The Fender Jazz Bass: A Short History

[Music] hi this is Keith Williams welcome to five art world my written help you get the most music from the least year vendor spent most of the 50s furiously innovating their electric guitar line however when it came to the electric bass the pace of progress had been comparatively slow as the P bass settled into its new split pickup identity by 57 Leo and company began to imagine a new deluxe bass guitar which would become the Fender Jazz Bass this is the five wire world short history of the J bass if you enjoy our videos take a minute to subscribe and hit the bell icon to be notified when we put out new videos and if you've already subscribed swing by the store and grab a t-shirt or a mug to support what we're doing here there's a link in the description much like the Stratocaster guitar being issued as an upscale guitar to the Telecaster by 59 Fender was ready to release a bass in their lineup above the precision in standard sunburst finish for the kingly price of two hundred and seventy nine dollars and fifty cents an incredible 2422 dot 57 cents in 2019 dollars the world was introduced to the jazz bass though as it turns out fender had begun producing them in March of 1960 Don Randall the head of fenders marketing and distribution company noted we were always market driven after establishing the fact that bass guitars would sell and that people wanted them then the next thing was to make a prettier one a more elaborate one we went on an upscale model to put on the market the jazz bass wasn't Leo's idea particularly it was more of a marketing idea something that we wanted in order to expand the line so it was an idea that came out of Don Randall's marketing and sales division and like the Stratocaster it would be Randall that named the jazz bass after considering the deluxe model it was renamed in an attempt to appeal to jazz bass players ironically and somewhat understandably upright players often preferred the wider neck of the P bass when they moved over to an electric whatever the motivation the jazz bass was an aesthetic evolution of the idea started with the precision compared to the P bass the Jazz had a slightly larger body made of alder or occasionally a Bosch the increased size means the jazz basses are often a little heavier and that extra mass can provide more resonance it featured the offset waist of the jazzmaster guitar the fender had launched as its new premier model in 58 making it more comfortable to play sitting down as most serious players of the time tended to do it also had a narrower string spacing at the nut giving the neck a more tapered feel the jazz bass was one in 7/16 of the nut whereas the precision was a full one in 3/4 inches consequently many guitarists switching over to bass felt the Jazz Bass neck was more manageable but the biggest and most visible difference was that it had two pickups instead of one providing tunnel versatility not to be found on the P bass the Jazz based prototype had two large soap bar style single coil pickups similar to those of a jazz master guitar but they didn't have the tone that fender was looking for so they were redesigned into the Phil Miller narrower pickups with eight pull pieces two per string seen on the first production guitars as a consequence of the phase cancellation of certain frequencies in the middle settings between the two pickups the bass is capable of an unique mid scooped and forward sound uncommon and other bass guitars perhaps more than in the guitars the tonal consequences of reverse winding designed to cancel the humming of the 50s lighting contributed directly to the voice of the instrument while the neck pickup provided the warm round sound similar to a P bass the real driver was the bridge pickup that produced a mid rage punch and treble II high-end that was new to fender basses at the time in 1960 the first jazz basses were released with a standard sunburst finish and a tortoiseshell style pick guard they had a 21 fret slab style rosewood fingerboard with clay dots on a maple neck the finger rest was mounted below the g-string continuing with Leah's assumption that players would rest their fingers there and pluck the strings of their thumb or play with a pick there was a top loader bridge and there were individual adjustable mutes for each string mounted to the body there were of course the often removed covers on the front pickup and the bridge the first jazz basses were released with dual concentric control pots fender referred to them as tandem volume and tone controls and today they're generally referred to as stack knobs this control layout has similar function to what you'd find on a to pickup Gibson guitar like a Les Paul there were two stacks one each pickup each with its own control on top and a volume knob underneath each tone knob was notched and had ten different positions along with the two volume controls you could mix addition pickups in very different ways though these controls didn't end up being popular at the time this layout is caught on more recently with players like session