All youse Fender bass players the perennial question. Do you prefer the sound of a P or a J bass an

This is the reason that the P type bass may be often imitated, but never duplicated.



I respectfully disagree. This could be to each their own though. I like it by itself.

To answer the question in the OP: I prefer the J overall. The low end is cleaner, clearer, and sharper. The P has the edge in the low mids. Stringing up a J with Rotosound Swing Bass 66 strings really brings out the character of a J.

For me, the Precision sounds great with a minimal amount of messing with the EQ. The Jazz requires a little more finesse to dial things in. I do think the Jazz and P/J should be wired with a series/parallel switch to really open up the options.

I have a P Special from 1980. It’s a beast though. I like the Jazz when someone else is playing it. I’ve owned them but they never hang around very long. It seems that the P really shines in the studio, the sound guys love it. I’m using the Guild Starfire more often now a days, in part because it’s lighter, with a wide tone palette.

I used to be a Pbass guy , now it seems I play anything but Fenders .
Aside from that Squier Bass VI I picked up . Can’t keep my hands off that .

I prefer the ergonomics of the J neck and the sound of the P pup.

So I guess my vote goes to a P with a J neck.

I have both! I typically have gravitated toward my 2017 American Pro Jazz with S-1 switch but since putting a Custom Shop 62 in my P bass I am loving it a bit more lately

I'm not really a bass player, but I do own a MIM Fender P-Bass. I got it because I prefer its thump over the J-Bass's growl. The P-Bass is closer to the sound of a double bass (aka upright bass, aka string bass), which to my ears, is what "bass" should sound like. When I was a tuba player in college, we encouraged to emulate the sound of a string bass.

OTOH, my wife hates the sound of my bass when I play it in the bedroom.  You might be right about the solo sound of the P-Bass in the bedroom. But I think beauty is in the ear of the beholder. 

One of the reasons I have a Fender American Elite Precision.  Has the jazz neck w a pj configuration. Plus it's active and passive.  What else could you need? Actually the neck is a little different than a jazz but more narrow than the precision. Those fat p necks always have messed with me.  Maybe it's because I started out as a guitar player. 

I tend to like the tone of a 3 band EQ over a 2 band but hey have their following as well. As far as 2 band over passive tone control you would likely increase the tonal palet for sure

I just run the tone knob wide open, and use parametric EQ on my rack.

They are two different animals. Of ccourse, they feel different before you ever plug in, the differences in the neck feel and how the body sits next to you.

Soundwise, Precisions sound thicker. With the single pickup, WHERE you pick the string is more obvious: From the pickup towards the neck, thicker and bass-ier. From the pickup towards the bridge, brighter and thinner. Controls couldn't be more simple, a volume and a tone.

Jazz Basses with two single-coil pickups (vs. the split humbucking pickup in the Precision) tend to have more definition with the second pickup back towards the bridge. A lot more tones possible simply through the mix of the two volume controls. This is easier to get bass-ier or thinner for guys who'd rather not move their picking hand to prompt this as you would on a Precision. You can still hear the difference where you pick on a Jazz, but often it's not as obvious on two pickup basses. With the single coils, Jazz Basses can be more succeptible to hum or electronic noise in some locales if not shielded carefully.

Both are bedrock designs, it's just down to which one feels better on the strap and sounds better to your ears.