Fender Jazz Bass
The Jazz Bass was the second model of electric bass created by Leo Fender. The bass is distinct from the Precision Bass in that its tone is brighter and richer in the midrange and treble with less emphasis on the fundamental harmonic. Because of this, many bass players who want to be more 'forward' in the mix (including smaller bands such as power trios) prefer the Jazz Bass. The sound of the Fender Jazz Bass has been fundamental in the development of signature sounds in certain musical genres, such as funk, disco, reggae, blues, heavy metal, and jazz fusion.
First introduced in 1960 as the Deluxe Model, it was marketed as a stablemate to the Jazzmaster guitar which was also marketed as a Deluxe Model in its own right. It was renamed the Jazz Bass as Fender felt that its redesigned neck - narrower and more rounded than that of the Precision Bass - would appeal more to jazz musicians. The Jazz Bass has two single coil pickups with two pole pieces per string. This gave the bass a stronger treble sound to compete with the Rickenbacker bass, which had been introduced in 1957 and was famously 'bright.'
As well as having a slightly different, less symmetrical and more contoured body shape (known in Fender advertising as the 'Offset Waist Contour' body), the Jazz Bass neck is noticeably narrower at the nut than that of the Fender Precision Bass. While the Precision Bass was originally styled similarly to the Telecaster guitar (and, after 1957, the Stratocaster), the Jazz Bass's styling was inspired more by the Jazzmaster guitar, with which the Jazz shared its offset body and sculpted edges that differentiate it from other slab-style bass bodies.
The original intention was to encourage upright-bass players to switch to electric bass. The original Jazz Bass had two stacked knob pots with volume and tone control for each pickup. Original instruments with this stacked configuration are highly valued in today's vintage guitar market.
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