The purpose of those mutes was to dampen the overtones and the sustain, and were screwed in place between the bridge and aft pickup. Another feature the initial models had were the 'Spring Felt Mutes', which were present on basses from 1960 until 1962. Despite this new feature, many stacked knob models were made until about 1962. Around 1961 it received three control knobs: two controlling the volume of each pickup and one the overall tone. Original instruments with this stacked configuration are highly valued in today's vintage guitar market. The original Jazz Bass had two stacked knob pots with volume and tone control for each pickup. The original intention was to encourage upright-bass players to switch to electric bass. While the Precision Bass was originally styled similarly to the Telecaster guitar (and, after 1957, the Stratocaster), the Jazz Bass' 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.

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. This gave the bass a stronger treble sound to compete with the Rickenbacker bass, which had been introduced in 1957 and was famously 'bright'. The Jazz Bass has two single coil pickups with two pole pieces per string. 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 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, progressive rock, heavy metal and jazz fusion.įirst 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. 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 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. The Jazz Bass (or J Bass) is the second model of electric bass created by Leo Fender.

Jazz bass tone knobs