In 1959 Leo Fender and his design team started work on a new bass. \nThe Precision bass had been Fender\u2019s only bass model since 1951. After \nLeo and his build team redesigned the P-Bass in 1957 the marketing \ndepartment at Fender pushed Leo to introduce a new model to augment to \nthe bass line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original prototype Jazz bass was conceived as a \u201cdeluxe model\u201d to\n appeal to guitar players who wanted or needed to double on bass. The \nneck was markedly thinner than a Precision bass, only 1 \u00bd\u201d at the nut \ncompared to the 1 \u00be\u201d of the Precision. The body featured an offset \nasymmetric design borrowed from the recently introduced Jazzmaster \nguitar (hence the name Jazz Bass).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Probably the most important feature though on the Jazz Bass were the \ntwo single coil pickups. With eight magnets on each pickup and two \nmagnets per string the Jazz bass produced a brighter more focused sound \nthan the Precision bass which uses a split coil hum-bucking design. The \ntwo pickup Jazz design also gave the bassist a much greater variety of \ntones to work with. The pickups were wired in reverse polarity to each \nother, so that when both are on full volume they cancel out the dreaded \n60 cycle single-coil hum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The body was alder with a maple neck and slab Brazilian rosewood \nfingerboard, which was later changed to a curved laminate board by 1964.\n The controls were stacked concentric knobs, volume on the top and tone \ncontrols on the bottom half, this was changed in mid 1962 to a simpler \nthree knob design, that incorporated a master tone control. The offset \nbody design provided more comfort while sitting and the thinner neck \npromoted faster and easier playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jazz bass was usually finished in the traditional Fender sunburst\n scheme, although customers could order custom colors for a 5% \nadditional cost. Nitrocellulose lacquer was the standard finish on all \nJazz basses until 1968 when Fender started finishing all it\u2019s guitars \nand basses in polyurethane. You can still get the original lacquer \nfinish on Fender\u2019s Amercian reissue series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Original Jazz bass models had a finger rest below the G string. The \nidea at the time was that most bass players would use their thumb to \npluck the strings and therefor could rest their fingers on what Leo \nFender called the \u201ctug bar\u201d. By mid 1973 Fender moved the finger rest to\n above the E string realizing that most bassists now use their fingers \nto play and could use it as a thumb rest. By 1982 Fender no longer \ninstalled thumb rests on it\u2019s basses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another interesting design feature on the Jazz was the individual \nadjustable mute system used on the bridge as opposed to the simpler foam\n strip used on the Precision Bass, although this was also changed after \njust a couple years to the more basic single foam strip. By 1982 Fender \nand done away with all mute systems on it\u2019s basses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jazz Bass has a bright, rich sound with a scooped mid tone with \nboth pickups on full. The neck pickup soloed sounds full and deep while \nthe bridge pickup on alone gives a sharp nasally tone with a strong \ntreble bark that cuts through well. Despite it\u2019s name very few jazz \nmusicians used the bass, however it became very popular with rock and \nfunk bassists who liked it\u2019s sweet, up-front tone that projected well \nboth live and in a studio mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting around 1967 production Jazz Basses featured bound necks and \nblocked inlays, mother of pearl inlays on rosewood boards and black \ninlays on maple boards. In 1970 Fender decided to move the bridge \npickup back about a \u00bc\u201d. This small adjustment gave the bass a sharper \nmore trebely sound that had a huge impact on many 70\u2019s styles, \nespecially funk and R&B. Why Fender may this change is still a \nmystery but many believe it was purely an aesthetic design decision.By \n1982 Fender had moved the bridge pickup back it\u2019s original placement on \nall standard Jazz basses, although you can still find the 70\u2019s placement\n on reissue models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some notable J-Bass players were session ace Joe Osborn, John Paul \nJones with Led Zeppelin, Jaco Pastorius, Geddy Lee with Rush, Marcus \nMiller, Larry Graham with Sly Stone, Noel Redding with Jimi Hendrix and \nAston Barrett with Bob Marley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jazz Bass has had a few design changes since 1960 but is \nessentially the same bass Leo Fender conceived over 50 years ago. It has\n been one of the most influential and copied instruments in modern music\n and even today is still extremely popular with a wide array of \nmusicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Original vintage examples are highly sought after and can fetch over \nten thousand dollars in today\u2019s market. New custom shop models can be \nbuilt for anyone looking for a modern high end Jazz with exact \nspecifications. The Fender Jazz Bass is truly a legend that\u2019s stood the\n test of time and will likely continue to be a favorite of bassists for \ngenerations to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1959 Leo Fender and his design team started work on a new bass. The Precision bass had been Fender\u2019s only bass model since 1951. After Leo and his build team redesigned the P-Bass in 1957 the marketing department at Fender pushed Leo to introduce a new model to augment to the bass line. The … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}