ace Bobby Vega and the Red Hot Chili Peppers flee because of the wide variety of available sounds the Felice signature basses that fender has released like this road one version here have these stacked and control knobs fender began tweaking the jazz bass almost immediately by December of 61 fender would change the control layout to the now classic three knobs to larger volume knobs one for each pickup and a smaller master tone control the layout used on the prototype of all things stack knob jazz basses continued to be built well into 62 using up the parts that were in stock and this sometimes leads to confusion about when the change was actually made between sixty and sixty one two additional patent numbers were added to the headstock decal by 61 fender began offering 14 custom callers many with matching headstock and most of these were released with white nitrocellulose pit guards the slab rosewood fingerboard x' would last until late in 62 when they would be moved to a thinner almost laminate curved fingerboard these would be the last slab boards fender would make until the authentic reissues in the early 1980s the slab board basses have a different sound altogether warmer and rounder than the laminate boards players that made the 62 jazz basses famous include John Paul Jones and of course Jaco Pastorius in 63 the individual string meets mounted to the body work replaced with an all stream you glued to the inside of the bridge cover 64 was the last year before fender was sold the CBS would have the laminate fingerboard and during 64 they transitioned from the original clay dot inlays over to the perler dots on the neck from 66 on there were a lot of changes a CBS basically was just trying things to see what the market would like one of these changes was to move to a bound fretboard and 66 saw the first year of the lollipop tuners that were built in-house offender these new tuners also melt that the tuners didn't turn backwards anymore in 67 fender switched from the dot markers to the pearl block markers on the neck by late 68 the clover tuner knobs were back also by late 68 the strap button on the back of the headstock had finally gone away in 69 a larger and bolder logo decal appeared also in 69 a maple fingerboard bound in black with black markers was introduced as an option by the mid 60's sol sessions at atlantic that didn't feature chuck rainey on his P bass probably had Jerry GEMA on his 65 jazz bass Wilson Pickett Aretha Franklin can Kurtis BB King and countless others relied on gem its base gemma thud of his jazz bass I never wanted to depart from my jazz roots so the name alone was an inspiration to me and the character of the sound a raw punchy tight cutting tone was great for the syncopation ghost notes and dynamics I was playing in a 1984 interview Jaco Pastorius said of gem it he was my idol making the sounds I wanted to make early in his career Jack Cassidy played a Fender Jazz Bass with a Jefferson Airplane the propulsive groove of white rabbit and the weaving lines of somebody to love were both his jazz bass Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones can be heard playing his jazz bass on dazed and confused and good times bad times and in 68 James Brown was putting together a new band and it included an 18 year old Bootsy Collins playing his new block inlay sunburst jazz bass was around this time that Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone Fame is credited with developing the first slapping technique on his jazz bass he called sunshine when the drummer in his trio left unexpectedly he began hitting the lower strings with his thumb to cover the bass drum part he'd also pluck high strings with his index finger to simulate the snare in the backbeat he said he wasn't looking to create an innovation he was just looking to quote keep his job and quote out of necessity came a new way of playing that would be instrumental in creating funk like Rocco pressed 'ya from tower power on his modified Precision's Verdine white of Earth Wind and Fire was a great funk finger stylist but over on a jazz bass his fluid lines and sophisticated harmony bolide as jazz and classical music background though they were used by many players in the 60s it was truly the 70s when the jazz bass came into its own this was the of Larry Graham John Paul Jones berry Oakley willly Anthony Jackson all were forming their personal styles on Jay bass all these guys help see the transition in New York City from the precision to the jazz as the studio musicians based a choice in that decade well Lee would switch to a jazz based after his beloved precision was lost in an apartment fire he said the two pickup configuration of the Jay bass is the most practical design for bassist it's sonic versatility enables players to seamlessly glide to and from different styles of music while affording the choice between sounding fat and round or thin and nasally in 1972 there was a change that you might not notice at a glance but would make a profound difference in tone the bridge pickup was moved four tenths of an inch closer