I personally find PJ to be a perfectly good compromise between the two. It’s not going to sound exactly like a P or a J but the sounds you do get are pretty damn good
I posted a blind listening poll a while back with a few of my basses represented, asking which one was the P-bass. People mistakenly overwhelmingly voted that one of my PJ’s (a Yamaha BB734a) was the P-bass and out of all the basses the P-bass got the fewest votes for being one 
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Ya, i started with a pj, then got a j and then finally got a p which is what I play most of the time 
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Yeah, I’ll take Jamerson any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
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I’ve owned one Jazz and two P basses in my life. At this point in my life I prefer the J to the P. And I’ll be looking for one shortly.
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Honest question…Does it matter sound wise? With pedals, amp settings etc, can’t you get just about any sound you want from either? Not to mention active vs passive, preamps, etc. Ive bought mostly passive p’s, they sounded fine, but the main reason I bought them was that in my hands, they just felt right. Don’t get me wrong, I love a jazz neck. My son has a MIM fender jazz that he’s had for about 8 years. Despite having access to some great basses, he picks that jazz up 95% of the time. I think that at the end of the day, you just like what you like…
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I’m inclined to agree with you. Especially as soon as you add it into a band.
Your cabinet, amp, preamp pedal, multi effects unit, strings etc all make a big part of it.
Play what you want and have fun.
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Have both
I love my Squier Pbass
I am falling in love my my Fender MIM Jazz (it took a while as my Pbass is of great quality)
If I was to go to Fender high end range, I would go P because of simplicity, sound …
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The holy trinity is Jazz, P and MM. A PJ doesn’t hurt to have.
My personal fave is a P/MM.
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Yes, it does matter.
Take MM for example, at stock form it’s punchier and has faster attack simply because of the pickup type, and location. The larger magnet pole piece directly under each string provides immediate attack that 2 small magnets the string sits in between can’t replicate.
Yes but when compare the same set up with each type of bass, you’ll get the differences. If one is to compare a P bass on an Orange Amp no pedal with a StingRay on a DarkGlass, or J bass on a Katana with effect patch on, it would not be a good comparison.
In addition, not all songs have effects applied to them. Comp maybe but wet effects, very few. If it’s your genres then it applies to all the bass you’d still be comparing apples to apples.
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I think I just don’t like jazz basses. I had and parted ways with one of the newer Aerodyne Jazz basses and I currently have a Sire V5 that hasn’t clicked with me yet either
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Do you mean the sound, feel, or what?
Barring adding effects, Jazz basses are very versatile, tonally, as Leo Fender designed them as an improvement on the P. P basses do the P thing.
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It’s a little bit of everything. I don’t like the dry sound as much as a P or PJ. I prefer a slightly thicker neck than the typical jazz neck. They are also quite large. Both the Aerodyne and the Sire barely fit in my gig bag, everything else has a comfy fit (actually surprisingly my Sire M5 has the most headroom)
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Interesting. My V8 is not large to me, but feel is very subjective.
My M5 feels smaller in the body, but it is a different form factor than a Jazz.
Also, the M5 humbucker pups, the capability of splitting each pup’s coils, combined with its serious preamp versatility offers a huge number of tonal variations. And those pups are hot.
That said, the M5 nut width is 1.5”, the same as a Jazz, and it is shallower and flatter (12” versus 9.5”) than a Jazz. It feels the slimmest of all my basses.
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My M5 is a 5 string so it’s a little wider just for the extra string but it is definitely pretty shallow and yes very versatile with those pickups and preamps. I occasionally use them in single coil. It’s nice to have the options
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It does if you like the sound of a P and you can just play a Pbass with none of that other stuff. Part of the appeal of playing a pbass is simplicity, one volume, one tone and no faffing around.
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This is also possible with most any active bass by switching to passive.
I can emulate a pretty fine P tone with my ceramic neck humbucker pup on one of my active basses and Alnico 5 magnets on the other active bass, switched to passive and using the volume and tone knobs only.
That said, their respective preamps can sure shape the tone to suit virtually any sound I want to achieve. Essentially, I never play my active basses passive.
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