The Jazz Bass
The Jazz Bass has a more articulate and defined sound than its predecessor, the Fender Precision Bass. The distinction lies in its brighter, mid-rich tone with less emphasis on the fundamental harmonic.
The Fender Jazz Bass is a solid body double bass that has two pickups and 4 strings. Introduced in 1960 as “Deluxe Model”, it was marketed along with the Jazzmaster guitar which was also called “Deluxe Model”. It was renamed to Jazz Bass when the factory realized that its redesigned arm – thinner and curved than Fender Precision Bass – would fit more jazz musicians.
The Jazz Bass has two simple pickups each with two magnets per string. This gives the double bass a midsize sound to compete with the Rickenbacker double bass, made in 1954 and famous for its bright, distinctive tone. Like its slightly different, less symmetrical and more contoured body, the Jazz Bass’s arm is remarkably thinner at the end, unlike the Fender Precision Bass.
The original intention was to encourage the bass players to change their acoustic basses by electric. The original Jazz Bass had two buttons (volume and pitch) for each pickup. Original instruments with this construction are quite valuable in the vintage instruments market. Nowadays, it has 3 control buttons: two controlling the volume of each pickup and a tone button for the entire instrument. A fourth push-pull button is present in American models produced after the second half of 2003, which allows pickups to operate in series or parallel. When in series, the two pickups function as one, with a single volume control, bringing your sound to the level of the Fender Precision Bass.
Series:
Standard – Classic Series – Mexican Deluxe Series – American Special – American Standard
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