All That Jazz

Fender’s beloved Jazz Bass hits 60 years old this year. We meet Allen Abbassi, Senior Product Development Manager, for a look back—and forward—on the subject of the mighty J...

- By Roger Newell, Joel McIver

When Leo Fender first drew up the plans for the Precision Bass in 1951, 70 years ago next year, who knows if he had a second, iconic bass model planned for release just nine years later? When the Jazz Bass debuted in 1960, it was initially advertised as the ‘two-pickup Precision’, but this it most certainly wasn’t. The Precision gets its distinctive sound from the overwound split-coil pickup—more like a humbucker—while the Jazz was and remains equipped with a pair of single-coil units.

Furthermore, the J body combined elements of Fender’s Stratocaster and Jazzmaster guitars to provide a twin-cutaway design, set at an offset angle with a startlingly narrow neck and fretboard. This created a visual sleekness about the Jazz design that also added comfort and ease of play. Initially, its pickups were adjusted by a pair of dual concentric—or ‘stacked’—knobs, but these could be unreliable, so were soon replaced by the two volumes and one tone control that we’re familiar with today.

The Jazz has proved to be remarkably adaptable to changes in musical trends in bass playing, and most session players own one. This is due largely to the incredible flexibility of sound that can be achieved from having two identical pickups with individual volumes: by varying the quantity of signal produced by each pickup a myriad subtle tonal changes become available—and, as if by magic, the so-called ‘sweet spot’ appears. This is where the bass actually seems to sing.