to the bridge giving the bridge pickup much more bite perhaps this is why Russia's Geddy Lee has gravitated to the post 72 style jazz bass Gettys main riff of YYZ is unquestionably one of the most recognized jazz bass recordings by 1974 fender has started to transition from a four bull neck plate to the three bull with micro tilt adjustment around the same time the bullet truss rod was introduced now truss rods adjustments could be done without removing a neck from the guitar also in 76 the headstock logo was changed yet again and the serial numbers moved from the neck plate up to the headstock in 77 the control knobs were changed to black plastic with numbers by the late 70s the fact that jazz bass was slightly heavier to start with was exaggerated by the heavier wood being used to build the bodies creating some particularly beastly examples and just as the jazz bass was becoming the tool of choice for many Along Came Jaco you can't talk about the jazz bass or electric bass at all without spending some time talking about Jaco Pastorius he'd started on drums but after breaking his wrist playing football he switched over to bass and it wasn't long after that he'd proclaim himself to be the world's greatest bass player though an outrageous thing to claim by most accounts it was true although Jaco claimed at times that his first jazz bass was a 1960 model early photos showed him holding an instrument with block inlays that would dated as being made in late 66 or early 67 at the earliest but then Jaco was famous for telling stories and interviews always the Entertainer later on Jaco acquired the 62 jazz bass that became known as the bass of doom on which he recorded most of his best-known music reversing the direction leo fender started with the precision bass he pulled the frets out of the fingerboard filled the fret slots with wood putty then to protect the fingerboard from the Roda sound round one strings he used he coated it with several layers of marine epoxy this created a smooth hard surface that gave his bass a unique and singing quality he said of his proficiency on the fretless it's like I'm the first guy to be using a fretless bass and really getting down and play it because nobody can play it they cannot play it in tune I play in tune like a cello player among Jacques many innovations beyond playing things on the fretless that basis are still trying to do on their fretted instruments was playing a rolling 16th note style he learned playing in R&B bands in southern Florida it gave Jacko's lines tremendous momentum he also mastered the use of both natural and artificial harmonics as a way of extending the range of the bass this was enhanced by his heavy use of the bridge pickup and added to his use of the fret list with its ability to slide between notes to create fluid lines out of a microtones allowed him to drive bands with profound rhythmic accuracy he would play double stops that helped to fill out his parts like Hendrix and Donna guitar and also following in Hendrix his footsteps he developed a huge and flamboyant stage presence after a dramatic audition for blood sweat and tears drummer Bobby Columbia Columbia recommended him to Epic Records and Jaco signed a solo deal the result of which was the 1975 album simply titled Jaco Pastorius it is without a doubt the most influential and important electric bass record ever made it showed that the Fender Jazz Bass could be used as a lead voice in an ensemble and if there were seemingly no limit to the expression possible with the instrument tidally released 25 years after the release of the first fender Precision in 1951 it captured more than Leo had ever dreamed of for his creation sadly we lost Jocko too soon while working on this video I realized it was the 32nd anniversary of his passing on September 21st 1987 it's a sign of how out of touch fender had become by the mid 70s that even at the height of Jacko's popularity they didn't offer a fretless jazz bass quality had slipped but more importantly relying on musicians to inform the direction of the company was lost to fender at that time this trend was finally reversed when CBS hired Bill Schulz to revamp the company in 1982 the first thing Schulz did with his new team was to start what is now referred to as the Fullerton reissues project they began buying up vintage instruments to use as models studying these originals they set about creating reissues on the original machines in the Fullerton factory they built three bases in the reissue series including a 62 jazz bass the reissues were accurate in most all details the collectors would note that the 12th fret dot markers were slightly closer together than the originals and that they chose to use the stack knob controls that were more common on the 60 and 61 basis from 82 to 84 the u.s. standard J base changed to a single ply white pickguard that incorporated the original metal control plate to save money they also switched to white knobs and pickup covers at the same time the binding and black inlays went away this was also the first time you could get a jazz bass