P vs P/J bass?

The new MIM Players series P Bass has a modern C profile, thinner at the nut and not like the thick, wide neck on the traditional P Bass. IMO, it is a very comfy neck profile. I don't like big necks on any instrument. I have small hands and I have no issue with my Players series.

 

Hmm, I'll have to check out a Player P if the neck has been trimmed. I was always a P Bass with a Jazz neck guy.

 

I have both styles. The P sound is classic and always solid. I like the older Jazz neck.

If you could get one that feels rights and has the P and J combination I’d not miss out on the extra tone options.

 

That's what's so great . The "both" option usually gets you a J neck.

 

Check the neck. The P/J options typically have the "J" neck (slightly slimmer and not as wide at the nut). P Bass necks are wider at the nut and a little more thick.


As far as the sound, the P/J will sound like a P Bass with the J pup turned off. But they do give you some variations to play with. I always though look at them as two different animals and don't care for the blending of the two animals.

 

I love a P/J (profile pic bass). But I find P/J to be something you have to get used to or tune.

There isn't much difference in terms of playability- I find that comes from the neck. And I do prefer the narrower J neck for ease of playing. But neither here nor there.

Just in terms of pickups the P design with the two pickups is probably the best. It humbucks. It gives you volume and tone. Quality pickups and it gets no hum. It sits in band mixes or sessions well- even crowded with tons of instruments. It's simple, and easy to get a great sound.

J pickups- doesn't humbuck unless both are at the same volume or you get some humbucking J pickups (or noiseless). Those noiseless or humbucking ones usually have some compromise unless you go high end. There are a million ways to wire them up. However- you can get some tones you can't get out of a P ( like the Jaco sound, and some growl and slap sounds that are close on a P but not quite). To generalize- to me it is a little harder to get a sound in a band- but a J bass is amazing as a solo instrument or in a 3 or 4 piece where you need to take up space.

P/J- kind of an in between. These need a different wiring scheme than P or J. And matching the pickups can be tricky- a single J has a lot less output than a P. But you can get a master volume and a master tone like a P and a blend or toggle or other things to get you a good P sound and a blended sound and a just the back J sound. With a compressor the volume differences are not really noticeable. You can dial in a good sound and leave it (Fender went a bit towards this with the Mustang basses I feel like). There is a little more fudging to get a sound I think- but you can get some of the P sit in the mix fun and some of the J growly full/solo sound. Pickup quality and wiring scheme can totally change the sounds.

So for most people (starting on bass or experimenting with the low side)- I'd recommend- get a P bass first. Least trouble, easy to get a great sound. But if you already are into music and think bass might be your thing try P, J, and PJ and two humbuckers and figure out what is your "bass voice" or bass sound. Also sometimes that voice changes.

 

This is probably my favorite config now. P bass pickup with that slim 1.5" J neck.

 

My P bass is a G&L SB-2 and my Jazz bass is a G&L SB-2.

 

Another guitarist here who plays bass. I have found that I prefer short scale basses. You
may or may not. I had a mustang PJ, and just recently sold it to pay a JMJ-sig Mustang.

Went from this:


To this:



Couldn't be happier.

 

I love my JMJ Mustang Bass too. Here's a pic of mine with another one of my short scale basses, a Hofner Ignition Club bass.

 

You really can't go wrong with it. I liked mine a lot!

 

What about this?

 

P. The alpha and omega. The almighty. Beginning and end. Simple and easy to dial in. Accept no substitute.

With flats the classic sound. With Roto RS66 steel round wounds will growl.

 

I like the two P style pups on the G&L. For a time I had a Fender Blacktop "Jazz Bass" which had two sets of P bass pickups, still the punchiest Bass I've ever owned.

 

When I was on my bass quest several years ago, I found that I loved the punch of a precision, but much preferred the fast, easy-playing neck on the jazz bass. It just so happened, I bought mine during the brief window of time when Fender has "S-1" switches on new American jazz basses -- it engages both pickups, cancels hum and offers a much punchier (precision-like) tone.

 

I'd go for a P bass. To me, it just sounds right, especially with a band. It punches through and sounds a lot bigger than my J bass. I've never played a P/J but from what I've heard, the P pickup will dominate the sound.

 

For my first bass without any knowledge of how I could make it sound the thinner necks felt better and I felt the P/J gave me more options as I developed. It's wiring demanded you either play the bridge J or the neck P there really wasn't a blend option. When I finally got a second bass, an active with dual soapbars that first bass had been switched to flat wound strings and normally played on the P pick up but I did switch off occasionally for some songs.

 

I've been a bassist far longer than I've played guitar and I've always had a love/hate relationship with the P/J. Personally, I don't think single-coils and humbuckers work particularly well together (the split P pickup is essentially a humbucker of a sort). To me, the effect is subtractive, not additive. It's easy to assume that a P/J would give you the best of both worlds, but in my opinion, it gives you the worst of both, and they're not noise cancelling when both are engaged. Every time I play a P/J I eventually end up rolling the J pickup all the way off... and I'm a Jazz bass fan.

However, a P/J with a split coil J pickup works much better. I would recommend the EMG GZR (Geezer) P/J set. I've got a '57 RI P-Bass with the GZR P pickup in it, and sometimes I think about building a P/J just so I can drop the full set in there.