If the P Bass was a Chevy, the new deluxe Jazz Bass would be a Ferrari. Leo Fender himself said so.

While the Fender P Bass dominated the 50s, by the time the 60s rolled around Leo and his crew felt it was time for an update. Anyone who knows Fender history will know this is a familiar story - The Telecaster and the P Bass are all about getting players of the day louder via a utilitarian design that's durable and easy to maintain. The Stratocaster and the J Bass were the updates that brough things into the realm of the deluxe. From Fender:

"The reasoning was clear enough - it was simply time for a new Fender bass. And just as the Stratocaster expanded on the Telecaster rather than supplanting it, this new bass would complement the P Bass by offering great tonal versatility and a design that went beyond the utilitarian to the realm of the sleekly stylish.

If the P Bass was a Chevy, the new deluxe model would be a Ferrari. Leo Fender himself said so. In a Guitar Player magazine interview years later, he said, 'Well, it’s like a car, you know - you come out with a standard model, then you have a deluxe model - a Cadillac version.'"

The American Original '60s Jazz Bass features a slimmed down neck, two narrow, eight-polepiece Pure Vintage '64 Single-Coil Jazz Bass pickups with a volume for each plus one master tone control, and body contours a la a Strat.

The neck pickup contributes the sort of warmth and fullness typical of a P Bass but the J Bass' secret weapon, however, was its bridge pickup, which produces a guttural midrange growl and a clear, trebly high end new at the time to the Fender bass sound.

J Bass players include - Jaco, Geddy Lee, Flea, Jack Casady, Noel Redding, Larry Graham, John Paul Jones, Marcus Miller, Joe Dart, and too many more to mention!