with a solid maple neck in 1985 CBS sold Fender to an investor group headed by then President Bill Schulz they continued to restore quality and once again listened to artists for inspiration and modifications it was at that time that the first fretless jazz bass was produced including our custom shop special Jaco Pastorius relic jazz bass they're not initially popular with the jazz musicians that the name seemed to be targeting the jazz bass went on to be embraced by an endless number of players and an equally endless number of styles of music in fact fender has released more signature jazz based models than any other guitar in their line including marcus miller reggie hamilton victor bailey steve bailey and of course the jackal model Darryl Jones who left onto the scene in the mid 80s and gigs with Miles Davis staying in the rollin Jones said of the J base during the development of my signature base which is based on a pre CBS jazz I discovered that the original passive electronics of the early J basses allowed them to be heard in a way that bases with active electronics sometimes cannot be heard particularly in larger venues there's an immediacy of sound with passive instruments I call it bark just another aspect that Leo got so right still the wave of active electronic and basses in the 90s touched the jazz as well Marcus Miller is likely the player that put the active J based tone in front of the largest audience Miller remembers the active idea came from Roger Sadowski who was maintaining my bass he recommended and installed the preamp to give me some control my sound in the fast pace of the studio when I listen back now I really hear the difference in tone growly before the preamp and more rounder after best of all it was still the sound of the J bass with a little bit of steroids and the first fender 5 string bass tuned B to G was released as an American deluxe jazz bass 5 in 1995 at a downsized body a 22-fret neck and it featured abalone dot inlays as we come to the 2000s fender had nine different J based models in their line this included the 24 fret deluxe jazz that came out around 2005 mars volta bassist 1 Eldorado is a fan of the subtleties you can pull from a jazz bass in an interview and bass player magazine he said the Jay bass was from my heroes Jaco and John Paul Jones played so I set out to follow their lead initially I was drawn to the deep bass response of both pickups but once I realized that Jaco favored the rear pickup it had changed my whole approach to music harmonics string scratching and how feedback sounded all came to light for me sonically the Jay bass set solidly with the bass drum overall base became meaner and more profound in the band when the Jay bass came on the scene if you were into jimi hendrix experience you were listening to a jazz bass and either no reading or Billy Cox's hands the extraordinary bass breaks the John Entwistle played on the who's my generation were recorded on a jazz bass after he'd broken the strings on three successive danelectro he'd wanted to use Ron Blair with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Adam Clayton in you to UK session great Herbie flowers made history on David Bowie's Space Oddity all of it recorded with a jazz bass those of you that have watched this series know that I've relied heavily on Tony Bacon's excellent guitar history books and my research for these videos when Tony did his the bass book with Barry Morehouse it was a Fender Jazz Bass that they decided it should be on the cover and I think that probably says it all I'd like to thank Anthony with Adagio for composing and playing the music used in the video I find Anthony's excellent YouTube channel of bass lessons of philosophy all with his white squire jazz bass and hand to be both insightful and inspirational I highly recommend him to you there's a link to his channel below I'd like to thank the redoubtable Dave Onorato of dojo guitar repair in Atlanta my vintage instrument expert is always insightful helped with the script and special thanks to Perry McManus for his informed editing on yet another 40 page script I highly recommend the 2014 documentary Jacko the film three books in particular made this video possible how the Fender bass changed the world by Jim Roberts the Fender Jazz Bass an illustrated history by JW black and Albert Molinaro and the bass book by Tony bacon and Barry Morehouse the books and the movies are linked in the description below if you enjoyed this short history of the Fender Jazz Bass hit the like button and if you haven't subscribed yet go ahead and hit that - remember to click the bell icon to be notified when we put out a new video if you want to support these videos stop by the store and grab a t-shirt or a mug thanks for watching until next time thanks for being a part of the 500 world you [Music]

Channel: five watt world

Views: 445,929

Keywords: the fender jazz bass, jazz bass, fender bass, jaco pastorius, Anthony muthuraja, dave onorato

Id: ThxVfwOmztU

Length: 19min 8sec (1148 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 30 2019