Your comment would certainly apply to me on guitar, I'm pretty sloppy with anything other than my own weird chordal style though I'd back myself to be pretty solid on bass though. Thinking about it, I guess it shows that I'm always trying to get down some bass riff when I pick up a bass and on guitar I just piss about playing pentatonic nonsense.

Kinda weird how on guitar I'm on an endless quest to find a tone or instrument that inspires me to play, whereas on bass it's focused on doing getting the tools that make me sound the way I want to sound live. It shows in That's why the Jazz annoys me, it can be very hard to get a sound that has solid low end with punch live. When playing at home unaccompanied it's probably the easiest to play and nicest sounding. The P Bass is the most set-and-forget bass live as it just works and the Stingray can get any tone you want quickly, but can get the smack you in the chest tightness that the others can't.

[mr_sooty]

Cool, we've connected again. I haven't relisted my Strat at this stage either. One thing is there's too many new ones for sale around the price I want for mine, but also I realised that it's been so long since I actually played a Jazzmaster, apart from a quick blat on Tubeswells one at the last Wellyfest, that I really don't know what I'm getting myself in for. All about me etc.

Lol, I now totally understand dithering, Cam.
It's weird having something that's really good that you like but is totally surplus to requirements and iIt sits perfectly on the line of 'keep it for a when you feel like a change of tone' and 'sell it to get the gold'. Bitches love changes of tone and gold.

I'm still listing it on TradeMe at a price that I would be happy getting but enough to put off bargain hunters.

Yeah my Strat is on that line too. It's a perfectly good Strat, actually sounds really nice and it plays really really well - but on the other hand it's bland and the Strat tone isn't working for me for anything but John Mayer covers. I think I would be happy sell it for the right price, but I don't think I'm going to get 'the right price' in the current climate. The other thing is I don't really know what I want to replace it with. If I was definite about that I think I'd be happier about selling it.

[druz15]

piss about playing pentatonic nonsense.

Yeah that's me... sometimes I add in a bit of Dorian so I sound smart, but it's mostly to get that epic bend from the sharpened 6th up to the octave.
Oh damn just gave away my (not so) secret move

[mr_sooty]

Kinda weird how on guitar I'm on an endless quest to find a tone or instrument that inspires me to play, whereas on bass it's focused on doing getting the tools that make me sound the way I want to sound live. It shows in That's why the Jazz annoys me, it can be very hard to get a sound that has solid low end with punch live. When playing at home unaccompanied it's probably the easiest to play and nicest sounding.

Again, my Strat is your Jazz Bass - easy to play and sounds really nice at home, but doesn't have any punch live. I'm looking for both those ingredients you mentioned - inspires me and gives me the live sound I want - the Strat kind of does neither. The Reverend gives me the live sound I want (and then some), but isn't particularly nice to play and doesn't really 'inspire me'. I think I need to keep the Reverend for the live sound and find something else that does the inspiration bit. My problem is I get really hung up on features and details, which is why I have that Strat - it has everything I want on paper - 22 frets, 9.5" radius, classic looks, noiseless pickups, etc etc, but no inspiration. But I'll find one that inspires me and let it go because it only has 21 frets or a heel truss rod adjustment or the wrong fretboard radius or something. You never know when you might need that extra fret.

[snitchez]

i don't have the gain up to high on my SFT as well. just enough for a lil bit of grind. if i wanted a bit more than that i'll push the cream pie into it. will be playing my G&L into the SFT tonight. hoping it does well live, havent used my L2k for awhile with some dirt ontop.

i've recently found the stingrays to have really nice necks on the 5stringers. absolutely lovely, will be looking around for one of them and routing my korina body for a mm pickup at the bridge and maybe a jazz or p (probably end up being interchangeable) converting it to a 5 string. saves all issues hehe.

keep the jazz i reckon. DO IT

[Vince]

TmcB: Something I didn't understand... you never mentioned an EQ pedal.

Would that not have given you more flexibility in the sound? I ask because I haven't used one in years (since I stopped playing electric, really) but have always thought that it would be the answer to electric bass tone problems.

I gather that it isn't?

[TmcB]

TmcB: Something I didn't understand... you never mentioned an EQ pedal.

Would that not have given you more flexibility in the sound? I ask because I haven't used one in years (since I stopped playing electric, really) but have always thought that it would be the answer to electric bass tone problems.

I gather that it isn't?

It's a good idea but there's a couple of reasons why I wouldn't use one.
The first is that in order to get a good one, it'd need to be a graphic eq and I hate them with a passion.
The second is that my philosophy on tone is that the less processing/shite in the signal between you and the speaker, the better. Adding a EQ pedal is adding another tone shaping thing on top of the bass and the amp, so you're never quite sure which thing to tweak.

Plus I'm a tone snobby git.

In the end, I've actually decided to keep it, and I ordered the Audere preamp to drop in. It's a very passive sounding preamp, so should retain the things I like about the Jazz tone but give me more eq power on the bass itself.

[Vince]

TmcB: Something I didn't understand... you never mentioned an EQ pedal.

Would that not have given you more flexibility in the sound? I ask because I haven't used one in years (since I stopped playing electric, really) but have always thought that it would be the answer to electric bass tone problems.

I gather that it isn't?

It's a good idea but there's a couple of reasons why I wouldn't use one.
The first is that in order to get a good one, it'd need to be a graphic eq and I hate them with a passion.
The second is that my philosophy on tone is that the less processing/shite in the signal between you and the speaker, the better. Adding a EQ pedal is adding another tone shaping thing on top of the bass and the amp, so you're never quite sure which thing to tweak.

Plus I'm a tone snobby git.

In the end, I've actually decided to keep it, and I ordered the Audere preamp to drop in. It's a very passive sounding preamp, so should retain the things I like about the Jazz tone but give me more eq power on the bass itself.

Ta, thanks.

[snitchez]

Which audre preamp are you getting? After playing a few sadowsky basses in the past month I'm quite keen to route my jazz bass (which will probably sport a p/j nordy configuration) with space for a preamp plus batteries when I can afford a nice on board pre.

[TmcB]

Which audre preamp are you getting? After playing a few sadowsky basses in the past month I'm quite keen to route my jazz bass (which will probably sport a p/j nordy configuration) with space for a preamp plus batteries when I can afford a nice on board pre.

I'm getting the Jz3 on the drop-in Jazz plate. Only takes screwing in the pup wires and soldering the ground to the jack and you're done. It's got vol, blend/mid stack and treble/bass stack and the impedance switch to to from low-z (lots of bottom end) mid-z (balanced) and hi-z (lots of treble). I tried it in my bass recently and it's a very passive sounding pre, which is what I was after, and the drop-in aspect really appealed to me as I didn't want to route anything. It's pretty idiot proof whilst being really flexible. I'd love to try a sadowsky, never seen one around these parts though.

[snitchez]

been awhile since i had a jz3. man, a good 6 years maybe?
anyway.



thats a sadowsky!

[TmcB]

been awhile since i had a jz3. man, a good 6 years maybe?
anyway.



thats a sadowsky!

Gooped!
Bet it sounds sweet though.

Can you recall your experiences with the Audere?